New Britain herald., 1927-09-10

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 world without buttons? No, ot | course you can't. And yet it was | in just such a world that Louis B Smithers, alias Louie the Snake,
 Two Gun Sal" and Addison Simms Of Seattle" found himself when but a mere boy.
 Louis was born in the eastern part of Italy in q day when radio ! hat really worked was a novelty In those days, and even as far back , as 1905, the children of the streets , of the town in which Smithers was born were playing a game which although it had no name, was very interesting to the young boy. The children would make believe that they were holding some article and would feign passing the unknown thing from one to the other in vari- ous ways. Then one would shout. , Who's got the -" and To. they would meet an obstacle in their game before they had really started. Try as they might, they could not rightly accuse anybody of having this mysterious thing as there wasn't any real tangible object and furth- crmore it could not be named if there was.
 Here the young inventor went 10 work. The logical name for what ever was to be invented was but ton" or 'bouttone" as the Danish had it at that time. Buttons should be made round, Smithers reasoned in order that the sharp edges might not cut tender little hands and the probable material for its construc- ton was bone.
 At this point the youngster came up against his first real discourage ment. Try as he would, he could not find the bone necessary to make the first button. He tried taking one away from a dog and got bitten. He went to the big rag, bone and bottle baron. Signore Suilisino, lG42-1S09) and was sent from the room in disgrace. He appealed to the supreme court of Switzerland and obtained a decree in favor of came of it.
 Finally, in sacrifice Of his ideal, Smithers melted up his two pet educated dice, Flora and Fauna, aged 8 and liz respectively, and from the pitiful remains of his two late friends. he constructed the first button. Costly as the experiment proved, 1t was the only means of giving the first button to the world.
 At first the article was used only when playing Button, button, who's got the button?' but one day the King of Spain, while playing the game with several of his courtiers, found that he needed something 10 keep the points of his soft collar from waving in the breeze. Two buttons were attached to the shirt and the collar fastened down by means of button holes, which at that time were very eXpensive--a gross of button holes costing from
  think. The two buttons came off in the laundry and they have followed that custom up to this day.
 Buttons waned in popularity dur ing the Victorian era but returned in full strength with the growing usage of the term, "A left to the button and he Hops for the count, see?" Also people began using them on their clothes and the steam laundries began invcnting crushing or grinding machines which pulver- ized the buttons 10 a fine powder Button Gwinnet, by the way, lived during Revolutionary days in Phila- delphia, wasn't it?
 And now we find buttons every where. Under the bed and under the bureau and missing from shirts.
 Now we find little kiddies playing Button, Button" with happy faces Everything is rosy since the article has been invented. And back of the whole idea stands Louis B. Smithers-invcntor, fighter, gentle man, good fellow-a MAN, folks.
 This afternoon you are going to have the pleasure of listening to Major Hugo Downfast of the Royal Flying Corps who will endeavor to give you some pointers on the sub ject Stunt Flying For Fun and Profit" before it gets too dark to see Major Downfast:
 There are two things to remem- Der while doing stunt flying. That is, two elementary things to remem- Der. One is that you are several thousand feet above the cold, cold ground and the other is that the wife and kiddies are probably bank ing on your return so that you can go out to the movies tonight. With these things in mind, let us take up the different forms of stunt flying.
 There are several stock stunts it might be well to dwell upon, such as looping the loop. the falling leaf, the nose dive Comparatively easy for the beginning who doesn't know lIiuCH dDOul llio NllSih siAS oi'N- slip and the spiral dive. Of those I personally prefer to watch the falling leaf which consists of letting the plane fall to the ground, nose downward, in a gentle rocking motion. In case the engine fails to pick up again, I understand the sensation is similar to being pushed off the Palisades on a bi- cycle.
 Another sweet stunt for the be- ginner is the loop-simple as it may be, it provides a certain clement of thrill to the aviator. One goes up- ward and outward and suddenly finds himself looking up at his shoes and deciding that he'd better buy new pair with the early Autumn sales. Then, as the plane swoops BREAK YOURSELF OF BREAKS!
 Uearn How To Be Genteel in The Fun Shop Charm SchooD