Chasing Icarus (33 page)

Chapter Seven: Wait Until Orville Comes

“got a wetting so that we had to go out”:
Century Magazine
, December 1910.

“The northern lights lit up the horizon”: Ibid.

“last sighted Tuesday sailing over Lake Huron”:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, October 21, 1910.

“No name since Columbus”:
New York Times
, October 23, 1910.

“calumny and abuse while we were forced to await”: Ibid.

“One of the things demonstrated”: Ibid.

“Any person that attempts the highly”:
Chicago Daily Tribune
, October 22, 1910.

“Arch Hoxsey in a Wright biplane”:
New York Herald
, October 22, 1910.

“heavily-built and good-natured man”:
Collier’s Weekly
, November 26, 1910.

“another cofferful of American dollars”:
New York evening Observer
, June 8, 1910.

“but not a man connected with the Wrights”:
New York Herald
, October 22, 1910.

“Wait until Orville comes”: Ibid.

“bird of prey:” Terry Gwynn-Jones,
The Air Racers
(Pelham, 1983).

“the world owed them a bounty”: Seth Shulman,
Unlocking the Sky
(Perennial, 2002).

“Keep out of my air!”: Ibid.

“The Wright Company has given guarantee”:
Aero
, September 14, 1910.

“found that the wings had been severely crushed”:
New York Herald
, October 22, 1910.

“We have traveled with that machine”: Ibid.

Chapter Eight: An Epoch-Making Event

“it is believed that they landed on Wednesday”:
Times
(London), October 22, 1910.

“Have landed thirty-two miles northeast”:
Oshkosh (WI)
Daily Northwestern, October 22, 1910.

“officials of the Aero Club of America”:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, October 22, 1910.

“with the weather so cold that at times”:
Gettysburg Times
, October 28, 1910.

“Hawley’s leg hurt him so severely”:
Century Magazine
, December 1910.

“talked over the events of the voyage”: Ibid.

“to bring back a muskrat from their trip”: This anecdote is described in the
New York
Herald
, October 29, 1910.

“At the dawn of the opening day of the great”:
New York Herald
, October 22, 1910. 118 “airmen have a habit of working”:
New York Sun
, October 22, 1910.

“coining their heroic feats at our expense”:
New York City Review
, October 22, 1910.

“At 50 feet the biplane appeared to have”:
New York Herald
, October 23, 1910.

“All our suits for infringement of patent”:
Washington Post
, October 23, 1910.

“confident that the courts of America and European”: Ibid.

“no Blériot, Curtiss, Farman, or in fact”: Ibid.

“that they didn’t think the Curtiss planes”: Sherwood Harris,
First to Fly
(Simon &Schuster, 1970).

“were taught by the Wrights that the Curtiss”: Ibid.

“The cup will remain in America”:
New York Herald
, October 23, 1910.

“The exact dimensions of the new”: Ibid.

“The Curtiss racer, on the other hand”: Ibid.

“He calls a ‘single surface’ airplane”:
New York Sun
, October 23, 1910.

“Whether it will fly well—or fly at all”: Ibid.

“vendors who hawked programmes”:
New York Evening Sun
, October 22, 1910.

“Popular with the man who owns the eatables”:
New York Sun
, October 23 1910.

“apricot-colored polo coat and bell-shaped”: Most of the New York papers devoted considerable space to the sartorial taste of the city’s high society, but the
New York
Herald
, the
New York World
, and the
New York Sun
were the most avid.

“became so excited”:
New York Sun
, October 23, 1910.

“strongly opposed to flying over cities”:
New York Evening Sun
, October 12, 1910.

“The prize will be open to all competitors”: Ibid.

“on account of cutting slightly inside a pylon”:
New York Herald
, October 23, 1910.

“growing smaller and smaller”: Ibid.

“so blinded by rain that he couldn’t make”: Ibid.

“has won for him a host of friends”: Ibid.

Chapter Nine: Tears Started to Our Eyes

“Each of us realized without mentioning”:
Century Magazine
, December 1910.

“Dear God, the best friend of all”:
Boston Daily Globe
, October 29, 1910.

