October 17^th 1908. AEROPLANE TRIUMPH. 50 MILES IN 69 MINUTES. Mr Wilbur Wright on Saturday afternoon made a fifty mile flight with a passenger remaining over sixty nine minutes in the  air. He thus beat all the world records and triumphantly completed the tests required by the Lazarc-Weiler Syndicate before purchasing the French rights of the American aeroplane for £20,000. At 4.45 Mr. Wright and Mr. Paul Painleave, a member of the French Institute, took their seats in the aeroplane before the largest number of aeronautical experts who have ever been present at the demonstrations of Mr. Wright. The aeroplane rose to a height of 25ft and Mr. Wright commenced to describe a series of eclipses and triangles. For some time the aviator maneuvered at various heights. At times he reached a height of nearly 100 ft., and during the greater part of the flight the aeroplane travelled at a great speed. The performance was accepted as entirely satisfactory by the members of the Syndicate and may therefore be regarded as the conclusion of Mr. Wright’s work at Le Mans. (France).

October 17^th 1908. INVASION BY AIRSHIP.  GERMAN PLAN TO CONQUER ENGLAND. Herr Rudolph Martin, Government Councillor and author of The Coming War in the Air who is president of the recently formed German League for Motor Airship Navigation, fired the imagination of his hearers at a meeting in Berlin with a plan for the conquest of England by airships. He averted that the principal duty of aerial navigators was to induce the combined Continental Powers to construct a fleet of 10,000 Zeppelins, each to carry twenty soldiers, to fly these across the English Channel and the North Sea, preferably by night, and to land and capture the sleeping Britons before they could realise what was taking place. Herr Martin disposed of the British Fleet by predicting that they would turn tail and leave the coasts defences as soon as the aerial armada hove in view in order to avoid being blown up by the shells which would otherwise be dropped on to them from the clouds. The aerial armada would assemble at leisure at points opposite the English coast, and begin their death-dealing voyage as soon as the weather was favourable. Herr Martin thought that artillery and cavalry could be landed in England quite as easily as 200,000 infantry.

28-11-1908. VICE-REGAL PARTY IN BELLEEK. ADDRESS OF WELCOME FROM THE INHABITANTS. SPEECH OF THE LORD LIEUTENANT. His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant and the Counters of Aberdeen, who travelled from Dublin on Monday, arrived in the pretty little village of Belleek by the 7.55 train last night, and were enthusiastically received by the townspeople. The windows of a number of the houses were illuminated for the occasion, and a pretty floral arch WITH THE WORD “WELCOME, in white letters on a crimson background, spanned the main thoroughfare.

An address from the people of the town and district was presented to their Excellencies at the entrance to the hotel. There was an immense crowd outside the building. The Very Rev Dr McMeel, P. P. chairman of the Reception Committee, presided, and in the course of his speech said it was necessary for the Government, in justifying the insertion of the Compulsory Notification Clause in the Tuberculosis Bill at present before Parliament to establish sanatoria in convenient centres through, the length and breadth of Ireland, out of the millions of pounds that this country had been obliged to pay in over-taxation to the British Treasury for the past sixty or seventy years (cheers). As their Excellencies had always cordially sympathised with the ideals and aspirations of the Irish people, he trusted that they would continue their valuable services until they should have everywhere established the flourishing tranquillity of a happy and contented Ireland (cheers).

Mr Edward Knox, hon. secretary of the Reception Committee, then read the address. The Lord Lieutenant, who was loudly cheered, in replying, said he need scarcely tell them that he had always endeavoured to support Lady Aberdeen in every possible manner in her efforts to help the Home Industries, and secondly, in regard to her fight with the scourge of tuberculosis (cheers). He thought it was a happy augury, and omen that they had already, by coming forward in this way and alluding to the matter as they had done in the address, indicated their hearty’ support and concurrence with the efforts now being made to stamp out this disease (cheers). Afterwards a number of the members of the Reception Committee were introduced to Lord and Lady Aberdeen. Three ringing cheers having been given for their Excellencies the crowd dispersed. On Tuesday the Vice-regal party motored to Donegal to open the Tuberculosis Exhibition. During their stay in Belleek they will visit the famous pottery and. other places of interest in this picturesque district.

28-11-1908. OLD-AGE PENSIONS IN FERMANAGH. The County Fermanagh Local Pension Committee held a prolonged sitting on Friday for the consideration of claims, during the course of which they allowed 5 shillings per week in 360 cases, 4 shillings in one case, 3 shillings in one case and 1 shilling in one case and postponed 35 cases for further evidence and investigation. One application was withdrawn. The total number of cases dealt with was 399, which constitutes a record for Ireland.

28-11-1908. OLD-AGE PENSIONS IN FERMANAGH. The County Fermanagh Local Pension Committee held a prolonged sitting on Friday for the consideration of claims, during the course of which they allowed 5 shillings per week in 360 cases, 4 shillings in one case, 3 shillings in one case and 1 shilling in one case and postponed 35 cases for further evidence and investigation. One application was withdrawn. The total number of cases dealt with was 399, which constitutes a record for Ireland.

