THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, rOItTXAXD, JANUARY 18, 1914.
Tentear? of Aviation dnd Vliat Next Decade Ma
GiToplcttie Lively ic J3e Copulat
Hail
1 cis Safe as Jialrooic3
;N years ago, among sand dunes
of North Carolina, a slim, gaunt.
Intense Ohioan stretched himself
lace downward on a narrow ledge sur
mounted by yards of outstretched mus
lin, a compact, powerful little engine
purred at his heels, and a giant. Inani
mate thing of spruce and cloth swept
like a falcon out over that silent sea
coast desert. A little telegraph office
at Kitty Hawk, N. C. an hour later
startled a world with the laconism:
"The "Wright brothers have flown." It
was th word civilization had awaited
hundreds of years. For the dream of
flying is as old as civilization.
A decade has passed since man
"sprouted his wings." The world has
-watched him from his first weak, fitful
hounds from mother earth for brief
seconds aloft to his hours and even a
day in steady sustained flight. It has
ceased to marvel, and it expectantly
has come to look to the future to
wonder "what next." Ten years ago
Wilbur Wright flew at Kitty Hawk for
B9 seconds. Today the record for sus
tained flight is 14 hours and 1300 miles.
In ten years the aeroplane has made
more rapid strides than did the auto
mobile. More than 1000 men, with a
fair percentage of women, today are
driving aeroplanes In all parts of the
world. The 'first successful flight of
the "Wrights has almost been forgotten
so great has been the progress of the
aeroplane and the increase In the num
ber of aviators.
The English Channel 'has been
crossed and recrossed by one, two and
three persons in an aeroplane, avia
tors have swept up and over the fear
some peaks and abysses of the Alps;
whole continents have been crossed In
aviation races; the United States has
been spanned by an American, who lost
his life in a comparatively trivial ex
hlbltlon feat. But the present asks:
"Well, what of the future? "What will
these birdmen be doing ten years from
now?"
Getting; on Commercial Basis.
From the stage of pure amusement,
the period when aviation was alone for
the daring, those who were counted
foolhardy and the show people of the
air, flying is working toward a com
mercial stabilization. The men who
cling to aviation today are those with
ideas of making it a recognized asset
of commerce. The era of aerial trans
portation is upon us.
They will have crossed the Atlantic
Ocean, penetrated the dismal jungles
of Africa, scanned the tropical fever
ridden areas of the Amazon, brought
back the word from the remote regions
of Ice and snow? Perhaps. But, greater
still, aeroplanes will be a proven ad
junct of commerce. Our malls will be
shot to almost Inaccessible points
through the air. The trackwalker of the
great railroad systems will give way to
the critical eye of a man-bird sweeping
swiftly along the ribbons of steel.
Through tangled wood and over swol
len river the telegraph and telephone
lineman will skim with his vision
focused on narrow strands of copper
wide. Far into Alaska, reached today
only by toiling dog train and intense
suffering, will go the aviator with mall
supplies and even luxuries. These are
but a few of the suggestions of aero
nautical optimists.
Conquest Far From Complete.
The enormous death rate of aviation
in priortIon to the number of per
sons who have taken It up would indl
caate to the layman that the conquest
of the air Is far from complete. But
such strides have been made In the last
few years that, despite the death toll,
the results have been more than en
couraging. There are aviators flying
today who, seemingly, are almost as
safe In the air as if on land or on the
water. After all, most of the deaths
of aviators 'have been due to accidents
which resulted from carelessness on
the part of someone, either the flyer
himself or his mechanician.
So confident are aviation experts that
the aeroplane has been developed to a
stage where It can be used in everyday
business that many of them are at
tempting to adapt it as a carrier of
the malls. Many of the Alaskan wastes
and sparsely settled regions of the
west could be traversed In hours
where now It requires days.
The French government was the first
to apply the aeroplane to the practical
delivery of the mails. The aeroplane
has given a fast mail service in parts
of desert Africa, Henry Woodhouse, an
expert on things aeronautical and ed
itor of Flying, a magazine devoted en
tirely to the airmen, recently predicted
wonderful progress In the aeropost.
Expert' View of Aeroplane.
"Kacn month," he wrote, "something
happens to emphasize more forcefully
the value of the aeroplane for mall
carrying, and whereas it Is usually
demonstrated in places where there is
an efficient mail-carrying service by
the ordinary methods it is made more
and more evident that aeroplane mail
service will be a boon to such places
as Arizona, Colorado, Texas, New
Mexico, Nevada, Alaska, the Philippines.
