The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-05-29
AMERICA FIRST

The honor Of making the first Affair trip across the Atlantic
belongs 10 the American navy, now that Leutenant-C Commander
Read has reached Lisbon. Harry Hawker, the intrepid Australian,
made a bold dash and would have succeeded but for engine trou-
ole he tell into the sea and was picked up and had to complete
his Journey by ship. While London was doing him honor, the
ancient capital OF Portugal was en- fee welcoming the Americans.
Lisbon has had many thrills and has joyed and sorrowed much
in her long career. She has been captured and devastated time
and again, and at one time all but destroyed by the bloody duke
OF Braganza. When the eighteenth century was three parts gone
an earthquake came along and swallowed up 10000 Of her peo-
pie. The most curious thing about this earthquake to scholars is
the fact that while the great DR.. Johnson was credulous enough
to believe in the Cock Lane and other ghosts, he never would
believe in the earthquake at Lisbon and died stoutly denying that
it ever had happened.
The Portuguese were always great navigators and proud and
Jealous OF their prestige. When Columbus, with his little cara
ves, sailed from Paos to seek the east by way Of the west, the
Portuguese sent Vasco de Cana to India by rounding the cape.
lie was successful, With him sailed LUZ de Camoens, a young
man who immortalized the dangerous cruise in his famous epic,
the Lusiad. This was written in India, where he sojourned Is
years, They encountered hurricanes and the little ships were
like cocheshells, and Camoens' description Of "a storm at sea"
is a classic among classics. He also found and named and cata-
logued more snakes and serpents and reptiles than can be found
in any work on natural history, and if he had lived to address his
great powers to a description Of the airplane flight across the
Atlantic the world would have another great epic to add to its
treasures.
just won by the American navy. The English are good sports
men, and while Hawker accomplished a wonderful feat and
actually made the first landing on European soil, his flight was
not wholly through the air, because of accident to his machinery
Commander Read halted at the Azores and was delayed on account
Of clustering weather, His plane was in good condition and when
finally it rose out Of the water and proceeded to Lisbon 1t was
the same as when he started from Trepassey. lie swooped down
over the sluggish Tagus and settled on the water OF the sea as
gracefully as a swan alghts, He was across. He made the all
air trip, the first in the worlds history, and he won for himself
a conspicuous place in the annals of mankind.
Air navigation involves a distinct triumph Of mechanical
genius over matter. To endow insensate material things with the
power to overcome gravity so that they not only can lift them
selves from the ground and propel themselves through the air,
but also carry additional weight, is a feat that was not conceiv-
able until modern times, and when we reflect that it may be only
the beginning, the infancy Of aerial navigation, the imagination
finds itself incapable OF exploring the possibilities of the future,
The great Beecher always ridieuled the idea Of putting wings
on angels, and it may be that the smart set among the heavenly
denizens will provide themselves with highly improved airplanes
in the years to come. The world used to boast OF Its seven Won
ders, but. this wonder OF the twentieth century Is worth them all,
The Hindu yogi, by sheer force OF will power, has accom-
plished selflevtaton and raised himself to any desired altitude
and conveyed himself from place to place. He has done this with
his mind, and. in the argot of the streets, it may only have been
sin his mind" There is no doubt about the airship. 1t is aces
siblc to The senses and can be seen and felt and heard.
The Australian had the dash, but the American had The get
there quality.