Evening star., 1928-09-09
Continued from First Page

Continued from First Page.)
near Kill Devil" said Assistant Sec
retary MacCracken, If I thought it
would be used. But wouldn't such a
field go to seed?"
There rests the memorial project If
the cornerstone Is to be laid, or the
first shovel of sod to be turned, on
December IT, the program for the open
competition will have to be announced
very shortly. Foreign competitors will
not be encouraged, although their de-
signs will not be barred, the Quarter
master Generals Office said
Since Government attaches have
begun to rummage through the Ma
tion's files in search of records bearing
on the early Wright experiments some
new and valuable data have come to
light
The writer investigated the log of
the Kill Devil Hills Coast Guard sta
ton and found two noteworthy entries,
the first on April 25, 1908. and the
second on May H. 1908, reading, re-
spectively
"Mr Wilbur Wright of Dayton, O..
has been stopping at the station nights
week" And:
"Wrights made a fight with their
airship of eight miles and completely
wrecked their machine"
T ATER, by miraculous accident, the
H original newspaper stories written
uneartned. Fifteen of Salleys stories
think of it! Written and scribbled
within view of the Wrights and while
the aeronauts droned over the Kill
Devil Hills. This reporter, Salley, was
trained in his sense of observation.
In Salley's dispatches, the Nation has
what is undoubtedly the most vivid.
accurate and painstaking account of
what took place at Kill Devil Hills
when the Wrights loomed over the
horizon of fame.
But Salley's stories and how Salley
was found are matters even more init
mate to Washington. Fred Eassary,
president of the National Press Club,
was city editor Of Norfolk Va news
paper and, incidentally, Salley's en-
ployer in 1903 and 1908, when the
Wrights staged international dramas
on the Kill Devil stage.
He was free lance in Norfolk, a
reporter of talent and friend of
ESsary's.
the city desk Oh, it was one of a
hundred tips, carrying rumor on its
wings and grain of salt on its tail
Essary. the young city editor, looked
and thought twice on this tip, 1t bore
the earmarks of sensational truism
A friendly clerk of the Norfolk e.
Western Railway had exchanged words
with a loquacious mechanic who was
escorting a box-a box containing the
Wright plane.
The flying machine was there all
rlght-in the box. Newspaper men had
lost the trail. That tip bore fruit
clerk on the wire. The Wright air.
plane just passed south" HUH South
meant no place other than Kitty Hawk.
Enter Salley. Then listen to con-
ference between Essary and the free
lance The WrightS were about to break
a story that they would taboo for gentle
men of the press. But readers the
world over wanted that story So did
Essary. Salley scented the trail Of
mysterious box, and-dream of dreams
"a scoop!
Although the original dispatches tell
only of the 1908 flights, Essary says
that Salley worked for him in 1908,
as we'll, in both instances scoring
scoops.
one of the first moves by the
Wrights was to lease Kill Devil Hill
from Capt. Daniel Hayman. Now. why
lease ground when it was free to tramp
on? Because, by leasing, one acquires
the legal right to keep reporters from
the premises. And the Wrights paid
Capt. Hayman something like $l.5O for
the lease.
But Salley was mt to be denied, lease
or no lease. He camped back in the