The New York Times from New York, New York • Page 37

Ascent at the Mediterranean Famous French Sailor of the AirJ Holds Lon 7 Distance Aerial Navigation, Sfees Nor Commercial Possibilities in the Fly-; ing Machine. Suggests Racing Balloons as a Future Amusement of the Wealthy. lO TALK about flyinjr machines to Count de la Vaux is like waving a red ra to a bulL As a dirigible Ioonist be holds the world's record for distance and speed. Cut he has no use (or flying machines, so called, with a view to their commercial development, in spite of all the experiments of Santos Du-mont. Prof.

Lansrley, and others to the con-; trary. the very, very, veryi very far future," said the Count, with a crescendo accent on the very' and a shoulder shrug; that suggested an eternity. there may. be flying machines, but not not now. the Count ballooning Is something more than a fad.

He started his' aerial exploits as a faddist in 1398. Kverybody was going In for motor. so be decided to try something else. He was Just back from two years residence among the savages of Patagonia, He had written a successful book of his adventures, which had been praised by the French Academy a oisttnctive honor. The treasures or his exile anthropological, ethnographical, and geological had been Mored in the official museum of Paris for a wondering world to look at and classify.

One evening he went to an aerodrome with a friend. fa member of the Aero Club, on the Plaice de la Concorde. I We will have our coffee up above, said the friend. The Count's mind was fresh for new Ideas. A flight of 600 yards or so aboxe tho earth for an after-dinner smoke had a charm for him, Thenceforward he was an avowed balloonist.

He never stopped until be had; become President of the Aero Club, jand admittedly the champion aerostat of jthe worlds He broke all records with a balloon Journey from Paris to the Province Warsaw, in Russia. He slept in the clouds at -a temperature of 12 degrees below aero Reaumur (which is much colder than Fahrenheit) when his comrado had hammer the soles of his feet with a club-to. keep him from sleeping too long and freezing to -He. Journeyed through the air 1.240 miles in a little more than thirty-five hours. In his com- Tr4 HE suggestion of George Meredith.

tthe English novelist, for temporary marriages of ten years duration does not fall on fertile soil In New York. Quite the contrary. In a nutshell. Mr. Meredith contends, that 'the present system of marriage is played out.

and that a change la bound to come; that the State will eventually permit marriages for a limited period, and arrange for the support of the wife and children after the period has expired; that the change suggested will create an uproar, as radical changes do. Tun New Yorx Tntcs asked for an expression of opinion on Mr. Meredith's Idea from prominent men and women who might be expected to look at It from various points of view. It won't work." said Justice Blschoff of the Supreme Court, who has had a wide experience In trying divorce cases. "The idea strikes at the root of the home, and consequently at the basis of our national life.

It brushes aside the sentiment of the Barriage relation, and by sentiment I do eatlmentalUm. In the maJoriur PART FOUR Ttc ija. paratively brief career as an aeronaut he traveled; more than 14.000' miles "through the clouds, has spent in all forty-'one days in the air. and has made 133 ascents without an accident so he may be quoted as an authority on ballooning. As such he is no advocate of the flying machine.

v- i This is the i Count's first opportunity to see New York. He crossed the continent of North America once, while en route to tho.Far East 'for the French Government, but until he tlanded last week he had no -opportunity to linger at the gateway of the western continent. He did not bring a- balloon with him. and says he Is sorry for it-He would like to convince rich young who go in for racing automobiles- as an expensive sport that' there is more fun and much less danger in racing balloons; Why not? he asked. A dirigible balloon no more than an automo- bile, and with proper care will last 'Just as long.

There is no excitement comparable to" speeding swift as the wind from 3,000 to 8.000 feet above the level of the earth. A navigable balloon will travel much faster than an automobile. There are no obstructions On the course, no pedestrians to run over, no cabs to smash, and no road police to give; pursuit. It la freedom. The chances' from accident with a balloon are almost nil.

