Source

PEGASUS IS ITS NAME

The Airship Said to Be Floating Over the Breezy West.

LETTER FROM AERIAL WANDERER

Message Purporting to Have Been Dropped From the Alleged Airship Found In a Red Stocking Near Appleton, Wis. Is It a Canard?

Chicago, April 15. All sorts of telegrams come here in regard to the alleged airship seen in this section of the country, but it seems to be impossible to get anything reliable in regard to it. It has been several weeks since the agitation started, but the reports did not begin to arrive in close order until the 8th of this month. Since then they have come in every night. Some of the newspapers here declare it a nonsensical story, yet the reports in most cases have come from reliable persons. Of course, the practical joker has come to the front, and in some cases small balloons, with lights attached, have been sent up in various towns, but in the majority of cases the persons who saw or thought they saw an object in the sky have treated the matter in the most serious manner.

A dispatch just received from Appleton, Wis., says that on Sunday night many persons saw an airship pass over that city. On the farm of N. B. Clark, near there, a letter was picked up, attached to an iron rod 18 inches long, sticking in the ground.

Letter From the Airship

The letter, which was not signed, was as follows:

"Aboard the Airship Pegasus, April 9, 1897.

"The problem of aerial navigation has been solved. The writers have spent the past month cruising about in the airship Pegasus and have demonstrated to their entire satisfaction that the ship is a thorough success. We have been able to attain a speed of 150 miles an hour and have risen to a height of 2,500 feet above sea level.

"The Pegasus was erected at a secluded point ten miles from Lafayette, Tenn., and the various parts of the machine were carried overland from Glasgow, Ky., to that point, being shipped from Chicago, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. We have made regular trips of three days each from Lafayette to Yankton, and no harm has come to the Pegasus thus far.

"Within a month, our application for the patents for a parallel plane airship will be filed simultaneously at Washington and the European capitals. It is propelled by steam and is lighted by electricity, and has a carrying power of 1,000 pounds."

A telegram from Greensburg, Ind., says the skeptics of that city no longer doubt the reality of the airship since the machine was seen there last evening. The airship made its appearance about half-past 6 o'clock and was seen by several hundred prominent persons. One hundred and fifty-six prominent citizens of the city and county are willing to make sworn statements that they saw the strange machine.

Seen In Greensburg, Ind.

The dispatch further says:

"The first report of the machine being seen in this county came from St. Paul, Raymond Walker, correspondent for a newspaper in this city, wiring word from St. Paul to his paper to at once look for the airship, as it had been seen there and was coming slowly this way at a rate of about ten miles an hour. Three or four hundred people were immediately on the streets when, in a few minutes, the strange object made its appearance. It was seen slowly approaching from the west. When within about half a mile of the city, it turned its course to a southerly direction. It was not quite dark, and the sky being clear, it was plainly outlined. No light was burning.

"About half an hour later, it was seen approaching from the east with three lights: a green, red, and a large white one in the center. The green and red lights were small, and the clear light was large and very strong and is believed to be a searchlight.

"Professor George Keeley, who obtained a good view of it from his observatory, says the searchlight is of medium power. He probably got the best view of anyone, although he did not get in his tower till it was passing away the first time. For the last two days and nights, Professor Keeley has been on constant watch for the machine, thinking it would pass over this way, but had temporarily left his post tonight when it appeared. The second time he could not see it so clearly, owing to the darkness.

"He says the machine is about 60 feet long, the balloon being about 60 feet long. It is cigar-shaped, the car hanging about 20 feet under the balloon. The car was entirely enclosed; it being impossible to see in it, but two men were visible in the lookout. One was apparently 50 years old, with a beard, and the other young. The oldest one wore a stiff hat and the younger a Cuban crush hat. The lights would occasionally be changed from one color to another and would sometimes be extinguished. Has a Great Speed.

"The ship would make usually about ten miles an hour, but on disappearing the last time, it dashed off at the tremendous speed of fully 150 miles an hour. It went in a southwesterly direction. Newton Kennedy saw it out at the edge of the city and described it as did Professor Keeley."

A dispatch from Washington, la., says an object was seen in the sky southeast of that city and seemed headed in a westerly direction. Various rumors in regard to it are afloat. Frank Brinton, who has some fame as an airship inventor, has been missing from his home for ten days, and many think he has completed his craft and is experimenting with it. He has been working on his airship for nearly two years. Reports from Plainview, Neb., announce that what seemed to be an airship passed over that town about 9 o'clock at night. It bore two lights, looked like an immense cigar, and remained in view eight minutes. It was also seen in Waukegan, Ills., late at night and in Kenosha, Wis., earlier in the evening.