Mr. Langley’s Perseverance
By Editor
All sorts of jokes are flying about at Mr. Langley’s expense since his last futile attempt at propelling an air-ship. People will call him now all kinds of a crank and failure. Yet if it had been a success, how many of these would have fawned before him, and have felt exalted to walk in his shadow. We have not believed in the success of his plan, because we do not believe that men can learn to balance mechanically as a bird does naturally, automatically. But we do admire Mr. Langley’s grit and perseverance. There is much in it of the apostolic motto, “This one thing I do.” We are sorry his ship failed. We hope he has in his striving, even for a lost cause, helped to build a character which will abide. If his trials are helps in this direction they are not failures.