The evening times. [volume], September 01, 1910, Image 7

About The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
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ii
By CHARLES N. LURIE.
SAID"Well,my
I to friend the woman
hater:
why shouldn't wom
en fly if they wish to do so?'
Said my friend the woman hater:
"No reason In the world. They 'go up
In the air* often enough."
So they, are going up in the air, as
the pictures show, but not In the sense
In which the misogynist used the
words. Aviation for women has reach
ed the point where the Parisian cos
turners are designing special costumes
for the sport or pastime or vocation
or avocation. That means that It Is
fast becoming 'an "institution." One
of the lady aviators is shown In the
picture garbed for a flight
What Shall We Call thsi Lady Flier?
"Lady aviators" brings up another
point. 'What shall we call the women
who are ascending in aeroplanes and
balloons? 8hall we refer to them as
avlatrlces (plural of avlatrix, of which
the masculine Is aviator), or shall we
adopt the suggestion of an English
magazine and refer to the fair fliers as
"aeroine*?" The latter suggestion hits
merit, but the word has one fatal de
fect—It is difficult of pronunciation.
From some mouths it will emerge' with
so close a resemblance to "heroines"
as to be mistaken for that word. Per
haps it is well to suggest a relation
ship between "heroine" and "aero
ine," since the latter Is undoubtedly
worthy of enrollment in the lists of
the former. At this, stage of the flying
game any woman wko' accomplishes a
flight Is surely a heroine.
Up to the date of writing there had
not- been many women aviators.
Italy had the Duchess of Aosta, cousin
by marriage of King Victor Emmanuel.
France^ in some respects the leader In
aviation and in many respects the
world's mentor in "feminism," had only
three prominent lady fliers—Baroness
de la Roche, Incapacitated for an in
definite length of time by very serious
WHEN
the government of
th* United States want*
Information on military
matters to whom does It
turn? To the .same man to whom the
state of Ohio look* for advice and
guidance In regard, to its citizen sol
diers.- And that man I* Major General
Charles William Frederick Dick. Don't
recognize th* name? Well, you are
not to be blamed. When the name of
the senior aenator from Ohio 1* printed
In It* usual form the two middle sec
tions are cut out and th* name pro-
4^^ '»vr
IM
I...:.
Tt
*'C
1
••jk ii MAJOR GENERAL DICK AND STAFF.
ceed* on the main line as Senator
Charles Dick of Ohio. If Dick were
an Englishman he would be known as
Major General th* Honorable Charles
William Frederick Dick. But H* I* not
a Britisher, only a plain—very plal*.
In fact—0)iloan, who sheds luster on th*
title of Unlte*8taU» senator by add
ing to It that of major general In th*
Ohio national guard.
Com* to think of IV major gwMMls
are *caro* ln th* **nat* these day*,
pick I* th* on|y on* at pi«*ent now In
active service, and hte title Is only a
militia on*, after all. Pressing him
injuries dueto a fait lime. Franck.
also "injured JuBt after she had an
nounced her Intention of making a
flight across the English channel, and
Mme. Paulhan, wife of the famous
tiouls. There have been a few others,
but their exploits have attracted lit
tle attention. England has two or
three women fliers In heavier than air
machines. Germany has produced no
women fliers of note—none, that is. In
aeroplanes. The Zeppelin, Parseval
and Gross dirigible balloons have had
female passengers In some of their fa
mous flights. In America we have had
Hiss K»therlne Wright, Mrs. Hart O.
Berg, Mrs. Cortland Field Bishop,
Mrs. Clifford B. Harmon, Mrs. Wil
liam K. Vanderbllt, Jr., and a few
others as passengers with the "man
birds" when they made flights above
the earth. Mrs. Bishop was the first
woman to fly In America. But no
American woman so far as known has
been daring enough to go aloft as an
aviator. That will come In time, no
doubt, and in the meanwhile we may
rest content with the fact that we have
the only genuine, bona fide woman
airship Inventor on earth. She is
worth a separate paragraph.
Only Woman Airship Inventor.
The name of the lady is Miss E.
Lillian Todd, and her postofllce address
is New York. She Is called 'probably
the first woman In the world to de
sign and build an aeroplane" all by
herself. The Todd machine was a col
lapsible or folding aeroplane, and the
fact of Its existence was first made
public two years ago, Since that time
Miss Todd has kept busy designing
and making improvements to her aero
plane. She Is a member of the Aero
Club of America and one of the found
ers of the Junior Aero club, which
aims at teaching the young American
idea how to fly. Miss Todd has the
added distinction 'of being the builder
of her flying machine as well as Its
Inventor. Recently she had the good
fortune to attract the notice of Mrs.