“Our ambitions, which had been at rather”:
Century Magazine
, December 1910.

“There was plenty of driftwood and birch-bark”: Ibid.

ALL SAFE. 1230 MILES:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, October 23, 1910.

PERKINS OF BOSTON AND GUERICKE SAFE:
Boston Globe
, October 23, 1910.

“dropped eighteen thousand feet in nine minutes”:
New York World
, October 26, 1910.

“literally had to cut our way through the underbrush”: Ibid.

“we heard wolves and other wild animals”: Ibid.

“had seen tracks of very large animals”:
New York Times
, October 30, 1910.

“the wild Nipigon country”:
New York American
, October 23, 1910.

“winter has already begun in Canada”:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, October 23, 1910.

“flying in a wind is rather in the position”: Claude Grahame-White and Harry Harper,
The Aeroplane
(Jack Publishers, 1914).

“the unfortunates who were promenading”:
New York Sun
, October 24, 1910.

“dressed in a severely plain costume”:
New York Herald
, October 24, 1910.

“the steering wheel jammed me back”:
New York Times
, September 11, 1910.

“I really believe that this game has gotten”:
Popular Mechanics
, December 10, 1910.

“I see the crowd below me looking upward”: “Fatalism of the Fliers,”
Century Magazine
, November 1912, posthumously quoted Ely.

“what they want are thrills”:
San Antonio Light & Gazette
, December 4, 1910.

“he needed all his caution”:
Washington Post
, October 24, 1910.

“a man who keeps his head can never be injured”: Wallace,
Claude Grahame-White
, 39.

“accused the committee of attempting to deceive”:
Cincinnati (OH) Post
, October 24, 1910.

Chapter Ten: A Death Trap

“the celebrated mountain police will begin”:
Syracuse (NY) Post Standard
, October 24, 1910.

“We have no idea of the location of the
America II”: St. Louis Republic
, October 24, 1910.

“which would carry it east of Lake Superior”:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, October 24, 1910.

“It is within the range of possibilities that:
Chicago Daily Tribune
, October 24, 1910.

“gave an exclamation of surprise”:
Century Magazine
, December 1910.

“was to be used as a wedge in getting bark”: Ibid.

“Post, if anyone asks me what heaven is”: Ibid.

“I had not gone far when I saw a cache”: Ibid.

No admission without business
: Ibid.

Oct. 24, 1910. Alan R. Hawley and Augustus Post
: Ibid.

“with a smart fire burning in the stove”: Ibid.

“The international course as it has been laid”:
New York American
, October 24, 1910. 144 “If I were to tell the truth about the track”:
New York Herald
, October 24, 1910.

“Most emphatically do I say”:
New York Sun
, October 24, 1910.

“tried to make that turn at the acute angle”: Ibid.

“Mr. Curtiss had to fly over houses and trees”:
New York Herald
, October 24, 1910.

“aviators who fly above certain adjacent properties”:
New York Sun
, October 24, 1910.

“childish:” Ibid.

Ryan picked up a copy of the
New York
: The confrontation between Ryan and the head of security is constructed from reports carried in the
New York Sun
, October 24, 1910, the
New York Evening Sun
, October 24, 1910, and the
New York World
of the same date.

“Mr. [Cortlandt] Bishop again went over the course”:
New York Sun
, October 25, 1910.

“a navy blue suit with the skirt”: Ibid.

“leather with several inches of padding”: Ibid.

“which are built around murders or suicide”:
New York evening Mail
, October 21, 1910.

“with a bow and a smile, cut off an animated”:
New York World
, October 25, 1910.

“The Four Hundred had at last discovered a new”:
New York Evening Mail
, October 24, 1910.

“the crowd watched fascinated and motionless”:
New York World
, October 25, 1910.

“the softly moving lips of Wilbur Wright”:
New York Herald
, October 25, 1910.

“and if my luck held, I’d break the gliding record”: Harris,
First to Fly
, 165.

“plodded unsteadily over the field to his hangar”:
New York World
, October 25, 1910.

“It was beastly cold”:
New York Sun
, October 25, 1910.

“When she first leaves the ground”: Ibid.