Canada and South and Central America.
"The conquest of the desert by aero
plane is complete. Traveling a mile
minute, it crosses from oasis to distant
habitation in a few hours. The French
government in the last six months has
employed two-score of aeroplanes to
carry mall, provisions and passengers
from Casa Blanca, the port, to different
points along and across the desert.
With this aerial service It has been
found that Intercommunication an
transportation between points on the
desert is faster than in certain place:
in Europe and America. The aeroplane
has shown that it is to become a poten
tial factor in solving the problems of
advancing civilization in Morocco,
Algeria, Trlpolitanla, Congo, the Soudan
and in Zambesi.
"It already has saved thousands of
lives in the French campaign In Moroc
co and Italian campaign In Trlpolitanl
for which It has never received credit
from the world at large by always
watching the movements of the enemy,
thus avoiding those unpleasant sur
prises which have crimsoned the pages
of the history of the conquest
Africa.
"Other demonstrations have been
given practically each day or the last
year. Every one of the flights of Gar
ros. Brlndejonc de Moulinais, Gulllaux,
Bider and the three-score of other air
men, who make flights of from 500 to
1300 miles a day, are forceful demon
strations of the increasing swiftness in
mailcarrying which the aeroplane af
fords." Advocates of the aeropost for Alaska
point out that last September United 1
States Army engineers traveled naif
way across Alaska to a point two de
grees from the Arctic circle traversing
altogether about 826 miles In 19 days.
The aeropost proponents say any-of the
well-known cross-country aeroplane
drivers of today could have accom
plished the trip, with or without mall.
In one day and many others could do
it In three days at most.
United States , Government officials
have indicated their willingness to help
In developing the aeroplane for the mail
service. Postmaster-General Burleson,
in a recent letter to Woodhouse, showed
his desire to encourage the aeropost
advocates as much as he can.
I fully realize," he wrote, "the ne
cessity of keeping abreast of the needs
of the postal service for the rapid
transmission of mall and of using every
possible facility to this end. In line
with this conviction the department is
ready at all times to give careful study
and consideration to such new means
of transportation as may be discovered
and developed. We have repeatedly
given official aid to aviation meets
throughout the country by establishing
special postal stations and authorizing
the transportation of mail temporarily
by aeroplane.
War Engine of the Fat ore.
"These activities, cf course, are rec
ognized as experimental, but I am per
suaded that the time is rapidly ap
proaching when the department will be
called upon to give serious consider
ation to, the feasibility of aerial mall
transportation. The adoption of such
means, however, can only be brought
about after it Is demonstrated they can
be furnished and maintained within the
proper limit of economy."
That no future war will be fought
without the aid of the aero scout is
foregone conclusion. This is evidenced
by the invaluable aid the aeroplane
gave the French and Italians in their
recent troubles In Morocco and Tripoli,
and to the various armies engaged in
the recent warfare in the Balkans.
United States Army aviators every day
now are scouting along the Mexican
Doraer watching over the huge army
camp in which men are living every
day on the chance trouble with Mexico
may start at any time.
Transatlantic Journey Next.
Increase is being made in aeroplane
equipment of the world's armies every
week. France leads in the number of
aeroplanes. These total more than 265,
and the French have one aeroplane for
the navy.
Russia has 116 army aeroplanes and
Germany has 46. Japan has 10, Great
Britain has about 30, Italy has 25 and
the United States about 25. England
as six for the navy, and the United
States, Japan and Italy have four each.
Russia has one and Germany two.
Cross-country flights in 1912 and
913 show conclusively aeroplanes can
e relied upon, to cover great distances
at high speed., The greatest flight in
1912 was that of Andreadi, who, In a
Nieuport machine, flew from Sebasto
pol to St. Petersburg, 1670 miles. He
took 25 days for the trip.
The aeroplane as a plaything "ar
rived" long ago, and wealthy men both
in Europe and America have learned to
fly. Among "the best known of these
are Robert J. Collier, Harold F. Mc-
Cormick and George von Utassy. These
and many others are enthusiasts over
the hydroaeroplane, the machine which
can travel anywhere.
Great things are ahead of the aero
plane. A prize of $50,000 has been of
fered for the first flight across the
Atlantic Ocean. Next year or the year
after some venturesome aviator, using
hydroaeroplane, probably will have
attempted . to fly from England to
America or from America to England,
and the success of the venture would
not be surprising.
Two things are certain: the aeroplane
has come to stay as a war agent, and
it will develop into the best agent for
the cross-continent and cross-mountain
transportation and delivery of the
malls.
