Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-23
D'Annunzio:
Poet-Soldier
BY Frederic ]. Haskin

Among the personal transformations
the war has worked, Captain Gabriel
d dAnnunzio, Of the italian FLYING Corps,
who recently crossed the Alps with
squad of planes to drop warning in the
streets of Vienna, is certainly one Of the
most remarkable.
Before the war, d'Annunzio was widely
famed as a poet and asthete, ladies'
man, and an autocrat with q fine scOrn
for what he termed democratic mud" :"
When the war broke out he enlisted in the
flying corps, won rapid promotion and
has been many times mentioned IN dis
patches He is further reputed to have re-
nounced his autocratic philosophy, and
10 have endorsed in his speeches the
principles advocated by President Will
son
To thus leave life Of aesthetic ease for
the hardships and dangers OF battle, and
to renounce lifelong contempt for the
principles OF democracy by going forth to
fight for them, would be sufficiently re-
| markable IN a young man. But Gabriel
d d'Annunzio is 81 years old.
WHAT HIS BOMBS SAID.
According to- members Of the italian
War Mission here in Washington, the
| message which d'Annunzlo dropped IN
| Vienna the other day was as follows: TO
| the people OF Vienna: We could drop tons
| Of bombs, but we Italians do not make
war on women, children and old men
| only on your blind, obstinate, cruel gov
! ernment, which cannot give you either
| peace or bread but feeds you on hatred
and Illusions
Gabriel d'Annunzio has none Of the
| conventional characteristics Of the Green
wich village type OF poet. To begin with,
If compelled to live in America, dan
nunzlo would not live IN Greenwich VII
| lage at all, but on Riverside Drive. lie
| likes all the Injuries Of life. His clothes
are immaculate, his finRcrnalls elaborate
| ly manicured, and his hair-well, what
there is Of it ~ short, but he IS mostly bald.
| He is described az a little thin man,
with fair hair and short van Dyke beard,
with large gray eyes and rather thick,
sensuous lips He is famous in Italy for
| his love affairs and his dramas. He long
professed the belief that the morals made
| for ordinary men should be disregarded
whenever they nterfered with art Thus
| IN his great tragedy, The Triumph Of
| Death, produced BY Sarah Bernhardt az
| the Renaissance Theatre in Paris, we find
| d'Annunzio announcing through the lips
Of Alcssandro that everything must be
| sacrificed to genius. Ales3andro Is IN love
with a young girl, Blanca Maria, and,
| according to the above stated principle,
| pushes his suit in spite Of the fact that he
| has devoted blind wife.
As a personality study alone, dan
nunzio is among the most interesting Of
| the worlds lterati He is 50 varied. In
| addition to his literary activities he has
raised family Of several boys, to whom
! he Is devoted He keeps a kennel of rae
| ing dogs which he periodically used to
! take to Paris to compete IN dog races.
| And he has quite a reputation as a hunter
/ Of Italian foxes. His horses are all thor
oughbreds, and before the war he used 10
ride horseback every morning. lie IS also
said to be very fond Of swimming and
| fencing.
BECAME AVIATION ENTHUSIAST.
When the motor-car came along An
| nunzio immediately bought one and went
| IN tor motoring, and with the invention OF
| aeropianes he Immediately became az
aviation enthusiast. 1t IS interesting 70
note that d'Annunzio first fight was
| made with one Of the Curtlss brothers II
| 1910. and now IN 1918, Hugo d'AnnunziO
his son, is here in America showing al
! American plant how 70 make Capron
| aeroplanes.
D'Annunzio, pere. entered the ItailaI
aviation corps at the beginning of the wa
as a reconnaissance expert. He does no
run his own machine, but choosing tht
most daring of the pilots, flies over tht
enemv's lines and spies upon them. IL
has uncovered in this way great deal Q
important information about the enem,
and prevented at least one large disaster.
was his idea to fly over Vienna two YEAR
ago, dropping words OF wisdom on tn
/ Niennese, but the commander OF tn
Italian Aviation Corps refused to perm
him They needed hun at home, he said
Before the war. d 'AnnunzIO was one 0
the greatest disciples Of autOcracy. II
one of his novels he speaks OF the mud 0
democracy" which was destroying th'
fine tradition OF the Italian nobility.
Since the war. however, he Is a great
exponent of the Wllsonian democracy. Ii
the first year of the war he made one o
the most stirring war speeches that have
been made in ltaly-a speech which i
said to have had more effect in deciding
Italy 10 join the Allies than any other one
! thing