r . --------- THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX. FOUTXAyP, JULY 31, 1910. - . 3 THESE MEN (3 FIHD TJ1EIR IN TTfB t t 1 1 i- .?. o V V , ilrV A?HoUahd:orfa x-ronounces:AQnai lNavigauoniLessKisky lhan Automobil ing Clifford. Harmon, Who Has Made,More Than : Fifty Ascensions and Declares That While. Ballooning All Care Is Forgotten Arthur T. Atherholt, One of the Best-Known Amateur Balloonists in America Cortlandt Field Bishop, Most Widely Known of All American Aeronauts Colgate Hoyt, Charles J. Glidden, A. B. Lambert, Professor A. Law rence Rotch and, the. Record Ascensions They Have Made "B: all v V s : 'mil - l&rl Tl0 lMY xC--i, ' K .V'. 7 Ahrr-& il i xsel "Tin, -wup ii -ii: P?' f I 30E I'll f fi v 1 It IV ,, r--: - - r: '-- I I jjf MJ y 1 BT HENRT M. 3ELT, tnitrmtn of the Contest Committee the ""' touncii, Aero club or America. ALLOONING Is no more dajiger- ous than automobillng; In fact. it is much less risky. It "is the greatest sport in the world, and the most healthful." A. Holland Forbes, wealthy publisher, yachtsman and aeronaut, moved painfully on the pneumatic cushion that covered his chair as he made thJs declaration. He had Just begun to get about after the terrible fall from the skies which ended his attempt to break all American bal loon records, and In which he and his companion, James Carrlngrton Yates, had barely escaped with their lives. Yet Forbes was Impatient to go up again, and reiterated his declaration that aeronau tics was the king of sports and not at all hazardous. It Is wonderful the hold that ballooning has taken upon wealthy men of this country. The rosters of the aero clubs of the country abound with names whose owners have made wealth that runs close to the seven-figure mark or even above, and one authority's estimate that the money represented by the Aero Club of America alone is near $400,0000.000 Is prob ably not far wrong. Charles J. Glidden, the man whose tro phy has made the Glidden tour an auto mobile classic, can he lured from his car at almost any time by the promise of a flight In the air. A. Bond Lambert, millionaire manufacturer of St. Louis, is In the very forefront of the aeronautic movement in America. Cortlandt Field Bishop, president of the Aero Club of America, has already spent lavishly out of his big fortune to promote both bal looning and acroplaning. Henry S. Gratx, wealthy clubman of Philadelphia, is in Europe now. preparing for his tenth bal loon trip, which will entitle him to a pilot's license under the International rules. Clifford B. Harmon, son-in-law of E. C. Benedict, holds American aerial rec ords. Arthur T. Atherholt, of Philadel phia, whose business connections have made him known all over the State of Pennsylvania, will forsake commerce any day to go up in a balloon. Professor A. Lawrence Rotch. the famous meteorolo ' gist, who has made the Blue Hill ob servatory famous, sails the sea of air In balloons both for science's sake and pleasure's. And among many other men of wealth whose trips In the air by means of the modern dirigible gas bag have been more or less numerous since the present balloon craze struck America may be mentioned Colgate Hoyt, railroad magnate and corporation director: Hugh !.. Willoughby. yachtsman, motorist, ath lete, aviator and founder of the Rhode Island Naval Militia: M. Robert Guggen heim, first vice-president of the Seattle Aero Club and director of half a dozen of the mining and smelting corporations which his family controls: C. A. Cooey. the Chicago automobile enthusiast; Au gustus Post, of the Aero Club of Amer ica, who has devoted most of his tfme and money to the sport, and young Jay Gould. Probably every one of these men would insist with Forbes that ballooning is no more dangerous than automohiling. yet if they were to sit down and tell of their serial experiences, the stories would be found to abound in adventures that would seem anything but safe to the average peaceful citizen. I'orbes' .Marvelous Kscape. As has been said. Forbes made his declaration while he was still suffer ing: from the effects of a bad fall. But It was by no means the first time he had been in extereme peril, for his most sensational drop and most marvelous escape occurred two years ago in full sight of thousands of awestruck spec tators. This was in the international dis tance race for the James Gordon Ben , nett trophy in October, 190S. The con teat that year started from Berlin. Forbes was piloting his big balloon. Conqueror, with Augustus Post, then Secretary of the Aero Club of Amer ica, a his aide. One by one, eight of the 23 great gas bags rose majes tically and sailed away to the north east. The Conqueror waa ninth. Forbes gave the word and his assist ants let go. Straight Into