28-11-1908. CALUMNY REFUTED. THE PROTESTANT BIGOTS OF THE SOUTH. ALLEGED SCENES AT FUNERAL. Under the heading of “Roman Catholic Intolerance in County Limerick,” “Barbarous conduct at a Funeral,” the Fermanagh Times of last week published letter from Rev. J. S. Wylie, Castleconnell in which the rev gentleman paints a further lurid picture of the scenes alleged to have taken place at the funeral of Mr John Enright. He points out in his letter that he was a frequent caller at Mr Enright’s during his illness, and that he ministered to him three times during this period. In the Irish Independent of Thursday last the mother of the deceased, Mrs K Enright, gives the lie to this statement of the pious rector of Castleconnell. Mrs Enright, who is naturally .horrified at the disgusting dispute which has arisen over her dead son, now considers it her duty to place the true facts before the public, and to put an end once and for all to the bigots’ roar all over Ireland. She denies point blank that Mr Wylie ministered to her son during his last illness. “Since the day my son fell sick she writes, “Mr Wylie never saw him, nor, as far as I know, ever asked to see him until the 25th October, when he was unconscious. He died in less than an hour after Mr Wylie leaving him.” What has the representative of Protestant truth and Protestant tolerance in Castleconnell to say to this point blank denial of his statements? “My son,” writes Mrs Enright “had been attended to by the priest on three occasions, at his own special request, uninfluenced by anybody while he was in his perfect senses; the priest received him into the Catholic Church, administered to him the last rites of the Catholic Church and he died a Catholic. Rev Wylie had been told this.” The fact then remains that the Rev. Wylie after being informed by the relatives of the deceased of the latter’s conversion to Catholicity, and his consequent desire to be buried according to the rites of the Catholic Church, showed an inhuman disrespect, both for the wishes of the living and dead, by stopping a funeral procession at the gate of his church, and calling upon the mourners, to bear the body of the deceased inside. This is how the Christian Minister describes the scene outside the church When the coffin reached the church gate a crowd of people surrounded it. Sticks were raised in a threatening manner; some of the bearers, including Dr George Enright, were roughly handled. The coffin was then seized by the crowd, who forcibly prevented it being brought into the church, and, with shouts and cries of “‘Don’t let him be buried a Protestant,” which were heard more than a quarter of a mile away, the body was rushed past the church and placed in the grave. It is enough to say that Dr George Enright absolutely denies getting any rough handling, as well as the statement that sticks were used in a threatening manner. Our readers will take the other statements of the rev gentleman for what they are worth.

SABBATH DESECRATORS. To the Editor of the “Fermanagh Herald.” The following letter has been addressed to the editor of the “Impartial Reporter’ in. reply to one appearing in the last issue of that paper.

10-10-1908. To the Editor “Impartial Reporter. – Dear Sir, Your correspondent “Ballinamallard Unionist” and a Lover of Truth must be a very simple man. He proceeds in the course of a lengthy letter to give the truth of the Ballinamallard incident where, the God-fearing loyalists are alleged to have gathered into that mecca of Orangeism in order to prevent by physical force some peaceable people passing through the village on the Sabbath. “Lover of Truth’ denies the allegation, and if his contention be accurate it is the manifest duty of the traders and inhabitants of Ballinamallard to take action to clear their village of the serious allegations which the police have made against it. Will they act or will they not? If they do not, then we shall believe that the police were correct when they advised the competitors at the Feis to go round by another road lest a riot might ensue. But that apart, “Lover of Truth” makes himself appear quite silly when he applies the, term ‘Sabbath Desecrators” to the competitors. Does he read the papers? If so, is he aware that two Sundays ago the Brewers of England —the great driving force behind loyalty and Unionism organised an extraordinary political demonstration in Hyde Park, London, to which over a hundred thousand people came from the English provinces? Huge crowds bearing banners with political party cries filled the streets the whole day and speeches were delivered from fifty platforms. Has “Lover of the Truth” written to the papers to protest against this colossal desecration of the Lord’s Day, engineered by drink in support of Unionism, Beer, beer, glorious beer! beer and the Union, beer and loyalty?

And the dozen or so boys from Enniskillen, who are passing to a musical festival, are Sabbath desecrators! Do you have any music on the Sabbath, “Lover of Truth? Either the police were correct or it is the plain duty of the Ballinamallard people to set themselves right with the public. If they allow the matter to lie, people must not be blamed for assuming that the Christianity which prompts a man to break his neighbour’s head for the love of God is not the Christianity of the gentle Christ, who loved all men, even His enemies. ‘Yours truly, etc.

21-11-1908. CLONES LACE AT FRANCO- BRITISH EXHIBITION. One of the most prominent and attractive stalls in the section devoted to arts and crafts and home industries at the Franco-British Exhibition in London was that of Mrs Philip Maguire lace dealer Fermanagh Street, Clones, who displayed an extensive assortment of lace and crochet, arranged in a most artistic and effective manned. The stall, which was a corner one and in a central position, attracted much attention, and being lined on the inside in emerald green, made a most appropriate setting for the beautiful fabrics on view, the work of deft and patient fingers of the industrious lace-makers of Clones district. The Clones lace industry, which is the means of keeping so many families from poverty or emigration, will, no doubt, benefit immensely from the display referred to, and it is satisfactory to know that Mrs. Maguire’s enterprise in securing a stall and placing the exhibit on view has been amply rewarded by the results, notwithstanding, the heavy expenses involved. During the fortnight which she spent at the exhibition she sold an enormous quantity of lace fabrics of all kinds, besides booking orders amounting to hundreds of pounds and. which it will probably take many months to supply. Mrs Maguire was specially complimented by a leading London daily on the success of her stall, and the effective manner in which she had arranged her display at the exhibition.