ar to the
very soil of England. It was then eight years before the greatest
war of history was to break out, but even at that date hatred of
England was being sedulously cultivated among the German people by
those in authority.

As a result of this national attitude Count Zeppelin's enterprise
was speedily put on a sound financial footing. Though "No. IV." had
been destroyed by an accident it had been the purpose of the
government to buy her, and $125,000 of the purchase price was now
put at the disposal of the Count von Zeppelin. A popular Zeppelin
fund of $1,500,000 was raised and expended in building great works.
Thenceforward there was no lack of money for furthering what had
truly become a great national interest.

But the progress of the construction of Zeppelins for the next few
years was curiously compounded of success and failure. Fate seemed
to have decreed to every Zeppelin triumph a disaster. Each mischance
was attributed to exceptional conditions which never could happen
again, but either they did occur, or some new but equally effective
accident did. Outside of Germany, where the public mind had become
set in an almost idolatrous confidence in Zeppelin, the great
airships were becoming a jest and a byword notwithstanding their
unquestioned accomplishments. Indeed when the record was made up
just before the declaration of war in 1914 it was found that of
twenty-five Zeppelins thus far constructed only twelve were
available. Thirteen had been destroyed by accident--two of them
modern naval airships only completed in 1913. The record was not one
to inspire confidence.

In 1909, during a voyage in which he made nine hundred miles in
thirty-eight hours, the rumour was spread that von Zeppelin would
continue it to Berlin. Some joker sent a forged telegram to the
Kaiser to that effect signed "Zeppelin." It was expected to be the
first appearance of one of the great ships at the capital, and the
Emperor hastened to prepare a suitable welcome. A great crowd
assembled at the Templehoff Parade Ground. The Berlin Airship
Battalion was under orders to assist in the landing. The Kaiser
himself was ready to hasten to the spot should the ship be sighted.
But she never appeared. If von Zeppelin knew of the exploit which
rumour had assigned to him--which is doubtful--he could not have
carried it out. His ship collided with a tree--an accident
singularly frequent in the Zeppelin records--so disabling it that
it could o