The Washington herald., 1922-09-10
Touring Europe,
Day BY Day
By o. o. Mcintyre.

PARIS. Sept. s.--Fiying from
London to Paris is almost as
( breath-taking as a game of authors
but not quite. I left London In a
French plane with my heart in my
| throat. Two hours later l was re-
lieving the monotonous tedium by
reading Jokes in a London weekly.
The greatest shock was when l
saw the pilot. One look and knew
all was lost. He wore spsts arzi
kissed a gendarme before we shot
across the flying field and into the
air There were six in our plane
two ladies and four men.
After fyins over Dover and
across the channel. we landed at
Calais to discharge three men pas
sengers. leaving me with my wife
and Mrs. Charles A. Verlin, OF At
lanta. Ca. to continue on to Paris.
! Now and then the pilot would
reach down with his toe and kick
the mechanician. who sat at his
feet and talked excitedly In French.
At such times our hearts would
sink. l imagined he was saying:
| We'll. Gaspard, both engines are
| gone. Pick out a nice soft spot and
jump"
| But after hearing the excited
! chatter over triyiaiities in Paris I
suppose he WAS merely saying:
We'll. Gaspard. when we land these
terror~stricken boobs I know where
we can get a nice cold bottle"
High above the clouds the scene
Resembles huge fields Of icebergs.
We sat in wicker chairs and the
only discomfort was cold feet
which, OF course. may not have
been caused by atmospheric 'condi.
tions. One Is permitted to smoke
The fare IS about s35 per pas
senger. and those who look for
thrills will be disappointed. Once in
a great while the plane dips, but
generally 1t sails along more
smoothly than an express train and
the scenery pals.
| The trip is scheduled to be mad.
in two hours and a half. II took
our plane more than four hours, and
very rarely do they make It on
, time. II fog comes up they land
and send the passengers on by
train. The most hazardous feature
is crossing the channel. Should
anything happen there the chances
OF surviving are slim.
1
passengers become on a flying trim
The instant the plane leaves the
] ground one feels a rare kinship for
his fellow travellers. Each one is
attempting easy nonchalance-with
the sickly smile Of q jaunt to the
| guillotine in prospect Some fellow
| in front of me was taking secre,
nips from a suspicious looking bot
tie. 1t seemed to have the desired
e1ect. for after an hour his cour-
age was so Overwhelming that he
asked the pilot what the chances
were to fly to Berlin that night.
Few more nips and he would have
| been willing to fly to the moon
any place.
Ihe farmers never look up as the
| planes fly over the fields of France.
| Atrplanes are "old stuff" to them
| Ihe countryside looks like a huge
crazy quit OF varied colorings. II
is al so drab that 1t was small
! wonder that our mechanicIan
nodded most of the time. I always
thought the fellow who stands in
doorway on Fifth avenue and
| checks of the buses as they mass
had the most monotonous Job in the
world until I saw an air line
mechanician.
When we landed on the outskirts
| OF Paris a photographer wanted to
take our pictures. I tried out NV
menu French to tell him they were
not desired. And to show how per-
| rect linCuist / am he listened with
puzzied expression and finally
shook his head and said: Nix YER
| stay German"
Copyright. ls22)