“No policeman in Central Park would stand”: Ibid.

“plane was dancing right down the”: Ibid.

“He’s up!”: Ibid.

“Aviation is so contrary to all our hitherto conceived”:
Warren (PA) evening Mirror
, November 11, 1910.

“roared around the course twice like an eighteen”:
New York Evening Sun
, October 25, 1910.

Chapter Eleven: Here Are Two Men in a Boat

“supplying information leading”:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, October 25, 1910.

“I concede that as the situation now stands”:
Albany (NY) evening Journal
, October 25, 1910.

“a bark canoe, on the south side of Sotogama”:
Century Magazine
, December 1910.

“He was facing the mountain north”: Ibid.

“Another night has passed with no sign”: Ibid.

“Come out, Post! Here are two men in a boat”: Ibid.

“We dropped here in a balloon”: Ibid.

“they had suffered much misery”: Ibid.

“We will take you up the river”: Ibid.

“We have not had anything”: Ibid.

“It is remarkable how different”: Ibid.

“whipped out the pistol and pointed”: Ibid.

“Count de Lesseps handles his machine with such confidence”:
New York American
, October 26, 1910.

“the foreign birds and their mechanics”:
New York Sun
, October 26, 1910.

“you can’t tell whether Orville is”:
New York Sun
, October 26, 1910.

“When I have time, I will turn out propellers especially”:
New York Herald
, October 26, 1910.

“The innate fault of the single-plane machine is its weakness”: Ibid.

“I don’t know. I can’t tell yet”:
New York Sun
, October 26, 1910.

“conversed gently but earnestly with his pupil”: Ibid.

“Yesterday was Wright Day all right”: “Ladies & Gentlemen, the Aeroplane,”
Air &
Space
, May 1, 2008.

“height of about 4,000 feet and to the east of the aviation”:
New York Sun
, October 26, 1910.

“Wow, that was cold”:
New York American
, October 26, 1910.

“I am encouraging the War Department to take”:
New York Herald
, October 26, 1910.

“The sight of the auto chugging over the hillocks”:
New York Evening Sun
, October 26, 1910.

“the rivalry between the English-speaking and French”: Ibid.

“That is, I merely”: The confrontation was described in full in the
New York Sun
, October 26, 1910.

Chapter Twelve: Are You These Gentlemen?

“The big yellow gas bag is down”:
New York Herald
, October 26, 1910.

“Now all you have to do is follow”:
Century Magazine
, December 1910.

“It will be three days’ work for us”: Ibid.

“With light hearts we hastened forward”: Ibid.

“sure we were thought to be visitors”: Ibid.

“The wire is broken”: Ibid.

“Are you these gentlemen?”: Ibid.

LANDED PERIBONKA RIVER. LAKE CHILAGOMA: Several newspapers, including the October 27 editions of the
New York World
,
New York Herald
, and
New York Times.

“Well, I hope you had the same good luck”:
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
reproduced the exchange between Post and Guay on October 28, 1910.

Post agreed to speak to the reporter: The lucky—or rather, canny—reporter who met Post and Hawley in Chicoutimi had his report syndicated to a raft of newspapers, though in this case I quote from the
New York Times
, October 27, 1910.

“was disappointed but not surprised”: Ibid.

“breeziest race track now in use”:
New York Times
, May 5, 1905.

“for a daily promenade around the track”: Wallace,
Claude Grahame-White
, 117, and
St. Louis Republic
, October 26, 1910.

“air chauffeur”:
New York Sun
, October 26, 1910.

“Aviation is vexation”
: Wallace,
Claude Grahame-White
, 117.

“most effective in preventing and overcoming the effects”:
South Wales Post
, August 28, 1910.

The evidence was right there in front: The
New York World
,
American
, and
Herald
all ran prominent photographs of Sears and Grahame-White on October 26, 1910.

“person on the box did not lose himself”:
New York Sun
, October 27, 1910.

“I’m crazy about it and I came down”:
New York evening Mail
, October 26, 1910.

“Hardly had the two conspicuous”:
New York World
, October 27, 1910.

“there is no further cause for controversy”:
New York Herald
, October 27, 1910.