Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-02-14

the most superstiti0us people In
the world are aviators. They be-
lieve unquestioningly in luck, and
have implicit faith in mascots and
luck tokens. One OF the worst
calamities in an aviatGs life is
the loss of his lucky CHI n or mas
cot. for such an event y regarded
dent or serious disaster. There
dent ir serious disaster. There
NAV be some airmen who do not
believe this, but the vast. majority
do.
The other day a group of late
war ayiators was lunching at the
Aero Club of America here when
the conversation turned to- this pc
culiar primitive trait in those who
handle this, the most spectacular
device developed in the present
generation.
Eyes, there was Bob" remarked
one, pausing reminiscently in the
middle of his soup course, who
always insisted that he could never
f1v with any success unless his IA
vorite corn-cob pipe accompanied
him. His last act before going up
was to smoke this pipe and place
, it reverently in its case in his
pocket. Then, one morning. some
of the boys decided to have a little
fun by hiding the pipe to see if Bob
would 20 up without it. Bob went,
after a vain search for it, but he
did not come back. That was the
day the Germans got him"
There was a brief silence after
this, and then another ex-war avia-
tor asked the others if they remem-
bered Bill, who placed his luck in
graveyards. Usually, graveyards
are scrupulously stunned by avia-
tors. but Bill felt that they were
friendly to him, and used to toss
them cordial greetings from the air,
Maybe he felt toward graveyards
as most people feel towards light
ning-that as long as you can see
it you are all right. Anyway, Bill
always planned his course in the
air so as to pass as many grave
yards as possible, declaring that
nothing could happen to him as
long as he could see a cemetery
once in a while.
Captain Elliott Spring, who &C
quired many French, English and
Italian decorations for bravery in
the war, is an aviator whose be-
lief in the power of the lucky
charm is absolute. Spring was a
member of the famous Lafayette
Escadrille, and for more than two
years spent most of his time flying
over Boche lines in an effort to
incite German flyers to combat
During this time, the captain ap-
peared to possess 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 fortune teller to
protect him.
Last summer, when Captain
Spring TOOK part in the aerial derby
between New York and Toronto, he
still had his luckpiece with him
At least, he had it when he started
out. Just outside of Batavia, n. Y,
however, the weather became SO
bad that the captain was forced to
land in a cornhetd, where he sue
Iceeded in blowing up lot of the
farmers corn and damaging his
machine. When he .crawled out, he
Immediately felt for his lucky coin
and found it gone. In the pocket
where it had been there was only
a hole. The farmer was very
pleasant about the damage to his
corn and had the machine removed
to the barn where he charged all
the neighboring farmers 25 cents
apiece to look at it. But the aviator
felt sure that his failure was due
to the loss of his Italian coin and
was inconsolable.
In the same race there was an
other aviator, distinguished for his
service in the war, who carried with
him as lucky charm a little sill
yer medal of St. Anthony, which
was presented to him by young
lady just before the race started
When this flyer attempted to land
at Albany a crowd inconveniently
got in his way, and he was com
PEELED to plunge down a 25-foot
embankment to keep from hitting
a part of it. The crowd gave g
wild gasp, and the aviation officials
and first-aid contingent who hur.
ried down the embankment to his
side confidently expected to fine
him dead.
But" says this young hero ir
describing his adventure, Il know
that little silver medal of st. An.
thony saved me. / thought also
that l was going to be killed, bu
felt it was better to die myself
and wreck my machine than to xii
half a dozen people in, that crowd
If l had kept on there would have
been several killed and lot more
injured. This would not have beer
economy. So l doomed over theil