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looking down, a description not unlike that given by Barney and Betty Hill. In March, an object of even stranger appearance was seen by Robert Hibbard, a farmer living fifteen miles north of Sioux City, Iowa. Hibbard not only saw the airship, but an anchor hanging from a rope attached to the mysterious craft caught his clothes and dragged him several dozen feet, until he fell back to earth. Presenting in an orderly fashion all the accounts of that period would itself fill a book. My object here is only to review the most detailed observations of the behavior of the airship's occupants on the ground. But first, how did the object behave? It maneuvered very much in the way UFOs are said to maneuver, except that airships were never seen flying in formation or performing aerial dances. Usually, an airship flew rather slowly and majestically — of course, such an object in 1897 ran no risk of being pursued — except in a few close-proximity cases when it was reported to depart "as a shot out of a gun." Another difference from modern UFOs lies in the fact that its leisurely trajectory often took it over large urban areas. Omaha, Milwaukee, Chicago, and other cities were thus visited; each time, large crowds gathered to watch the object. Otherwise, the airship exhibited all the typical activities of UFOs: hovering, dropping "probes" — on Newton, Iowa, on April 10, for example — changing course abruptly, changing altitude at great speed, circling, landing and taking off, sweeping the countryside with powerful light beams. The occupants of the airship were as variously described as are UFO operators. Several reports could be interpreted to mean that dwarfs were among them, but it was not stated in so many words by witnesses. Alexander Hamilton says that the beings were the strangest he had ever seen and that he did not care to see them again. mo oorman teooat : ad u tata ta ade The UFO's operators who engaged in discussion with human witnesses were indistinguishable from the average American population of the time. This, for instance, is the experience related by Captain James Hooton (described in the Arkansas Gazette as "the well-known Iron Mountain railroad Wy conductor"): I had gone down to Texarkana to bring back a special, and knowing that I would have some eight to ten hours to spend in Texarkana, I went to Homan (Arkansas) to do a little hunting. It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon when I reached that place. The spot was good, and before I knew it, it was after 6 o'clock when I started to make my way back toward the railroad station. As I was tramping through the bush my attention was attracted by a familiar sound, a sound for all the world like the working of an air pump on a locomotive. I went at once in the direction of the sound, and there in an open space of some five or six acres, I saw the object making the noise. To say that I was astonished would but feebly express my feelings. I decided at once that this was the famous airship seen by so many people about the country. There was a medium-size looking man aboard and I noticed that he was wearing smoked glasses. He was tinkering around what seemed to be the back end of the ship, and as I approached I was too dumbfounded to speak. He looked at me in surprise, and said: "Good day, sir; good day." I asked: "Is this the airship?" And he replied: "Yes, sir," whereupon three or four other men came out of what was apparently the keel of the ship. A close examination showed that the keel was divided into two parts, terminating in front like the sharp of a knife-like edge, while the side of the ship bulged gradually toward the middle, and then receded. There were three large wheels upon each side made of some bending metal and arranged so that they became concave as they moved forward. "I beg your pardon, sir," I said, "the noise sounds a great deal like a Westinghouse air brake." "Perhaps it does, my friend: we are using condensed air and aeroplanes, but you will know more later on." "All ready, sir," someone called out, when the party all disappeared below. I observed that just in front of each wheel a two-inch tube began to spurt air on the wheels and they commenced revolving. The ship gradually arose with a hissing sound. The aeroplanes suddenly sprang forward, turning their sharp end skyward, then the rudders at the end of the ship began to veer to one side and the wheel revolved so fast that one could scarcely see the