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ments. We were greatly pleased to receive a message from our dubious friend, Mr.Taylor, at Trenton, who had remarked that our attraction would not add ten cents to their gate receipts. He has willing to engage us at our own figures. Unfortunately, we had accepted an engagement at Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the week of his exhibition but we promised to see him the following year.
The First Newspaper Aviation Editor
It was during this visit that I had dinner at the old Astor house, opposite City Hall Park, which I have remembered all my life as most enjoyable. My host was Mr. Arnold Kruckman of the New York World who had the distinction of being the first man in America to be appointed an aeronautic editor. During the opening years of flying there was not a pilot in this country he did not know personally. Later, he was general secretary of the Aeronautic Society of America, and he organized most of the great American flights up to 1914. He started to organize a flight around the world but the World War prevented it. He is one of the men who saw the early flights of the Wright Brothers at Kittyhawk, North Carolina, and he also saw Glen Curtiss make his first flight in the "June Bug" at Hammondsport, New York.
From my New York experiences I gained a great respect for newspaper men. I found them to be honest and sincere, digging and prying where necessary to get news but always persistent until they became satisfied.