Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-02-14
Superstitions of the Air
BY Frederic ]. Uaskin

IN luck, and have implicit faith in mas
cots and luck tokens. One Of the wors
caiamitbcs III nh ayiator's life IL the loss O
MS lucky charm or mascot, for such a
event ~ regarded as u grim forcshadowin
ot accident or serious disaster There ma,
be some airmcn who do not believe this
but the vast majority do.
The other day ero,,p of late wa
aviatora was lunohine Mt the Aero Club o
America here, when the conversation
turned TO this peculiar primitive trait IL
thote who handle this, the most Bprotacu
lar device developed in the present genera.
ton.
Yes, there was Bob" remarked one
patistng rernniBcently in the middle Of his
soup course, who always insisted that he
could never fly with any success unless his
iavorlte oofn-cob pipe accompanied him
iis last act before guing up was to smoke
TINS pipe and place IL rcvercntiy IN its
case IN hls pocket. Then, ono morning,
some OF the boys de- idcd to have little
iun by hiding the piTs to see If Bob would
% up without Il. Bob went, after n vain
search for il, but he did not come back
That was the day the Germans got him -
There WIS \ brief silence after this, and
then anDthcr ex~war aviator asked tho
| Others If they remembered Bill, who pIac-
ed his luck in graveyards. Usually, grave
yards are serIpuloisly Stunned by avia-
tors, but Bill felt that they were friendly
to him, and ped to toss them cordial
| greetings from the mir. Maybe he felt
| toward grayeyards as most people feel
| towards lightning that as long as you
can see II you are all right. Anyway, Bill
always planned his course in the air so NJ
to pass as many graveyards as possible,
declaring that nothing could happen TO
him as long ~ he could sec n cemetery
once IN while
BELIEVES IN LUCKY CHARM.
Captain Elliott Spring, who acquired
many French Enplish and Italian dccorn-
tions for bravery in the war, is an aviator
whose belief IN the power Of the lucky
charm is absolute Spring was n member ~
the famous Lafayette Elscadrille, and for
more than two years. spent most Of his
time fiying over Boche lines IN an effort to
incite German flyers 10 combat. During
this time. the captain appeared to possess
a charmed life and, indeed, quite literally
his life was charmed for he carried con
stantly with him an italian five lire piece
and wore band garter guaranteed by a
fortune teller 20 protect him.
Inst summer. when Captain Spring took
part in the aerial derby between New York
and Toronto, he still had his luckpiece
with him At least, be had IL when he
started out. Just outside Of Batavia n n,
however. the weather became 50 bad that
the captain was forced % land IN corn
field. whore he succeeded IN plowiDg up a
lot NJ the farmers corn and damaging his
machine When he crawled ont. he inn
mediatcly felt for his lucky COIN, and found
If gone IN the pocket whore IL had been
a bfaE~ EAa FtrT mae
very pleasant about the damage 10 his
corn and had the machine removed 70 the /
barn where he charged slI the neighboung /
farmers Is cents apiece 10 look ~ II
But the aviator iclt sure that his failure 4
was due 10 the loss of hrs Italian coin and /
was inconeolable
In the same race there was another
aviator, distinguished for his service in
the war. who carried with him as q lucky
charm a little silver medal Of st. An
thony which WIS presented TO him by
young lady Just before the race started
" hen this flyer attempted ~ land NJ
Albany crowd nconvenlently got IN hIs
way, and he was compelled ta plunge
down a 25-foot embankment to keep
rom hitting part OF IL. The crowd gave
a wild gasp, aud the aviation officials and
FrBt-ald contingent who hurried down the
to hrs side confidently ex-
pccted 10 find him dead,
But, savs this Young hero in describ-
ng has adventure, / know that little
'iIvcr medal of IT. Anthony saved me
bought also that was going to be killed,
)ut felt It was better to die myself and
wreck my machine than % kill half
iozen people in that crowd. II had kept
IN there would have been several killed
4 i. "a Z
lave been economy - ! zoomcd over
heir heads and then plunged down to the
-round The engine of the machine WAS
brown clear out and landed on the
round The magnetic came up through
he cockpit and struck rue on the knee
While the windshield cut my face, but
hat was all that happened. st. Anthony
urc took care OF me.
TAKE PET MAscoTs.
Almost every aviator setting out on a
ing trp takes his pet mascot, sometimes
hree or four pet mascots, with him. Both
ats and dogs experienced the terrors and
he triumphs of the transatlantic flight.
ihie a large variety OF animals should |
ow be wearing distinguished service |
for the brave manner in which
nev stood aerial bombardments during
he war. Every aerial squadron in France |
ad its special pet mascots. some OF |
,hich flew constantly with their masters, |
nd some individual aviators who took |
eritable men cnsgeries to the front with |
hem. |
Among the latter was Vernon Castle. |
no had, in addition TO q large supply of
hts, dogs and birds, pet monkey that
him on most OF his flights.
IF, rs the monkey was called, seemed |
, like hving, and was able to stand very
Igh attitudes.
1t has often been stated with great
Ithority that dogs cannot be safely |
.rried above an altitude of 1000 feet, and /
lat cats will die If carried above 5000 Il
ct This may be true regarding some II
1gs and cats. since Il Is now well known II
lat animals vary quite as much as human
sings in their ability to withstand high ii
titudts and the corresponding loss of
,ygen. but the statement certainly does
u hold good concerning all dogs and Il
is. III
Henry Woodhousc, the well-known II
lthor of several books on flying tells the
ory of remarkable dog named Jim, be- /
nging TO Maurice Hewlett, Jr. son of the |
nglish novelist, who not only enjoyed fI
ICHES AND PAINS /
nllI,C rErEc ,TM