Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 28, Number 29, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 15 January 1898 — Page 6

ART AT THE CAPITOL.

TWO NOTABLE ADDITIONS TO STATUARY

HALL.

Senators Benton and Blair—Last of the Nation's Stataen to Be Unveiled The Original Offensive Partisan—Two Famous

Politicians and Partisans.

[Special Correspondence.]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10.—The week in which General Jackson won his memorable victory over the British at New Orleans could not be better celebrated or more fitly commemorated than by the unveiling of the statue of Colonel Thomas Hart Benton, now standing among the nation's heroes in Statuary hall, for Benton was the lifelong friead of "Old Hickory," his sturdy defender in the senate for many years and his eulogist after death had separated them.

It may be urged that he was also his antagonist at one time and that his brother's bullet came near cutting off the old general's liie in midcareer. It may be recalled that Jackson swore a mighty oath, declaring that he would

THE BENTON STATUE.

"whip Tom Benton at sight that he undertook to carry out this threat, was opposed by Benton and his brother Jesse, shot in the shoulder by the latter, brought to the ground with a shattered arm and nearly died from loss of blood.

Jackson and Beuton.

It was Jackson's first defeat, and he smarted under it as only one of his intense nature oould. The wonder is that these two rash and fiery fighters ever became reconciled. But they did, to the great disgust of brother Jesse, and there after their friendship was of the closest and most intimate kind. In that monumental work prepared by Benton in his declining years, the "Thirty Years' View" of his public life, he magnanimously says, alluding to De Tocqueville's assertion that General Jackson was a man of violent temper: "I ought to know something about that, as my contemporaries will understand, and I can say that General Jackson had a good temper. Ho Wfis kind and hospitable to every bod v."

In the heat of his passion, previous to their reconciliation, Benton had said, "If General Jackson shall be elected president, he will surround himself with a pack of political bulldogs to bark at all who dare to oppose his measures." Truer words were never spoken, but the queerest thing about this prediction is that Benton himself became the leader of that "pack of bulldogs" and barked for bis favorite on every occasion. He barked for him as against the United States bank, he barked for him when he removed the public moneys from the bank, and he continued to bark and growl until that famous resolution of oensure was expunged from the journal of the senate, in 1887, by which the old general was made supremely happy and retired to The Hermitage with this last and best token of his stanch friend's devotion.

Henry Clay taunted Benton with this when they vero battling over the recharter of tho bank, and the latter retorted that, while he and General Jackson had once been bitter enemies, they were now friends, and that there was "no adjourned question of veracity" between them, as between Jackson and Clay. This was an allusion to the charge against Clay that he had sold his influence for a seat in Adams' cabinet, when, owing to his defection, Jackson was defeated in his first campaign for the presidency. But Beuton denied that he had made the remarks attributed to him, at which Clay rose and said, in the presence of the august body of senators, "Can yon look me in the face and say that you never used that language out of the state of Missouri?"

Close Fire.

"I look, sir," replied Benton, "and repeat that it is an atrocious calumny, and I will pin it to him who dares to repeat it here!" "Then I declare before this senate," rejoined Mr. Clay, "that you said to me those very words!" "False, false, false!" roared Benton In a rage, and said Clay, "I fling back apon the senator from Missouri the charge of atroctous calumny!"

They seemed about to spring upon each other when friends intervened and they were induced to take their seats. Eaoh apologised to the senate, but neither would apologise to the other, and the wonder is that a duel was not the sequence of this verbal warfare, for both were duelists* Clay's meeting with John Randolph on the "field of honor" is a matter of history, while Ban ton had participated in several Anels, in one of which he killed his

Henceforth there was a condition of armed neutrality between these two doughty fighters, each a man of conrictioos, each ready to battle to the death

tor those convictions. The most curious coincidence of that event is that at the very time Benton was so sturdily defending General Jackson against his foes in the senate the latter was undergoing an operation for the removal of the bullet Benton's brother had lodged in his arm in that affray of years before.

