By Dan Beard
Fig. 46.
All the Novelties in the Air.
"The hexagon tail kites carry up a wonderfully steep string, but they call for long individual lines to each kite, but they to prevent the kite-tail from becoming entangled with the line below. But the Malay tailless kites excel them. I have Malay tailless kites that fly with a steeper string than a hexagon, and requires no hauling down if the wind increases from eight to thirty-five miles an hour-conditions which will, bring to the ground a tail kite.
"Since the Malay kite has only two light sticks, and can be built of very light paper as well as cloth, it is at home in mild winds of from lour to eight miles an hour. The cloth-covered kites are much heavier and are for use in stronger winds."
Now if the reader has proved himself a good kite-flier, he should have a fine "stable" of kites of his own manufacture, and since from the authorities quoted it is evident that kites with tails can be made to fly tandem he can produce a great sensation by taking an example of all the different forms of kites and by sending up the largest one first. Attach the string of another to the first kite string and let it go. Let him pay out more line and hitch on another kite, and so on until he has a whole navy or zoological garden floating over the heads of the astonished spectators, and though he may discover no new law in science, he will have a "heap" of fun (Fig. 46).
