WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 172, 21 April 1928, Page 10

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

The first man to fly the English Channel nineteen years ago in July next, M. Louis Bleriot, now aspires to fly from Paris to New York, according to a news message this morning. M. Bleriot won a prize of £lOOO for crossing from Paris to Dover in 1909, and last year as a mark of very particular esteem he presented Lindbergh, on his arrival in Paris, with a piece of the propeller of the famous Bleriot transchannel aeroplane. M. Bleriot was thirty-seven years old when he startled the world by his flight; <now he is fiftysix, and his protracted ''survival seems to be due to the fact that for many years his interest has been . more in aeroplane design than in flying. Talking of pioneer fliers is a reminder that Mr. Orville Wright has been having a rare old rumpus with the United States National Museum as to who made the first aeroplane that would fly. The museum has the Langley aeroplane on view, labelled as the first ever that could fly and carry a man. It dates to 1903. in which year also appeared the Wright brothers’ famous “Kitty Hawk” machine, which the museum authorities have been very ;nxious to secure also. Mr. Orville Wright, however, was so sore about the label on the Langley machine that he shipped the “Kitty Hawk” aeroplane over to the South Kensington Museum in London, where it is now on view, and refused to have any truck with .America’s National Valhalla of Aeronautics, declaring its officials “hostile and unfair.” • » » The American National Museum authorities have since been at a lot of trouble to label the Langley machine in a way that would fit the facts, and not bar them from getting the Wright machine also. A committee, consisting of a university professor and an admiral was given the job of drafting a' peacemaking label in 1925, but all in vain. * ♦ < The label as revised in 1925 reads as follows:— “Langley Aerodrome. “The original Langley flying machine of 1903 restored. “In the opinion of many competent to judge, this was the first heavier-than-air craft in the history of the world, capable of free, sustained flight under its own power, carrying a man. “This aircraft slightly antedated the machine designed and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright, which, on December 17, 1903, was the first in the history of the world to accomplish sustained, free flight, under its own power, carrying a man.” This would not do at all to Mr. Wright’s mind, so the other day the museum head made the following offer: “If Mr. Wright will openly state in a friendly way that he appreciates that the institution honestly believes the Langley machine of 1903 was capable of sustained free flight under its own power carrying a man and that it now removes that public statement, not in confession of error, but in a gesture of good-will for the honour of America, then I am willing to let Langley’s fame stand on its merits and to reduce the Langley label to this simple statement: ‘Langley aerodrome—the original Langley flying machine of 1903, restored’.” • « • This won’t do either, says Mr. Orville Wright, who is evidently bent on making the great Smithsonian Institution, which runs the museum eat its words in the completest manner. Says Mr. Wright: “This proposal of his does not aim to correct the serious things to which I have been raising objections. It does not correct the false propaganda put forth in, an attempt to take, the credit for w’hat we did and give it to Professor Langley, former secretary of the institution. The mis-statements in the publications are much more serious than, the label on the machine which states that ‘in the opinion of many competent to judge,, this was the first heavier-than-air craft in the history of the world capable of sustained free flight, under its own power, carrying a man’.” What label they have on the Wright • machine in London does not appear, but no rival air pioneer seems to have been a secretary Of the London institution, anyway. A San Francisco jibe at a rival city: “If Dr. Will C. Durant seeks more disproof of his statement that love is impossible after a man has reached the age of 30 years, let him consider the case of Mr. Steve Skiskove, of Chicago who at the age of 50 years shot and killed a fourteen-year-old girl that, refused to marry him, then killed himself.. Of course the case would be more convincing evidence if it had. occurred elsewhere than in Chicago; in that city, we understand, murder is a token of a mere passing affection, not of true love. Marshal Feng Yu-Hsiang, the eminent Christian General in command ot one group of revolutionary forces in China, apparently has drunk deep at the well of experience. The General has issued an edict forbidding bachelors to marry and prohibiting divorce, and the object of both rules is to prevent loss of enthusiasm for the war with which China is occupied at the moment. How may one interpret General reng s regulations except as indicating recognition that (1) in the early period of married life the attraction of the home is more powerful than the attraction of the field, and that (2) after a man has been married awhile he is eager to g forth into battle, and may lose his eagerness if he loses his spouse ?

It had always been black Sam’s ambition to own a fur coat, and after years of skimping he. had achieved . On the first day of its possession as he was strutting down the street, a S 'sam lifted his chin haughtily from the depths of his huge fur collar. th "Ah P reallv cainn’t tell ’bout the weather,” he replied carelessly. Ah am t loosed at de paper to-day.” Flora: The static is just awful on our radio set. Is yours dear? , ■ Dora : Oh, no—not yet. eve got three more payments on ours. THE DEATHLESS FOLK. I saw a fairv on a fluttering leaf, When all the rest were still; And where a single grass-blade shook, A goblin sat beside a brook — Shapes cloudy as forgotten grief " And dim as shadows in a distant hill. You hold that fairies went the way of death . 5. When brain ruled out the heart ? They, fled with wild, affrighted looks From learned theses out of books, To yield a faint expiring breath In fading pigments of anaemic art. O faithless lover! These are hardier folk! Bereft of flowers and trees, Hear now their wings and laughter go By airplane and the radio! The vassals of Titania spoke Where human voices spanned the seas. _Mary Brent Whiteside, in “Harper’s.”