From 1820, when he was first elected to the United States senate, to 1850 Benton was prominent in national affairs, his commanding presence, his broad culture, his indefatigable industry, marvelous memory and unwearied application rapidly forging him to the front and keeping him thfere. There were giants in the senate in those days—Webster, Clay, Calhoun—yet he held his own against them all, and, particularly tenacious in his insistenoe of sound money for the nation, he acquired that sobriquet of "Old Bullion" which stuck to him through life and which was a merited compliment to his sterling qualities.

History has recorded his achievements, and we know that he was always to be found fighting for the people —for free land, free salt and ultimate freedom for the slaves. Though himself a slaveholder, yet he opposed Calhoun's famous resolution declaring that congress had no power to interfere with slavery in the territories and therefore no power to prevent the admission of new states except on condition of their prohibiting slavery within their limits. Benton at once denounced it as being a firebrand needlessly thrown to inflame the passions of the extremists and, moreover, as being disunion in tendency. Mr. Calhoun said that he had expected the support of Mr. Benton as a representative of a slave state, and the latter answered that it was impossible—he could have expected no such thing. "Then," rejoined Calhoun, "I shall know where to find the gentleman!" to which insinuation Benton at once replied, "I shall be found in the right place—on the side of my oountry and the Union!"

Words of a Prophet.

Thomas Hart Benton was a statesman if our oountry ever produced one. Webster said of him that he knew more political facts than any other man he ever met and possessed a wonderful fund of general knowledge. His long and continued study of our country and the trend of political events gave to his utterances the character of prophetio forecasts, as in his reply to the taunts of the nullifiers, predicting accurately the coming night of secession, which he did not live to see: "I can promise that if the fight goes against me at this new Philippi, with which I am threatened, and the enemies of American liberty triumph over me, as the enemies of Roman liberty triumphed over Brutus and Cassius, I shall not fall upon my sword, as Brutus did, but save it for another day and another use, for the day when the battle of the disunion of these states is to be fought not with words, but with iron, and for the hearts of the traitors who appear in arms against their oountry!"

A less conspicuous figure, thbugh in the hall his statue will ocoupy the most conspicuous position, is the other son of Missouri whom that stats has shown its inclination to honor in effigy, Francis Preston Blair. It cannot be olaimed for him, as for Benton, that he was a statesman of colossal proportions, but his actions during and just preceding the "late unpleasantness" allow no impeaobment of his loyalty and devotion to country.

He was 40 years old at the breaking out of the war and had already held positions of trust and importance, following in the footsteps of his immediate predecessor, supporting him on the occasion of his appeal from the Missouri legislature to the people and when he died taking his place as the acknowledged leader of the antislavery men of Missouri. Elected to the state legislature on the Benton ticket in 1852 and 1854, in 1856 he was sent as representative to congress, for which he was well equipped, having grown up in a political atmosphere ever since his famous father came to Washington, at General Jackson's behest, to found an edit the administration organ, The Globe.

Thus both these distinguished men, whose statues are now added to the national gallery, were connected with the times and events of the Jacksonian administration. Both were as true as he to the Union, though in different ways. To Blair's everlasting credit will be re-

TBS BLA1K STATUE.

xnesnbered his answer to the Missouri partisan when the secession of the state was under advisement. "I don't believe," said the partisan, "in breaking up the party just to please a lot of tenderfooted Unionists. I believe in sticking to the party." "Party!" said Blair. "Let us have a oountry first. Then we can talk about parties." FHJED A. OBKB.

THEFLIGHTPBOBLEM

EMINENT SCIENTISTS ENGAGED IN ITS SOLUTION.

Progress

cago—Trying

Mr. Cbanute distinctly denies any such expectation on his part. I found him at his home on Huron street, not

SiStSlillS

POISED FOB FLIGHT.

Mr. Chanute's investigations nave been confined to the maintenance of man's equilibrium in the air. In his study of this problem he has made a great many experiments along the line laid down by Lilienthal, reversing, however, the principle of the apparatus. In fact, his first experiments were made with a Lilienthal machine. He told me that at the time Lilienthal was killed making a flight with one of

TERRJS HAUTE SATURDAY EV JSS mi* MALL, JANUARY 15, 1898.

