Evening journal., 1915-05-26
Ry WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD.

United Press staff Correspondent.
Copyright, 1915, by the United Press)
Copyright in Great Britain)
HEADQUARTERS OF THE BRIT
IsH ARMY, NORTHERN FRANCE.
April 2S.-(By Mail to New York;
It's after "roosting hour" at night.
when everybody is down out of the
death-filled sky that you can get the
English flying men to do what little
talking there is in them.
Dinner is the time for chatting with
them. | sat down at a small table
full of them this evening. They
were all young fellows, and | felt as
if | might be dining in a Harvard or
a Yale mess hall, except that our
eating place was a room in little
French farmhouse. They were all
English school men, come out of
England's best homes. One OF them
] had known in Texas some years ago
when Orozco. the Mexican rebel, had
employed him to fly for the rebel
army; the others had all learned fly
ing since the war begun.
Il suppose" / said to one young
man, there are times when you wait
and wait at roosting time and the
fellow doesn't come back"
"Oh, yes.' he said. that does hap
pen. But we don't give up hope. See
that fellow over there" he said, in
dicating a young man down the table.
well, one night he didn't come back.
We put out the flares ami waited and
waited. but there was not a sign of
him. We gave him up for good. Ten
days passed and one day a strange
aeroplane appeared in the shy coming
from the direction of England You
know we fly over here with our new
machines from England instead Of
carrying them on boats and trains
and we thought this was a new flyer
coming to join our camp. The ma
chine lighted and out stepped our old
friend who had been missing for so
many days and whom we had given up
for dead
Then he told us his story He had
come down in the German line and
when he alighted no one was around.
He ran away from the place and went
into a French cottage. He can talk
French like a native and the good
French people helped him out with
a suit of old clothes. He had no
money, but he has got a bank ac-
count in London. So he went to a
French storekeeper to whom he had
been recommended by his French cot
tage folks and the storekeeper cash
ed a check for him. Theh he made
his way on foot to another town and
finally reached -. After that the
rest was easy; he took a boat for
England, got another machine and
few back to us"
How do the fellows feel about the
German shrapnel," l asked. "I saw
a battle between two English ma
chimes and q German machine at
Ypres last Saturday and I don't sec
how the Englishmen missed getting
hit"
do you know what the fellows cal
those puffy white shrapnel Clouds p
asked the flying man smiling "They
call them 'Archibalds' No one knows
how the name started. but it's a fixed
name now with the flying men,"
Cant be very pleasant to have
them hanging around yon," / sug
gested.
well, it isn't" he yielded. You're
really helpless you know. They're
three inch shells and they scatter
pieces of steel for a hundred fee
around. Even if one doesn't hit you
you're likely to fly under the pieces
as their falling and puncture youl
oil tank and set fire to the whole bal
of tricks.
"And the Germans put those littl,
white clouds into the sky so nicely
too. The puffs are always arrange,
in regular order They make mi
think of white paper lanterns hunl
on a wire. And the smoke smells ter
ribly too.
i've never been on the grounC
when an aeroplane was being shot al
II must be a great sight to see it,
he added I'D like to look at /
from the ground some time"
] found that the most popular stor,
in the British air cSmp had to d
with one of the most daring of Gen
eral Sir John French's flying men