The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-19
EDITORIAL NOTES

To-day the world will honor OrviIle- Wright, the junior of the famous brothers who solved the problem of heavier than-air flying. on the occa- sion of his forty-second birthday. It ] was not so long ago that the world or that little part of it that was aware of his existence-was calling Orvi1Ie Wright a 4'crazy crank" and 1 laughing at his vain dreams. In fact. the world rocked and roared with laughter every time the name of Wright, or Langley. or any of the other pioneers in aviation was men l toned. It was such a good SJokei Then one morning the world woke up, and looked into the sky, and rubbed it's eyes. and looked again. Yes. sure enough, there it was-a flying ma chine, with a man in it, the bird-1ike wings clearly outlined against the ris- ing sun of a new science-a sun that ushered in day of wonderful possi- bilities. And the world shrugged it's shoulders, remarking, asI told you so! always did think those Wright boys would make good!" It's just a lit tie way the world has.
 OrvilIe Wright was born August 19, 1871, in Dayton, O. Of course, Day ton is now immensely proud of that fact, but many Daytonians can recall a time when they were not so puffed
 
 1 their midst In those days one com moIlly heard. s'Yes. Old Bishop Wright's boys are fine chaps, but. And there was a world of meaning in that but, which was sometimes ac- l companied by a significant tapping of. the forehead. "A IeetIe bit crack ed.'' perhaps summed up the Dayton opinion of the -scranks" who imagined that they could invent contraption l that would fly!
 There are all the elements of an Optic or Alger romance in the life story of Orville Wright and his elder brother, Wilbur, whose untimely death was a terrible blow to the new science Of aviation. They were the sons of a poor clergyman, and after leaving school they opened small bicycle repair shop. When not oth- l their flying machine, and when they had completed the "contraptNbn'' they took 1t to Kitty Hawk. N. C.. for a trial. An obscure personal in the Dayton newspapers announced that l the Wright brothers had gone South kto test some apparatus they had in- l3yented. George F. Burba. editor of the Dayton News, has confessed that on the very day his fellow townsrnan made his first flight, he wrote an ed itorial proving conclusively that heavier -than-afr navigation was inn 1 possible. The article wasn't used that l day, because the city editor said it l sounded like 8 knock on the Wright 1 boys, who were fine fellows, even if crazy. and entitled to some considera- | ton as the sons of a reverend cler- | gynan. And the next day the editor ial was as foolish as 1t had been wise ] before.
 From the first orvi1le Wright was the actual flyer of the pair. He made all the experimental flights with l the new machines, and it has always l been his one boast that he has never | asked another man to try a machine l that had not been first tested by him l self. Among aviators it is generally l admitted that OrvilIe Wright is not 1 only the first, but the greatest of them 1 all. Perhaps this is because all his | es only, and not to provide a spec tacle. Other bird-men have said of 1 him that he is the brayest and most daring of them all but add that he has never once taken a nedless risk. | Among many English seafaring men there is a tradition that no man | blessed with the name of Hugh Will Hams will ever die at sea-a tradition | series of coincidences ever recorded l in the logs of those who go down to 1 the sea, in ships.
 1 The last and the most remarkable 1 instance of this immunity of the Hugh l wflIiamses from death at sea occurred l twenty-four years ago. August 19, 1889, when a coal barge was caught in 1 a storm in the North Sea and went 1 down. There were nine men on board were uncle and nephew, and each Of