Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-10-24


all of we Foreign Legion men over IL
we so desired. Being transferred TO
the American Army has Its advan-
| tages, most of 1t being financial.
| Would like to stay with the French
| but realize that their financial trou-
| bles are as great as mine, so Will re-
/ move my presence IL the American
! Army thinks l have brains enough
! to make an officer. Personally, l
would sooner be good flier than an
officer, but it looks as il Fate (capl-
| tai letter there) has stepped III
| again, for / made an awful stagSer
at flying last night. You remember
what / told you about the lazy monl-
| teurs l have now Well, last night
| by the aid of an interpreter l asked
my particular lazy bones whetner
he would let me fly along home with
him. lie finally decided he would.
so we were soon off, and right away
i got in Dutch, because he could not
speak English and 1t was quite q
little time before l realized that ne
wanted to fly low and view the
scenery. So we sailed along over
the city of Tours, little hamlets ana
rivers. only so meters G5O teetl
high. with Yours Truly sitting in the
back seat, having his own troubles
keeping a light plane level on a
bumpy sea. and the moniteur hang
ing over the side, waving to his lady
loVe---at least, that was what L
thought he was doing for after sew
eral minutes in the air L gave up
trying to figure out in which direc-
ton camp lay and merely followed
his directions, because we were cir
cling and diving and making figufe
eights Especially was this so near
chateau, where he insisted on
standing the airplane up on one
wing so he could get better view, L
guess. 1t was his funeral as mucn
as mine so | banked her up ana
around she came. / saw him wave
and throw a kiss and that's all L ala
| see, because l was more Interested
in solving the problem of how 10
keep that plane on a level keel WIN
the least eXertion. l assure you, IL :
actually work to drive one of these
Candrons, since the pilot is not pro-
tected from wind. Besides this there
is the pressure on the stick Cor con-
tro), for when the engine is gong
full speed one has to push very hard
on that stick. Really, after a ten
minute flight my arm is sore from
the strain. And so is my neck. one
has to resist the wind pressure on
his head and that tires one nearly as
Anyway, when we landed, l made
the landing and strange to say made
! it perfect After the punk exhibit
| ton I had given in the air l was
some surprised to hear him say tres
| bien" but he counteracted this by
! saying my air work was "manvair.
Yeh! Get out your dictionary and
| dig! So must |.
| It's a universal fad in France for
!
| stocking as a cap. Believe me, many
| are the rare color combinations one
| sees. One moniteur even wears the
! lady's furs, but then he is a count
and very good-looking. Another
moniteur (teacher) wore a stocking
with q very passionate perfume and
merely put his pupils to sleep every
time be went up, since they were
loath to have the airplane go so fast
in order that they might drink lr
some more of that heavenly perfume
and not have it blown past them al
| so miles an hour.
Received a letter from Ernest this
morning. also three pictures of him
in his new uniform. l don't know
what the idea was unless he wanted
to rub the fact in that l am still g
poilu, and. therefore, forced to sa'
lutte. l give it up though, for II
| never be able to send you picture
of me so beautiful. 1t is not posi-
BILE. One can't make a prince out o.
a. plumber, because they are too diff
ferent-one smokes a pipe ad the
other lays them. Bum joke, but
nevertheless, true in this country
Here they are tickled to get anything
1 to smoke.
Speaking about promotions I ma!
get some myself, because now tha
| intend changing to American avia.
ton / become a first lieutenant al
soon as 1 am "breveted" (pass M!
tests). | hope that will be before
winter sets in, but l have my doubts
l fear I will never get out of thi:
landing class. Been sitting around
for four days, which is the reason
why / did so poorly last night whtl'
flying. Surprising how much of thai
delicate air feel had lost, and it die
not come back until we were ready
| to land.
One big reason for changing /.
that Christmas is coming. Everyone
that writes me letter wants me te
| send some little trinket back-sucf
as a button off the Kaiser's coat, oil
| the periscope off sub. Such little
| expeditions cost money to finance
| besides l have not learned to fly yet
| and have an enormous amount oi
training ahead of me before I am
| able to challenge a German sky pilot
| to mortal combat. Then again,
have no money to buy sky hook.
A peculiar as well as an amusing
| thing about these F'renchmen is that
| they do not like air. nor water.
The other night we opened all the
windows as usual before turning in,
and nearly started civil war. The
only reason we got away with it was
because we were in the majority,
You know Frenchman always sleeps
with windows and doors tightly
closed. I have not discovered just
what the reason is unless he is
afraid the small, downy growth in
his upner lip might suffer from
frost. 1t was cold enough last night
for that, and they sure did dive
down under the covers when the
windows went up.
Awful kind of you, mother, to send
me boxes of eats, but really 1 am
we'll fed here. AS for the prevalent
belief that I am getting thin on this
diet of war bread and coffee, there
is nothing in it. l got used to the
sudden change, I didn't mind. I
really think it was good for me. OF
all things to send me-a loaf of
bread, white at that If 1t is not too
stale when it reaches here I'll cut it
up in small chunks and sell it for
souvenirs. 1t certainly would be
something rare.
VIII try to have some pictures