The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1920-04-08
NEXT TO BEING AN ANGEL


stunts-do them if you know how,
an" having them done with you if you
don't. We had stunts done with US
yesterday, and friends say we were
not only next to being an angel, but
the nextest we would ever get. Prob
ably they were right. But if its bet
ter fun to be an angel than to exper-
fence stunts we would like to be one
for awhile anyway.
Riding along comfortably in an air
plane on an even keel is as pleasant
as drinking coca-cola on a warm day
But as champagne to soca-cola, so is
stunts to riding on an even keel
With the present scarcity of cham
payne, we know of nothing better
qualified to stimulate d demand for
stunts than the foregoing COMPARE
son. If you like champagne, or the
champagne effect, which means get
ting out of everything that makes
you tired, that lightens your spirit to
thistledown, go out to the Ocala
aviation school, where you will find
the dry-humored Lutes and the ever
cheerful johnson and negotiate with
them for the biggest basket of stunts
they have in stock. They have them
all, including a few that they cannot
show without bombs and a machine
gun, a set of which Uncle Sam is
keeping for them anent the next war.
You will observe Johnson's plane
You will see that it is big and husky
what was known on the front as an
artillery plane. Not that it carried
artillery, but went up to find where
Jerry's artillery was and signal by
wireless to it's battery: "Guns $500
yards north. Five hundred yards over
shot. Three hundred yards short.
Range" And Jerry was less by that
number of guns. Pilot Johnson can
spot guns if it be necessary, but he
would rather take you up on pleas
ant day and give you a bunch of
thrills. He has an easy mastery of
his plane and bunch of infectious
smiles. With one of those smiles, he
could wing his way up to an angel
sitting on the edge of a cloud and
cheerfully remark. "Say, old man
give me light" And get it, too. The
mockingbirds are getting stuck or
him, and if he could fly slow enough
for them to land they would settle or
his shoulders as he flew and sing
"way down upon de Oklywawhaw rib.
ber."
Johnson is sitting in his plane, from
which has just alighted a pleased
tourist from the upper atmosphere
Lutes and Johnson have reversed pre-
vious procedure. The pilot sits in the
front seat and the passenger to the
rear. This is better, as the passen
| ger doesn't feel so lonesome. They
steps, so a fat man or woman can gel
into the passengers seat without
| spraining him or herself internally
You climb in, and Lutes straps the
belt around you. Johnson turns hall
around and give you a look thai
makes you feel like you and he are
going to have regular picnic, the en-
bampily couple of hundred yards
then the humping stops and you ar,
climbing to catch the sun-silverec
lcloud that seems only a few hundred
yards up.
Not the least enjoyable part of thu
trip is seeing the country unfold a!
you go up. You might have had al
IDEA that the world would seem tt
shrink to the size of a baseball, anC
you would worry lest you miss i
when you came down. Not Sol
widens out and stretches eternally tt
the spreading horizon. There is your
little city down below-you may
think you are right over something
but it is two or three hundred yard!
to one side. You see long white rib
bons of road stretching out from the
city like spokes from wagon hub
Over yonder is the dark dense greer
CT Silver Springs hammock. Field:
below that you know to be quarter
mile broad are not bigger than the
top of a dinner table. Scattered
around amid the woods and fields are
terpoints of the farms. You can cas-
lily see the nearby villages. Further
off are Anthony and Belleview and 8
mirror-sheen, in the far distance is
Lake Weir. You two are alone uE
there, but thousands of eyes are
watching-many of them belong tt
American boys, who a dozen years
from now will be driving airplanes as
their fathers and bigger brothers are
driving autoesa now. How those boys
envy the pilot and how the girls envy
the passenger. All, we'll, their time
will come.
| You have watched the UNFOLDING
Landscape so eagerly you have almost
forgotten the stunts, but now you are
nearly five thousand feet up, there is
a good, thick. elastic cushion of all
between you and the earth-and the
time for the main fun has arrived
The pilot half turns in his seat, gives
you one of those jolly. comrade-like
smiles and mods his head. Now is
your time-if you are scared, shake
youI head, look grieved and there will