The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1914-10-23
French Aviator Makes a Peril
GUS War Flight.
Dispatch Bearer Tells Of Air Trip
From Paris With Orders for Gen.
eral In the North-6rought
to Earth by Shot.

London.-Le Petit Journal pub
fishes description of the experience
OF a passenger on board an aeroplane
In time Of war. The start took place
one gray dawn. Rian, the pilot, a
famous civilian aviator, clothed in
the leather armor of his craft, re-
ceived the following orders from his
captain:
You will convey a passenger and
dispatches straight north TO -.
Your orders are simply to get them
there. You must take no risks en-
route. If the enemy brings you down,
destroy both the dispatches and the
Reroplans If you get through to 7,
60 at Cnce to the general with your
passenger, who will give him YER
bal message. Good luck and quick
Is the word"
The passengers story continues:
while the pilot was looking over
his machine, took my place with
the dispatches between my legs and
cHrbine slung along the framework on
either side. The machine ran jolting
along the ground and rose percep-
tibly iR front of me. The pilot, lashed
TO his seat, sat motionless and atten-
tive, regulating the course with little
movements Of the levers.
I'VE started directly north, tossed
q little by an east wind, which caught
us under one wing.
Suddenly the pilot cut off the mo-
tor, and nothing was audible except
the whistling of the wind through
the rigging of the aeroplane. He
turned to me, pointed out some little
black smoke puffs far below us, and
signed to me to listen. But l could
hear nothing except the wind. Then
the motor started again, and the
steady hum covered everything.
"The smoke puffs grew nearer and
msSe numerous. We tried to rise still |
higher, when a great wind came and |
threw US to one side. The ever ready |
pilot righed us but another and more
terrible shock hurled us vertically |
upwards.
"Then we began to fall. The smoke
and flashes we're now quite near us,
and we were thrown this way and that
bv great blasts of air Still we forged
ahead at full speed, clinging to the
'I awaited the inevitable end, in
capable Of thinking Then suddenly
calm was restored. We had passed
the danger zone and beneath us
stretched a great forest, cut here and
there with ravines.
Hardly had we recovered a sense
Of security than the danger reap
Deared in all its horror. AS we left
he zone of danger our aeroplane be-
gan to list over. The pilot, having
lone his utmost to right us, cut off !
he motor and, half turning his head
,azed towards our left wing, where a
"trip Of torn canvas was streaming
n the wind.
cat once our headlong descent be-
ian, ending with an abrupt landing in
narrow glade. No one but that pilot Y
ould have attempted so desperate a
naneuver with success. {
Calm, though with face drawn !
Nth anxiety, he jumped to the earth,
houting, Take your carbine while l
epair the damage and he set to l
FORK to fasten patch over the torn
ring. Quick he added, quick if the
(Germans) come fire at
hem. Then I will set the machine on
re and we will make a run for it,
soon we we're in our places ready
, go. The propeller was started and
re rose, but three horsemen at the
dge of the glade came towards us
t a mad pace and their height t
semed to grow as we approached Ii
1T seemed we never would rise n
bove them, but suddenly with a f
ound that carried us up almost YER Z
calIy we passed above them, and a
len again we we're looking down on
sea of troops at the edge of the for il
It. Smoke and gun flashes reap a