their entire being, was concentrated. Hence the absence of those flashing traits of character, those dramatic sayings which occur in the lives of other great men. We are grateful, therefore, to newspaper accounts of the Fort Myer trials for another glimpse of the personal character of Orville. A small man, with a strikingly mild face, but full of a certain unique personality, he stood unruffled on the field, answering most patiently and as accurately as he could thousands of quizzical, curious and sometimes idiotic questions. Even when the motor would not turn over, when a minor accident placed the aviator in a difficult and undignified posture, he remained quiet, unruffled. This small town boy added to the culmination of the qualities of the American pioneer, every touch of the most polished gentleman. Many a head would have been turned, but in the midst of wild popular acclaim, of wide official recognition, Orville remained as modest and as unassuming as ever.

But while the Fort Myer trials were a startling demonstration of what the airplane could already do, a great personal success for Orville, and marked the real entry of the United States Army into the field of military aviation, they were also the occasion of the most serious accident in the career of the two brothers.

Neither Wilbur nor Orville had anything of the showman in their make-up. They never stunted or

took unnecessary risks. And they invariably took the greatest precautions to see that every part of their machines was in perfect order. To these reasons they owed their habitual freedom from accidents. But on September 17th, while Orville was sailing through the air with Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge at a height of about 75 feet, a blade of the right hand propeller struck and loosened a stay wire of the rear rudder. Instantly the wire coiled about the blade, snapping it across the middle. Thereupon the machine became difficult to manage and plunged headlong to the earth, throwing the men with their faces on the bare ground. Through the tangled, twisted mass of slivered wood and glistening wire could be heard a low cry, "Poor Selfridge, poor Selfridge. Get me out, please." The words came from the lips of Orville, who had not lost consciousness, and whose first thought was for his companion. The great inventor suffered a fracture of the left thigh and of two ribs on the right side. Lieutenant Selfridge did not recover consciousness, and died within three hours from wounds on the forehead and concussion of the base of the brain. Selfridge was the first man to be killed in a powered airplane. Later a field near Detroit was named after him, where thousands of aviators received their training during the war.

It was not till June 1909 that Orville reappeared at Fort Myer, fully recovered, accompanied by Wilbur and his two mechanics, to complete the official tests. They went about their work in a quiet business-like

manner.

There was considerable discussion as to whether Orville Wright would have the nerve to fly over the same spot where the accident occurred, and it was hinted that was why Wilbur came along-to make the flights.

All the gossip proved unfounded. Orville Wright proved he had all the nerve required to fly over any spot, tragic or otherwise. Within a few days after he arrived at Fort Myer, he complied with the official tests by taking Lieutenant Foulois, of the Signal Corps, on a ten mile cross-country flight, remained aloft for an hour or more on another occasion, and attained a speed of 42 miles an hour and an altitude of about 500 feet, with the result that the machine was formally and officially accepted by the Signal Corps and became government property.

And here it may not be out of place to remark that while nowhere in the writings or interviews of either Wilbur or Orville is there even a hint of the fact that they were running any special risks, they were in fact passing through many dangers and exhibiting uncommon courage. Nowadays not even one flight

in ten thousand is attended by even a minor accident. If stunts and foolhardy movie exhibitions are barred, the airplane has now reached the safe and sane stage. But in 1907 and for many years afterwards fatalities were woefully numerous. Almost every meet was marked by an accident, and every aviator seemed fated to meet his death by a crash. Piloting was not so fully understood as it is at present, and when a machine was in difficulties, the aviator did not always know what to do in the emergency to save his machine and his life. Motors were very unreliable and would seem to fail at the most inopportune moment, when there was no suitable spot for the glide to earth. Mechanical construction was not fully understood, controls would break, wires cut the propeller, cables fail under severe loads. The slow flying craft, with little reserve power, felt the impact of every wind gust much more severely than do modern planes which fly so fast that wind disturbances are scarcely perceived. The fact that the Wrights were on the whole so immune from accidents is a tribute to their wonderful skill and coolness in every emergency, their truly bird-like sensitiveness to every disturbance of the air, to their wonderful mechanical skill and care, and to their avoidance of showy and useless feats.

While Orville was flying at Fort Myer and recovering from his accident, Wilbur was in France flying

on the race-course at Humanizieres, near LeMans, and arousing the admiration and enthusiasm of thousands. In December 1908 Claude Graham White, with a party of Englishmen, visited him. Graham White subsequently earned a great reputation himself as an aviator, and has written most interestingly of his visit. to LeMans, giving us a rare and valuable glimpse of the great Wilber.

When the party reached Wright's hangar, they found it to be a simple shed. built of boards, one corner partitioned off like a loose box, furnished only by a truckle-bed in the corner. a bicycle, two chairs and a common little deal table. Wilbur slept there under conditions minus all the comforts of modern life. He had to keep an eye on his beloved aeroplane. His affection for his aeroplane resembled that of a parent for his child. The Wright biplane struck Graham White as an apparently simple mechanism. But in spite of the crudeness of the materials employed in its construction, and the rough-and-ready way in which they had been put together, all the essentials were there. Wilbur Wright simply was not a showman. He flew, but did not try to impress the public with nickel-plated beauty in his machine.

continental ance of his, they are not characteristic of Wilbur made t more, surprising in thusiasm, and conclu ment with a French sy his machine in France States, and as we have

in the final trials at For On his return, he ma Governors Island, N. Y., a and to Grant's Tomb and Fulton celebration. standing feature of the cel These the formation of the America Subsequent flights were n nate interest by newspaper ased the Wrights' fame i ey made many fresh records with other men who had n in their business dealings the

The French regarded Wilbur, with his gaunt form,culties. They finally conclu his weather-beaten face and piercing, hawk-like eyes,gland, France, Germany, Italy with reverence and awe. They thought him curiously they received very materia