Evening star., 1918-06-17
Begins His "Air Cruiser"

by way of inspiration.
Begins His "Air Cruiser"
Let's see: take another look at
the paper and begin to make the body
of an air cruiser. Slowly but surely
carve the different pieces of wood
which are to be fitted together to
form the fuselage.
Done! Papered, pasted and paint
ed. there lies the body of the biplane.
tailless and wheelless. Now for the
wings Easy! Cut them out Of card
board. wood or anything you please.
Finished! Yes. Two big stars are
allies. Then come the wheels. con-
trolls, motors and. lastly. the prope1-
Ter. Oh. was ever an artist SO proud
of his masterpiece? There stands the
beautiful model, SO graceful and
looking SO anxious for flight. l men,
The bombs-I forgot the bombs. Well,
they must be made on q lathe. Why
not make shells, too? Sure. In two
hours have a bomb. large shell
and a number Of trench shells.
Finished! Suddenly I get an in
spiration. why not make models of
the rest of them? I get 30 excited
that I bang the table five times be-
fore go to work. Two months later
I have a model Of almost any well
known device used in the war.
Teacher Hears About It.
"somehow. my teacher learned
about it. She was very interested and
asked me to bring. them to school.
some excitement. l thought it was
goodbye to my models, but. as al
ways, Miss Lamborn came to the res
cue. She seated the grade and told
them that II they liked, they might
hear me explain the models and show
mission OF two cents. Everybody
went, Of course. because the money
was to be given to the Red Cross.
The other grades learned about 1t
and wanted to go, too.
THE models were arranged on
large table and the lecturer stood be-
hind them. Here they come! get
ready. Yes, was a little nervous at
first and did not talk clearly, but
after five minutes had passed l was
'in my shoes and was lecturing like
an old timer. A description of bat
tie between allied and Hun planes is
in progress, and the fight seems SO
realistic that all look at the airship
as il waiting for the enemy machine
to dash down, and l relieve the ten
sion by describing how the German
was blown to pieces.
Then, it suddenly came to me that
while was describing a battle be-
tween two military planes, at the
same time thousands of bombs were
being dropped upon the heads of
thousands of innocent children and
unprotected women. My blood boiled
at the thought.
Gives Play to Imagination.
For a minute, I stopped and i'm
aUinaI rhf1dran running in
from the cold-blooded murderers. ]
really could see the huge bombs
crashing the roofs of dwellings
manning and killing all within their
reach; / could see the automobiles oil
the Red Cross carrying away the
| wounded as more bombs came down;
/ could hear the roar of propelIers
and see the huge Zeppelins and aeros
disappear, leaving death and destruc-
tion behind. And / heard the call for
| help.
Il could not give much. because dc
not have much. But I thought ii
everybody gives a little. then 1t will
be a big gum
80 described the terrible destruc-
tion worked by these machines; told
| OF the atrocities committed by
| these barking Huns, and appealed tc
the children to help the victims of ali
| raids: submarines, poisonous gases
| ana the prey of German kultur in Bel
gium, France. Italy, Serbia and Rus
sia. About half an hour passed thus
Then asked everybody to contribute
III Only the Kaiser Could see.'
III only the kaiser could see how
eager was every one to help, 1 swear
by my shoestrings that his reinforced
| concrete heart would have broken
In two. We made a pretty good col.
lection. which amounted to about $l2
But the thing that is worth more is
| that 1t made everybody think and
help win the war.
"somehow, the Gage School heard
! about It and had to present my mod.
| els and person before O very dne
audience and speak again, with the
same success. They made a big col
! lection. about $50. ! think they
! charged more than my school, and
there are more pupils. May 2s 1 gave
an exhibit at Tech. Gee, wasn't i
| proud to help In such a causeo And
] say 1t to the whole world: If any
one 10 not willing to help the United
States and the world in any way he
| can, let the devil and the kaiser take
| care Of him. Uncle Sam takes care
| Of patriots.
ALEC LAPHoFF."