1910 Newspaper Abstracts

The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XVIII #2842, Thurs., June 30, 1910:
p. 1, c. 1 -

FLYING MACHINE ARRIVED YESTERDAY
-- Monday's Daily --

Prof. A. M. Nassar of Toledo, O., arrived in the city yesterday with his
flying machine via the I. C. railroad, and the machine was taken to the
fair grounds this morning where it will be kept until the Fourth of July,
when it will make its first.  It was rumored that trial trips would be
made by Prof. Nassar this week, but there's nothing doing and Mr. Striplin
advises that the machine will be kept in privacy until that day, no one
being allowed to look at it.

There is no more doubt; the thing is a reality -- Corinth is going to be
permitted to see the flying act.  The machine is a healthy looking affair
and is made on the same style of the one used by Count M. Zeppelin, and
will make a trip on the Fourth of July from the fair grounds.

It is probable that Prof. Nassar will make some trial trips after the
Fourth, going to some of the near-by towns, but that has not been
definitely decided yet."  [photo of professor included in article, sls.].

[NOTE:  Later news accounts talk of torrential rains on the 4th of July
drowning out festivities and no further mention of Professor Nassar]



The Corinth Weekly Herald, Vol. XXXII #52, Fri., Sept. 23, 1910:
p. , c.  -

        W.C. Stovall returned the first of the week from Pontiac, Mich.
where he purchased a fine twelve passenger automobile which will be used,
after having completed the Fair circuit, as a passenger car between this
city and Shiloh National Park.  Mr. Stovall is a hustler and it is to be
hoped that his last venture will meet his most sanguine expectation.


[Later article in November mentioned W.C.Stovall accepting a position
with C. S. Graham & stated he was formerly in the merchantile business.]



ST.LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, St.Louis, MO, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 1910:
p. 10, c. 1 -

BALDWIN BRINGS HIS FAMOUS FLYING
        MACHINES TO ST.LOUIS FOR AERO SHOW
        ------------------------
"Red Devil" and Another Bi-
   plane to Be Among the
  Post-Dispatch Exhibits.
        ------------
    NEW MODELS ON VIEW
           -----
Clubs of Illinois, Kansas City
    and Topeka Reserve Re-
     ception Headquarters.
     ---------------------
        ...The two monoplanes of Jean H. Reitmann of New York and the
Newson-Cage type of Densver are the latest acquisitions to the varied
array of heavier-than-air machines which St.Louis will have an
opportunity to handle and inspect at close range.  "Miss Detroit," the
smallest practical flying machine in the world, also will have a place,
as will Capt. John Berry's Italian monoplane, Sparling's Curtiss biplane,
Benoist's Gill-Dosh biplane, Waits' Demoiselle monoplane, Prince's
Bleroit monoplane, Kueno's monoplane, Swift's wingflap machine, Sam
Lambert's Bleriot model, and the Farman biplane....


ST.LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, St.Louis, MO, Thurs., Nov. 17, 1910:
p. 1, c. 1 -

MANY TYPES OF
        AIR CRAFT READY
                FOR AERO SHOW
        ---------------
Post-Dispatch Exhibit In-
        cludes a New Red Devil
        Invented by Capt. Bald-
        win, in Which He Attains
        Warping Process Like
        That of Wright Brothers.
        ----------------
FIRST INDOOR TRIP
        FOR TUESDAY NIGHT
        ----------
Detroit Sends Dainty Mac-
        chine; Inflated and Equip-
        ped Balloon Will Be
        Shown and Vehicles for
        the Water Also on View.
        ---------------
        ...A Demoiselle machine, constructed by Max Weesner of Corinth,
Miss., from diagrams in a scientific magazine, is the smallest machine at
the show.  Weesner says he has made several straight-away flights in it
at Corinth, and that he wishes to use the big course at Kinloch Park,
while in St. Louis, to learn how to make turns....


