User:Richard Arthur Norton (1958- )/Archibald Hoxsey

St. Louis, October 8, 1910 (AP)

Aviator Travels Between Towns in Illinois, Covering 104 Miles in One Flight

St. Louis, October 8, 1910 (AP) Arch Hoxsey in a Wright biplane flew from Springfield, Ill., to the Country club grounds at Clayton, St. Louis county, today, and established an American sustained flight record in an aeroplane by covering 104 miles, as estimated by him.

His objective landing place was the aviation field at Kinloch park, but through failure to find the grounds he descended five miles away. His time in the air was three hours and twenty-two minutes. For fifty-seven minutes Hoxsey tried in vain to find the field.

After leaving Springfield this morning he maintained an altitude of 600 feet until wind gusts forced him to rise 600 feet higher. He flew in the 1200-foot level the remainder of the trip. The a special train which was to guide him to St. Louis was thirty minutes late in leaving Springfield and he never saw it. At Carlinsville he left the Chicago & Alton right of way and followed the Interurban tracks to Staunton, his birthplace. He circled about the town twice and headed toward the Mississippi river.

After reaching Alton he turned south and crossed the Mississippi where the Missouri empties into it. He then began to search for the aviation field. As soon as Walter Brookins could get an aeroplane started he went aloft to guide his fellow birdman to the field, but Hoxsey veered to the south and was lost to view. Bombs were exploded and the band played as loudly as possible, but the aviator did not hear the guiding noise. He landed at the Country club, learned the direction of the aviation field and sailed to it.

St. Louis, October 12, 1910 (UP)

St. Louis, October 12, 1910 (UP) Col. Roosevelt defied death late yesterday when he went up in an aeroplane with Aviator Arch Hoxsey. More than10,000 persons breathlessly watched the flight, fearing the colonel's daring on the spur of the moment might mean his death or injury.

After two laps around the aviation field, Hoxsey brought the machine gracefully to ground, having flown nearly three miles in three minutes and twenty seconds.

""It was fine. Fine!"" ejaculated the ex-president, as he crawled from the narrow seat through the network of wires.

Hoxsey said later the colonel made a model passenger, except that he took too many chances. As the airship flew by the grandstand at a 60-mileclip, Roosevelt leaned over, waving his hand at the crowd.

While aviation fans are discussing Roosevelt's daring in going up in the airship yesterday, politicians are puzzling over the Roosevelt-insurgency situation. Somehow Missouri insurgents don't seem to know which side of their cake is frosted.

Not until the machine was high in the air did the crowd realize that the ex-president was defying death in the clouds.

Here's Aviator Hoxsey's story of Roosevelt's daring trip:

""President Lambert of the St. Louis Aero club introduced me to Roosevelt. Lambert said something about my trip from Springfield. Roosevelt said he envied me. 'Here's your chance,' I said to him.

'All right,' said Roosevelt, 'but let's not make too much fuss about it.'

""Roosevelt was on the machine before I was. He was bareheaded. A newspaper man gave him a cap and he said 'let 'er go.' We started.

""I didn't look at Roosevelt until I felt the machine wiggle. He was waving at the crowd. We were up about 150 feet.

'Be careful not to pull any of those strings,' I warned him. He was sitting directly underneath the valve cord of the engine and the engine would have stopped had he touched it

'Nothing doing,' he shouted back, showing his teeth. The propeller made so much noise we had to shout.

I heard him say 'war,' 'army,' 'aeroplane' and 'bomb,' but the noise was so great I could not hear the rest.

I was very careful. I said to myself, 'If anything happens to him I'll never be able to square myself with the American people.' I was mighty glad when we landed. I never felt a greater responsibility in my life.

'Hoxsey, you're all right,' he said as we alighted. Not even Gov. Hadley, arch-progressive of Missouri, would read an insurgent indorsement into the Roosevelt pronouncement in St. Louis.

""I think,"" said Hadley, "" the principles that the colonel upholds are the principles for which the Republican party in Missouri stands.""

Do you think the colonel's tariff utterances conflict with the indorsement of the Payne-Aldrich law in the Missouri platform?"" the governor was asked.

""I think his views may well be taken and the principles he advocates accepted as the vital issues.""

Gov. Hadley today revealed the fact that Arch Hoxsey, the aviator who took Roosevelt aloft yesterday, was a guest at the dinner to the colonel given by the governor last night. Roosevelt personally thanked the aviator, saying:

""That was the bulliest experience I ever had. I envy you your professional conquest of space.""

The colonel sent his personal compliments to the Wright brothers.

Roosevelt and his party left today for Springfield and Peoria, Ill, to be the guest of the Knights of Columbus. After a day in Indiana tomorrow campaigning for Senator Beveridge, the colonel, according to his changed plans, will begin his campaign at New York.