Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1915 — Aircraft Have Played a Part in Many European Conflicts. [ARTICLE]

Aircraft Have Played a Part in Many European Conflicts.

The present war is not the first big conflict in which aircraft has Played a part. During the siege of Baris, at the time of the FrancoGerman war, balloons successfully sailed over the French battle fields. These vessels, however, were used as forlorn - hopes rather than recognized fighting units, for by this means the besieged Parisians endeavored to communicate with the outside world. One attempt to convey letters by air from Paris was made with a triple balloon named the Etats Unis. Three rather ancient envelopes were fastened together and loaded with 2,500 letters. To the great delight of the citizens it floated away from the town, and eventually landed with its solitary occupant at Nantes. Encouraged by this success, the citizens sent aloft another balloon called the Celeste, with a hundred weight of mail on board. The wind, however, split the vessel in two, for at that time balloons were very insecurely constructed. The letters and the aviator tumbled to the ground from a height of over 1,000 feet, the latter being badly injured. Gambetta was carried across the French battle fields in a balloon, and this incident gave rise to a street ditty, one verse of which concerned (Jambetta’s soliloques as he passed over the Prussian troops. It ran:

See how bright the plain is glistening With bright helmets in a mass; Impalement would be dreadful On these spikes of polished bress. Although at this time balloons were continually collapsing in midair and killing their unfortunate voy agers, trips with cargoes of letters were continually made from France. A balloon named the "Washington on one occasion took up a sailor and a postoffice delegate, with a huge collection of 120,000 letters and 30 carrier pigeutfW. The sailor was an inexperienced air pilot, who fell out of the balloon whilst attempting to cast a grappling hook. At the mercy o? the wind the vessel drifted uncontrolled over the eGrman frontier, and the remaining passenger, with his letters and pigeons, came near to being sot as a spy. ' Nadar . gained undying fame at this period by ascending in his balloon, Neptune, at Montmartre, and by means- of a primitive form of camera took photographs of the troops below. Tvery half-hour he sent a glass negative sliding down the balloon rope, so that the complete operations of the forces below could be strung together—Tit Bits.

Australia spends large sums every year in the extermination of rabbits, and it is estimated that in Victoria alone 150,000,000 were put to death last year. It is'generally admitted that ten rabbits eat as much as one sheep, and riiany graziers ’have long since, realized that they can not profitably run sheep on properties infested by rabbits. Natural epeinies, such as foxes and wild dogs, which hre troublesome in certain districts, tend to keep the rabbits in check, assisted by the wire netting fences that landowners are erecting. Another enemy of the grazier is the blowfly, which causes an annual loss of 1,000,000 sheep.—lndianapolis News.