the air the big balloon rose until it reached a height of half a mile. Then, still rising to 3000 feet. It drifted slowly over a little subur.b called Friedenau. Suddenly there waa a thrill of horror among the spectators as a puff of what looked like smoke encircled the Con queror. The great bag was seen to split open and the whole apparatus, with Its human freight, shot like an Immense stone toward the earth over half a mile below. So quickly did it all happen that the first gasps were still tn the thousands of throats. Then the bag spread out, forming a gigantic parachute, checked the descent just as the two men In the basket seemed to be plunging down among the roofs of the village. There waa a wild rush to the spot from all directions and the news flashed along a score of telegraph and cable lines that the two Americans had met a frightful dath in their fall from the sky. But , ttoSt-JtnllO-40UnA lhm nn ih oof. f A house, with not a scratch on them and i not even the sign of a bruise to carry away as a souvenir of their remarkable escape. "Dangerous," says Forbes. "Not a bit. You can always parachute your balloon and get let down easy." Nevertheless, all this was far from the case with Forbes' last accident, which was the culmination of an aacent he made last May from Quincy, 111., with the avowed intention of freaking all balloon records either from duration of flights, altitude or distance covered, or any tw-o or all three of these. And despite the accounts of the accident published at the time, here for the first time is told the real story of the affair. Mr. Forbes says so, adding that he guesses he has read every account of his thriller pub lished. "My companion, James C. Yates, and myself started at half past 6 In the evening." Mr. Forbes told me. "and we rose to about 2000 feet, traveling south east in a very light wind. All night we drifted back and forth, getting no where until nearly 8 o'clock the fol lowing morning, when we struck an east - southeasterly wind and went Btralght to our landing place. At 11:40 we had reached a height of 15,000 feet and struck a snow storm. An hour later we passed through another. At 2 o'clock In the afternoon we made one of the records we were after by reach ing an extreme altitude of 20.600 feet. This is 2000 feet higher than any au thorized altitude ever made in America. "But by this time our baltast was almost gone and the gas in the balloon had so contracted by quick descent that the envelope was very flabby. I saw that we must soon come down, so, at a height of about 300 feet, we trailed along, hoping to land near a railroad that we had seen many miles away. "We were over the country about three miles from Crallhope, Green County. Ky., the moat desolate and in accessible inhabited spot on the whole continent of North America. The near est railroad station to Crailhope Is Horse Cave, 21 miles away. "As we trailed along the appendix line suddenly broke loose from the concen trating ring which is just above the basket. There was so little gas in the balloon at the time that the bag elon gatetd with the weight of the basket, the rip cord, which was tied at the end, was not quite long enough to allow for the unexpected stretch and the ripping panel on top of the balloon was torn open for a few feet, just enough to allow the escape of the little gas that remained. "I cannot describe the sensation of that 3t0 foot drop to the ground. TVe were not high enough to give the balloon time to parachute, and that is why we were hurt. "1 have a faint recollection of trying to tilt the basket ready to spring out and of bending my knees to meet the shock of landing. Then. subconsciously. I pulled our pneumatic mattress under us this mattress that I am sitting on now and that was all that saved us. "We were both stunned by the fall for a few moments. Then some men came to us and we were carried on improvised litters into a cabin nearby. We were so badly shaken that we could hardly move, but there was no truth in those stories of our being overcome by gas and hover ing between life and death. "We had fallen into a place locally known as "Boston's Bottom' and we were carried to the house of a farmer named Bastin. People came from miles around to see us, for none of them had even heard of a balloon before. They were very primitive and most superstitious, and almost every one of them believed at first we were some kind of super natural beings. We heard of many fun ny stories to account for our presence in the sky and they all show the super stition of the people. "Just before our fall, while we were trailing 300 feet high, we saw one man fleeing before us in a perfect panic. When he saw that we were overtaking him, he wheeled around and fell to his knees and shouted: 'I've never killed nobody and I've never gambled much but. O. Lord. I've lived a h of a life! Please forgive me.' " A. Holland Forbes is the best known of all the American balloonists. With Clifford B. Harmon as his aide, he suc ceeded in winning the international en durance race from Indianapolis in June, 1!VK. staying in the air for 36 hours. He and Harmon together owned the balloon New York, in which this record was made. Harmon afterward buying Forbes' share. Forbes now pins his faith to hie new balloon Viking. It was In the New York, however, that he won the Lahm cup. which he still holds. This he accomplished on October 12. 