Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 117, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1919 — STILL CRANING THEIR NECKS [ARTICLE]

STILL CRANING THEIR NECKS

CROWD ALMOST 1 WENT BLIND WATCHING FOR AIRPLANES SATURDAY.

They stood three-hundreds of ’em, their mouths open wide, their necks tilted at a ninety-degfee angle, their eyes bulging—waiting, watching hoping. One o’clock came, the hour of two passed into history, three o’clock offered nothing, four o’clock found stiff necks, five o’clock found the wind pipes clogged with dust and as the hands of the dial approached the hour of six, the eyes became heavy and the faithful were forced to give up from sheer exhaustion. They were disgruntled, disappointed, despondent, disgusted. . They were watching for the airplanes from Chanute Field, Rantoul, 111., which had been booked to appear I in this city Saturday for exhibition i flying for the purpose of stimulating recruiting for the air service. One i plane hobbled in from the northward, unbeknowns to the greater majority, alighting in a field to the north i of town, where it remained until the inhabitants of it had given it a thorough overhauling. To put it into shape consumed the greater portion of the day and then the aviators scurried for 'home without ever having had the opportunity of entertaining the populace. The second machine ' failed to arrive, having bumped into a tree at Logansport the day before and being badly damaged. Of course there were many visitors in town during the day who had come for the experess purpose of witnessing the flights and they were sorely disappointed find in some cases censored the city for not having produced what had been advertised. However, it was no one’s fault, especially not the city’s and it was simply one

of those unavoidable instances which are likely to occur at any time. Airplanes have not reached the degree of perfection of other twentieth century inventions and the public must learn to be patient. The planes were booked for the city upon the request of the war department, without any expense to the city whatever. They tried to fulfill their contract but failed. Rensselaer is not to blame, if indeed anyone is. Anyway, it was a nice day, and there are many worse places to be on a nice day than Rensselaer.