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IT la within the range of possibility
that the people of the Pacific slope
will see the end of the great Inter
national balloon race that starts from
Bt. Louis, October 21. If they do, a
new world's record for aerial flight
will be set The interest in this con
test does not center around whether
the international cup shall remain in
America or go to France. Germany or
England so much as around the possi
bility of breaking the record of Count
de la Vaux, who sailed 1250 miles from
Paris to the province of Kleff, In Little
Russia, In 1900.
A glance at the maps of America and
Europe shows how much greater is the
opportunity of sustained flight from
St. Louis, and those interested In the
navigation of the air have not been
slow to grasp what it meant to their
science when Lieutenant Frank P.
Lahm. of ihe United States Army, won
the coveted trophy last year and earned
the right to have the next competition
In this country. With a 1250-mile
radius stretching from Paris, there
are only 110 degrees of the circle on
land from where1 it dips into the At
lantic on the coast of Sweden to where
It loses itself in the Mediterranean at
Turkey, and only between those two
points can a new record be set in
Europe. That means that the wind
must be blowing approximately from
the west for any now mark to be made
across the Atlantic.
In the United States the chances are
lust doubled. A 1250-mile radius from
Fit. Louis cuts the coast of Maine and
of Old Mexico. It swings through 220
degrees on land, through which Count
ie . la Vaux' record may be excelled
nd It Is hundreds of miles in any di
rection before there Is danger of the
aeronaut being carried out to sea.
Lieutenant Lahm sailed only 403
miles to win the cup last year, when he
flew from Paris to Robin Hood's Bay,
on the English coast. His winning was
as great a surprise as his distance was
disappointing. He was the dark horse
of the race and went in only for ex
perience. With him was Major Henry
E. Hersey, who had never been in a
- balloon before. Lieutenant Lahm had
been experimenting with war balloons
for the Government, and Major Her
sey, a friend, was connected with the
meteorological bureau of the Govern
ment. His knowledge of air currents
and Lieutenant Lahm's knowledge of
balloons won for them the victory.
Kleven Balloons Will Compete.
When the unexpected had happened
and America had won the cup, the
Aero Club of America set about in a
characteristic way to make the race
of 107 the greatest in the history of
ballooning. Cortland Field Bishop,
president of the American club, took
the matter in hand and has devoted
himself to It for nearly a year. The
firsf thing was to select a starting
point, and Bt. Louis was decided upon
after a thorough study of its ad
vantages and the quality of gas It
affords.
The first thing was to interest St.
Louis in the project, and the sports
men of that city responded nobly. A
St. Louis Aero Club was formed, with
L. D. Dozter as president. It has a
membership of 400, Including 100 mil
lionaires and an Archbishop. The city
has granted the use of Forest Park, one
of the largest parka in the world, and
will guard the balloons and the ascent.
Pipes are being laid to supply the gas,
nd a clubhouse has been built for the
visitors.
In all, eleven balloons will start In
the race. The foreign contestants will
be Charles S. Rolls. Griffith Brewer
and another pilot, representing Eng
land; Herr von Abercron Heldemann,
Herr Meckel and Herr Oscar Krbsloh.
from Germany, and Rene Gasuter, ac
companied by Charles Levee, Alfred
le Blanc and M. Mix, representing
France
Lieutenant Lahm, who brought the
trophy to America, will be assisted in
defending it by J C McCoy and Alan
R Hawley. each of whom will make an
ascent. Lieutenant Lahm has been
very ill in France, and if he is not able
to enter. Major Hersey will take his
place. A B Lambert will be Mr.
Hawley's companion.
The balloons will be set free late In
the afternoon and by nightfall ther will
be far away from earth, above clouds
and mists and with a full moon to light
them on their way. Each pilot will have
food for three days ami will ndeavor to
remain aluft until he has to land to
escape being swept out to sea.
Probable Course.
It Is not regarded as probable that the
aeronauts will be carried over the Rock-
lea from St. Louis, because of the at.
ier.ee of eastern winds in that vicinity.
J
I I I' ' U J I'l L
but still thereHs the possibility, and the
adventurers would welcome such a
breeze. Their hope, however, lies in the
hundreds of miles which Canada
stretches to the North. In spite of the
chances of being lost In that wilder
ness, every one of the contestants hopes
it will be his luok to be carried thither
ward, for It is his best chance of win
ning and setting a newrecord.
The probable course, however, is north
east. The winds of that section are in
fluenced by the Great Lakes and the
contestants expect to be taken across
Illinois, Indiana and Ohio and on into
the St, Lawrence Valley, where they
will rapidly approach the Count de La
Vaux's record. In fact, before the
noted Frenchman made his flight in 1900.
the record had been held by John Wise
over this very course for 41 years. In
1859 Professor Wise started In a balloon
from St. Louis and went 860 miles In one
flight to Henderson, In Northern New
York. He alighted then only because of
a hurricane that came near being the
end of him.