1909. with Max C. Fleischmann, an other millionaire enthusiast, as his aide. They made one of the fastest balloon flight on record, traveling 697.17 miles in 19 hours and 15 minutes. Forbes is one of the governors of the Aero Club of America and is vice-president of the aero corporation, the busi ness end of the club. While ballooning ts hie favorite sport, he Is aleo a great yachtsman and automobilist. and is one of the best known members of the New York Yacht Club. He is a slim, modest apiearing man. with a smile always lurk ing in the rorner of his mouth arfa -with a fund of g'Kd humor which seems inex- ballooning. He haa proved by his cease less activity that his love of the air is really a deeply rooted passion and not a mere whim of the moment. "How many balloon trips have you made?" the writer at'ked him on one oc casion. Forbes shrugged hie shoulders and spread out his hands. "I've lost track." he said. "After your 50th you forget to count and I made my 60th long ago." A Talk AVith Harmon. Clifford B. Harmon. Forbes' old air traveling partner, is beginning to forsake ballooning in the more thrilling dangers of aeroplaning, but he has not by any means entirely lost his love for tho ltghter-than-e.tr -vehicle. He is In Eu rope now and he intends to make a num ber of balloon voyages before the Sum mer is over. "In ballooning," says Harmon, "all cares leave you. All that Is earthly . even the nearest things even your debts leave you. If you are in any trouble and want to be relieved, my advice is to take a balloon trip. It is the most delicious, quietly peaceful sensation In the world." Harmon has made scores of ascents since going up for the first time about two years ago. Harmon won his pilot's license very soon after his first trip. This requires ten ascensions, one of which must be made alone. On the final trip by him- nirmon naa many amusing expe riences, but the one which he delights most in telling has to do with an honest Connecticut farmer who was plowing in his fields with a team of horses when the aeronaut, unseen by man or beasts, passed over them. Harmon was flying low only a few hundred feet up and was barely moving with a sluggish breeze. He did not VZAZrtM -Z-JJAMTiS; know where he was and he took up his megaphone to ask the man below him. "Giddap!" shouted the farmer to the team, and the horses started. "Whoa!" called Harmon through his megaphone, and the horses stopped . The farmer gazed all about the field to find tho man who was playing the Joke on him. No one was in sight. "Giddap!" he ordered again, end again the team started. "Whoa!" called Harmon and the horses stopped. i . ii This time the farmer was evidently getting angry. He looked long and earnestly in all directions except upward; he walkect in a wide circle about his plow, searching the fields and distant woods and then, muttering to himself and shaking his puzzled head, he returned to, his work. - "Giddap!" he commanded. ""Whoa!" said Harmon, and once more the horses stopped. This time the farmer located the source of the voice and turned a scowling face Upward. "How far am I from Pittsfleld?" asked Harmon politely. "You come up here and do it!" dared Harmon. "You come down here and I will!" shouted the angry farmer. So Harmon slowly drifted away, but as long as he was in sight the son of toll stood shak ing his fist and shouting the direst kind of threats at the aeronaut. Some time ago, at Los Angeles, Har mon was asked to make an ascension in the New York for the purpose of set ting records for the Coast to spur local aeronauts to greater activity. With his friend, George B. Harrison, he rose, hut found that the only wind they could get was blowing them toward the ocean, only 12 or 14 miles away. Har mon believed that there must be an upper current that would blow them east, so he threw over ballast and in 26 minuteB they had risen to a height of 11,200 feet. They found the air current that they wanted. Over the mountains' they flew OPEN-AIR THEATER NEAR DANISH CAPITAL PROVES GREAT SUCCESS Regular Season Being Over, Leading Players of Kingdo m Lend Efforts