Evening star., 1924-09-07
GIGANTIC WELCOME
ACCORDED A|RMEN
BY BOSTON HOSTS
Tens of Thousands Greet
Flyers; U. S., State and
City Pay Tributes.
FLIGHT OF 1926 MILES
is WITHOUT INCIDENT
Pilots Anxious to Finish Journey;
Face Death Easily. But Shy
at Crowds.
BY FREDERICK II. NEELY.

BY FREDERICK r. NEELY.
Staf Correspondent Of The Star.
BOSTON, September 6.-Battle-
SCARED heroes, fresh from the field
and blood of battle never were as
popular in Boston tonight as the six
American Army officers who landed here
this afternoon on the concluding stages
of their fight around the globe.
Boston did more than open it's arms
to those six officers, Lieut.. Lowell H.
Smith. commander; Lieut.. Leslie p
Arnold. his assistant: Lieut.. Leigh
Wade. pilot; Lieut.. Henry (Hank)
ogden. assistant, and Lieut.. Erik
Nelson and his assistant, Lieut.. Jack
Harding, Jr. 1t opened its heart and
soul. Nothing was too good for the
airmen and Boston, although deprived
Of the honor of being the first place
on American soil for the flyers to
land through the actions of a ter
rible fog hat forced the planes down
near Brunswick. Nc, yesterday, cast
all sulkincss aside that appeared to
have arisen this morning when the
three Douglas world cruisers-Chi-
cago. Boston H. and New Orleans
appeared over the city.
Reception Enthusinstic.
That landing and the enthusiasm
that was aroused by it will be placed
in history of this city which loves
history. Bostonians had left their
homes and places of business and
journeyed to East Boston yesterday
evening to greet the flyers, and then
they didn't appear. They Were
little disgruntled perhaps. as any pub
lie gathering would be when dis
appointed. but they did not know
that Lowell Smith thinks more of
making the flight a success than
pleasing spectators. So they went
home, and many of them turned out
early this morning when it was an
nounced the airmen would possibly
get here about 10 o'clock. BY 0
o'clock the air port at Ilast Boston,
now in command of Lieut.. Il. >.
Brown, jr., chairman of the world
flight committee, who has written
weekly articles for The Star Of :he
world flight for more than two
months. was swamped with people
and automobiles.
The hours rolled by and frequently
Martin bomber would take the air
and fly as no one in these parts has
ever seen, this huge type fly, so care
u.
II. II. o'clock rolled by, and still no
planes in sight. Then, few minutes
before >, three objects W ere seen in
the air. They grew in size rapidly
and soon were detected not to be De
Havilands or Martins, with which the
Hlr has been thick the last few days,
tut a type of plane never seen here.
it was the world flyers. on and on
they came, a 4jerfect V shape.
Boston Drops All Work.
Your correspondent was on top of
An eight story building of the 1st
Corps Area across the harbor and saw
tho planes so familiar since kirkwaIl
Orkney Islands, before the masses
huddled on the ground at Airport. AS
they 3pproa cfted closer and closer the
word passed like lightning that the
planes were coming, and all Boston
dropped everything and gave rise to
floiS..--w hiStleS, sirens, automobile
ElaXons and vocal cheers CONT bined to
send up Il welcome to the planes in
the air (which, unfortunately, at the
time the pilots were unable to hear
because OF the noises of the Liberty
motors) that historians again record
ed. Now they seemed to drop down
in altitude. They were about 500
feet. Smith in the lead, Wade on the
left and Nelson on his right.
one circle of the airport and the
formation deployed in to column and
four times covered the entire harbor.
Three fireboatS in the harbor, all
Boston owned. thought they could
make themselves understood better
by turning on all their hose and from
each vessel emitted four streams of
water pointed skyward, beautiful
sight.
Land at O'Clock.
Satisfied he had let the town know
of their arrival, Smith cut the gum"
and dived for the water in the vi
cinity of the crowds and the official
barge, and exactly at 2 o'clock sank
lis 1.0O0-pound pontoons in the waters
of Boston Harbor-for the second
time in American waters in as many
days. One minute later Wade fol-
lowed and the third minute, Nelson
settled down. They TAXED out a
short distance to their moorings,
where Arnold, Harding and Ogden
a large number of little boats went
scurrying to the scene completely
surrounding the planes from view of
the spectators.
In one of these little boats was
Gen. Patrick, chief of the ARMY Air
Service. But here let me stop and let
Lowell Smith finish the story in his
own WOTQS. Snltn is not a press
agent. a dramatist, a sensationalist-
he's the poorest man in the world to
interview, If the interviewer is not
known to him, but the writer gave
the password of the terrible order
of the Chevaliers of Reykjavik, Ice
land (where we were marooned for
many days) and Lowell spoke: He
was nervous and excited and piled
congratulations upon my head. He
said, i knew from the very beginning
YOU would do it, And 1 know he did.
Then we went to the barge cited up
to shore) and were introduced to the
crowd by the general, piled in auto
mobiles and driven up to the airport
"a few hundred yards), where we
signed and inaugurated with our sig
natures new register book for Wis
iting pilots at the port.
Our names were under the gem
erals. This done, in we jumped to
the automobiles and back to the
water, where an Army boat carried us
across the harbor to the Army Corps
area base. More automobiles awaited
Us and led by motorcycle policemen,
we plowed our way through the city,
surrounded by cheering people to the
State house where they gave us each
q pair of silver wings and the pilots
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