What Aeronauts Have Learned.
Ballooning for a record is not merely
rising in the air and trusting to the
winds to carry one to victory. The air
currents are the propelling power and a
knowledge of them is essential. The
navigator must grope his way among
them, selecting the best level for speed
and direction. Then there Is the hand
ling of . ballast. Every ounce of weight
must be conserved against the time
when the gas begins to fail, for when the
sand Is all gone It is only a matter of
time until there Is a forced descent.
There is luck in every sport, but It re-
quires Judgment to take advantage of
all of it.
The American contestants all have new
balloons that hav been thoroughly test
ed. Mr. McCoy, who was one of the
earliest balloon enthusiasts In the coun
try, has one of 80.000 cubic feet capacity,
the largest allowed In the race. He
took a couse in aerostatics abroad a
year ago and has made many ascents.
Mr. Hawley spent three months in
Europe tjiis year and won medals in
England and France.
President Bishop sailed from France
October 2 and Is now on his way to St.
Louis to superintend the last arrange
ments for the race. He will be sussisted
by L. D. Dozier. president of the St.
"rVkCLOOJ RECORD WAV 8E ES VLXN -S
vv -0t . -Xs ii I 7 -
THE SUNDAY OKEGOXIAN. PORTLAND. OCTOBER
Louis club. ex-Governor D. JR. Francis,
E. C. Nugent and G. H Walker, vice
presidents; F. D. Hlrschberg, treasurer,
and A. B. Lambert and J. W. Kearney,
secretaries.
International Competition. '
The main race will be for the Interna
tional cup, but there will be a kind of
airship meet. Five thousand dollars are
offered in prizes for dirigible balloons
and aeroplanes. The first prise of $2500
goes to the one making the best sh8w-
New York Press.
"I don't want a detective on my staff
who Jumps to conclusions conclusions
are things to be cautiously crawled to,"
was a saying to which the late "Bob"
Pinkerton, the famous head of the most
noted of private sleuthing agencies,
frequently gave expression. And, like
most square-Jawed men of his type, he
practiced what he preached.
On a gala racing afternoon at
Sheepshead Bay last Summer I was
standing alongside Pinkerton at the
main entrance to the track. It was
ever a fascinating study to watch this
man with the remarkable memory In
the act of sifting the goats from the
sheep at a racetrack gate. It Is ques
tionable If any man ever lived who had
such a phenomenal recollection of
physiognomies as this son of old Allan
Pinkerton.
A well-dressed, grizzled man of SO,
with rather close-cropped gray hair,
strolled up to the. gate, pretending to
read a dope chart, but really keeping
a furtive eye on Pinkerton.
Pinkerton, engaged In conversation
with one of his men, didn't see the
grizzled chap until the latter was right
at the turnstile. Then he suddenly
raised his eyes, and I could see the
quick fire of memory burning in them
like a sudden flame.
"Hello, Joe." he said to the grizzled
man. holding out his hand.
"Hello, Bob." said the man with the
close-cropped gray hair.
"Wait a minute just a word," said
Jumping at Conclusions Error in Thief -Catching
Next Week's International Contest Starting .From St. Louis
Presents Double the Opportunity' Offered
Chief Object of Competition is to Outdo Count
Wonderful Flight of 12SO Miles
ing over a six-mile course, turning two
goals, in 30 minutes.
There are other prizes of $1250. 625, 1400
and 1225, respectively. In addition there
are prizes of $1000, $750, $500 and $250 for
those finishing second, third, fourth and
Pinkerton then, and be stepped outside
the gate, and drew the grayish man
aside. They conversed in a low tone
for a moment or so, and then the man
who'd had the furtive eye out for
Pinkerton at the gate entered the
track.
Now, this elderly man with the
close-cropped hair was a famous coun
terfeiter who had only been' released
from a New York prison, after seven
years' confinement, three days before.
Pinkerton hadn't clapped an eye on
him for nearly 1J years. The detect
ive, too, had only come into contact
with the counterfeiter about half a
dozen times in his life. And yet he
had recognized the man at a glance
when he attempted to pass through
the gate.
A few minutes before the running of
the fourth race that afternoon John
Cavanaugh, the man in charge of the
Jockey Club betting ring, rushed up
to Pinkerton in the gambling shed I
happened to be strolling with the top
sleuth at the time, for I was engaged
In getting the material from him for
some Pinkerton stories and Cava
naugh, ordinarily one of the most self
contained of men, ws visibly in a
state of keen excitement.
"Bob," said Cavanaugh to the de
tective, "there's a whole heap of phony
money being scattered all over the
ring this afternoon. All of the layers
have been bitten. The money's a swell
bogus twenty here's a copy of it," and
Cavanaugh handed the detective a very
13, 1907.
in I IP A T.vX f
"WHITE SHOWS" UMrTEP
FLIGHTS POSSIBLE FROM.
