Evening star., 1932-07-06
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

hole. never to come out. or you are
summoned to a conference, at which
you are surrounded by grim gentlemen
with steel-blue eyes, blazing behind
shiny nose glasses.
In the complaint I had in mind at
that time consider the situation I would
have been in. How low was the plane
flying, Mr.. Jones, in your opinion?'
How could have answered that?
Il had and have no more idea as TO
the actual height of plane in the air
than a rabbit. and probably no two
experts would agree on it, either. 1t Is
a great deal like how fast is an auto
mobile going in an accident.
Some stern gentleman would be sure
to ask, Just exactly what are your
qualifications for Judging the height of
planes in the air, Mr.. Jones?'
What could 1 say?
Il had no qualifications except COM
mon sense.
"Wnen plane gives the occupant Of
a home the feeling that the said vehicle
and driver are sitting squarely on top
of the house, all that the grounding
can say in such a case is that it
strikes him as being pretty low, too low.
80 I didn't kick, and some weeks
later I had the sorrow of reading that
this brave young man, filled with the
pride of his profession and the ex-
uberance Of youth, had gone to his
death in another city.
MAYBE if had protested I could
have saved his life But who knows
such things? We are all in the hands
of the God who made us, and each one
of us must take his chance every day
of his life.
well, here I was confronted exactly
with the same problem. l listened to
the great whirring above, 1 thought the
Young man was flying too low, at least
for my peace of mind. He knew what
he was doing, no doubt, but 1 didn't.
II was getting rather sore about his
sightseeing trips until one day 1 ran
into an old friend who served in the
Great War.
Il told him about my problem of the
moment.
He made no particular comment, but
I could see by the lack thereof that he
did not put much stress on my story.
He was thinking about other things.
AS 1 had not expected him to be eX-
cited, that did not worry me in the
least.
''Finally he started to tell me-what
was a rare thing from him-some of
his own experiences in the great con-
flict
How one afternoon on the western
front he happened to be walking alone
when an enemy airplane chanced to
spot him.
Down it dived at him, splitting ma
chine-gun bullets as 1t came.
Every tenth shot was tracer bullet,
which left q trail in the air, so that
the gunner could see If he was on the
mark.
Fortunately, the German was not
an expert with the affair, for my friend
escaped untouched.
After he left me I got to wondering
II 1 hadn't been a bit haSty about this
thing Of airplanes.
After all, my pet plane didn't have
a machine gun on it, at least as far as
l knew.
Every time I thought Of him out
there with a plane zooming squarely at
him and raining him with bullets l
tended to be a bit ashamed Of myself
for working up such bit Of timidity.
These boys know what they are
doing, I guess, and no doubt are not as
low as they seem to my citizen eyes.
Guess will continue to endure them,
since there doesn't seem to be any way
to help it.
Il am going to keep on hoping, how
ever, that they will decide to fly higher
and make much bigger circles or loops,
or whatever they call them, while over
| this neighborhood. I don't like aero
! nautical indigestion"