The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-05-19

corps. His letter to Mrs Pittman,
dated May IL. is as follows:
Dear Adopted Mother: Please tell
me, did the good Lord make you as
you are, or did you just happen to be,
like Topsy? Good night, 1 wonder
why it is my good fortune to have
such wonderful friends as I have, and
very much so in you. Your package
of the choicest fudge and cream I've
caught in a long time, arrived first
rate to eager hands and empty stom-
ach. No, I'm not sick. and neither is
my pal, and there is still enough left
to garnish off my beans tomorrow.
Thanks, ever so much. mother dear.
only wish I had some way of repaying
shown me. Maybe I will some day.
WRITTEN ON MOTHERS DAY
81 believe you will be hearing from
most of your sons today, won't you,
seeing as it is Mothers day, and no
more fitting day to write. mother. l
sure enjoyed your letter very much,
and also got a first rate kidding from
the boys in my company, when the
mail orderly called out, Cadet Kern.
No, not yet. So far, I am only an or
binary sergeant. but am taking the
cadets course. and will apply for ad-
mission to the cadet school after ]
finish my first studies.
THE day after I got your letter, ]
received card from the dead letter
office at Galveston, Tex, saying a let
ter written by me to you at Steiner
Bank building. was at the office I'M
delivered, marked not here Can You
imagine that silly dope. wonder
what champ mail carrier didn't know
enough to forward it. / have written
to have it returned to me. but am
enclosing another order now, which,
no doubt, will be acceptable. through
sadly delayed. But I suppose you'll
keep 1t moving too, won't you. When
come back this trip, I'm coming back
and let you find me a regular job
this time, but please not in the same
place twice.
''Well, I've got some real news to
give you. There is an old saying, You
can't keep a good man down. but in
this case. I rackoh keeping up was
the worst part of it and the biggest
I'll have to tell you all about it.
FOR THREE-HOUR FLIGHT
part of my studies are in the air,
1S hours in the air, to be exact; and on
Friday morning I was sent up on
three-hour flight with Lieutenant Ben
son, an instructor in observation. We
suddenly. heavy gust hit the bal
loon and we made nose dive down
1900 feet. rig'hted again just as sud-
denly and rose like a shot to the end
of our cable with such force that the
tackle snapped in two, and we were
free to the wild Texas winds. The
gale was terrific. the wind howled and
shrieked through the rigging and. al
though I'm writing this like ghost,
it's more like a nightmare to me. Like
a shot we assembled to over $4,000 feet,
which was as high as our instruments
would record
fortunately the lieutenant was an
old. experienced pilot and settled me
in the basket very nicely until l cooled
off a bit. After blowing around we
hit a drift current travelling at ter
rible rate, heading due north and, Of
course, we went with it. but by \pull-
ing the valve and letting out the gas
we were able to descend again to about
$4,000 feet when I got seasick and
lost my breakfast overheard and some
fudge, too, believe. A squad of eight
airplanes from Kelly Field were sent
out after us and by clever work and
of the lieutenant with me,
we finally got down to 5000 feet and
made the jump in parachute to
corn field, &c miles the other side Of
Austin and SO miles from here, and
it all happened in less than an hour.