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THREE AIRSHIPS, SAYS HART

Over His Signature the Attorney Tells of His Client.

THE WHY AND HOW OF THE MYSTIC LIGHTS.

(And Again the Brilliant Shafts Are Sighted Speeding Above the Bay Counties.)

INTELLIGENT TESTIMONY OF STAID CITIZENS.

Spectators in Haywards Insist on the Aeronautic Theory — Professor Cross, the Linguist, Adds His Evidence.

No one has as yet identified the aerial voyager that is supposed to be displaying the mysterious lights that have shone down upon startled gazers in various parts of the state, but the number of those who have seen what they are ready to swear was an airship is constantly growing larger.

While even many of those who have seen the flitting and gleaming lights are not prepared to declare they are carried by a full-fledged aerial craft, they admit they can account in no ordinary way for the phenomenon.

There is, therefore, yet ample room for the mystery to be proved a fake, a hallucination, or a verity. Meanwhile, and until the mystery is completely solved, The Cat-t will continue to chronicle the news relating to it, taking nothing from nor adding anything to the reports it receives. Whenever definite and conclusive proof, however, is received, it will be given freely, fully, and fairly, whatever it chances to establish.

General Hart received a visit yesterday from one of the men who has been taking trips with the mysterious inventor in his aerial vessel. The general declined to give any information of these trips. He stated, however, that this man, a mechanic in the services of the inventor, had gone to the workshop of the inventor to assist in the work of completing a third and much improved craft. This remodeled vessel would be completed, he expected, in about a week.

It was to be a great improvement on the two airships already built, and when it has been properly tested, it was to be at once dispatched for the scene of its deadly purpose (Havana), which was to be overwhelmed with a shower of dynamite.

Considerable time will be consumed, according to the statement of General Hart, in making the crew who are to go on the novel expedition familiar with the working of the vessel.

General Hart has contributed a full statement regarding his connection with the reputed warship of the air and tells some new and interesting things therein in regard to it. He also takes up the defense of the Cuban patriots in a most patriotic and martial spirit.

Professor M. S. Cross, dean of the University of the Pacific, now adds his testimony to that of the believers, and Haywards people of prominence tell some additional startling stories.

SEEN BY PROFESSOR CROSS

The Dean of the University of the Pacific Testifies to the Passage of the Conqueror of the Air.

Professor M. S. Cross, dean of the University of the Pacific and professor of ancient languages, is one of the best-known scholars and linguists in the United States. He is a brother of Senator Cross of this City. He stands very high in the estimation of all students and professors, so that his testimony on the aerial wonder will be received with profound attention. The following telegram, giving his opinion on the subject, was received yesterday:

Cal., Nov. 2Z - Professor M. S. Cross, dean of the University of the Pacific, confirms the story of the airship's passage over East San Jose Thursday night. Professor Cross is known in this vicinity as a careful and conservative man of unimpeachable veracity, and his testimony has won scores of doubting Thomases over to a firm belief in the existence of an aerial craft in this vicinity. The fact that the head of a Methodist representative educational institution on this coast has been fortunate enough to view this nocturnal visitor has well-nigh silenced the scoffers.

"It was just about 7 o'clock on Thursday evening when my attention was called to the strange light in the air," said Professor Cross. "I was visiting at the residence of Professor Worcester and was called into the yard by him to view the airship. Whether or not it was an airship, of course, I am not prepared to say, but certain it is there was a rapidly moving light in the heavens far too large and bright to be an electric streetlight. To my eye, it appeared to be about six inches in diameter. It was moving in a southwesterly direction and apparently at a high rate of speed.

"The motion was not steady. It wavered and swerved, rising and falling slightly. The motion, however, was not that of a balloon. I have frequently watched balloons in the air, and the motion of this light was in no way suggestive of the manner in which I have always seen them behave. Moreover, it was a quiet night. What slight breeze there was, I think, was from the south. Yet this light traveled rapidly in a southerly direction. As it left us, the light seemed to broaden. This suggested to us that there might be two lights which, as the craft swung broadside to us, joined rays and gave the appearance of a wide streak of light."

Professor Cross is confident that it could not be either a balloon or a natural heavenly body that he saw. "I will be very much surprised," he declared, "if something more than a balloon is not found to have been floating about. I see nothing very wonderful in the construction of an airship. From experiments already made, there seems to be every reason to hope for success in aerial navigation."

The point where Professor Cross viewed the ship is about two blocks distant from where John BawJ, whose account appeared in yesterday's Call, saw it, and the two accounts tally precisely in point of time, direction, and general movements. The ship was nearer the earth when Bawl viewed it.

PASSED OVER HAYWARDS

A Mysterious Light Traced From a
Canyon of the Palomares Valley
OAKLAND, Cal., Nov. 28.—The residents of Haywards are convinced that the peculiar thing, airship or something else, that they have been watching pass over their town on numerous occasions, has its home somewhere among the canyons of the Palomares Valley.

Tonight, the marvelous light was observed in such a manner as to forever set aside the idea that it is a star. Two parties, several miles apart, observed it. To one, it was to the eastward, and to the other, it passed westward. When notes were compared, it was agreed that it had passed over between the two observers.

Ed O. Webb, who is known all over the county as a man not prone to make assertions unless he can back them up, informed George Oakes, editor of the Hayward Journal, that he saw the airship traveling through the heavens in the direction of Castro Valley Wednesday evening about 9:30 o'clock. The brilliant light was plainly seen at his home and also by other members of the family.

