Life, 1910-09-29 · page 25 of 40
Life — September 29, 1910 — page 25: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page excerpts a serialized short story titled "From a Forthcoming Novel" about an aviation contest featuring a character named Spiro, "the greatest aviator the world had ever known." The satire targets **detective fiction and sensationalism**. The villain is "the Great Bosco," a self-aggrandizing detective who has bribed Spiro's head machinist to delay the flight so Bosco can dramatically arrest Spiro for an unspecified crime. Bosco explicitly states he's sold movie rights for half a million dollars and contracted to write the story for a magazine at five dollars per word—satirizing how detectives and law enforcement exploited publicity and media deals. The humor lies in Bosco's transparent vanity: he values the theatrical "capture" and financial opportunity more than actual justice, and he freely admits bribing a witness while lecturing about justice. The accompanying pen-and-ink illustrations show chaotic aviation-contest crowds, typical of the era's fascination with early flight. This mocks both celebrity detective narratives popular in the 1910s-1920s and the commercialization of crime reporting.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
From a Forthcoming HE day of the great aviation contest had at last arrived. All day long the railroads had been pouring their precious cargo of human freight into the famous resort by the sea Both the beach and the boardwalk were but one seething mass of people, all pushing and straining to catch a glimpce of Spiro, the greatest a world had ever known. With difficulty. the local constabulary kept a space on the beach clear for the workmen who had charge of the ma- chine. Those who held poinis of vantage could occasionally see Spiro himself as he deftly tinkered with the bird-like structure. The great flight had been advertised for four o'clock, but it was now nearly five. Why doesn’t he go up? asked of his neighbor. “T don’t know. I’m afraid i'll miss my train back,’” every one’s neighbor re- plied. Little did every one and his neighbor know, however, that down below a drama which was not on the programme was being enacted. Even the reporters and the photog- raphers who were in the charmed circle itself did not comprehend the entire si nifieance of the delay. All they kne: was that Spiro’s head machinist was not on hand, Without the head machinist Spiro could not manage the big polyplane that stood there reaching out its wing- like projections as if it were a bird which had started to fly but had sud- denly changed its mind. Not even the great Spiro himself knew that over behind the pier, but a hun dred yards away, his trusted head ma- chinist was engaged in earnest but muf- fled conversation with a serious-looking little man. “Remember,” the little man was say- ing, “I am paying money not that you shall be disloyal to your em- Ployer, but as an officer of the law in the "* every one tor the | “LIFE: interest of justice. The great crime which Spiro has committed is one of the most heinous in the whole criminal curriculum. For months the authorities have sought the fiend who committed i They have all failed. All but me, Ha! Ha! “Tt has remained for me, the Great Bosco, to strike the bandage from Minerva’s eyes and sew up the frazzled ends of justice. I have selected this day as the most dramatic possible for the de- nouement. I expect this to be the great- est capture in the world’s history. I have sold the moving picture rights for a half-million dollars. I have contracted to write the exclusive authentic story for Bumptious’s Magazine at five dollars per word. You alone stand between me and complete success. To a certain ex- tent, of course, I am at your mercy, but the most you can do is to postpone the hour of my triumph. You may interfere with the limelights but the show will g on, I could kill you, but I do not wish to do that. I will, therefore, double my offer. Are you agreed?" “IT am,"’ answered the other simply unable to withstand the peculiar power exercised over him. Bosco, the great detective, hastily paid over the money, donned the oil-stained overalls of the machinist and sauntered unconcernedly to where the great greyhound lay metaphorically tugging at her leash. “You are in urgent need of st,’” he said nonchalantly to Great Aviator. “Yes,” said Spiro, as he narrowly scanned the stranger with his little gray eyes, which seemed to sec everything and nothing at the same time “T will take the place, comer complacently. “You!” “Yes, I This is no jol “Tam no tyro.” “What I require demands a nerve of steel, grip of iron and the coolness of an ice-cream cone.”" “T know, I know,”’ tortéd the disguised one. “What do you know?" asked the aviator, categorically, with a delicate commingling of sarcasm and scepticism “Can you bristle a swick?" “ Aye, as well as the patentee. I can also compass a soar, frumper a plantain and splice a curly. “Your vocabulary is adequate.” “Yes, yes,"" replied the detective. “I am an‘ expert. “Come, let us be off The crowd grows impatient.”” “Very well, then," said Spiro, ap- parently convinced by the other's fa- machin- Spiro, the said the new- for tyros,.”" impatiently re- “conrouxD if! THERE'S ANOTHER OF THOSE AERIAL WEDDINGS."” miliarity with the vernacular of the pro- fession. “Come on,’” he concluded, as he climbed to his seat and motioned the other to the machinist’s place at the rear of the middle plane. The boom of the big signal gun an- nounced to the assembled multitude that the flight was about to begin. Then came the gatling-like reports of the en- gines that turned the propellers. A mo- ment later the gallant victor of the air arose majestically while the hoarse plaudits from thousands of throats rolled forth as one mighty thunderbolt Up, up went the machine. Higher and higher it soared, whirling and swirling and dipping and veering. . Suddenly, however, it seemed momen-