To-day's _Tribune_ brings us the full account of the machine, its
performance and _modus operandi_; and without the authority of my
friend, I can pronounce at once that the thing is simply ridiculous. It is
the same old useless effort, with the same impossible agents. But to-day,
within twenty miles of Trinity steeple, lives the man who can give to
the world the secret of navigating the air, in calm or in storm, with
the wind or against it; skimming the earth, or in the highest currents,
just as he wills, with all the ease, and all the swiftness, and all the
exactitude of a bird.

My friend is only waiting for an opportunity to perfect his plan, when
he will make it known.

Yours truly,

W.H.K.

_New York; June 14th_, 1869.

Two years have passed and no progress has been made in aerial
navigation.

The California Experiment failed. The great Airship "CITY OF NEW
YORK," had previously escaped the same fate, only because more prudent
than her successor she declined a trial. The promising and ambitious
enterprise of Mr. Henson has hardly been spoken of for a quarter of a
century. And notwithstanding the fact that the number of ascensions in
balloons in the United States and Europe must be counted by thousands,
and although the exigencies of recent wars have made them useful, yet