Russell Sage, and It was announced
SENATORDICK, SOLDIER AND STATESMAN
hard for senatorial military honors is
Du Pont of Delaware, whose record In
the civil war requires nearly a page of
the Congressional Directory for Its
proper setting forth. But Du Pont
never got as high as the wearing of a
major general'* stars, so Dick would
outrank him If It ever became neces
sary for the president to call out the
•enat* In defense of the country.
There are a few of the ?lder senators
who saw service in the civil war on
one aid* or th* other but so far as
patient research can disclose, Senator
3!
Dick 1* the only on* of th* nlnaty-two
who saw service In th* war with
Spain. But h* wu only a lieutenant
colonel then,' not a major general.
For on* man to be at th* sam* time
a lawmaker and an armed upholder
of the law la not a frequent occur
rence, That i* what make* Senator
Dick's recent action In donning a uni
form and loading his troop* In peraon
during the Columbus street car trou
bles ao Interesting an event He I* no
m*r* "tin aoldler" either. H* know*
ail about .tit* handling' df men from
long experienc*.
i«t* -7 j,
IIS:
that there was a fair chance of some
of old Mr. Sage's carefully hoarded
money being burnt up in gasoline and
oil to run the Todd machine.
Commenting on the possibility of
the woman flier becoming a common
sight, a leading English periodical
said recently:
"It may almost be said that the fly
ing man has become a commonplace
of the sky of the continent, even If he
is still a rare bird in this country.
The flying woman Is a novelty abroad
and altogether a novelty here and as
such and because of her own attrac
tions Is arousing much curiosity. It
has been said time and again that wo
men are more apt to be daring than
men, inasmuch as they do not always
realize the extent of the risks they
take. Such an argument, however,
cannot possibly be advanced in con
nection with some famous avlatrlces.
(Notice the coolness with which the
Englishman assumes that that is the
proper word to use!) Considerable
experience in the art they are favor
ing and considerable knowledge of the
feats of flying men—and of the fate of
As Senator Dick's colleague In the
upper national house. Senator Burton,
knows everything there is to be
known or guessed about rivers and
harbors, so Senator Dick has a most
comprehensive knowledge of things
military. Full evidence of his grasp
of the subject was presented a few
years ago in the Dick militia or na
tional guard bill,' now known as the
Dick law. It formulated the present
system under which the relations of
the federal government with the na-.
tlonal guard of the various states are.
governed. It substituted for the slip
shod, loose system that formerly pre
vailed a method of co-ordination aim
ed at making the national guard a
really efficient dependable part of the
national defense. It brought the mili
tia organisations into close relations
with the war department and pro
vided (or standard equipment drilling
of the citizen soldiers by method* ap
proved by' the army authorities and
raised the standard of the state sol
diers almost Immeasurably. Men old
enough to recall the heartbreaking
task of fitting th* civil war volunteer*
&
I •:.
Aeroine—Heroine
some of them—have taught them that
followers of the newest of new sports
take lives in their hands every time
they leave the snrface of the earth In
company with man-made wings. De
spite this, they presevere, which says
much for their skill and their cour
age. It should perhaps be said that
but one of them, the Baroness de la
Roche, is In the habit of making flights
by herself. The others have made their
ascents In company with men, who
have acted as pilots of the machine.
This nevertheless does not lessen the
Interest in them, for, whether they
have been at the wheel or not. the
mere fact that they have flown Is
enough to place them among the 'aero
lnes' of aviation."
Must B* a Heroin* as Well as Aeroine.
In one respect above all others, the
"aeroine" must be a heroine when she
goes aviating. Even to a greater ex
tent than the woman automobtlist she
must renounce all her pretensions to
comeliness. Aviation is not conducive
to the preservation of one's good looks,
and the woman aviator, dressed for
for active service and the army men
who remember the almost equally dis
couraging conditions in 1898 give
their unqualified approval and un
stinted praise to the provisions of the
Dick law. Introduced and pushed with
vigor to a successful conclusion by
the legislator who served against
Spain as lieutenant colonel of the
Eighth Ohio volunteers. Subsequently
Lieutenant Colonel Dick became colo
nel of the regiment.