Bfth In the great race for the cup.
But for the action of the Aero Club of
France there would be entrants from
Spain and Italy and considerable ad
verse criticism has been made of the
French for their unsportsmanlike inter
tldy-looklng 20 note, a piece of cur
rency so thoroughly well executed by
Its manufacturers that It required a
very keen eye to distinguish it from
the genuine and bookmakers In a
rush can't pot the acid test, so to
speak, to all of the paper money that
flits In their direction.
Pinkerton and Cavanaugh talked over
for a brief space that Inundation of
bad money In the ring.
"Well," I ventured to remaak to
Pinkerton, when Cavanaugh had
rushed back to his ring headquarters,
"that fellow that you let in at the gate
the counterfeiter Just through with
doing his bit has got busy again
pretty quickly, hasn't he?"
"You don't think he's the one who's
doing this bad money floating here
today, do you?" said Pinkerton.
I mumbled something as to that
being a sufficient natural conclusion.
"Oh, natural enough," said Pinker
ton, "but dead wrong. Absolutely dead
wrong. That fellow has nothing to do
with this phony money job today."
Seeking to get at the mental pro
cesses underlying the typical sleuth's
powers of ratiocination, I inquired,
"What makes you think that fellow
Isn't working now?"
"Because," replied t Pinkerton, "he
told me, during that little talk I had
with htm outside the gate, that 'he was
through with the crooked stuff." "
That seemed astonishing enough.
Here was perhaps the most distin
guished detective in the world calmly
pretation of the rules. The entries were
to be made February 1 and accompanied
by an entrance fee. The Italians under
stood it was to be the last of February
and sent theirs accordingly. The Span
ish entry arrived all right, but the fee
stating. In face of the fact that a
big bundle of counterfeit money was
circulating around the ring, his cool
belief that a man whom he knew to
be a counterfeiter, and then In the
betting ring, had nothing whatever to
do with the Job. And why? Because
the man had told him a while before
that he was through with crookedness!
Before the afternoon's racing was
over Pinkerton had four men corralled
In the racetrack calaboose. They were
the circulators of the boguB $20 certifi
cates. The man with the close-cropped
gray hair was not one of them. He
had had nothing whatever to do with
the job, as Pinkerton had divined di
vined, too, in the teeth of what seemed
to such a layman as I, at any rate
the perfectly obvious conclusion.
Incidents of such a sort were vir
tually every-day affairs with Pinker
ton at the various racetracks which
he watched over with his big staff of
assistants..
One Spring afternoon at the Grave
send track, three years ago, a man
with a record as a "swell dip" pick
pocket but who had quit the criminal
bunch two years - before for good and
all and it is the rare thing, -by the
way, for a top-notch leather-worker to
get back to the straight path trudged
up to the entrance gate with a woman
companion. Pinkerton took the man
aside for a moment.
"You're dead sure of yourself. Jim?"
he said to the man who had been an
accomplished pickpocket.
"Well, you ought to be able to read
me." replied the ex-dip. and Pinkerton
scrutinized him carefully, gazing keen
ly into the man's eyes, and said:
. "All right. In you go. I think
you're going to stick."
Pinkerton was never the man to put
3
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'KORCUftSAUF, S
did not get here until later. France QP
posed the participation of either one. al'
though America, Germany and England
were willing to let them In. For that
reason all the aeronauts are particularly
anxious to defeat France.
so much as a straw In the path of a
former criminal in whose reformation
he believed and his only -way of be-
coming convinced of a crook's actual
reformation was by looking the man
over and putting him to the test of
that keen gray-eyed gaze of his.
Well, a couple of hours later ' one
of the leading bookmakers In the ring
was "frisked" for a wad of ttOOO. '
The layer had had the $8000 roll, all .
In $100 bills. In one of the rear pock
ets of his trousers, and, while seated
on his high chair, one of the "classy
dips" had swung along and relieved
him of it. ' Pinkerton got word of it
along toward the running of the fifth
race. .
He strolled through the betting ring
till he came up with the reformed pick
pocket with whom he'd had the few
words at the gate.
"Jim." he said, "an eight-thousand
roll was weeded here a while ago. Who
have you seen around?"
By that question, "Who have you
seen around," Pinkerton meant to in
quire of the reformed "dip" if he had
noticed any of his old associates of
the "dip mob" in the ring. The man
whom he addressed as "Jim" looked
perturbed when that question was put
to him.
"Bob," he said, after a pause, "you
know I never squealed nor snitched.
You don't want me to begin that now,
do you, just because I've become right
myself?"
"You'll do," was all that Pinkerton
said in reply. He had been merely
trying the reformed pickpocket out.
He always despised stool pigeons and
crooks who squealed on their pals, and
pursued such relentlessly. - He had
been putting the reformed pickpocket
through one of the degrees, that is all.