to Drama on Nature's Stage, and Pro ceeds Go to Fund to Take Poor Children to Country. Vst lit til it I i i i fi r ; DANISH TRAGEDY SCENE AT THE XEW OPEN-AIR THEATER AT KLAMPEXBORG. COPENHAGEN', July 23. tSpecial.) Though Oberammergau, with its Pas sion Play, remains' the central attrac tion of Europe, other countries are establishing open-air theaters w'th na tural advantages no less remarkable. Such, for example, is the theater just opened at Klampenborg. about .ix miles outside the Danish capital, which has already become famous throughout Ssandina via. To open the seaaon the national drama, "Hagbarth og Signe," was played, followed at later performances by "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The regular theater season being over, all the best players in Denmark are avail able and they act with the greater readiness because all the profits go to taking poor city children into the coun try. Fifteen prominent Danes have guaranteed $12,500 to meet the expenses but their pockets will not 6uffer unless the remainder of the Summer is con stantly ratny. No more charming spot for such purpose could be imagined. Stage and theater are provided by nature with the minimum necessity for assistance frorn man. Seats are arranged for an audience of 4000, but such are the ad vantages of the surroundings that all can see and hear admirably. The ground slopes gently at that point in liUa. .BeB&tUt 92.Ji.a-1 jCftmltle-:oiiseum is formed, flanked by noble beeches. Never has "A Midsummer Night's Dream" been more appropriately staged. Art and nature are so blended that the spirit -of such a play seems to dwell in that forest clearing. The stage, intended to present re alities., has no unnecessary ac-essories. It is flanked only by two cleverly de signed birds of mystery, supporting bowls from which bonfires flicker with weird effect. In the opening drama. "Hagbarth og Slgne." by Adam Oehlenschlager. one of the most famous Danish writers, the play begrins with four men blowing their "Lurs" mighty horns, the oldest musical instruments extant. Only a few specimens have been found In Den mark, but these, though they have been burled for 2000 years or more in the earth, still possess a tone of strangely beautiful, soul-stirring qual ity. Imagine the echoes of these notes sounding through the shadowy forests as though calling the players to the grove that serves as stage. There is no need to describe the play in detail, but some idea may be given of the magnificence of the performance when it is pointed out that there are no space restrictions as in ordinary theaters. Warriors can troop upon the scene: maidens may dance into the open sward, or a torchlight procession of the hearers of the bodies of the dead forest lovers may pass onward to the gathering gloom, with a convincing reality that reaches its climax when the distant evening .bells fall upon the ear, giving the conviction of hushed nature only fitfully disturbed and far from the throbbing haunts of men. And when, over the tree tops the new moon shows her crescent brightness, the 6000 spectators for quite 2000 have to stand at each performance, so far file out like a monster parade on the road to Copenhagen. Steamers, trains and streetcars are at their service, but a great many linger In the forest res taurants that have sprung up in the neighborhood. The ordinary charges for seats are 25 cents and 50 cents, but on occa sions when the attendance of the Cabi net and society makes it a gala per formance, these prices are doubled. As Scandinavian women go in their best toilets measures have been taken to notify them of the local weather condi tions. If there is to be no perform ance because of showers, subscribers are informed by telephone at 4 o'clock in the afternoon three hours before the play and every taxicab displays the announcement by placard as it dashes about the city. Tn all. ten performances will be given tiiis Summer. , coi'TZ'jrj; and then, below them, there spread the limitless desert, with not a chance of relief If they landed in it. Harmon valved quickly, and they dropped in 24 minutes to within 600 feet of the earth, where the aeronaut, always ex perimenting, tried to see how quickly he could check the descent. This he did when they were within 250 feet of the ground and again they rose to a height of 2000 feet to pick out a land ing place. Suddenly they saw the glare of an automobile headlight thrown on an open field. "t-and here!" shouted a voice. "It's the only open spot around." They had only six bags of ballast left and they had to act quickly. Har mon valved and shouted to Harrison to pull the ripping cord. "She won't rip!" yelled Harrison, and they found they had both been hauling on the same rope. Down through