Major General-Senator Dick pos
sesses one indispensable characteris
tic of the good soldier and the success
ful politician—that is, he never knows
when he is licked. Not that he has
been licked so many times since he
took up the career of a leader of
Ohio's Republican destinies but. of
course, like most of the prominent
men of the exceedingly lively political
commonwealth, he has known what it
means to have a fickle following turn
one down. But he has always "come
back," and today there is no keener,
shrewder, harder political fighter with
in the boundaries of the state. In one
detail alone Dick has made a reputa
tion second to none—that is, as a po
litical prognosticator. He has been
known to take a given township in a
given county in any part of Ohio and
predict with amazing, almost uncanny,
certainty how it would go in a pri
mary or general election.
Dick's power of political prediction,
joined to his Industry and persuasive
ness, was the quality in all probability
that first brought him to the notice of
the great ones in Ohio politics. The
two men with whom he was most
closely connected before his own star
blazed forth on the state skies were
President McKlnley and Senator Han
na. The former placed Mr. Dick—he
was young Mr. Dick then, only thirty
four years old—In charge of the Ohio
campaign In 1892 after he had demon
strated hi* ability in Akron, his home
city. Later Senator Hanna made
Dick his lieutenant and it is the sena
torial toga of the "kingmaker" which
Dick Is wearing now.
Senator Dick wa* born In Akron,
Nov. S, 1858. HI* father was a Ger
man miller. After receiving a public
school education and working at the
banking and grain commission busi
nesses Mr. Dick turned hi* attention
to the law and wa* admitted to the bar
in 1898. Before that time he bad en
gaged In politics, receiving an election
as auditor of Summit county In 1886
and continuing in that office until
1898. Subsequently h* became secre
tary of th* Republican national com
mittee, delegate to Republican nation
al conventions, member of the house
of representatives and senator. Hi*
continuous connection with the na
tional guard dates back to 187*.
WALTER P. HUDSON.
k%
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if*
1. READY FOR A BALLOON FLIGHT. 2. GRAHAME WHITE AND LADY ABDY. 3. MRS. LEO STEVENS, BALLOON MAKER. 4, CAP FOR AVIATION. S. MISS E. LILLIAN TODD IN
HER.8HOP. 6. COUNTESS FITZWILLIAM IN MONOPLANE. 7. MME. PAULHAN 3TARTING FLIGHT. 8. ALL DRESSED FOR A FLIGHT. 9. MLLE. ABOUKANA IN MONOPLANE.
the occasion, is as much a "sight" as!
her machine or her flight in the air.
Her garments get little chance In thej
aeroplane, set as she is In the midstj
of spraying oil and the fumes of gaso-!
line. The most favored material for
women aviators' garments is leather,
cut in as few pieces as possible and
with very few seams. In the air there
is no dust—that bete noire of woman
automobilists—but there Is more than
a sufficiency of oil and gasoline fumes
to make up for it. "Grimy" is the
word that must be applied to the wo
man flier descending from the clouds.
But there Is this supreme consola
tlon—It Is worth It according to the
testimony of all of the women who
have tried the novel experience.
"I never had a more delightful ex
perience," said Mrs. William K. Van
derbllt, Jr., recently upon her return
from an aerial journey with Clifford B.
Harmon, "and I would never ride any
other way If I could help it. It's a
most restful feeling—no exertion, no
care. I never thought of falling."
It Is the almost unanimous opinion
of the leading men aviators of the
FOR
many decades we Ameri
cans have drawn spiritual
sustenance from the tales and
traditions, the legends and
the precepts that sprang from the soil
of the Holy Land. Now It appears that
we are to derive from the same soli
the means of bodily nourishment. In
pursuit of the policy of ransacking the
earth for varieties of plants and ani
mals that may be adapted to profitable
reproduction in the United States the
department of agriculture p*"ently
r$j
world that for the present at least
women should not think of flying in
machines by themselves. Less ob
jection is raised, of course, against
having women as passengers in the
aeroplanes, although some demur is
made even against this slight con
cession to the demand of the fair sex
for novelty and new sensations. Ac
cording to the "man birds." women
are temperamentally unfitted to cope
with the problems which confront the
aviator. One of the most outspoken of
the objectors Is Charles K. Hamilton,
the famous hero of the New Tork to
Philadelphia and return flight. Among
the others who have expressed them
selves as opposed to the flying of wo
men are Captain Thomas S. Baldwin,
probably the oldest and most experi
enced of American aeronauts, who
says:
"A woman may be able to run a bi
cycle or a motorboat or an automobile.
