Nothing about the Wrights’ feat appeared in the Dayton _Journal_ the next morning. But news considered important enough to be displayed on the first page of that same issue included items about a routine weekly meeting of the local united trades and labor council; a colored man named Charles Brown, who admitted pocketbook thefts; the pardoning of a robber from Joliet prison, in Illinois. On the page opposite the editorial page, the biggest, blackest headline was: “Stores Are Filled with Christmas Shoppers.” Dayton afternoon papers on that December 18 did print accounts of the receipt of the telegram by Bishop Wright, as well as other “facts” about the flight. The Dayton _Herald_ article appeared to be a rehash of the dispatch from Norfolk in the Cincinnati _Enquirer_. Over the article in the Dayton _Daily News_, on an inside page, alongside of so-called “country correspondence” from near-by towns, the heading was: “Dayton Boys Emulate Great Santos-Dumont.” Santos-Dumont had flown in an airship, and now the Wrights had flown in something or other. Therefore the Wrights must be imitators of Alberto Santos-Dumont! Lacking scientific knowledge, the editors failed to distinguish between a flying-machine, heavier-than-air, and an airship consisting of a gas-bag equipped with a propeller. Indeed, from then on, nearly all who had heard of the reported flights, editors included, were in one or the other of two groups of disbelievers: (1) those who refused to believe the flights had taken place at all; and (2) those who thought that even if they had been made they were not of great importance. The Associated Press, that had declined to accept news of the flights at either Norfolk or Dayton the day before, now sent out for afternoon papers on December 18, a brief report, less than 350 words, from Norfolk. This appeared to be simply a condensation of the article in the _Virginian-Pilot_ that morning and contained most of the same inaccuracies. Not more than two or three sentences in the AP dispatch were correct. “The machine flew for three miles,” the report said, “... and gracefully descended to the earth _at the spot selected_ by the man in the _navigator’s car_ as a suitable landing place.... Preparatory to its flight the machine was placed upon _a platform ... on a high sandhill_ and when all was in readiness the fastenings to the machine were released and it _started down an incline_. The navigator, Wilbur Wright, _then_ started a small gasoline engine which worked the propellers. When the end of the _incline_ was reached the machine gradually arose until it obtained [sic] an _altitude of 60 feet_.... _In_ the center is the navigator’s car and suspended _just below the bottom plan_ [sic] is a small gasoline engine, which furnishes the motive power for the propelling and elevating wheels.