trees and telegraph wires they plunged and brought up with a bump on the third story gable of a house, with the bal loon and netting thrown over the roof and holding them up. They heard screams within and finally the gable window opened and the man of the house aditiltted them. The women and children were gathered in a room be low, all on their knees praying to be saved from the earthquake that they thought had struck their house. Boy Who Realized Ills Ambition. Twenty years ago or more Philadel phia was the center of ballooning ac tivity in this oountry. Fairmount Park. the great public playground of that city, was the scene every Summer of ascensions by Wise, King, Donaldson and the redoubtable Squire McMullen, the local political dictator, who went up regularly on the Fourth of July. On these occasions, the most fascin ated spectator was a little boy, 12 to 15 years of age, who could not be kept back among the crowd, but who insist ed, in spite of all, in edging up to the aeronauts and piping: "Say, mister, won't you please take me with you?" He was invariably forcibly ejected from the magic circle and invariably he blubbered through his tears: "You wait until I'm big enough. I'll do it anyhow." The boy was Arthur T. Atherholt, to day one of the best known amateur balloonists In this country. He has kept his threat and has' "done it any how," but he had one experience which brought back to his memory with tragic significance the men whom, as a boy, he had almost worshiped in Fairmount Park. This was on his third ascent, which was the one that made Ather holt a National figure in aeronautics. It was made with Major Henry B. Hersey in the balloon United States in the international race for the Gordon. Bennett trophy from St. Louis, October 21, 1907. Lieutenant Lahm and Hersey had won the international race from Paris the year before and had brought the con test to this country. Lahm himself in tended to pilot the balloon and Hersey. who had been in charge of the Walter Wellman balloon polar expedition, came down from Tromsoe to Paris only to find Lahm helpless with typhoid fever. "You take the balloon to America." said Lahm, "and find the best man yotl can to be your aide." Hersey came over and the officials of the Aero Club of America advised him to get Atherholt. The latter jumped at the chance and they rose among the seven other big air -craft, keeping low and sailing northeast while the others rose high and caught currents that drove them southeast. Atherholt and Hersey went out over Lake Michigan at Zion City and for three hours hovered over the water. Atherholt curled himself up to catch some of the sleep that he had not had for two nights. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, Hersey pointed over the side of the basket and said calmly: "That's about the spot where old John A. Wise was drowned on his last mys terious balloon trip." Atherholt shuddered and curled up tighter. "And there," continued Hersey, 'is where a stage driver along the shore saw the body of Newton E. Grimwald, Wise's companion. There was a diary in his pocket and the last entry read, 'At last I have risen in the world.' Poor fellows! I wonder how it happened." Atherholt, new to the game, gritted his teeth hard and hoped that the list of casualties was ended. But, a few mo ments later, Hersey remarked in a mat ter of fact tone: "And it was somewhere near here that Donaldson met death." This was too much for Atherholt. The memory of the two men whose ascen sions had stirred his own boyish ambi tions, and who had mysteriously died in the waters he was now crossing, drove all sleep from him and he finished the Journey standing. Since then, Atherholt has made seven other ascensions and he needs only to make one by himself to win a pilot's license. Perilous Trip or a Xovice. Atherholt's very first opportunity to make an ascension came in the Fall of 1906. The owner of the balloon, Initial, had lent it for & day to a physician who claimed to have made scores of ascents and to be an aeronaut of many years' experience. The doctor asreed to take the novice up and assured him that "with such an experienced pilot there would not be the slightest danger. Less than half an hour after they ascended from Phila delphia they came down with a bump in an orchard in a northern suburb. Atherholt had studied, the science of ballooning carefully all these years' and he knew that they were in peril. So hard did the basket land in its descent that the doughty doctor was thrown to the floor, something struck him on the head and he was knocked, senseless. The novice at once took charge of the bal loon. Two bags of ballast were- thrown overboard and the balloon shot up to a height of 1000 feet. For 200 miles they flew