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the frame it would have crashed. Had the motor stopped before I reached the grounds I would have had a crash somewhere away from the grounds. For this reason it was not advisable to make [[strikethrough]]many [[/strikethrough]]high flights but they were good exhibitions and the people liked them.
Each year the officials of the state fairs met in Chicago to set up the dates for the coming year so that exhibitors could go from one fair to another over certain circuits. As most of the fairs were held in September this required each exhibitor to have at least four complete equipments. As the International Harvester Machine Co. seemed to exhibit at all fairs I visited, I ascertained that they were equipped to appear at every fair in the country.[[strikethrough]]This required ten crews with complete equipment.[[/strikethrough]]
Our next exhibition was at Wheeling, West Virginia. The fairgrounds [[strikethrough]] were[[/strikethrough]]^ was located^ about [[strikethrough]] a [[/strikethrough]] half a mile from the business section of the city which made it possible to see all the flights from the street. Even this did not seem to detract from the attendance as the fair had record crowds.
Mr. George Hook, who was secretary, was [[strikethrough]]particularly[[/strikethrough]] worried about the airship. He would come to the tent four or five times each day and inquire if everything was all right and if it was safe to make a flight. He was greatly relieved when we finished the engagement. When he handed me the check for our work he told me that he had never in all his career paid any exhibitor as willingly and with as great a pleasure as he did us. This was not as flattering as it would appear as George had been told that he would be responsible if any accident occurred. Like many others he believed that the hydrogen gas the ship used might explode and many persons be killed.