Fred Hoyt also saw the light as it was floating leisurely along in the direction of the Liedel place, near San Lorenzo. He was so interested in watching the moving object and would no doubt have solved the mystery had he not lost his balance and fallen into a ditch that he did not see was in his path.

Carl Mohr furnishes the most startling information. He told Mr. Oakes that he saw the airship rise from a canyon near his place Thursday evening about 7 o'clock and proceed in the direction of San Francisco, and also saw it return. Mr. Mohr is very positive in his statement and firmly believes that the machine is being housed near Lone Tree Cemetery.

About the clearest statement yet made regarding the mysterious airship comes from C. S. Long, C. W. Everett, and H. Liedel, three of the best-known citizens of Haywards, who were crossing the railroad track at the depot in a buggy Tuesday evening, about 6:30 o'clock when their attention was attracted to an exceedingly bright light in the direction of the bay, and they watched it for some time. It was moving very rapidly, and while they could not swear that it was an airship, they do not hesitate to say that it completely puzzled them.

"I was going home about 7 o'clock," said Mr. Hooson, "when I met my brother, who called my attention to a remarkable light in the heavens. At the first glance, I could see it was a powerful electric light. It was slightly south of east and was moving steadily across the country toward the bay. I have not been a believer in the published accounts of airships but must now say that I have seen something that was not natural to the skies.

"The light was not a steady light like a star but flickered like our arc lights here on the streets, and it looked like one of them some distance away. One peculiar feature of the light was the way it changed from time to time.

"It appears as if the operator of a searchlight was placing red and blue filters before the light occasionally so as to make the light more noticeable to anyone who happens to be looking into the heavens. No star has ever done that in the past, and I am not ready to believe that one is doing any such capers at present. If this was the first time the lights had been seen here, I might not think so much of it, but residents have been seeing a light come from the hills on a number of occasions and make its way across the heavens toward the south. It was only corroborative of these tonight when I saw it."

Editor George A. Oakes was another who saw the visitor tonight from his residence in the northern part of Haywards.

"I saw the light tonight for the first time," said he, "and am sure it was no star or large balloon. It passed east of town and appeared to go across the bay, as if headed for lower San Francisco. The white light was not steady and changed to red occasionally. It is more than I can solve and must be someone who has finally solved the problem of aerial navigation."

Jesse Hooson, a student at St. Mary's College, had a good view of the visitor at Haywards tonight.

"I was startled," said he, "on coming along the street tonight to see a very bright light in the heavens. It was like an arc electric light, and naturally, I stood watching it. The thing was moving toward the southwest with the wind at first but changed its course several times and finally came up into the wind for some distance. It finally disappeared over toward Redwood City. The thing seemed to be operated by someone to see how it would answer a helm or guiding apparatus of some kind."

These parties already referred to saw the machine to the eastward. Now comes a story from a man who was evidently on the other side of it.

Steve Morrison of Haywards was in San Ramon, and coming home tonight, he saw the aerial visitor in such a manner as to fix its location approximately. "I was driving over the hills from San Ramon," said he, "when I noticed a very bright white light in the sky west of me. It looked like an arc electric light, but was too high in the heavens for that, and then I knew there were no arc lights out in that part of the country. It was a surprise to me, and I watched the thing very carefully. I first noticed it as I came up out of one of the small valleys and could see it move about until I went into another."

Marshal Ramage of Haywards tells a story that may result in clearing up the mystery of the affair. "It has seemed very strange that this mysterious light should be seen in this vicinity so often. It is possible that the thing, whatever it may be, is being kept up here somewhere. I know of only one place where it would be possible for an airship to be worked out, and I can hardly believe that even there the material could have been taken in without exciting some suspicion. James Spiers, of the firm of Hinckley Spiers & Hayes of San Francisco, reaches out in the Palomares Canyon and is quite an inventor. His sons are great students also, and it might be that they have been at work on something of this kind and have succeeded in getting a ship that will really travel through the air.

"I recently had a talk with a man who worked for them this summer, and he told me that a new trail had been constructed from the house up to the tableland near the crest of the hill and in a canyon. I know the place, and it is hidden entirely from view and would be an ideal place for such work.

"I asked him what the trail was being constructed for, and he said he asked the same question and was told that all that was required of him was to do the work and not worry about what it was for. After this, he completed the work without further questioning. He does not know to this day what the trail was built for, and I know of no one who has ever been on the place or on the new trail."

An interesting story was told by W. H. Warren in Crane's store on Thirteenth Street. Warren is engaged in the chicken business above the Zeile place. According to his statement, he has succeeded in inventing a machine that he states he made a trip in, reaching the height of 100 feet. This took place at San Pedro not over a month or so ago. He is quite a young man and a clever machinist. He has a complete working model capable of carrying one man. It is made in the shape of a cigar, with a round head, and built of a light frame covered with tin and fitted with wings and a tail like a fan. The machinery is worked with gasoline. A trial trip was made and was a success. The inventor objects to exhibiting his machine as he has not yet secured a patent on it. He says he secured his idea from watching the flight of the seagull. The machine is now in San Francisco. He has not yet used electricity but admits that it would be a great improvement.

George R. Toyne, who interviewed Warren for the Haywards Journal, said tonight that Warren had a partner whom he had sent to Oroville to see if he could learn anything of the plans of the new airship for the purpose of comparison.