over the earth, blowing up over New York state and back again until they were hovering over Rockaway, N. J. Twice they dropped suddenly toward & lake, the second time bumping the -car upon the surface of the water, and over board went all the ballast, water cans, tarpaulins and everything that was throwable. Again they ascended and caught a current of air. which carried them away from the danger of the lake and brought them down eight miles away, a distance which they traveled in less than ten minutes. The novice afterward learned that the redoubtable doctor had made Just two previous ascensions, both In charge of some one else. On Atherholt's next ascension the rip cord refused to work when he wanted, to land. There was a 40-mile gale blow ing and it dragged him and his companion 500 yards, leaving behind them a trail of clothing, aeronautical instruments and all sorts of detachable articles, and finally throwing the basket against the stump of a tree, with half of the balloon strung' across a creek In front of them. America's Widely-Known Aeronaut. When, in 1909. none of the pilots of the) Aero Club of America was able to go to Switzerland to represent the United States, Cortlandt Field Bishop defrayed the exjjense of Edward Mix, and J. C. McCoy, of Newark, N. J., another wealthy aeronaut, loaned his full-sizedi balloon America IT. and the result was that America again won. Mr. Bishop is the most widely known of all American aeronauts, not because of his actual ballooning, but because, as president of the Aero Club of America and vice-president of the International Aeronautlque Federation, he devotes prac tically all of his time and money to pro moting activity in ballooning and aviation. When the first international aviation meet was held at R helms, France, It was) found that America could not send an entrant, the Wrights being too busy and Glenn Curtlss being unable to stand thei great expense involved. Bishop, by hisi generosity, made it possible for Curtlss to compete, and the result was that the American flew away with all the honors. Bishop was born in New York City 44 years ago. He is a member of a great many clubs and Is an automobilist as well as an aeronaut. Colgate Hoyt. another aeronautic en thusiast, was born in Cleveland, O., fil years ago. He Intended to follow hi father as a lawyer, but an injury to his eye made this Impossible, and he en tered the. real estate business in Cleve land, where he still has substantial hold ings. In 1SS1 he moved to New Yor and entered Wall street and a year later President Arthur appointed htm Govern ment director of the Union Pacific Rail road. In 18S4 he was regularly elected. Since then he has been prominently iden tified with the Northern Pacific. ttl Wisconsin Central, the Oregon St Trans Continental and many big financial con cerns outside of the railway world. Charles J. Glidden's wonderfully actlvsj life has been so often "written up" In connection with the Glidden tour that it is unnecessary to repeat it here. Glidden has become an enthusiastic balloonist and has made many ascensions In New England In his Boston. Most of these trips have been peaceful ones, but th bag has been pierced by rifle bullets) fired at the aeronaut, and he once land ed at night In a pasture, to be charged by a bull and to find that he was flva miles from the nearest house, but his) enthusiasm is not a whit dimmed by sucbr trifling accidents. A. B. Lambert, of St. Louis, head off the new movement to form a representa tive body of the, aero clubs of this coun- try, is. largely responsible for the faeff that St. Louis is today one of the aero nautlc centers of the United States. Lam bert is only in his 30s. He has won bal loon pilots' licenses from the Aero CluW of France as well as that of Amerlcaj' he founded and was for two years presW dent of the Automobile Club of St. Louis? and won the Missouri state gold cham- plonship in 1906. In his absence abroad) In the interests of ballooning he wasi elected a member of the St. Louis ooun-' ells. Professor A. Lawrence Rotch, founded' and director of the Blue Hill Meteor-! ological Observatory, has gone further, : perhaps, than any other scientist in tha study of atmospheric conditions far abova the earth, both as recorded by kite and!; baloon. He is a member of the Aer, Club of the United Kingdom, an original member of the Aero Club of America,' was first preslflent of the Aero Club ol!' New England and is now president o the newly organized Harvard Aeronautic cal Society. The National elimination balloon races, to determine the three competitors shall represent America in the Interna! tional race this year, will take place la: Indianapolis In September. (Copyright. 1?1V by the Associated Lit' erary PressJ V