Made by Octave Chanute of Chi

to Copy the Birds—Diffi

culties of Air Conditions—Sir. Chanute's Experiments—XJlienthal's Work.

[Special Correspondence.]

CHICAGO,

Jan.

11.—When

I was in

Boston last fall, the secretary of the Aeronautical society told me that he thought the problem of man flight would be solved within a year by Octave Cbanute of Chicago, the well known engineer. I called on Mr. Chanute today to ask if this prediction was likely to be verified.

Jl!

far from the lake shore. There was not a sign of Mr. Chanute's hobby about. In fact, he does not ride it in winter, and he does not care to exploit it at any time, as I found, for fear thai he-will be olassed by the newspaper reading public as a "crank." Even the assurance that the number of eminent scientists engaged in the solution of tbe problem as well as his own reputation in the scientific world was a guarantee of the seriousness of the pursuit does not serve to convince Mr. Cbanute that the public will look with an understanding eye on his work.

Mr. Chanute says that he took up the study of man flight as he approached the end of his professional oareer. He did not expect to have time to solve more than one of its many difficulties, that of providing for equilibrium and consequent safety, but if be succeeded in that undertaking he would be satisfied. "The end is not going to be reached by one man or by two men," he said. "One man is going to follow the thread a little way into the maze. Then another is going to take it up where he has dropped it. After four or five men have followed it some one is going to reach the heart of the maze and be heralded as the discoverer. That may not be for several years. What I think will be accomplished within a year is a flight by some experimenter for the distance of a mile. I have little doubt that will be done, but I question whether it can be repeated indefinitely."

hiB

chines he himself was demonstrating a way in which the Lilienthal method could be made safe by a change in the machine. "Every bird," said Mr. Chanute, "is an acrobat. You have seen them, if you have ever observed bird flight, moving their wings, their necks or their feet to maintain their equilibrium in the air. Lilienthal endeavored to maintain his equilibrium in the same way—that is, by balancing, to keep the center of gravity in a direct vertical line with the center of pressure. I conceived the idea of so constructing the aeroplanes as to make the center of pressure return to a point in line with the center of gravity, so that the man would not have to move himself. Lilienthal's experience therefore need not discourage any one in experimenting with concave surfaces superimposed on one another. I aw afraid, however, that his death has retarded the investigation of the question somewhat. I am afraid, too, that some of our friends are proposing to go ahead too rapidly this year, and that we are going to have some legs broken if nothing worse.

The Future Motor

"Experiments in still air along the line I have been following are of little comparative value. The air is not the calm, steady stream that it seems to us. It is full of eddies and cross currents. The machine which is goin$ to support man in safety on this thin, unsteady medium must be prepared to meet all these conditions. When such a machine ban been evolved, the motor which will carry it through the air is still to be perfected. I believe, however, that the machine which will maintain man's equilibrium is to be made in the near future. The motor question will be tbe most serious after that. Already a number of very able men have attacked it. They have produced surprising results. Hargrave has made a steam motor which weighs only ten pounds to the horsepower. Maxim's steam motor weighs only eight pounds to tbe horsepower and Langley's only seven. But these motors approach the limit of endurance. This does not count the 96 pounds of water to be vaporised every hour. But it is remarkable in view of the fact that when the experiments at these gentlemen began the lightest steam engine weighed 60 pounds to tbe horsepower. I believe tbe motor of tbe future for use in the propulsion of flying machines is to be one operated by gasoline or petroleum."

In answer to a question about com' pressed air Mr. Chanute said that it oould be use to advantage perhaps in preliminary experiments and that possibly it could be made to operate a machine for a few minutes, but at best it

was only a stored up force or a spring. So was liquid air. What was needed was a motor which would carry a man on a journey.

