The New York herald., 1921-02-27

Il. II
commander in the New York Air
- Police, daredevil and aerial stuntster.
who can lay claim to having followed eigh-
teen vocations successfully. can also lay
claim to having eighteen contradictions in
his personality. Some Of them might be
listed thus:
Though he has done practically every con-
ceivable stunt In the air without culver
and Is planning new ones the New York
subway bothers him.
In his varied career he has been saloon
keeper twice, but he doesn't touch drop of
liquor.
A daredevil by profession, his avowed in
tention in his feats Is to promote the safety
of others and to advance science, wherefore
he has volunteered to jump to the moon in
the rocket of Prof. Robert Fl. Goddard of
Clark University.
He can endure broken bones but he
breads pin pricks.
With the physical development of Ro-
man gladiator. his favorite article of diet
is peanut butter.
Though he has been a prizefghter and
fought a number of bouts, he has escaped
the caulihower ear and has the courteous
manner of Spanish DON
After using his hands in many kinds of
hard work. they, are still shapely and un-
roughened and he writes with the fine PEN
manship of calling card scribe.
In spite of devoting so much of his life
to physical attainments, odd spiritual
side peeps out.
Ascribing his ability to perform his stunts
mainly to great will power. he has jaw
that appears to be only of the ordinary type,
not the square jowled variety commonly
sociated with strength of purpose.
native of Texas, where drawing is a
L.. IT, ax~sI axx, -
language
Not Worry but Laughter
Causes the Wrinkles in His Face
All these conflicting qualities naturally
don't pop out at the observer when first he
visits Capt. Fitzgerald In his temporary
abiding place on West Fifty sixth street
temporary, for he probably will be fitting
soon. looking for new worlds to conquer. If
not here at any rate on the moon. The
first impression one gets of him lis sugges-
tive of Douglas Fairbanks. Like the movie
star he is dark and of medium height
though somewhat more stockily built. He
has the same breezy air, the same power of
quick observation and retentive memory, the
same lively conversational powers, and the
same dash in doing anything Similarly, he
believes In the gospel of laughter.
"See these wrinkles?" he says pointing to
the deep corrugations around his eyes.
These don't come from grouches scarcely
ever have worries-in fact. / refuse to let
anything worry me. A laugh will get you
further than sour face any time. I'm 30
years old. and feel younger than ever"
And the squad of young men who are
being broken into the daredevil game by
him all swear that Capt Fitzgerald ia more
of a boy than any of them. He goes after
his thrills for amusement well as to earn
a livelihood.
His favorite stunts are looping the loop
while standing on the top wing of an air
plane and transferring man from the top
of another flying bus to his own airplane
by hanging by the knees from a swinging
ladder, grabbing the other mans hands,
hoisting him up to the ladder and then fol-
lowing up after him while nervous prostra-
ton becomes epidemic among the spectators
He has records to show that he first per-
formed the feat of looping the loop while
standing on an airplane without being fas-
tened to the wing, on August IA, 1919.
though he explains there was an earlier
tryout of the same trick-an unofficial stunt
because no one wanted to assume respon-
sbiity in case 1t made him candidate for
the hereafter.
He worked out this stunt by a study OF
the laws of gravitation and tells how the
idea came to him couple of years ago at
3 O'Clock in the morning. His means of
very simple
Experiments With a Tin Can
Develop His New Stunt idea
II woke up with this bee in my bonnet"
he said. "and got my landlady to give me a
can-you know. the kind they rush the
growler with. Then I put a teacupful. of
water in IL. clapped on the I'D and put
top butter bean / tied a string twenty
Ave inches long on the lid and then started
the can swinging gently Presently had 1t
whfrling around over my head and kept 1t
circling-and. do you know, that bean never
slid off that slippery tin cover.
Then I knew / could stick on any air
plane. But / had n hard Job convincing
any one else could. Finally I induced a
young man to let me use his plane with this
arrangement: We We're to start from field
out on Long Island. ! was TO go there by
automobile get out several blocks away and
walk to the plane. Without saying word
to him as he sat in the cockpit / was to
climb up on the wing and he was to start
up All these precautions were taken so
that IL fell Off one could be burdened
with the responsibility. and I'd be as uniden-
titled as a fallen meteor" .
Fitzgerald succeeded In this first attempt
OF course, and did It again at the police
field games last year. winning letter of
commendation from Inspector Dwyer instead
Of being arrested for dlsorderly conduct in
the air. This Is how he describes the stunt
performed on a small special platform atom