Mind you. I am not speaking of flying machines. Just so long as men will try to do'lmposslbUitiea with material heavier than the atmosphere accidents are likely to occur. When you are up a few feet 'and you drop, you do not Jive to tell the tale. No! But with the modern balloon, such as we use in France, do, not dropi.

If there is danger, your descent is gradual. The Aero Club is composed of baloonists rom all parts of Europe. The members think no more of making an ascent in a baloon than of taking a carriage It should be so my: engineer, I invented the steering apparatus for all my balloons. I have spent a fortune in perfecting them. I am happiest when in my aerodrome preparing for a I feel as safe five miles of divorce cases that come before me the 'winder is not that the contending parties desire to separate, but that they should ever have come together.

The tru marriage. Is the moral and spiritual marriage; in that there can be no separation That is the marriage referred to In the church service. If there were more of them there would be more happiness. Mr. Meredith's suggestion means What would become of children? If I mistake not.

a similar plan was. tried once by a small community in France, and abandoned as impracticable. It would never work If applied to the. body politic. The majority of men and women have flrmlyj fixed Ideas and ideals of the sacredness of marriage and they will not permit materialists or matrimonial Anarchists to disturb them.

In my opinion divorce Is evolutionary of. marriage. The only remedy for it is In the prevention of hasty marriages. The encouragement of the spiritual marriage will crowd jout the hasty marriage. But better divorce than licensed concubinage.

GEORGE MEREDITH'S IDEAS; IN MARRIAGE DON'T SUIT AMERICA. Ur; fa IP 's' I ivi Vs C0VNT HELAVAVLX "AND above the sea level as I do on the sea. But the balloon -has a -scientific valuer even If It has not a- commercial value. In 'warfare It la as Invaluable to the navy as to the army. i The balloon Is literally the eye- of the fleet.

A man in a dirigible balloon, far above the reach of cannon or can watch the movements of a torpedo far better than the Admiral on the flagship. At a height of 2.000 feet he can' see from 130 to 200 feet beneath the surface, of the water when it is clear. He can distinguish vegetation growing on the sea bottom. The movement of a torpedo are far clearer to him than they are to the men on shipboard amid the smoke of -m So far as the army Is concerned, the balloon should be considered- in the same light as the submarine boat is to the Every European army corps has Its aerodrome, experienced aeronauts continuously' making scientific experiments. I have not a yet devoted particular attention to that branch of the business, particularly with relation to high explosives.

My opirion Is that they are too small as yet to do ma-! terlal damage." French. Is an imaginary round-the-world Journey In ah airship, something after the Jules Verne order of literature. has pleased him' to regard America as a "be- nigh ted country In the matter of aerial' which is about all that Meredith's suggestion amounts to. There are undoubtedly divorces In which It be sheer cruelty to compel the parties' desiring them to live together. Mistakes will always be -made, in matrimony as in everything else.

-Would Mr. Meredith perpetuate these mistakes 'for ten years? i Marriage is Improving all the time, and will continue to improve. In our marriage service to-day. when 'the clergyman says Who giveth this and so forth, there Is a reflex of the barbaric days when woman was'captured as a irey' and given to the man who desired her without having voice In the matter. The majority of married people: aae too happy to desire-any change.

In the nature of things, the public bears more of unhappy marriages than of happy marriages. 'ii Said Abraham Hummel. a lawyer of much experience tn the divorce courts: Marriage was good enough for my parents and good enough for Mr. Meredith's parents. To men and women who believe in the sanctity of the bom and family Tim.

mm OCTOBER 2. it' jN j-S ii'i 'V T-je" 1 1 tJ-V i i i raOM RJUUd FOR. WdTBE'COWNT 1ADJC THE VTOKLI SAI4.00ir.BXCOBLD! travel. In fiction Count does not hesitate to deal with transatlantic Journeys in a dirigible balloon. In fact, be shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders in a deprecatory "After a man has been In the air for thirty, hours or so he wants to come he Breathing is difficult, even with the.

assistance of a little oxygen. While one is far above the" earth he has a great appetite, but has no desire to eat much -at one time. air is so exhilarating that one glass of champagne has as much effect as a whole -bottle -would if taken on terra In the clouds one does not desire stimulants, but a little brandy is necessary now and then for warmth and sustenance. If man 'is by himself, as most bal-loontsts like to be. It is not always convenient to stop' to eat.