There also are possibilities in the
transportation of passengers, the es
tablishment of aerial ferries and the
inspection of long sections of railroads,
Already it is being utilized by tele
graph line Inspectors in remote sec
tions of the Far West.
It is Editor Woodhouse who points
out that railroad Inspectors could
cover more ' ground and make better
and quicker reports by the use of the
aeroplane.
"Using an aeroplane," he declares,
inspectors can inspect the road at
speed of between 40 and 70 miles an
hour. By using moving picture ma-
chines an inspector can photograph th
line at the rate of 50 miles an hour,
and allowing six hours of traveling to
each day he can in three days present
to the executive officers of railroad
film showing the detailed conditions
of 1000 miles of road, which the offi
cials can go over at their meeting and
know the exact state of the road and
the land adjoining the road.
"As was shown by the experiences of
C. P. Rogers and Robert Fowler in
their trips across the continent, rails
offer certain advantages over broken
country for landing on and starting
from. An aeroplane having wide roller
wheels finds the rail an ever-ready
platform to land on and start from.
"A railroad considered the matter of
using aeroplanes a year or so ago, but
they were deterred from employin
them by the excessive cost of securing
competent aviators to operate them.
At that time competent aviators were
still drawing- large incomes from ex
hibition flying, and as that particular
railroad which was willing to consider
the employment of aeroplanes found
that it required 12 aeroplanes for the
purpose, tho salary item became too
excessive to be practical.
"But now that competent aviators
can be had at from $50 to $100 a week,
and, almost any Intelligent mechanic.
fin - jf :
y urinJ.lrth
- 5 kJ
I ESI
wake up and git out'n our barn. I
know you, daggone you, even if you
be disguised by hidln' behind that thai"
four-poster bed on runners. Wake up,
you ol ijit! You be Henlopen Laffen
welFs accomplice In crime, been't ye?
Waal, you git right out'n our barn an
do your sleepin" where you b'long.
Daggone if you kin use our barn to
give your imitations of Rip Van Win
kle. Come on now, git!"
When we finally reached home Aunt
Martha asked us how we enjoyed the
srelghride.
"The scenery was perfectly lovely J
it was so stationary," Peaches answered
with chattering teeth.
"One of the best walks I ever had,'
I said as I put both feet In the flre-4
place to warm up.
Lohengrin, eh? To make him go)
Mr. Wagner would have to set him to
ragtime.
(Copyright, 1814. by The McClur
Newspaper Syndicate; all rights re
served.)
THE FUTURE OP A VI ATI O N AS AX ARTIST SEES IT.
can be trained to operate the kind of
machine - needed for railway survey
ing, the proposition assumes a practical
aspect and there Is no doubt that rail
roads will readily see the advantage of
using aeroplanes for this particular
purpose."
Editor Woodhouse, like many other
aviation experts, believes it will be
only a question of time when the aero-
plans wll lbe developed for use in con
nection with the Revenue Cutter Serv
ice, Irrigation Service, Lifesavlng and
Lighthouse Services and in the Bureaus
of Fisheries, Forestry and Geological
Survey of the National Government.
South and Central America are as yet
practically virgin territories for the
development of aerial navigation. .
Aviation experts are engaged in de
vising; the best way -to make an aero
nautical map of the world. Tremend
ous increase in air navigation, com
bined with the widening radius of di
rigibles, crossing countries, continents
and even seas, as they have, has made
the necessity for the aeronautical map
imperative.
The need of well-trained, capable
of
young men to take up aviation is
pointed out by Woodhouse, who be
lieves, with President Richard C Mac
laurin, of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, that it is a duty on the
part of educational institutions to pro
vide instruction in aeronautics.
"Aerial flight of today," Dr. Mac-
laurin says, "Is either an engine of
war or an exciting amusement. Its
greatest use at present is for pleasure,
but before it can be very greatly ' de
veloped it must be freed from its more
serious dangers. '
"The men who must Bee to making
reasonably safe the sport of flying must
be trained engineers and men of sci
ence, and such men are produced In the
higher technical schools and colleges.
It is for such reasons that the Massa
chusetts Institute of Technology now
makes official a line of work that here
tofore has been possible only as an ad
junct to other courses."
And so aviation as a science stands
Men in every walk of scientific en
deavor are trying to Improve it. The
nations of the world are spending $89,-
000,000 this year to forward the prog
ress of aviation. With expenditures
increasing every year wonderful things
can be expected in the next decade. In
the meantime constructive geniuses
like Orvllle Wright and Glenn H. Cur
tlss are working in secret to improve
the aeroplane, and flying geniuses are
working in public to show it to the
world.
