The Ordway new era., 1918-06-14

teO, N. u, ana wrote
brief dispatch which he
handed to A. W. Drink
water. the officer then In charge, with
instructions to duplicate 1t to a dozen
metropolitan dailies in the East which
he had designated In the upper left
hand corner of the sheet. The dis
patch tersely stated that Wilbur and
Orville Wright had flown that after
noon 1000 odd feet In a heavier-than-
air machine propelled by an engine
and offered to send the full story on
telegraphic order.
Next morning the world at large
was given an accurate account of the
Wrights' epoch-making performance.
Their machine construction of
which was known only to themselves
and the few life savers on the North
Carolina banks who had aided them
lug the big canvas and wooden bird
up XIII Devil hill-had scared off into
space, had proceeded In n straight line
n fifth of mile and had dropped
gently to the sand with neither Itself
nor its inventors any the worse for
the experience. The news, utterly dis
credited by many scientists and taken
with grain of salt by the public gen.
orally, was flashed the length and
breadth of the world. The perform
ance was considered incredible.
Contrast In Today's News.
Tomorrow's newspapers will tell
of bombing airplanes dropping tons of
deadly explosives on the lines Of the
allies and the central powers In
Europe. Of myriads of scouting ma
chimes circling thousands of feet in
the air above these lines and Of huge
passenger biplanes and monoplanes
passing from point to point Mt speeds
of from 100 miles an hour upward.
These items will be read casually and
with little particular interest because
they are common, everyday occur
rences.
A day or so before Salley filed In
the Manteo office the dispatch which
electrified the world. word had been
received in several metropolitan news
paper offices that the Wrights of Day
ton. O., had gone to Kitty Hawk. N. c.,
where they had appeared In 1903, and
were again conducting experiments
motive power is called. AS the Wrights
had Obtained some success In glider
building. and as rumOr credited them
with having constructed an airplane
engine capable of lifting the glider
from the ground and propelling 1t
through the air, several New York
newspapers had dispatched staff rep
resentatives to the banks. They were
at this moment cropping their way to
this isolated corner of the world, 80
odd miles from the railroad and acces-
sible only by motor boat from Eliza
beth City, N. @.
Watched Flights From Tree.
Salley, who had covered the banks
whenever shipwrecks worth while oc-
CURED there, had received more ac-
curate advance information concern
ing the Wrights' experiments than had
the metropolitan newspaper editors,
and had dropped down to Manteo. on
the Island Of Roanoke, some days pre-
vious. Each morning thereafter he
had made the tel-mile trip across
Pamlico Sound to Kitty Hawk. and
from a crotch in forest tree on the
edge of the desertlike banks had OBJ
served activities about the Wright
hangar with the aid of a powerful
pair of field glasses. His perch also
commanded an excellent view of the
ocean side of XIII Devil hill, largest
of all the giant dunes, up the side Of
which had been constructed a 30O-fOot
railway.
Twice each day the Wrights, assist
ed by the life savers, all of whom had
been sworn to secrecy, started the GID
er down the incline, elevated the plane
and shot Into the air. to drop graceful