Semi-weekly herald., 1917-03-05
WITH THE. BRITISH ARMIES


You remember the county fair? Re-
member the tremor OF expectancy in
the crowd gathered around the dingy
old hot-air balloon as she swelled,
oh, so slowly, with the smoke and
fumes of the barre-stave fire?
Will you ever forget the thrill she
gave you as she lazily lurched into
the air, dragging with her the fellow
in the darned but spangled purple
tights, the parachute jump man with
oiled hair and pastered down on his
forehead? You secretly half hoped
he would fall and half feared he
would.
And then, at about fifteen hundred
feet, the aeronaut's mad leap, his
dead drop of 800 to 500 feet, the
slow opening of the parachute and
the swinging drift to the ground L:
Remember?
Suppose you had to leave your job
in the office, shop or on the farm,
and begin such performances tomor-
row? Suppose you had to go up in
balloon, in any and all sorts of
weather, to be shot at by artillery
and lunged at by hostile aircraft +?
Suppose you had to leap from burn
ing balloons, or get tossed out of the
basket of one while passing thru the
clouds
What If America should suddenly
find herself in a war and the bill.
boards should say "Your country
needs you.' Think you could do these
things for her? British boys are do
ing the little trick every day. Yester-
day they were clerking in stores,
working in shops, bookkeeping in of
fices or going to school. Today they
are making parachute leaps from
balloons and other more thrilling
thing still.
Yesterday the lieutenant you find
yourself talking to, was a pink-and-
white youth at Eton preparing to
go up to Cambridge. Today he con.
siders fighting duels above the
clouds with Germans as much a part
of his job as yesterday he consider
ed calculus to be. Yesterday he was
school kid writing essays about
flowers. Now he handles a machine
gun like demon as he hurtles thru
the sky two miles minute, or nose
dives after a war-hardened youth
like himself whom he is trying to kill.
Here's an example. The incident
occurred in the observation balloon
section. Two youngsters, carrying out
observations over the, German de-
fenses, suddenly got shell thru the
balloon they were making observa-
tions from. 1t began to fall, slowly
at first, then faster. They were about
mile high.
Were hit and falling" one of the
observers phoned down to the ground
'The hostile gun is X-22-D62w A
moment later the second observer
phoned down the position of the hos
tile battery which had punctured
them, but gave the position slightly
different.
Then both boys jumped. Their
parachutes opened at about the same
time, and not more than so feet
apart. They were both waited to the
earth together.
"The blighters" on youth called to
the other as they dangled half mile
aboue the earth. "They couldn't do
that again in million shots"
"Rummy lot of stale cheesei"
growled the other waving an arm
in the direction of the Germans.
Pure accident! They couldn't hit a
breadwagon if they tried" Thus
chatting they landed in a field about
mile from their winch, and patient
ly trudged back.
"l'm sorry to note" said the COM
pany commander as they entered the
hut serving as balloon section tele-
phone central, "that you two gentle
men failed to agree on the location
Of the hostile battery which brought
you down." And though there was a
twinkle in his eyes, his voice was
severe.
''Sorry, Sir" one of the young of
fieers rcplied with smart salute.
"hnt perhaps our error was due to
the observations being taken at diff
ferent attitudes" Thruout the British
army one finds boyish-looking Off
GERS. And they have again and again
proved themselves up like this, when
thc pinch has come.