Show HISTORIC 0 1115 by elmo scott watson ama a western newspaper union flying dutchman S SO 0 AMAZING have been the developments in aviation in recent years that it is a brave man indeed who will venture to say why they cant do that when told of some new feat in the air by man therefore it is not especially remarkable perhaps that the whole world accepted as authentic a photograph which came out of germany a year or so ago it showed a man flying through the air just above and a little ahead oi 01 four others who were running after him it might have been mistaken for a skier in action except for the fact that he was holding two bell like objects and apparently blowing into them through a tube the description on this photograph read for the first time in history a man has succeeded in flying under his own power this picture shows erich kocher of berlin performing that feat followed by his excited friends he blew into the bell like arrangement causing to revolve two rotors which also served as wings on his feet was a ski landing gear and attached to his hips was a tall tail skid so cleverly had the photograph been doctored that it passed tor for an authentic representation of an epoch marking incident in aviation and was accepted as such yes even by american newspapers which printed the picture with the headline mans first flight under his own power it was not until some time later that the hoax was revealed considering the news that has been coming out of germany about hillers Hit lers treatment of some of its citizens one wonders if the flying Dutch mans name has some significance kocher could easily be mistaken for kosher you know washing the white lions ITS TS only once or twice in a century that easter sunday falls on april I 1 but on one of those occasions the coincidence made it easy for some april fool prankster to perpetrate a classic hoax in march 1860 several thousand citizens of london were greatly flattered when they received a neatly printed and official looking card which bore the me following inscription TOWER OF LONDON admit the bearer and friend to view the annual ceremony of washing the white lions on sunday april 1 1860 admitted at the white gate it is particularly requested that no gratuities be given to the wardens and their assistants no one had bad ever before heard of either the white gate or the white lions so everyone who received one of these invitations was curious to know whether the latter were real or just statues children especially were thrilled at the prospect of seeing them it was just like going to the zoo A few staid citizens were dubious about the propriety of attending such a function on easter sunday but that bother several thousand others who entirely overlooked the tact fact that it was also april 1 so they swarmed to tower hill in hansom cabs and on foot and began I 1 inquiring eagerly of the gatekeepers gate keepers where the white gate was As soon as the gatekeepers gate keepers saw the invitations they immediately recognized the hoax and they greatly enjoyed the opportunity of answering april fool to the eager inquirers in tact fact it has been suspected although never proved that some of these gatekeepers gate keepers were the perpetrators of the hoax which has become historic in england long Di distance stane taxi ride SEVERAL S EVERAL years ago newspapers all over the country printed an amusing story furnished to them by one of the press associations which told how a bibulous visitor to new york hailed a taxicab b and in response to the drivers query where to replied losh ang lesh and gleash don drive too tas fas whereupon the taxi driver took him to los angeles and arriving there looked at his meter and announced that the tare fare was which the bibulous one cheerfully paid then so the story ran the driver sold his taxi and returned to new york by bus it was a good story until the cab driver mentioned was located in new york and denied the whole yarn he did admit that during the depression he had loaded his motherless children in his taxi and headed west hoping to find work somewhere en route but he found that jobs were just as scarce in other parts of the country as they were in new york so when he reached california he sold his taxicab and returned home with his children by bus so that much of the yarn at least was true As for the tipsy passenger and the taxi fare which he paid that part of the story was invented by the press agent for the junk yard to which the taxi man had sold his car that in itself such a bad story for who ever before heard of a junk yard hiring a press agent |