"i rf 1 "A skipper at sea with a yacht full of seasick landlubbers is not to be mentioned I with a balloonist a few hundred feet in the air. with a half -dosen terrified passengers. No man. can tell how an ascent in a.bal- Moo" otag to affect lm until he Known an urTo iii of every danger under the" sun-lose nerve when vthe, earth and, sea spread beneath them as a moments. of terror persons will try to Jump from a balloon 1.000 feet or more above the earth as readily, as they will bis suggestion la simply shocking.

He could not have said anything to get himself more cordially disliked." It Is my belief that only a small portion of married -persons would accept freedom from the vows they took at the altar If It was offered to thern. "I do not believe- Mr. Meredith's Idea would do anything to discourage or avoid divorce. A couple who discover that they are utterly unsulted to each other within a ewweeks, or, even a few days, after marriage, are not going to' worry along for 'ten years before separating. It would fill our Insane asylums if they were forced do.

so. On the, other a man who marries a good wife Is not going to give her up at the expiration of ten years. Nothr Ing but death can separate him from her. As a divecce lawyer have no patience with persons who are constantly trying, to turn the marriage question topsy-turvy. do not agree with Mr.

Meredith that the limelight should be upon sacred subjects. the jnajority of English-speaking people marriage la a sacred sacrament. 1004. 'Hi- si from a three-story window In a fire panic They seem to lose all Idea ofxdistance. or consequences.

There Is scarcely- a balloonist, I venture to say. who has not under- gone a terrible ordeal of this sort. That is why. aeronauts are, careful whom they take up with them. "I have never had a.

balloon get away from control but once. That was during a terrific storm while I was crossing- the North Sea, It was no use talking about steering apparatus then. Like a ship Captain in a tempest, I had to cut loose from my prescribed course and run before the wind. The gale was tearing along at ninety miles an hour, and me with it. At one time I grazed the rocks of some lonely isle.

The gulls shrieked at me like fiends. Finally I ran above the. clouds, as a ship sometimes runrt into smooth water, and watched the tempest raging beneath me. A. man never forgets such a sight.

When the gale was over I descended a few hundred feet and continued my journey. I have never ascended higher than 8.000 metres, which is about five English miles. -was not necessary, for me to. do no In order to test the qualities of my steering -apparatus, in which I was most interested. Berson of Germany has reached a-, height of 10.300 metres.

Bat after, a man has ascended 8,000 metres he has gone Jar When the-weather Is the landscape' below, with its Intersections of. I have never yet handled -a divorce case in mhlch it was not apparent to anybody familiar with-the facts that the parties to It could not live together. Their mistake did not affect the happiness of marriage, but demonstrated the fact that they did not know how to marry happily. Divorced parties who marry the second time find the affinities they miss In the first shot, so to speak." "Mr. Meredith's proposal -not new," said the Rev.

Thomas R. Slicer; "It has an almost exact parallel In Plato's "Republic, in which the man marrying at thirty and the1 woman at twenty-six were obliged to live pure lives for ten years. After that moral delinquencies were -not to be counted against them. But neither Plato nor Mr. Meredith seems to understand that marriage In the highest sense is a sacrament.

All the highest relations of liTe are spiritual and exists between human souls. I go as far as the Roman Catholic Church in the belief In a spiritual marriage, and In the sanctity of that inn i i i i i i iii 1 1 1 iiA( ii i Trr ixi i i.i i i i i i i 4 ui it liii' i ii i i SECOND HAGAZmE SECTIOn ml (' v- IkN-' 1 e--K. i bays and rivers. is quite distinct to the naked -eye. only; physical-feeling, to one accustomed one of Intense exhilaration.