JOHN HENRY ADVENTURE
Queer Chinese Invasion
(CONTINUED FROM PACE TWO.)
by the Coroner's Delight, but he plant
ed his four feet In the middle of the
road and refused to be coaxed.
I took that horse by the ear and
whispered therein just what I thought
about him, but he wouldn't talk back.
I told him my wife's honor was at
stake, but he looked my wife over and
bis lips curled with an expression
which seemed to say, "Impossible."
It was all off with us.
Lohengrin simply wouldn't move un
till that sobbing choo choo wagon had
left the neighborhood, so I went inside
the roadhouse to find the owner.
I found him. He consisted of a Ger-
and eight bottles of
Putting The Parcel
Post on roller Skated
LI
" "v. '
THE delivery of parcel post pack
ages by United States mall car
riers equipped with roller skates
is the latest scheme devised to save
time in this branch of the Government
service. . Incidentally, it also seems
destined to cut quite a figure in the
saving of shoe leather for Postoffice
employes.
The idea was originated by the fore
man of the check room in the Chicago
Postofllce. Xn the casement ot .tha build
ing Is a clear space of over 300 feet of
smooth concrete flooring, on either side
of which are arranged a total of 1400
carriers lockers.
The checking of uniforms during the
rush hours taxed the force of men in
charge of this work to the limit. Then
the plan of providing the checkers
with roller skates was hit upon, with
the result that the time formerly re
quired for carrying uniforms from one
end, of, the locker room .to the other
was cut to one-fourth. Follow
ing this the scheme was applied
to the moving, of packages of mail
from one part of the building to
another, and finally as a means for
the regular delivery of parcel post
packages on the outside.
The success of the experiment was
such that Postmaster Campbell, of Chi
cago, predicts the plan will soon be
generally adopted in all large cities in
th country, Wake np, you doggona
man chauffeur
beer.
When I explained the pitiful situa
tion to him the chauffeur swallowed
two bottles of beer and began to cry.
Then he told the waiter to call him
at 7:30, and he put his head down on
the table and went to sleep with his
face in a cute little nest of hard-boiled
cigarettes.
I rushed to the telephone and called
up the liveryman, but before I could
think of a word strong enough to fit
the occasion he whispered over the
wire: "I know your voice, Mr. Henry.
I suppose Lohengrin is waiting for you
outside."
Forthwith I tried to tell that livery
man just what I though about him and
Lohengrin, but the telephone girl
short-circuited my remarks and they
came back and set lire to tne wood
work.
My, my!" I could hear the livery
man saying. "Lohengrin s Hesitation
must be the result of the epidemic of
automobiles which is now raging over
our country roads. une automooue
has a strange effect on Lohengrin. It
seems to cover him with a pause and
gives him inflammation of the speed."
I thought ot poor Peaches shivering
out there in that comedy sleigh, staring
at a dreaming horse, while in front of
her a red devil wagon complained in
ternally and shook its tonneau at her,
and once more I jolted that liveryman
with a few verbal twisters.
"Don't get excited," he whispered
back over the phone. "Lohengrin is a
new idea in horses. Whenever he
meets an automobile he goes to sleep
and tries to forget it. Isn't that better
than running away and dragging you
to a hospital? There must be some
thing about an automobile that af
fects Lohengrin's heart. I think it is
the gasoline. The odor from the gaso
line seems to penetrate his mind to the
region of his memory and he forgets
to move. Lohengrin is a fine horse,
with a most lovable disposition, but
when the air becomes charged with
gasoline he forgets his duty and falls
asleep at the switch."
I went out and explained to my wife
that Lohengrin was a victim of the
gasoline habit, and that he would never
leave that spot until the bubble went
away, and that the bubble couldn't go
until the chauffeur woke up, and that
the chauffeur couldn't wake up until
his mind had digested a lot of wood
alcohol, so she jumped out of the trick
sleigh for the purpose of telling Loh
ensrrin just what she thought about
him.
At that moment somebody opened
the folding doors in the barn just
ahead of us, and Lohengrin, with
withering glance at friend wife and
shrug of his shoulders in my direction,
tippy-toed to cover and left us flat.
Ostler Joe, the charge d'affaires of
the barn tried to stop Lohengrin and
ask for. his credentials, but the equine
onion brushed right by and planted
himself and the droshky In the- middle
of tha barn floor, where he promptly
went to sleep, again
Just as we hurried away to flag an
approaching trolley car I heard Ostler
Joe say to the slumbering Lohengrin
ol'. rabbit.
