Les citoyens de Worcester sont convaincus que le Townsman est l'aviateur le plus avancé
Voyage rapidement à haute altitude
Other Than They Know Nothing of Machine ? Tillinghast Secretive.
Worcester (Massachusetts), 23 décembre ? Firmly convinced that their townsman, Wallace E. Tillinghast, is the foremost aviator of the age, 2000 Worcester people who last night saw a mysterious airship circle and hover over this city are today awaiting his return from his nocturnal flight, eager to atone for their jeers when he recently declared he had flown to New York and returned.
No one today absolutely knows that it was Tillinghast who made the flight. But no one doubts it. They do know, however, that some airship poised and swung hawk-like over the city at a height of about 1,300 feet.
Where Tillinghast keeps his aerial machine is still a dead secret. For three nights recently the speedometer on his automobile has registered 130 miles and it is thought possible the machine is secreted somewhere near the Connecticut or Rhode Island line.
Tillinghast left here quietly about 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon, probably by train, after having telephoned his wife that he would not be home for the night. Where he went is a mystery and not a word will his wife say to clear it away.
"You'll have to talk to Mr. Tillinghast," is all she will say. "He knows his own business. When he gets ready to talk he'll talk and not before."
This is much to the same effect as the statement of Tillinghast recently after his announcement that he had flown to New York and back on the night of September 8. "They'll laugh at you if you don't produce the machine," he was told. "Let them laugh," he said "I have the machine. I have made flight. When I get ready to talk, I'll talk. I don't care what the public thinks."
One of the men who had an excellent view of the mysterious airship here last night was John B. Goodell, a prominent merchant. "I was standing on the street talking to a party of friends," he said today, "when I saw what seemed to be a peculiarly bright star shooting twoard us across they sky. Soon the appearance became that of a broad bar of light and within a few minutes I could make out the frame-work of an airship and see two men perched just behind the headlight. It wheeled and circled about over the city with ease and for a time remained almost if not quite stationary. Hundreds saw it. There was no mistake. It was certainly a greater flight than any of which I have ever heard and if it was Mr. Tillinghast who made it, it simply means that he has far surpassed the feats of the Wrights or any other aviator."