Compared with an aeroplane either is
as easy to manage as a baby carriage.
It takes out and out nerve to run an
aeroplane. The operator must cast all
fear aside and have no thought for
TURNING TO THE HOLY LAND FOR FOOD
turned its searchlight on Palestine.!
The result of its researches was made!
known recently in a pamphlet entitled:
"Agricultural and Botanical Explora
tlons In Palestine/' from which most
of the facts detailed herein are taken.
In presenting to the public the re
suits of its explorations the depart-1
ment draws some very Interesting
analogies between Palestine and Call
fornla. It is stated that the topography
of the American state and the ancient
historic land is similar to a very high
A PEASANT OF PALESTINE—WILD
EMMER.
degree. Palestine, asserts the report. Is
virtually a California reduced to about
one-twentieth the size of the American
state, but markedly similar in general
topography, climate, vegetation and
agricultural and economic possibilities.
Given such similar condition*. It fol
low* that the flora of the two coun
tries will bear strong resemblances to
each other. This inference is born*
the consequences. Had a man been
in the machine Instead of Its occupant
being Mme. de la Roche I don't be
lieve there would have been any acci
dent. But she lost her head and then
lost control of the machine also."
Danger* to Fliers and Spectator*.
It will be recalled that the barones*
was very severely Injured at the re
cent aviation meet at Rheims, her
arms and legs being fractured and her
body sustaining other severe Injuries.
She was flying along smoothly when
two other aeroplanes passed over her.
The rush of air confused her so that
she cut off her Ignition and lost con
trol of her machine. Instead of glid
ing safely to the earth in normal fash
Ion her biplane turned over and drop
ped to the ground with its occupant
The danger to the spectator from
the falling of an aeroplane also enters
the minds of the experts. Without
any intention of jesting with so seri
ous a subject it may be asserted that
it will hurt just as much to have a
woman aviator drop on one, almost
literally from the clouds, as it will to
have a man do so.
out by the researches and the con
clusions of Aaron Aaronsohn. the de
partment's Investigator, who Is director
of the Jewish agricultural experiment
station at Haifa. Palestine. "This
analogy of the flora of Palestine with
that of California justifies the expec
tations of the best results from their in
troduction Into the last named state."
says Mr. Aaronsohn.
Especially interesting in this con
nection is Mr. Aaronsohn's account of
his delvings into the history and cul
tivation of the wild emmer, believed
by scientists to be the ancestor of
modern wheat, the greatest of the
world's cereals, and Its important rela
tives, such as rye, barley, etc. From
time dating back before the dawn of
history emmer has grown on the rocky
slopes of the Palestinian mountains and
hills, affording the natives a large per
centage of their foodstuffs. There
seems to be no doubt says Mr. Aaron
sohn, that by the selection and cross
ing of this wild cereal, which prefers
poor, rocky, shallow, dry soil and
thrives without any cultivation, we
shall be able to produce new races
which will be very persistent and very
hardy. In this way we can extend the
cultivation of wheat to regions where
It Is at present Impossible on account
of the low quality of the soil and the
severity of the climate. "The worlds
total production of wheat will be very
materially augmented," says the re
port.
Mr. Aaronsohn has not confined his
Investigations in Palestine to the wild
emmer. His researches have extended
into every variety of plant life In the
Holy Land, with a view to its adapta
tion to American soil and climate.
Among other good things he found
there Is the chick pea. which he calls
"one of the most valuable legumes
grown In Palestine." In good years
this yields twelve bushels to the acre
and sells for as much as wheat and
often more. It Is there, says the re
port a remunerative crop and ex
cellently adapted for use as a rotation
crop before wheat. It is asserted that
the chick pea will do well In the dry
farming regions of the United States.
In a division of the report entitled
"Economic Plants Worthy of Intro
duction Into the United States" many
varieties of fruit are enumerated. There
are, it is said, many wild types which
are excellent for stock and may yield
some valuable results by hybridization
and selection, but also some cultivated
fruit varieties which would be worth
trying in the United States. Among
them are the almond, the apricot, the
quince, the pomegranate, the olive
and the fig.
WILLIAM HENDERSON.
•v