Budapest, it is said, is making frantlo
efforts to become cosmopolitan, like
London, New York, Paris, Berlin and?
Paterson, N. J. The Magyar capital haa
been pluming itself mightily lately on
what was described as a Chinese in
vasion. Almond-eye celestials, plainly;
citizens of the young republic of whlctai
Yuan Shl-Kai is president, have been
flitting from house to house and cafe
to cafe selling jade and carved images
of the gods of ancient China to the
unsophisticated townsmen. But the
pride of Budapest has had a fall. It
was Just after midnight that two of
these Chinese were overheard In conn
versatlon in a snug corner of a mod-
est Hungarian cafe. Said one Chinas
man:
"Well. Rosenbaum, and how wee
business today7"
I took in 17.
Fine."
Fine, eh? How much of that d'yer
think I get? Just 10 per cent $1.70.'
"That all? Taln't much, sure. I get
rather better. My concern that's
Schneider & Horowitz gives me 20 per
cent."
Well, Tm going to quit this here
Llpsky & Bernheimer, I am. Nobody
can't work for such a dirty loafers. I
got to buy even my Chinese rig."
"My people give me the rig. What's
more, they paid the barber that shaved
my head."
"You're lucky, you are. I actually
had to buy my own queue."
"Same here. At least I didn't, but
I might. Luck would have it my, wife
had two -braids of hair and I cut off
one and used that."
"Me, I'm a bachelor."
"Shame I ain't known you sooner. I
could 'a' cut off my wife's other braid
well as not."
"Yes, it is a shame. But I never do
have no luck. I'm rotten sorry I ever
took up with this business and turned
Chinaman. Blumensteln he was dead
right about it."
"Who's Blumensteln?"
"D'ye mean to say you don't know
Blumensteln? He's the feller as used
to be the Hottentot down in Kirch-
baum's cabaret. He always said I ought
to be a Hottentot. They got a cinch.
Sleep all day and at night dance the
cake-walk."
"H'm."
"Well, what you h'ming aboutT What
difference Is it whether yon make
yourself up yellow in the morning or?
black In the evening? To be a Hot
tentot is as respectable a trade as M
be a Chinaman, ain't It?"
"Sure it Is, but the dancin. '
"And why not? That feller Blameo
stein he danced bo well they taken him)
over to America."
"What in blazes for?" '
"To teach dancing school, that's aHi
He is professor of the genuyne African
cake-walk over there. I wish I'd went
with him."
'But can yon dancer
"Can I sell anything? Demt X bust
my tongue Just to yet rid of ene mlisM
able little old piece o' YockT
"Bust your tongue? You dont meats
to say you Jabber Chinese as well aa
dress it?"
"Not a bit I don't Jabber no Chinese
I bust my tongue not sayln' things and)
makin' fool noises. D'yer know I ain't
done a thing for days but studied
geography Pekln Mukden? Yer got
to answer when they asks yer where
you come from. And everybody doea
ask."
I'm saved from that . It's this way
I talk broken Hungarian. That please
em all because they think I'm gotngr
to spread their precious language In
China when I go back home. Me and
China! Pipe that. This here little old.
town is my China."
"You sure understand the business.
"Study does It. Nobody what buys a
Buddha off me ain't goln' to guess that
two months ago I was stand in' on the
corner of this very street with a sign
on may cap sayin' 'Porter' on it."
"Tell me, what do you get for one
of them Buddhas?"
"Most anything. Has it got any
value? Is it pretty? Is it got any
sense In It? Is It any use to anybody?
What I do Is always to ask 75 cents
for one and then take 15 if I can
get It."
"You don't tell me. If I get a nickel
for mine I'm satisfied. And you say
you used to be a porter. Now I was a
lawyer's clerk. I passed my examina
tions, too."
"Bet you don't even know whether
China is In Africa or Australia"
"No more I do for sure. But would I
sell more Buddhas if I did know? Tell
me that!" t
There was a pause and then one of
the pair jumped up and cried:
"Come along. Let's sit out of here
quick."
"What for?"
"Don't you see that a real Chinaman
has Just come in the door there?"
"Holy smoke!"
And the two citizens of the young
republic of which Yuan Shl-Kai is
president made for the door and dis
appeared into the night Translation
From Die Lustige Blatter in New York
Evening Post.
Some Joke.
i "Played a good joke on my fiancee."
"How was that, old top?"
"Had my chum meet her In the dark
hall and he got the kiss intended for
me, (Liood Jov en wna.tr"