Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-10-04

lines anu IL h0o lHo ASN Nhseo ~
blue insignia on.
BaIIoonist Takes to Parachute. .
But to make sure passed fairy
close overhead. Whatever the OBJ
server in the basket may haVe
thought, for he could not help see-
ing my insignia painted on the wings,
I don't know. But believe me, ne
lost no tirne In idle speculation
promptly jumping with his para
chute, and then I began to wonoer
whether the Joke wouldn't DC car
ried still further and French shrap-
mel break around me. But happiiy
no such a mistake was not maoe amy
I went on my way much amused AT
the quickness with which the opsor-
yer deserted his basket, and II was
rather interesting to watch also, as
he fioated slowly down via the para
chute, making q worry soft landing'
Immediately afterwards they peSuli
hauling down the balloon.
On to scissors.
hted me on up to the lines tneu'
for my presence seemed to be caus-
ing q lot of annoyance in that Vlcln-
ity, Tho lines follow small river
hereabouts, and 1t was this stream
that I was hunting, after some olln-
Guilty. I finally found 1t and began
Following along its course to Soils
sons didn't follow far tho, Tor
either I lost the river or 1t ran out
of water, for no glistening water
could I see. Fearing / might Dc
come lost and land In Germany by
mistake, I swung around, passed py
the French balloon, which by this
time was lolling on the ground,
found q railroad I knew, and pe-
gan following 1t to Scissors, for ny
this time I had given up all hopes
of finding O Boche balloon in the air.
as the clouds were too low. There
fore, I decided to put in some time
learning the country. It was with
this idea that I was headed Tor
Scissors, following a big road ana
checking off as 1 went along, with
smaller roads, creeks and forests to
be sure ] was correct. ! had just
come in sight of scissors when my
motor began to vibrate very badly.
There goes q spark plug, thinks 1,
and turned right about face for
home. And then she vibrated some
more, so much so it seems the wings
would be shaken off. Another
spark plug, was my immediate
thought, and shut the motor nearly
off to see what effect that would
have.
It had none whatever, and since l
was coming down all the time and
had little height of loose $500
meters) 1 saw that would not pay,
for l was long way from the home
/ cost. The way that motor was pull
! ing me home, but I did hope at least
it would pull me over some decent
landing place, for there was Moth
ing under me but shell holes and
hills. With this idea in view pulled
on the throttle slowly and then it
happened for with a roar like the
| bursting of an archie something eX-
! ploded. What 1t was at the moment
| the explosion occurred 1 did not
| know, but I did know that some
| thing was missing. Naturally, my
first thougrt was that the gasoline
| tank had exploded, but one look al
| the pressure dial proved that theory
! wrong, and then I noticed that my
vision in front of the plane seemed
| to be clearer than usual, also that
| something seemed to be missing out
in front there. There certainly was
I had lost my propeller. Even you
who have never flown can realize
! what that meant because it's the pro-
! peller that pulls one along, and
without it one is as helpless as a
| bird without wings, almost, but not
/ quite, for l still had my wings and
| could glide to the ground. 1 was
| going to say glide to safety, but
when l saw what was under me ]
had some misgivings about the
safety" part. Never in all my life
had seen, so many shell holes
and they were everywhere too, and
so close together that there did not
seem to be a space left anywhere
big enough to sit a spad down let
alone a space big enough to roll
along the ground, for with q spad's
terrific landing speed it requires
some 100 meters rolling before st
stops. And there I was, 500 meters
! high and coming down all the time.
If wanted to get out of the pre-
dicament without a broken neck 1t
was certainly up to me to do some
| quick thinking.
"A Long Fall
There was not much to choose
from amid all that pitted and tornup
ground. but even as mechanically
cut" my magnetic so that the en-
gine would not catch fire, and gave
| all the ground within gliding dis
| tance the once over, l mentally COM
pared the scenery beneath me to q
big mud hole into which I had once
watched Il hoy throw stones. De-
| pending on the size of the stone
and the force with which it was
| thrown there was quite q splash and
a hole TO show it. And that's the
| KIND OF a country I was coming
down in. Truly the little Willie thai
| chucked these stones certainly did
1t with q liberal hand. Mine moi
10 ask the reason why. mine but
n rN6
| OF me / noticed several brown tents
whose color and appearance looked
| American, so I dove for these tents
| picking out the most likely loolSjno .
| spot for landing as / came down,
1t did look rather smooth when
first decided on it, for there seemed
| to be no big shell holes, but when !
| got down closer to the ground a LOT
| or smaller holes made their appear-
| ance and there were many of them
too. Also line of telephone poles
| sprung up, and not knowing or be-
ing able to see whether thew held
wires or not jumped over them
And as II that was. not enough. the
! smooth CD place ended in a steen
, slope much like your front terraces
; only longer. But it was too late ia
| change my mind, as I was onlv ia
meters nigh then. besides I doubt
II a better place could have been
! found anyway. Thus I came scoot.
ing across shell hole after shell hole
waiting alertly for the plane to lose
its speed so that could sit it down
In time to miss several holes.
had not doubt in the world thai
q wheel would drop in a small hole
and would turn a somersault. but
my luck held. for the plane did not
| lOQa itG Snnad until