The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-01

The little town of Wallingford, 12 miles from the seat of Yale University, hitherto unknown in the geography of war events, is going to give Gervais Raoul Lufbery, ace high of the Lafay cite Escadrille, a royal welcome when he returns from Paris with the glory of having brought down IT German planes.
 It happens that Gervais lived long CT in the little Connecticut town than any other place in America, so in the annals of his exploits of the air he gives Wallingford as his place of resi- dence.
 He has promised his father in let ter just received that he will return in few weeks, and the town expects to give him a reception such as has never been given any person there be- fore.
 Wallingford is not only proud of the aviator because he has placed its name on the map, but because he has claim ed it as his home town, the one place in all his globe-trotting which he has called by that name, the place where he abandoned his job of making cof- fin trimmings to become one of the greatest war aViators with the Allied forces.
 The people of the little town on the Boston post road between New Haven and Hartford now recall that 10 years ago the quiet, unpretentious lad, then scarcely in his early manhood, trudged to and from the factory of the Inter lational Silver Company, where he worked at his trade of metal artificer.
 They noticed nothing unusual in the lad, who even then had had e3peri- ences in the world that few in the little town could boast of. He was lit tie different from many of the French CT French Canadians who turn to the silver trade as a matter of course, for that is the towns chief industry.
 He stuck to that trade two years,
 ''the longest time he's ever spent at any one work or business" his father says dryly.
 Young Lufbery spoke with a decid-
 ed French accent, though his father, a
 wiry, energetic man, spoke English without a vestige of it. This was ac-
 counted for in the fact that Gervais
 was born in France of an American
 father. Though ar American on his fathers side his mother was of French
 peasant class.
 Incidentally the history of the fath-
 CT is as interesting as that of the son , and explains in measure the adven- \ turesome character of the latter. | Edward Lufbery was born in New ] York city, of Yankee stock, and he re- i tains many of the characteristics of
 that type, in spite of the fact that the II greater part of his life has been spent II in France.
 II Though he has circled the globe II many times, he invariably returns tC U the town whither he came many years ago to make rubber coats in, the large = factory which now makes only insula- ted wire.
 In the old room in the Wallace Block, which he has occupied inter mittently for years, he sits, surround = ed by crates of stamps which he has collected all over the world, and be. means the fact that the war will pre- vent his going across the ocean now s to sell stamps, which have by reason Q of the conflict become doubly valu, able.
 q He takes great pride in his son ant
 
 l. tion, which he claims is the most val uable in the world.
 An uncle of Lufbery's bought from the inventor Goodyear the patent fol
 a rubber business into which he pu - all his relatives who showed any abil r ity, sending them to important placel = as he established the trade in foreig1 d countries. He placed Lufbery fl l. charge of the factory at Mannheim il '- 1868. Later he sent him to France 0 where he married his first wife, Ger @ vais mother.
 # The lad Gervais was born. as hi n father states, somewhere in the cen It ter of France" He will not state ex r aetly where, because it seems the nov IS famous aviator evaded military dut. $ and he fears he may be called by tn e head of the little municipality. a Gervais gained little education iron h books and at F years of age began d to shift for himself in the little vii ia lage. His first job was molding choc
 olate in a candy factory. Later h 5. worked in a macaroni factory. Tw "a brothers are in the French army now
 After working awhile in the factor x, ies, Gervais was aIlured by thought v of Paris. Obtaining his birth certifi 1- cate from his father, he journeyed t
 the French capital,
 le One friend of his fathers he kne1 i' was in Paris, and he spent the day ie arrived there in searching numerou = cafes for the man, but got ne trace c al him. Later his father told him tha T. the man never drank 8 drop of lique r. in his life.
 r. That one day in Paris was eneugf nt Gervais loved always the broad ceuI n try spaces. He struck out for tn Tt .pen always, in preference to crowde 's towns or cities. With the small say of ings which he had brought with hiT
 he joined g. chum who he had picke
 up tud set out for Algiers.
 In the African city he fell i'll, an ,c when ae recovered his companion an
 his chest in which he had his saving were gone But the hospital author ties had taken a fancy to the lad an al when he recovered they made hi1 lg an orderly.
 ce For almost a year he remained 1e Algiers, then left for Tunis, later fe a Egypt, thence to Constantiople an ne Rumania and finally to Fulda, Gel f. many, where he worked in a brewer,
 Thence he embarked for South Afric;
 under contract to German steam
 ship firm.
 70 One day in 1907, two days after tn g, father had left Wailingford on one es his many trips to France, the bo,
 AGervais, appeared at the family hom