ST.LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, St.Louis, MO, Thurs., Nov. 18, 1910:
p. 17, c. 2 -

AERIAL MARVELS
        KEEP AERO SHOW
                FOLK ON QUI VIVE
        --------------
Coliseum Visitors Want to
  Know All About Flying
        Machines.
        ---------
    EIGHT TYPES SHOWN
        ---------
Capt. Baldwin Interests Many
   With Lectures in Post-
     Dispatch Section.
        ----------
                ...Demoiselle Causes Amusement.
        Thomas W. Benoist's snowy white aeroplane of the Curtiss type
found many admirers, as did the wasp-like Demoiselle built by Max Weesner
of Corinth, Miss.  There was much laughter when President Lambert stated
that the tiny Demoiselle, because of its tumbling and rocking while in
flight, has become known as "the clown of the air."  Weesner's machines
if the first of this model ever exhibited in St. Louis....



The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XVIII #2867, Thurs., Dec 1, 1910:
p. 1, c. 3 -

        Max Weesner returned this morning from St. Louis, where he
exhibited the aeroplane belonging to E.F.Waits and himself, in the aero
show, and which met with rousing enthusiasm, and created great interest
among the aviators.



The Weekly Corinthian, XVIII #2868, Thurs., Dec. 8, 1910:
p. 2, c. 4,5,6 -

PICTURES:  Demoiselle Monoplane at the Aero Show
           Max Wessner

CORINTH WINS HONORS AT AVIATION
        MEET RECENTLY HELD IN ST.LOUIS

        Max Weesner of this city, who with the mental genius and
financial assistance of E.F. Waits, Corinth's enterprising jeweler,
recently built a monoplane after the design of Santo-Dumont's celebrated
type of aerocraft, the Demoiselle, returned last week from the St. Louis
great aviation meet, where he made several successful flights, and where
the staunch but dainty little Demoiselle was the cynosure of all eyes and
closest scrutiny of the professional aviators, attracting attention and
favorable comment from both foreign and home birdmen.  Above is a good
picture of the Demoiselle as it is about ready to sail into the cerulean
skies.
        The dainty, butterfly-like Demoiselle monoplane, the smallest
type of heavier-than-air flying machine, was one of the centers of
attraction at the First National Aero Show, at the St.Louis Coliseum, and
the most frequent remark on the part of visitors to the show is "that a
person would have to be pretty small to fly in it," says the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, but they are not entirely correct in this surmise,
however, as the aeroplane will carry a person of more than average weight,
althought the aviators who pilot this type of machine usually are small in
stature.
        This machine was the first of its type ever taken to St. Louis.
They were the delight of the crowds at the Belmont Park international
aviation meeting, however.  The machine was designed by that brilliant
Brazilian, Santos-Dumont.  When the machine had been tested and proved to
be a successful flyer, the inventor gave the plans to the world, refusing
to apply for a patent and offering to permit any person to build a machine
like it.
     The Post-Dispatch says:  Max Weesner, 26 years old, who formerly was
a professional wrestler, appearing at the Standard Theatre in St. Louis,
copied Santos-Dumont's Demoiselle from newspaper pictures, constructing a
perfect monoplane.  He was assisted financially by E. F. Waits of
Corinth, Miss.  The South honors these two men as the builders of the
only heavier-than-air machine south of the Mason and Dixon line.
     Weesner stated that he worked 529 1/2 hours in 43 days to construct
the beautiful monoplane, in which he has negotiated straight away flights
over a small course near Corinth.  The planes cover 116 square feet,
which is the supporting surface.  A 30-horse power Detroit engine,
weighing 100 pounds, is installed on the craft.
     Waits, who financed the building of the Demoiselle, is known all
over the United States for his mammoth wireless station at Corinth.
Newspaper stories have been printed about his piracy of wireless messages
flashed from warship to warship and from fort to fort, naively adds
the P[ost].- D[ispatch].
     Another account says:  The greatest interest apparently centered
about the monoplanes, of which St. Louisans have seen only the Bleriot
driven at Kinloch Field by Alf. LeBlanc of France.  In the Coliseum is
the Demoiselle monoplane, a French type brought west of the Mississippi
river for the first time in history.  The craft is owned by E. F. Waits
and Max Weesner of Corinth, Miss., where several flights have been
negotiated with it.  This aerocraft is the smallest in the world.  It is
equipped with a two-cylinder Detroit gasoline engine.  The aviator is
seated in the framework beneath the engine and directly behind the
running wheels.
     The trite old adage, "That a prophet is not without honor save in
his own country," is knocked into smithereens by Messrs. Waits and
Weesner with their Demoiselle, for not only are they honored and
commended at home for their genius, ingenuity and liberality of
enterprise in this instance, but it will be seen from the above excerpts
that they have reaped glory and fame from abroad, a tribute to their
energy and public-spiritedness they fully deserve.
     The Demoiselle has been brot [sic] back to Corinth, and, possibly,
some flights will later be made here with it, in which event if you
should see a monstrous-sized bat-like thing sailing far overhead, don't
be scared into a conniption fit, but just remember that it is Mr. Waits
or Mr. Weesner out enjoying a few whiffs of pure altitudinous air."