I should compare It to the sensations an 'opium eater, without any disagreeable after effects. The longest, distance I ever traveled was from Paris to Kieff, Jn Little Russia, in an International balloon contest In whicu I won the prize. The total distance, as I officially certified by the French and Rus sian Governments, was 2,000 kilometres, which is approximately 1.400 miles. The distance was covered inside of thirty-six 1 hours, which established a. world's It was not necessary to go very high In that race.

I had no reason to draw from the tank of oxygen I Invariably carry with me. On one journey, while far up In midair, the thermometer registering 12 degrees below zero, I was overcome with a desire to sleep. I realised for. the first how travelers In the Alps feel when, they want to lie down In the deep although they know It will be their I was allowed to sleep for a few minutes at time, my. companion.

rapping on, my feet be considered the time was up. In an hour or so the drowsiness passed-away. engineer was not affect-, ed at all in that way, nor have ever been' on that occasion. In making long and high ascents 1 think an aeronaut The sure prevention, for the tendency for married persons to weary of each, other is that they should meet as human souls in something higher than either of them as an- onf ailing source, of life and Joy. Divorce bad enough, but the free-love Idea underlying Mr.

Meredith's suggestion infinite ly; worse- It Is uncivlUxing. do not attach. the slightest Importance it-'V LUUe Devereaux Blake, one of the pioneers In the woman suffrage movement, sa)d: The man must be What have women to' gain -from, marriage on the Installment plan like about their, children? Who. is to consider their wishes when the allotted time comes for mamma and papa to separate and find other partners for what la left of life's journey? How the State, with the multiplicity of human affairs It mismanages under present conditions to transform Itself Into one great mamma-papa and look after the wives who have been cast aside and their little ones? for one. am willing to leave It to the women eX this world who have good hue- JLf.

I 1 -1 1 1 should always have a companion with fa no' tening" what may "happen. "Speed -In the air is governed by the. wind and other Tot), can no' more Judge of probable peed' than you can of a yacht in a breese "at sea. The rail-" way journey from Paris to" Brussels Is five ard cue-half hours by express train. have frequently sped by railway trains and covered the distance in three-hours.

Other times the trains have bad no difficulty in leaving me -behind. But I could, keep to my course as surely as they could keep to theirs. A. balloon la of little use If you cannot make it go where you wish. ballooning.

Is a sport for- gentlemen! I have no dream that balloons will ever be utilised In time of peace for passenger, service or far the mails." i The Count is a athletic blond. He was born In Paris In 1370, the son of a wealthy family that, dates from re-revolutionary times. After their property was confiscated by the republic the family settled la the districts of Champagne and Nor mandy. The Count was. educated: for the law.

but he did not' like it. He is a born When scarcely twenty-one years old. he, entered the employ of the French Government for journeys to China ana Japan. Later he was sent to Patagonia, His books have sold well In Franc. One' 'of the objects of his visit to New; Tor to have' them published In bands and happy homes to deal with Mr Meredim's proposition.

"As for women 'who have married and have. not happy homes, well, divorce seem to be the only relief. Putting a few exceptional cases no woman goes divorce court for separation from husband and the father of her children, with aU that the term divorce Implies socially and In every other way. until travail of soul has made plain to her every step of the road. If everything depended cpoa the women, there would be fewer divorce.

If the question of going away from a husband and family, after a reasonably harry period! of ten years, were left to the wife Mr. Meredith's Idea wouU never work any harm In this world." Mrs. Laura Lathrop of the Second Church Christian Scientist, said: Men and women who make up their minds to get married should decide at the same time- to stay married. If they are happy, they will stay married, for anything that George Mere-with or any other dreamer about social conditions may say to the contrary..