THE RECORD-UNION — NOVEMBER 19, 1896
Was It an Air-Ship or a WIll-o’-the-Wisp? ♢ Stories That are Floating Around Concerning the Supposed Floating Visitor.
Regarding the aerial visitor that passed over Sacramento Tuesday evening, and which was described at the time as being a pure white light of about double the power of an electric arc light, many queer stories are told.
Whether the light was a meteor, or attached to a balloon, or whether it was a genuine flying machine. Is not positively known, though ninety-nine out of 100 men in the city regard the matter in the light of a huge hoax. The stories told by some of the parties who saw the light follow, and the reader can pay his money and take his choice:
R. L. Lowry, who was formerly in the employ of the street railway company in this city, but who has been absent for some time and only recently returned, says he was near East Park and saw the apparatus when it was not more than fifty feet from the ground. He declared that the machine was cigar-shaped and was operated by four men who sat aside the cigar and moved as though they were working their passage on a bicycle. He stated that the machine was fitted with wing-like propellers after the fashion of those of an ocean steamer.
T. P. De Long, whose residence is not mentioned in the city directory, said he saw the light and heard voices, but couldn’t hear what was said.
Daniel Curl, a horse-trainer, is authority for the statement that he not only saw the light, but heard someone suggest that “they go up higher.”
