An Aerial Bust at the Snohomish Ball Game
A much-anticipated airplane exhibition turns into a mud-caked failure, but the local baseball game saves the day for the fans.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Everett sports grabbed their rubbers, overcoats and umbrellas Sunday, climbed aboard Stone & Webster dividend-producers and hied their merry way to the City of Snohomish. A real aeroplane exhibition was the feature that drew the crowd. The aeroplane, be it said, was like an infant when its mother wants it to show off for the admiring visitors—it sulked. Despite all attempts of the aviator to coax it to show off, the darn thing acted like a lumber wagon. It just loved the earth, or rather, mud, and after one uncertain flight of a few rods, the engine just let go all holds and dove for terra firma. Several real sports who had front seats on fences and buildings adjacent to the ball park were heard to cry 'Stung!' But, say, people, everybody forgave the bird man because they saw a ball game that was the real article. Granite Falls has a ball team that is out of the kindergarten class. Snohomish showed the proper enthusiasm, but being taken by surprise, was unable to get all the money out of the little pitcher behind the loose brick in the family fireplace. The teams came together with a crash that disturbed a Methodist class meeting in a distant schoolhouse in Cherry Valley and rattled the stumps on some choice building lots in Duvall. Snohomish triumphed, 7 to 4, and G.F. sports turned galeward while the band played the dead march in Saul.
“It just loved the earth, or rather, mud, and after one uncertain flight of a few rods, the engine just let go all holds and dove for terra firma.”
Early aviation was often treated as a carnival attraction, subject to the same failures as any mechanical novelty. The local report captures a quintessential turn-of-the-century weekend outing, where the spectacle mattered almost as much as the outcome of the game.
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