The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-06-03
BY Morris De Haven Tracy
United Press staff CORRESPONDENT
Copyright 1927. by the United Press)
CH PTER Nv

Copyright, 1927. by the United Press)
CHAPTER "
Two cats have won honored places
in any story of Charles A. Lind
bergh's career.
The first was a pedigreed Angora,
aristocrat of the feline family. Lind
bergh dropped it from a second-story
window.
The second was a kitten of UNI
with such consideration that he has
won commentator of humane So
cieties and animal lovers the coun-
try over.
In addition to these two cats,
which now have gained such great
fame, dogs, horses and animals of
every kind have had their places in
Lindberghs life, for he is one of
those men who never is alone as long
as there is an animal, preferably a
dog, near by.
But to dispose of the cats.
One of the earliest anecdotes of
Lindbergh was told originally as H.
Illustrative of his early development
of the experimental urge. Someone
had told him that a cat, no matter
how far it dropped, would always
land on it's feet. He was then aged
six and the family was living in the
upper fiat of 1.-TWO family house"
in Minneapolis. ar
The folks downstairs had a valu-
able Angora.
Charlie appraised it and decided
that it would be a good bit of ma
terial for an experiment to deter
mine the truth of the stories of
cats always landing on their feet.
He captured the Anf0ra, took it
upstairs and dropped it from a
window.
1T landed on it's feet" he ex-
planned to his mother, when she took
him to task for his experiment.
The other cat was the one which
adopted Lindbergh at Curtiss field,
Long Island, New York, while he
was preparing to make his trans
atlantic flight. lie proved that his
boyhood love Of animals was still
with him, for he never was too busy
to stop a minute and play with the
kitten. Often he was seen around
the hangers, in those trying days,
with the kitten on his shoulder.
When, in the excitement Of the
start for Paris, some one attempted
to put the kitten in the machine
with him, Lindbergh was not too
busy to object.
at may be cold and the kitten
might die" he said as he insisted
that, for its own good, it be left be-
hind.
But dogs are Lindberg's real COM
panions. AS a youth he wandered
through the Minnesota woods around
his home, often being gone all day
with only his dog for company.
He built a boat one summer in
Minnesota and on it he and his dog
embarked day after day on long eX-
cursions over the nearby waters.
Tt was i'm those days that he
became known first as youth
who always Travelled alone. He
did not dislike the company OF
others, but it was unnecessary
to his happiness and when he was
engaged in the thing in which he
was most interested, he always
wanted to be alone and have all
the responsibility himself.
1t is difficult to say whether this
trait was a development of those
days of patrolling the woods and the
streams with his dog and gun, or
whether a desire to be alone was
the reason for such excursions.
There was hardly a tree or a nook
in the woods around Little Falls,
where the family lived that Lind
bergh didn't know by the time he
was Is years Of age. He became
crack pistol shot and was also good
with a rifle. But cap pistol was
one of his first cherished toys and
he always seemed to prefer the
smaller weapon.
When a student at the University
of Wisconsin, the only trophy he
had won UP to that time in any i'm
portant competition was a medal
Of the Reserve officers Training
Corps for pistol shooting. He priced
it highly
Lindbergh's father was always a
great admirer of Theodore Roose-
welt and he told his son stories of
Roosevelt's campaign in Cuba and of
the Rough Riders. Soon Charlie de-
cided that he was rough rider.
He added horse to his list Of
animal friends and there followed a
year or two of extreme anxiety on
the part of his mother as almost
daily she saw her son riding wildly
through the country, alternating be-
tween the characters of a Rough
Rider and a cowboy.
During all this time he con-
tinued his interest in machinery
and was following closely the de-
velopment of the .airplane. He
became motorcycle enthusiast
later, but finally dismantled his mo-
torcycle to apply the engine to a
homemade ice boat in which he
rode the ice of Lake Mendoza.
The ice boat came to grief in a
collision, but after a couple of weeks
it was in commission once more, re-
paired through the resourcefulness
of its youthful builder.
He Ioarnad TO drive an a1lfnnnnhna