the Mahometan Faith; but in answer to my query this Mighty Spiritual Magnate seemed taken aback; he affirmed that the Koran did not mention the article, and, therefore, he believed that it could not exist, but had I made a thorough search for it; had I tried the Dey of Algiers. I answered no! Had I tried the Doge of Venice—the Elector of Saxony—the Begum of Oude—the Stadholder of Holland— the Peishwa of Poona—the Nabob of Bengal—the Caliph of Bagdad— the Inca of Peru, or the great Mogul. I looked at the Grand Mufti in speechless astonishment; he might as well have asked me if I had enquired of Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzer. I shook my head and rushed from his presence, completely nonplussed, bewildered, frantic. Where on earth was I to get the article? I had asked, and asked, and asked again, and was tired of asking. I had travelled fifty thousand miles by forty different modes of conveyance; consulted in their own capitals with thirty secular monarchs, governing three-fourths of the world; and I had with earnest, respectful enquiry approached the sacerdotal thrones of the spiritual monarchs of the eleven principal religions of mankind, and yet I could get no tidings of it. What was I to do? I was now standing in front of the great Mosque at Constantinople almost frantic with perplexity; some one approached and handed me a printed announcement. I read it! It sent an inexpressible thrill through me. I immediately took a steamer
for Melbourne, landed there, jumped into a cab, went straight to Cole's Book
Arcade, and saw a drawing of the very article I had ransacked the world over to obtain, and what do you think it was? It was a FLYING MACHINE! I wanted a flying machine, Mr. Cole informed me that he had not got his machine to fly yet, and that in all the world a machine was not yet invented that would fly, but that, through the active and progressive ingenuity of the human intellect, such a machine was certain to be invented in the future, and as an earnest of his strong conviction he handed me a document, which ran as follows:— October 31st. 1882
I, the undersigned, firmly believe that as man has already made
machines to run over the land and float over the water faster than
the swiftest animal, so shortly he will make machines to fly
through the air as fast, and finally faster, than the swiftest
birds do now. And I hereby offer a bonus of £1,000 to any person
who shall (in consequence of said bonus) within the next two years
invent a flying machine, to go by Electrical, Chemical, Mechanical,
or any other means, except by gas, a distance of 100 miles, and
shall come and stop in front of the Book Arcade, Bourke Street,
Melbourne, Australia, as easily and as safely as a carriage stops
there now.
—E. W. Cole
Cole's Flying Machine
A workable flying machine would be the grandest invention of the age. My offer may not bring it about, but suppose a shilling subscription was made throughout the civilised world; say twenty million people gave 1/- each. That would be one million pounds, and offer that as a bonus for a useful flying machine, that bonus, I am sure, would produce the article. The shillings would be well spent, and it would immortalise the twenty million people who put their names down.

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Page 114—Miss Cole's Aerial Flight in a Flying Machine