Viewing page 22 of 105

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

120
Brockton 1906.

We are to face another mass meeting of shoe workers, this time it would be even a greater gamble than in 1905. There would be no guarantee of expenses as I had made a contract with Mr. Cross with the provision that the first flight made would not cost the fair not even a dollar, but subsequent flights were to be paid for, at $1250 each for four days.

For several weeks I worried and speculated as to the possibility of another fiasco such as we had in 1905, and what the attitude of the shoe workers would be, in case it was necessary to stall for time.  It seemed quite certain that these playful boys would load up on their favorite beverage such as "stretch", and decide to collect souvinirs made largely from pieces of silk fabric from the airship.

The Brockton Fair is one of the biggest fairs in the United States as far as attendance is concerned. They also have the most expensive attractions. The most noted horses in their harness events, in fact no expense is spared to make this a great annual event. The only single [[strikethrough]]falure[[srtrikethrough]] failure was Knabenshue in 1905. What would it be in 1906.

We arrived on the Brockton Fair grounds at 9pm Saturday and with the aid of portable lighting system, erected the tent and hydrogen gas generators. We worked all night and about 10am the shoe workers commenced to assemble. I looked them over carefully and could not find a single friendly face in the group.