Eighty-eight letters to Andrew Carnegie, asking him to buy an
organ for the Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church of St. Louis,
written in the last eight months, brought a check at last for
$1,125 from the philanthropist.
The check was accompanied only by a printed receipt form, and
the church-members, while jubilant over getting the price of
the organ, are wondering whether Mr. Carnegie really wanted
to give the money, or did so to put an end to the series of
letters. The letters were first sent at intervals of two weeks
by different officials and members of the church, the intervals
decreasing to one day, as the appeals for aid brought no reply.
(2349)
* * * * *
A San Francisco lad, Cleve T. Shaffer, of the Potrero district,
has perfected a soaring machine that he is now manufacturing
for the market. He has the first airship factory in the West
and is advertising for business. The Shaffer glider is marketed
as a pleasure device. The pastime of scudding over fields
at lightning speed is recommended as entirely safe and most
exhilarating. Shaffer is twenty years old.
While building his gliders for the trade Shaffer, in a shop
established in the rear of his home, is fitting an enlarged
glider with a power motor which he declares will make of it a
biplane-aeroplane superior to those of the Wrights, Bleriot,
Curtiss, Latham, Paulhan and the other aviators already famous.
Shaffer is secretary of the Pacific Aero Club, the lively
little organization of air-travel zealots which has sprung from
the widespread interest in the new field of experimentation
in San Francisco. The story of Shaffer’s efforts to solve the
aviation problem is inspiring. Tho a mere boy, he is a “pioneer”
in aerial experimentation. Without funds and without any
suggestion, support or encouragement from older persons, Shaffer
as a boy of fifteen years, at a time when aviation was a subject
engaging the attention of only a handful of men in the entire
world, began persistent and systematic experiments. The lad
became the laughing-stock of his home district in the Potrero
hills. He was looked upon as a freak, a child with something
wrong in his make-up--because of his unquenchable mania for
air-travel experiments.--_Sunset Magazine._
(2350)
=Persistent Effort=--See DIFFICULTIES, OVERCOMING.
=Personal Application=--See ODD ONE, THE.