The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-04

Is was shown by a float on which a SOL
dior was seen gripping at his throat as
If to tear of the strangling vapor and
the division had labelled It appropriately
The Breath of Death"
Presently was heard a loud. waiting
shrek, the sound OF a gas horn, the
thing which men most dread to hear in
war 1t walled and, walled like a lost
soul. and in the trench section In which
1t was carried men strapped their masks
on hurriedy as II to ward OF the thing
which they had been trained to expect.
And then behind them came a demon
stration of what this warning meant.
There on truck platform men set
loose great clouds of red smoke and into
them Missed the white fumes of n gas,
mild for this occasion. deadly in war.
The man at the tank manipulated II as
II IL were a soda faucet his mask maxi
Ing expresslonless his attitude, and the
white fumes slssed forth and rose and
spread over the stands. From the side
Of the car flares were tossed which
burned yellow and mingled with the
other gases and smokes until 1t seemed
a little vent Of Hades had spouted forth
its deadliness.
Machine Gun Action Seen.
u
almost unseen in the cloud that hoated
over him. pressed the trigger of his
| weapon. and from the smoke came a
wicked rat-a-tat-tat that made one real
lie to a very small degree the courage
that II takes to walk up on this death
splitting from its shroud. That was the
enemy. but II was passing came the
loud burst OF mortar under the cur
tain of smoke, the voice Of an allied
! hi. n I'LL -
destruction.
Then 1t had passed. and people looked
after II as IL went smoking and burning.
barking and splitting down the avenue
| and realized that the price of n Victory
bond was rather cheap after all COM
pared with the cost which men had paid
In combating this death that walked In
q cloud.
There were clouds on the earth and
clouds in the sky and battle in both yes
terday. The air service the youngsters
who have taken their lives and tossed
them as leaves into the whirlwnd, was
shown from the day the hiers learn what
makes the valves OF their motors lift
until the day when they climb into their
scout planes and 60 UP to the great ad-
venture, Il joust $4,000 feet above the
earth.
II was hard to tell which affected
| those who watched more, the diabolical
vapors of the chemists. or the airy.
slender shapes OF the fighting planes.
| There was awe in one. romance In the
other. And to drive the point Of aeriel
warfare home. there was something that
has never been seen in New York before,
a plane, taxing under its own power. its
propeller thrusting back great gusts Of
wind a. 1t pulled It's way down the ave-
nue..
No war steed ever spurned i;s dull al
lotted task more than this plane. The
pilot. Lieut.. r. +. Breese, jockeyed with
II and nursed 1t as he would a fractions
horse. gentle pressure on the throttle
, and its propeller thrsshed around with
| a roar and shot papers underfoot into
the faces OF special tors as II before a
gale the plane jumped forward. ana
then Breese- with careful hand nursed II
back TO a walking pace, while two pilots.
enc on each wing tip, wrestled with the
thing to keep il straight
| 1t caught the fancy of the crowd
Ierched in windows. lined deeply on the
sidewalks: they capped and yelled their
welcome TO the snorting. impatient bird
of the air which had been brought dow
with all it's br liant plumage OF rcd and
blue TO tremble its indignant way before
them and make a holiday.
| The plane roared its way through the
long canyon all the way from Fifty.
seventh street TO Twenty-thlrd stree,,
the longest taxi that any pilot ever
/ made save in a grass cutter of the train
ing stage. It needed skl!ful work on
the part OF Breese. and he accomplished
1t without once brushing the curb or
ramming the line ahead of him
There was another lad in back Of
| Breese who had more strenuous work
cut out for him. He was in n topsy
turvy machine called a "spherograph, -
which duplicates all the known move
ments OF an airplane and some that no
aviator would dare attempt. and he
waltzed his electrical contrivance
through tail spins. nose dives. barrel
rolls and Immelmans till the eye grew
dizzy in watching. And then when one
mad decided that no human being could
do that longer and survive this non
chalant youngster with the yellow bar
on his shoulder would flop to an upright
position, stop the blamed thing. wipe his
brow and grin at the crowd as II II were
deuce Of good joke.
Liberty Motor Performs.
Just TO show what a real pane en-
CINE will do, back of this webbing train
ing thing came Liberty motor roar
Ing away on a truck all by itself II
the pilot in charge of II. Lieut.. Bel
win Maynard. for Maynard few this
motor 32O hours in France without an
accident and with no engine trouble
Also Maynard is the holder OF the
worlds record for looping the loop. hay-
ing turned himself upside down that way
SlS consecutive times at Remorantin.
France. in sixty-seven minutes. And he
thinks he might have been going vet IL
he hadn't got hungry.
Those We're the two divisions which
perhaps stuck out over all others in the
parade. There were nurses who caught
the fancy OF the crowd. and Salvation
Army girls striaing behind the tune of
militant religion. Onward, Christian
Soldiers and many. many other things.
( And there was one branch Of the ser
vice which people have come to think
was almost non-exstent in modern war,
the cavalry
They came from Virginia, fourteen
days in the saddle to take part In this
} demonstration OF where the peoples