When I asked Mr. Chanute what the utilities of the flying machine weta, he answered that they were rather few, but he did not accept my comparison of the search for it with the hunt for the north pole. "It will be used for exploration,he said. "Stanley oould have crossed Africa with a flying machine in a week. It will be used for war purposes, and I believe it will make nations less willing to enter on warfare with ono another. It is essential to the conduct of a battle that the commander should be well protected—that he should occupy a sheltered position at one side, where he can direct operations without danger to himself and send his soldiers to carry out his plana His position will not be so desirable when it is possible for the enemy to send a flying machine to drop a bit of dynamite on him, and rulers will not be so anxious to go into war.

The Speed Element. Jp

"Of oourse it is not possible for the flying machine, operated on so thin a supporting medium as the air, to compete commercially with other carriers. The load it can bear will be at best light, and the expense of carrying this load will be heavy. But the flying machine will be capable of attaining a speed possible to no other carrier. Speed is an essential element of flying. The faster the machine goes the less, within certain limits, is the expenditure of power. Man will undoubtedly reach eventually a speed of 100 miles an hour or more in the air. The swallow, you know, flies at the rate of 150 miles an hour, the swift at 200. We have never been able accurately to measure the weight of the motor—that is, the muscles—of birds to the horsepower developed, but it is something between 6 and 20 pounds."

Mr. Chanute said, in answer to a question, that he had spent about $10,000 in his experiments—$5,000 on preliminary work and $5,000 on apparatus. All of this Las come out of his own pocket. He does not expeot to get any return for it unless some oredit may attach hereafter to what he has done for the soience of aeronautics. He says the only persons who will make any money out of flying machines will be the men •$ho make "sporting maohines," for he thinks the most common use of the flying machine will be in trials of skill and speed. The aot of flying through the air is very exhilarating, and he believes the sport will be popular when it has been made reasonably safe.

Mr. Chanute's chief experiments have been conduoted on the lake shore about 80 miles from Chicago. His chief assistant for a long time was a Mr. Herring. Mr. Herring has now gone off by himself, and recently he accomplished the longest flight that has ever been made in America, using a machine of the .type with which Mr. Chanute has been experimenting. His record—927 feet— does not equal that of Lilienthal, however. Lilienthal made one or m6re flights of 1,000 feet.

Not Flying, but Gliding, ft-"

Mr. Chanute does not call it flying. He says that his experiments are "gliding" experiments. The motor he uses is the constant force of gravity, and his machines have been tried always on the side of a hill. The hill was 94 feet high, but the highest point to which Mr. Chanute has gone is 61 feet. From that point a glide was made of 860 feet. The machine has traveled at tbe rate of 52 miles an hour through the air.

One of the problems which seemed most formidable when Mr. Chanute began his experiments was the problem of stopping at wilL^Et might be easy enough to launoh yourself on an aeroplane from the side of a hill. But how about the stopping at the bottom? That question was answered by watching the ™pgjtsr

STRUCK BT ASIDE OUST.

sparrow. Look at one some day when he is flying down to the street. See him tilt himself backward and drop to the ground. One of his feathers could not alight more softly or easily. That is the way the man with the gliding maohine comes down. He throws himself back a little, raising the front of the machine, increasing the angle

One of the

inci

dence and consequently the air pressure. The cushion of air in front of him stops the flight of the machine, and in all the experiments which have been made with the Chanute apparatus there has not resulted even a sprained ankle. This problem has not been solved yet for the dynamio machine of the future, but it is settled for the gliding machine. Starting up under all conditions is another problem and one which has not yet been solved.

Mr. Chanute says that Lilienthal was the first to point out a method through which, be believes, final success will be won. He accomplished more toward a practical solution of the problem than any previous experimenter. Mr. Chanute took up the work where Lilienthal left it and has carried it at least one step forward. If his experiments shall result within a year or so in a flight or glide of a mile on a machine at tbe type with which he has been experimenting, be will feel that bis work has not been in vain and that possibly science has gone a long way toward tbe final solution of that interesting question— man Hight.

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