Viewing page 81 of 102

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

                              78
began to unload and erect the outfit. By working all night we were ready for a flight by four o'clock Sunday afternoon but the work made us tired, cross and peevish. 

               DETROIT FLIGHTS 
    Although the first flight was scheduled for Monday we thought that a trial flight Sunday would help. The motor was started and seemed to be in perfect condition. The balloon was fully inflated and the netting was adjusted. Everything was ready and the ship was taken out for a trial flight. The weather did not look promising as dark clouds were everywhere but there was no wind. The flight was started and in a few minutes the bells and whistles in and around Detroit were making a great noise A steady flow of people came to the grounds and on making a landing in about 30 minutes we found the grounds packed with a wildly cheering crowd who wanted to see and shake hands with the man who had made the flight.
    I needed rest and needed it badly, but that did not matter. The crowd wanted and had their way, and after a delay of about an hour, Charlie and I had an opportunity to slip away to our hotel and get rooms, take a bath and without the usual dinner, went to bed and secured a good night's rest. 
    We were on the grounds again about ten in the morning, and as this was the opening day, everybody was a busy. It is even today a pleasure to me to be on the grounds of a big fair open-ing day and observe the feverish haste in trying to get the various exhibits ready. It is always the same at every fair. Everything is put off until the last moment. But the activity with the wholehearted desire back of it is the atmosphere which makes the impression a pleasing one.