The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-05-29

Bertha Knatv0Id MeIIett, maya
zine writer, is the wife of Lowell Mel
lett. formerly an Indianapolis news
paper man. He was war correspond
emit and is now in France.l
When I rea6 about Eddie Ricken-
hacker bringing down his twenty-f1rst
German plane, there came to mind the
last time / saw him. He was up be-
! fore the extemporaneous tribune which
had been instituted in the big dining
cabin of the st. Paul and was Just
beginning to register dumb and help
less anger before the British conten-
| ton that his name had an enemy alien
sound, and what substantial reason
could he show for having come to
| England anyway.
There were three, American aces
! who took the st. Paul over that trip
| ThaW and Johnson and Prince.
America was not yet in the war, and
| they wore the stunning blue uniform
of the Foreign Legion. The chevaliers
of the air are the knights Grant of
the war, anyway. But those of the
Lafayette Escadrille carried with them
at that time an atmosphere of ro-
nance and high adventure that was
as perceptible to the senses as the
swing of rapiers. The way Ricken-
4
society showed more than the interest
of the racer on ground for the racer
in the air
But whatever high and patriotic re
| solves were in his mind, the British
examiners at the port of Lindon were
concerned with facts easier to put the
finger on. and to their minds less liza
bic to change, than the air castles of
a future American ace
What was he going to England
for?"
i Well, Rickenbacker had heard where
he could get a Sunbeam car with ex-
ceptional engine.
Black mark number one, and bust
ness of deep thought by the sleuths of
The port Wasn't it known by the sus-
pect that all automobiles, engines and
appurtenances thereto in the United
Kingdom were the property of the
realm, and even to look with desire
on any of them was an offense in a
citizen and a. crime in a foreigner:
What was his real name and where
was his father born?
Rickenbacker, Switzerland
Black marks number two and three
About that time our own interroga
ton began, and we were made to fee
so deeply apologize for having come
: to England that we forgot our coun
tryman of the Sunbeam car until VIZ
were well on the boat train waiting
to pull out for London.
Then my husband began to check of
to see who had got through and whit
had not. And he missed Rickenback
err Back he went to the boat to SCI
2 what he could do.
), The inouisition was still going on.
Here, I am an American citizen h
began But somebody who knew TIL
ropes stopped him.
IF you want to help Rickenbacke
and keep yourself from coming unde
:. suspicion-clear out"
But up in London-our association
j. is influential
The less anybody tries to put an
influence they have, or think the,
;, have, into effect, the better they viii
get along these days. And the bette
| it is for those they may attempt t
nelp. Influence is chiefly useful i
: war time for suggesting questions a
# to how it was come by and why it
! used"
= So with that sage advice creatin
" a new stage of consciousness With
J. him, my husband returned to the boa
il train and we started inland towar
London.
;. Rickenbacker's ordeal lasted min
e days. At the end of that time he al
peared, an automobile racer thorough
~ ehastened of all desire to acquir
r either any Sunbeams or Rolls Royc,
If any engine of whichever ilk, or an
PARTS or patterns of such engines, car
tops or bodies. That he wasn't cha:
tened out of his name and his goo
: Swiss ancestry wasn't the fault of til
. British guardians of the port, | fee
sure. but that they came against somt
9 thing even more fundamental tina