The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XVIII #2870, Dec. 22, 1910:
p. 8, c. 1 & 2 -

SEE THE BIRDMEN IN DIZZY FLIGHTS -

Tuesday's Daily

        A company of Corinth gentlemen had the pleasure of visiting
Tupelo yesterday, returning last evening and are quite enthusiastic with
the result of their desire to see a demonstration of the heavier-than-air
crafts and the nervy aviators.
       The Reverend Henry N. Barbee was one of the party, and secured an
interview with the world-renowned air celebrity, John B. Moisant, whose
two notable feats, the trip from London to Paris, crossing the English
Channel, and winning the ten thousand dollar prize by flying around the
Statue of Liberty from the aviation field at Belmont Park.
     Mr. Moisant is easily approached, has a pleasing personality, and
with a merry twinkle of the eye secures a speedy friendship with every
one.
     There are seven aviators at Tupelo, the larger proportion being
Frenchmen, the two notable Americans are Moisant and Hamilton, each
having won their aviation laurels in the monoplane and bi-plane machines,
respectively. There are sixty people in the company under the direction
and employment of an organized interest, representing an investment of
fifty million dollars.  It is of interest to know that Moisant and
Hamilton are under contract for this year at a salary of two hundred
thousand dollars.
     In reply to the query as to Mr. Moisant's impression of Mississippi
and its air, he said, "I am delightfully impressed, altho the air is very
choppy today, and decidedly cold thirty-five hundred feet above the
earth."
     The ease and grace with which such a marvelous feat is accomplished
creates an impression of awe to the observer, often forgetting to applaud
the return of the aviator from a flight of four or five miles at a dizzy
height
     The cold was such as to prevent Mr. Moisant from taking up his
notable mascot, the cat, which made the London-to- Paris flight with him.
The machine at Tupelo is the one used by him in the winning of the ten
thousand dollar price [sic] and it cost this amount.
     Tupelo is to be congratulated upon its effort to secure this
international aggregation of flyers and to see them was a rare
privilege.   

The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XVIII #2870, Dec. 22, 1910:

From Tuesday's Daily -

Deputy Sheriff R. L. Turner is in Tupelo today.

T. B. Wilson is on a business trip to Booneville today.

A party of Corinthians, Dr. and Mrs. H. D. Chipps, Mrs. S.
J. Richeo [sic, probably Richie], Miss Annie Orville Adams
and Dr. R. C. Liddon are spending the afternoon in Tupelo.



The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XVIII #2870, Dec. 22, 1910:
p. 7. c. 6 -

        Max Weesner left last night for Detroit, Mich., where he will
spend a few days.



Abstracts (c) Copyright 1993 Stephanie L. Sandy

    Data transcription by: Milton Sandy, Jr. Corinth, MS - May 18, 1993