The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-09
MatiIde Moisant Escapes Sheriff
 In Her Airship
Noted Woman Flier Takes to the Air Before He Can Ar rest Her and Riot Follows at Aviation Field

seeing her brother. the late John B. Moisant, make his celebrated flight around the Statue of Liberty, narrow ly missed being thrown into jail yes- terday in Nassau County for going in to the air in her monoplane on SuE- day, although there was no induce ment in the form of gate money or prizes or spectators to applaud her.
 That Miss Moisant was not put in cell was due, in the first attempt to arrest her, entirely to her own celerity in speeding into an element into which pursuing Deputy Sheriffs could not follow her. In second attempt. plane to earth on her own prtva te property, her escape was due to her away from the Sheriff's forces; and in a third attempt. made on the overhauling of her automobile by a police machine, she escaped because an indignant crowd of 300 citizens beat the Deputies back in a riot. last ing for nearly half an hour.
 The defenders of Miss Moisant fought vigorously. and one of them was felled by Deputy Sheriff's club. which friends were helping the avia- tor was smashed across the knuckle. The man felled with the club was Philip Wilcox, student of aviation. who himself is a Deputy Sheriff. He was on the Moisant flying grounds when Miss Moisant attempted to land, and demanded from the pursuing deputies that they produce a war rant before invading the premises.
 He started the fight the instant the deputies attempted to pass him, and with the aid of others who came to his assistance led force which final lys drove those intent upon placing otc h. private property they had entered. The Sheriff hurried to Hampstead, where he made an effort to obtain from Justice of the Peace Gittins the warrants for the lack of which they had been repulsed.
 Couldn't Get Warrant. In this Sheriff De Mott failed. Jus tice Gittins assured him that he would issue no warrant for the primary reason that the offense alleged was a misdemeanor, and the application was made after sunset, at which hour he ceased to issue misdemeanor warrants. He added that he could see no wrong in what Miss Moisant had done.
 The affair stirred the colony of avia- tors at Nassau Boulevard and Hemp stead Plains to keen resentment. There had been no plan to have flights dur ing the day. Miss Moisant was intent
 
 Nassau Boulevard grounds on which she had flown throughout the recent meet, to her own aviation field, known as the Moisant field, at Hampstead Plains She decided to fly her aero plane across the intervening five miles merely because that was the most convenient way to get it across.
 The challenge to the aviation colony in the effort to arrest Miss MOisant brought instant response from every flyer in the vicinity From the grounds on which Miss Moisant had alighted, Andre Houpert went up at once. cir cling 10 feet above the head of Sheriff De Mott while he had his force of deputies in front of Miss Moisant' s deserted hangar on the Nassau Boule- yard.
 Earle Ovington, who is about to start on his coast-to-coast effort as the first aerial postman, went up from hangar adjoining that of Miss Moi sant, and after circling in the air above the Nassau Boulevard field, ahghted and sped away by automobile across the county line. Both aviators went up for the purpose of asserting the rights taken by automobilists and carriage drivers.
 Mott's interpretation of the long con- f1ict as to Sunday flights, in which Timothy L.. Woodruff, Bishop Burgess, Canon Chase, and Gov. Dix played prominent parts.
 Although no flights were announced for yesterday, the program originally scheduled having been postponed for a week on account of rain, Sheriff De Mott was on hand with force of twenty-three deputies. No gate money was collected, and while a crowd of about 300 persons had collected they had come from the nearby homes
 The only persons, who expected to fly were Miss -Moisant, who came in an automobile for the purpose of talk ing her machine away, and Lieut.. Henry H. Arnold, who had made an engagement with Philip Wilcox to take him for an aerial jaunt. Owing ton had planned to make a. flight to Governors Island as the first move in his coast-to-coast effort, but postpon- ed the effort at the request of MT. Woodruff