Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1880 — Kits Tails Should be Strong. [ARTICLE]

Kits Tails Should be Strong.

Kite* can be made without tails, but it is not their natural condition, ana as tailless kites are not easy to fly, all new ones should be furnished with tails. A tail made of string, weighted with bunches of different colored i<aper tied at regular intervals, is popular among the boys, but on account of its liability to becoipo tangled with the kite string or twisted up in bunches, it is uevor used by the accomplished kite-flyer. The most serviceable, graceful, and practical kite-tail is made of rags torn in strips of from oue to two iaches in width according to the Bine of the kite. This mention of the size of a kite recalls an Incident of my boyhood; I remember when quite a small boy, building an immense man kite t seven feet high. It was a gorgeous affair, with its brilliant red uoee and cheeks, blue coat, and stripped trowsers. As you may imagine, I was nervous with anxiety uud excitement to see it fly. After several experimental trials to get tiie tail rightly balanced, aud the breast baud properly adjusted, and having procured the strongest hempen twine to fly it with, I went to the river bank for tne grand event. My man flew splendidly; he required no running, no hoisting,- no jerking of the string to assist him. I had only to stand on the high bank aud let out the string, until my fingers were nearly blistered, so last did the twine pass through my hands. People began to stop aud guze at the queer sight, as my man rose higher aud higher, when, suddenly my intense pride aud enjoyment was changed into something very like fright The twine was nearly all paid out, when I found that my man was stronger than liis master, ana I coaid not hold him 1 Imagine, if yon can, my dismay. I fancied myself being pulled from the bank into the river, ana skimming through the water ut lightning speed, for, even in ray fright, the idea of letting so the string did not once occur to me. However, to iny great relief, a man standing near came to my assistance, lost as the stick upon which the twine had been wound oume dsucing up from the ground toward my hands. Bo hard dia the kite pull, ilnit even the friend who had kindly come to my rescue, had considerable trouble to bold it The great kite swingi°S high in the blue sky. attracted quite a crowd, aud I felt quite grand about my new flying-man, but my triumph was short uved. Hie tail made of rags was too heavy to bear Its own weight, and breaking off near the kite, it feuto the ground, while my kite, freed from thisTuad, shot up like a rocket, then turned and came down with such force, that duelling through the branches of a thorny locust-lreu, it crsslied to the ground, a mass of broken sticks and tattered paper. So, you see, kite tails should be strong, lidarad a vwd'inhrel nil lay 9 the church-