Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1912-05-16

"a promoter-had organized Il company
to take over his patents when they
were perfected and would supply him
with money to pursue his investiga-
lions. There were to be 100000
shares and Hibbs was to have 1.5OO,-
600 of them. If. as it was expected.
the United States government gave an
order for machines to equip an army
corps Of aerial mounted men-birdlery
was the name used-the shares would
be worth par. "Then, sweetheart"
said Hibbs, throwing his arms around
her neck. well be able to fly to the
moon if we like"
Mrs. Hibbs usually received such in
formation merely with a sigh, but this
time she happened to have a headache
or a billache. possibly-and repulscd
her husband. He drew away from her
with an expression Of infinite pain. He
was a sensitive man, as such aerial per-
sons usually are. and, withdrawing
into his own room, he bolted the door.
and Mrs. Hibbs saw him no more that
night.
She had no sooner given the rebuff
than she regretted having done SO. The
XXI morning she would ask his for
giveness. But the next morning his
door was still locked. She knocked
and received no reply. Becoming
frightened. she got a chair and looked
over the transom, expecting to see his
dead body. But Mr.. Hibbs' body was
not there. He had gone! Where? He
had left no information. His wife
looked for his return all that day and
the next and the next. He had flown
away on his machine: that she knew,
for the aeroplane was not in the barn.
But she heard nothing from him either
directly OF from the newspapers.
Three months later the poor woman
received a letter from a farmer living
in a lonely spot in the Rocky noun
tains stating that a man attempting
to cross the range in an aeroplane had
dropped on his place and been killed.
Before dying be had asked the farmer
to bury hin and write his wife that
he did not wish his resting place to be
disturbed.
Mrs. Hibbs lemented. reproaching
herself for having driven her husband
away. She could not spare the money
to taxi a trip to the place where he
had died and. since he didn't wish his
remains removed, there was no use in
going there. Being a practical and en-
ergetic woman, she concluded to turn
the place where she lived into a dairy.
Her first thought was to raise chick
ems, but she had such a horror Of any
thing with wings that ever a rooster
who couldn't fly owe a high fence dis
tressed her. Finding persons in the
n~eighborhood who would buy milk
from her direct. she was not forced to
sell it at ruinous prices to a creamery,
and consequently she did very well.
She regretted that she had not sup
piled what was lacking in her husband
while she had him with her and per-
mitted him to sail about up in the air
without troubling him. AS she accu-
INFLATED means she bought more cows
and added to her pasturage.
1t is said that n loves persons for
their faults rather than their virtues.
Perhaps this is the reason why the
widow couldn't forget her husband, for
he certainly had faults enough to make
any n love him. At any rate. after
her days work was over she would
gather her children around her and tell
them about their father and what lofty
views he had, but her eldest boy no.
ticed that she didn't encourage his fol-
lowing in the footsteps of his father
in his winged career.
One spring evening when the wind
Of the south was coming up and the
days were getting long Mrs. Hibbs was
sitting on the porch telling her chicks
what a wonderful man their father
had been when one OF them called her
attention to q speck far up in the air.
1t grew larger and larger as it advanc-
ed till it was seen to be an aeropIane.
"Oh. mamma" said one of the girls,
Its an airship! Don't you see the
sail it earliest"
cts an aeroplane with a single wing
standing straight up on its back said
another Of the children.
Some one has beaten the bird by
%inventing an aeroplane with one wing"
exclaimed the oldest boy.
81 wish your papa had lived to do
that" said the widow lugubriously.
1T would have made him SO happy!'
The coming single winged bird by
this time was lowering above them.
and a voice cried:
my dears. it is l, your papa. l have
beaten the birds. See how beautifully
my machine moves with it's single
plane With that he plunged and rose
and circled and caracoled like a spirit
ed aerial horse.
"Come down" cried the widow in a
fright.
Come down." echoed the children.
But he was SO proud Of his mono
plane that he must needs continue his
caracoling. Then suddenly he came
down sure enough. but altogether too
suddenly. There was a crash, and
from the fragments of the monoplane