The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1917-09-20
Hugh E. Wallace Gives Vivid De-
scription of Sensations One
EnjoysP) 5000 Feet in Air.

| Inc IflendS OF hugh r. Walldce, SO
of the Herald editor who is doini
service for Uncle Sam as member o
the Tenth Aero Squadron at Chanut
Field, Rantoul, ILL.,, will be intereste'
in the progress in his chosen brancl
of the service.
Hugh was made Canteen Stewar,
of the post exchange at Rantoul, Aug
Is. The affairs of the exchange hat
been run at rather loose ends between
the opening, July "a, and the dat
the Sank Centre young man was plac
ed in charge so it was no small tasl
for him and his assistants to get the
bushes son systematized basis.
The young man made his first
flight with pilot Aug. Is. An alti
tude of 5000 feet was reached. Ir
his letter ne gives some of his exper,
fences and impressions gained in this
flight. Believing that they will be OF
interest because Of the fact that aero
plane mode of travel is somewhat
new to Herald readers, excerpts of his
letter are published herewith:
ga week ago last Friday night the
Red Cross ladies staged stunt show
at the Neal Opera House in Rantoul.
Geo. Peugh, the Storekeeper and my
roomate, is fancy roller skataer, and
he sure is good. He does an act on
single roller skates ii. e. one roller
on the toe of each skate and another
pair with one roller under the heel of
each, then he uses one of each kind)
in which he skates around and
through and threads" between 49,
inch hunting knives pointing upward
from the floor.
l told one of the boys the Sunday
before that if they needed any more
filters I'd put on Yiddish mono
logue. Well, he booked me but never
told me about it. The rest of the bunch
had been practicing separately in a
bunch each night and he thought l
had practiced and left before he had
got there, but it happened that one
of the fellows asked me if I was going
down to rehearse on Wednesday of
the week (the show was to be on Fri
day.. I finally found out Peugh had
booked me and so went down that
night and gave them chance to look
me over. I went out on the stage and
didn't say thing I intended to, but
got over some that l did say and they
said I'd do Gin a pinch, I guess). Well,
Thursday night I met fellow from
the 38th Squadron, who said he was
a Jewish impersonator. We got to-
gether and framed an act, and then
went out and tried it. Friday night
1 made up with curled hair instead of
crepe hair, but had some almost
spirit gum, so got fairly good
beard. The Rantoul Weekly News
gave Donnes, my partner, and I two
lines, so must have been good (?). He
couldn't have gotten our names in less
than one and some. Nevertheless, we
did our worst.
81 made my first flight in an army
plane, Aug. Is, just three months af-
ter I joined the Aviation Section of
the Signal Corps of Uncle Sans ar
my. Lieut.. Page was doing what he
called solo work. That is, he was do
ing the last of his advanced training
preparatory to taking his Junior
Military Aviation tests. He was So
Icing Flying alone) but said he'd take
me up at9:30 the morning of the 18th.
l was little late, but he was waiting
when I got to the solo part of the
field. I had borrowed a helmet, but
that was all. I asked the Lieutenant
if he was going to take me that morn
ing and he said sure, and asked me if
l had goggles. told him I did not.
He said to get pair, so / went over
to the ambulance but none of the Hos
pital corps men had any and so I sat
there and kidded with them little.
In few minutes 1 heard one of the.
Checkers boiler that Paige would
take up Machine No. 152. I borrowed
a pair of goggles from checker and
vent over to where 152 was resting,
with the engine running at low rate
of speed. Lieut.. Paige aid l arrived
at the machine about the same time.
He asked me if I had a coat; I told
him no. "That's all right" he said,
"get into the machine" I did. When
sat down I noticed that the cushion
was gone out of the front seat and
hollered to the Lieut.. to know if l had
better get one. He said no, he would
not bump me very hard, so l sat
down, fastened the strap across my
lap and pulled it up snug. The Lieut..
tried the strap to see that it was all
right and strapped himself in. He
kicked the back of my seat; looked
around; he waved his hand and speed
ed up the engine; our machine ran
along the ground for about 1000 feet
and then began to ascend. The wind
was strong but quite steady. We kept
on going up and kept watching the
chs cker board beneath me as it took
on larger proportions but each indi-
vidual square, oblong or triangle grew
steadily smaller. The higher up we
got the more the earth presented the
appearance of a relief map done in col
ors. We swung around in wide cir