The Holbrook news., 1912-02-09


 hotels were packed from cellar to
 garrett Private houses had no trou-
 ble in renting rooms and furnishing
 meals. The good people of that village
 reaped harvest that year. They have
 been reaping ever since, but less and
 less as time goes on. With the influx
 of so many strangers, all come for
 the same purpose. the natives gradual
 ly ceased to become excited them
 selves in witnessing the excitement of those strangers. Soon the inhabit- ants assumed an air something weary like-sort of 8 bored demeanor, as 1t were.
 And so 1t has gone for three years It is a great privilege for the stranger to mingle personally with these nar tives who have actually ridden aero planes and have had such wonderful experiences-In their minds.
 After listening awhile to these tales the stranger goes to the aerodrome
 field There he finds half dozen men working at an repairing rents in canvas, testing the engine. re- placing ribs. These men are looked uROA WILL dnO- 4OO oCCs SAOJ A-e~AO aeroplanes. You watch them from the outside. The aeroplane is In a barn. like building with a huge door that slides just like a barn door, and this is open as the men work. Perhaps you may, in your eagerness, step inside to get a better view of what that fellow is doing with the soldering pot but they don't notice you. They don't even notice you when they step on your feet They have very peculiar habit, these men of stepping on your feet.
 Since 1908 hundreds and hundreds of flights. varying from 25 feet to sew eral miles, have been made at Ham, mondsport, and so today the native pays little or no attention to flights. If he sees an aeroplane flying ahead of his he may follow it with his eyes until either he or the machine turns. If he has to turn around to follow it's fiight-well, he simply wouldn't turn. Aeroplanes to him are like automo- piles on Broadway to a New Yorker: Three years ago the native eagerly picked up his daily paper and scanned it for a Hammondsport date line. 1NOW dCAOP4dAC ACWo dPPOoA6 AOS " interest him. Whereas he used to tramp four miles almost daily to the original aerodrome field, now he sell dom, if ever, goes to the new field located right in the village-unless a game of baseball Is to be played. The diamond is on the aerodrome field. The young men of the village play baseball while Curtiss or some other aviator is circling over the field, and no errors are made through a fielder having his eye on the aeroplane. Dick Brown will tell you that once Aviator McCurdy, who some time plays center on a Hammondsport team, played that position in an aero plane and made four put-outs and two assists out of six chances.
 Millions of people would deem 1t a great boon to get just a glimpse of an aeroplane in flight. Thousands and | thousands have gone great distances and spent much money to witness flights, and he who came back from one and told about 1t to his fellow citizens was looked up to. But the Hammondsport inhabitant doesn't turn HIS nSdu- put lHoy 10 PAOuu VI Curtiss.
 When Curtiss evolved the aeroplane with which he has been so successful he interested Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, of Bell Telephone fame, who spends large sums of money for exper- iments, but who closes his purse when the experiments have reached a sue cessful stage and the matter takes on a commercial aspect Then the Aero association was formed. The aeroplane with which MT. Cur tiss flew down the Hudson to New York. and the one which he flew last summer from Cleveland and return are practically of the same make as the June Bug, built in 1908 and one of the first made.
 The immediate surroundings of the aerodrome building, which houses the aeroplanes with which MT. Curtiss broke many records and made his long est flights, are commonplace enough A dozen COWS roam the fields. With these COWS the story is also old. The noises made by the engine and whir- ring of the propeller no longer cause them to lift their heads. As said be- fore the building itself Is a barn like structure, unpainted. Weeds grow The men go about their work of making and repairing aero planes much as do others at digging potatoes-with no thought, seeming Iy. that they are engaged in building objects that now hold the attention of the whole world