The Washington herald., 1918-11-03
AIRMAN MEETS
BIG ADVENTURE
Caught in Monsoon, He
Lands on Island of
Savages.

San Francisco, Nov. Capt Dun
can Smith, of Oakland, Cal, flying
as a British airman, carried on the
wings of a monsoon mans most spec
tacular invention, the airplane. into
the ken of the superstitious Indian
Ocean aborigines of the Maldive Is
lands, who had never before seen a
white mans face.
Swimming ashore from this storm
wrecked supernatural bird, Capt.
Smith was finally exalted by the
savages as a white god.
He so transported these isolated bar
barians by singing night after night
many times each night, America
sentimental ditty, THE Little Gray
Home in the West" that their sui
tan rigged out an old scow with sails
and took Capt Smith and his OBJ
server 400 miles to Ceylon.
Made Way Home.
And from the African seas, Capt.
Smith. wearing the Distinguished
Service cross and the Croix de Guerre
finally returned to his California
home. there to agree with his broth
er. another British airman of whom
iAt AIo ii'"s NiaNH
years service. and with the parents
TO whom both brothers in the course
of their adventures had been report
ed missing" that one fanily's ex-
periences are enough to prove war
is the great adventure.
British authorities have called Capt.
Duncan Smiths experience the most
amazing of the war in the most ad-
venturous branch of war work-the
air service. His recital gilds this
grisly world conflict with a color of
romance such as no novelist or Jules
Verne dreamer has ever succeeded in
painting into his fiction.
1t required a world war and a boy
from little gray home in the
West" a bungalow on the western
| edge in fact of America, to bring up
! to-date the old truth that music hath
charms to soothe the savage breast
Separated from Ship.
My observer and were out on
sea- plane scout duty from a British
warship patrolling the trade lanes of
the coast of Africa" said Capt,
Smith. I'm a fog we were separated
from QUA warship while hunting raid
| ers. A monsoon. coming up sud
| cast into the sea in the midst of a
! group of coral islands off the coast
/ of India, the Maldives. and swan
ashore
We found a native village We
Eeeded rest and water and food. The
village was deserted But fires were
| burning. and food was there cook
! ing. We helped ourselves. threw our
! selves on some straw in one of the
| huts, slept, and awoke to find naked
| sBvageS peerinS at US through doors
| and Crevices
They finally made up their minds
we wouldn't bite. More important
| they decided they wouldn't. And just
! az novels tell il. We went through
| the eNpe riencrs of white men cast
ashore on an island inhabited by saw
ages TO whom white men seem gods
from another planet.
They brought our seaplane into
| the little bay. Our standing as birds
! gave US supreme caste in the village
| Fortunately The engine was out OF
order. the fuel gone, savages don't
use gasoline, and we couldn't fly
away.
offered Dozen Wives.
The old chief offered us a dozen
wives apiece. In their wooing. these
prospective wives started to sing to
us. In f-protection started to
sing TO them
Well-the Maldive Islanders liked
! American songs better than Indian
| Ocean chants. Capt. Smith couldn' I
/ sing enough TO suit them. Every
night ne gave concert. The saw
a ges gathered around the fires as the
shadows grew black in the purpling
African twilight.
And in the wiIds. where the white
man and the white mans melodies
had never penetrated, the Oakland
boy who had started flying for the
allies al 20, before America entered
the war, gave perhaps the strangest
concerts of a conflict which has
taken Metropolitan opera stars TO
Flanders trenches.
Capt Smiths observer couldn't
sing. The island sultan threatened
him with death. Capt. Smith made
up a rigamarole of sounds for him
and the observer shouted them out
as tunefully as he could.
Song Saved Him.
His Willingness saved him. and
the little gray home" song was go
enhancing to the natives that they
ceased to care whether the observer
sang or not.
Whenever the twelve wives apiece
became too amorous and seemed
ehaded toward a consummation Of the
marriage contract the little gray
home" would cool their fervor and
sing them to sleep. And whenever
the sultan was to be cajoled the
little gray home" strains. mournful
but sweet. turned the trick.
The superhuman status the air
plane conferred on Capt. Smith and
his observer. and Capt Smiths gem
erous attempts at golden-throated
melody, so won the chiefs favor
that he fitted up his old boat for
the trip to Ceylon. a longer trip
than any island canoe had at
tempted. He could see the boys
weren't going to marry and settle
down anyway.
And SO Capt. Smith and his OBJ
server got back to civilization. But
the captain didn't quit fighting.
From CeylOn he was sent I'D Into