The Press., 1919-06-19
73@ Aerial Mail
 o0 LYDIA M. D. DWELL
(Copyright.)

press, an then it's Old Black Lulu to
 the scrap-shop an you to Highland
 Park Surly Simmons. An I'll be sit
 tin up in one O them airships, all dressed up in goggles an gloves an
 things, steerin' the aerial mail an
 lookin' tony. Aw, say, now, Surly!
 That bolt like to clip me on the head. 1 Don't be so reckless, thrOwin' things around like that. AS I was sayin'-" 1 "Shut up, you thick-head, you! You 1 couldn't steer a hand-car. An there | won't be no aerial mail in my time,
 cub. Let 'em run all they like when | I'm under the sod-but not in my l time."
 But Surly was perceptibly disturbed 1 by the idle banter to which he was be- | ing subjected to daily. "Old Black 1 Lulu," officially known as Engine 144S, l was his darling. He abhorred electric | locomotives, automobiles, gasoline l launches, airships-anything and ev- ! erything that was not run by steam ! power.
 "Old Black Lulu" was good enough ] for him, he said. "Old Black Lulu' ] and the "drag" of express and mail 1 cars she carried were good enough for anybody.
 Simmons did not know that the big | trunkline was already contemplating l the building of a few airships for the purpose of conveying mail and ex- press, or his mind would have been 1 more troubled. It was rumOred that l the Continental Airship company was | in the process of formation, and a con- l tinental airship line would mean more 1 speedy delivery of mail and express, I cheaper rates, and, therefore, consid l erable pecuniary loss to the railroad company. This threatened cOmpeti- | tiOn must be met and defeated; so, while Simmons growled and swore, the railroad company planned and experi- mented.
 By and by there came young Eng lishmaq from the other side of the Atlantic, with a little money in his pocket and a grim determination to earn more-much more. By night he dreamed of cogs and wheels and screws and propellers and dynamos
 and ohms; by day he worked on these dreams and made them come true. He didn't become famous; he want
 ed to marry. But he hadn't sufficient
 money, and no influential friends. One day his dreams and his labor | came to an end. That was the day that his small model of the Fenimore- Stokes airship was finished, tested, and found perfect.
 Then Fate brought him into contact
 with Hendricks, the recently elected president of the Never-Mind-W What Railroad company. Hendricks wanted an airship, and Fenimore- Stokes want ed money. Each supplied the others demand. Fenimore-Stokes sold his patent outright, and went home to
 Merrie England and his sweetheart Hendricks went his way, rejoicing in the knowledge that he had secured the means to combat the Continental
 Airship company, which was still non- existent.
 The Never-Mind- What company built two large airships after the pattern of the Fenimore-StOkes model, and then hastened to build more, because, first
 ly. the Continental Airship line had be- come reality; and. secondly, because
 of two daring mail and express rob-
 berries which occurred only four or five
 weeks apart and def1ed solution.
 Five mail clerks and three express
 messengers had been found dead in
 their cars, with their skulls crushed.
 A sixth mail clerk died without re-
 gaining consciousness, and a fourth
 express messenger became so hopeless
 ly insane that no clew could be ob-
 tained from his confused, incoherent
 speech.
 All the most valuable express pack
 ages were missing, boxes broken open
 and safes dynamited In the mail cars
 not one registered letter or parcel had
 been overlooked. In both instances,
 No. 3, drawn by "Old Bluck Lulu"
 with Surly Simmons at the throttle
 was the train selected by the maraud-
 CTS. It hurt Simmons more than any
 one knew, but that did not mend mat
 ters.
 The N.-M.-W. company decided then
 to convey express and mail by means
 of the Fenimore-S Stokes airships; so
 they broke a bottle of wine over the
 gray metal body of the first man-made
 bird and christened her the Regis tered Mail" The second they named the Chicago Express"
 When he heard of it, Surly Simmons broke two bottles of wine over "Lu- lu's" black nose, saying to her: "If worth fyUn 0S wi chimes, then you can't run two miles in four minutes"
 Lulu" aSsuredly could run two miles in four minutes; but she sighed, nev- ertheless, and her iron heart throbbed convulsively. The Registered Mail" made three trial trips between her terminals-New York and town halfway between the Eastern and Western coasts-safely and speedily. On the fourth day she started west with her first cargo of ex-
 press and registered mail at the rate of three hundred miles an hour. Only recently had the airship been utilized for practical purposes, and heretofore two hundred miles an hour had been the maximum average speed attained. In the matter of speed, as
 well as safety and simplicity, the Feni- more-Stokes model had proven superi or to all competitors. The aviator in charge of the Registered Mail' bold ly asserted that the ship was capable of twice the speed at which she was permitted to travel, but the N.-M.-W. company was content with three hun dred miles an hour-content to run two daily airships-the "Mail'' and the Chicago Express"
 Side by side stood "Old Black Lulu"
 and the Registered Mail" Side by side stood President Hendricks and Engineman Simmons. The old engt neer was no longer surly, but sad. He spoke in a voice half chOked with sObs: