Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-12
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERToN.

changing color as they change
shape through the range Of silver
pearl gray and even faint Law
ender, faint as the scarcely sensed
fragrance of a distant flower.
New World Appears.
AS the plane drones cheerfully
UP out of it's silver valley, this new
and brilliant world begins to
spread out. New cloud domes rise
in the distance over the rim,
gray gives way to white so vir-
ginal and cleaning as nearly to
blind the eyes. You squint until
your pupils close against the glare.
You find that your hands are
out of your pockets without any
consciousness of taking them out,
that you are sitting up straighter
and that there is tingling in all
your veins and a warmth rising
in your brain. Your heart is beat
ing faster, you breathe deeply and
vigorously. There is not a thought
of the troubles which weighted
your brain below; the world of
rain and mist and darkness is
vanished for the moment as COM
pletely as though it had never
been. You feel almost literally
born anew, clean, pure as the new
world taking form about you. At
this point many burst into song,
clenching their fists in excite
ment, faces beaming, eyes glisten-
ing. Ask any pilot who has taken
passengers into the new world
how his charges conduct them
selves and you will learn some
thing of human emotion.
Above the cloud world the plane
climbs. Great valleys, shading
into the most delicate colors open
to the view, at the bottoms there
may be pits through which
glimpse Of the dark earth below
flashes momentarily; an earth
which concerns you not at all.
There are people below who plod
through the rain and think dull
thoughts. They are no part of
you and their thoughts are none
OF yours.
Alone in the Sky.
Here above the clouds is your
world and your world alone. There
Is no living thing visible in all
the circle about, only the hills
and wales of the glowing clouds.
You realize that you are living as
you never have lived before. Every
sense is alive with a vigorous life.
You yearn to take the controls
and explore this strange land your
self. If your pilot is an obliging
and understanding soul he will do
1t for you. He will nose down the
plane and slide, with greater and
greater speed down a long gleam-
Ing cloud hill into one of the
darkling hollows; then up the
other side you go with joyful
creScendo from the engine. You
bank and race around the buttress
of a towering peak of cloud and
find around its shoulder a broad
and brilliant plain. On you go, up
and up, curving as you climb
along the side of the cloudy peak,
with the glistening plain spread
ing out wider and farther below.
Now there is a cavern in the
side of the cloud mountain, into
which you plunge behind your
motor. The clouds are all
about, you twist around and the
blue is behind your shoulder. AS
you duck instinctively, the plane
crashes into the depth of the cav
ern and Is sucked up in the mist,
which closes all about.
Out Into the Sun.
Then in a second you burst
wildly out into the sunshine, with
a cloud slope dropping deep, deep
below and rising almost sheer
above and behind. You bank and
turn sharply, and the great white
cragS and heights slide by just
beyond the end of the wing. You
reach the end of the wall and the
cloud stuff drops away below, a
half mile down on either side, and
abruptly becomes cloud ocean,
rolling and restless, surging
against the shore of the great
cloud dome behind the tail of
your plane.
Now you are swinging down in
wide, easy spirals to the surface
of the cloud sea. 1t opens below
and you are abruptly swallowed
up, sinking again through the
darkening mist into the gloomy
world which you left seemingly an
eternity ago to climb the cloud
covered heights.
Mist forms on the windows and
turns into rain, everything be-
comes darker without, you drop
down into the world of dripping
trees from which workaday cares
and worries swarm up to meet
you. You land, and a great ad-
venture is over, the memories of
which will linger long in your
heart and mind.