Evening star., 1938-10-09
ut airplane as q serious

bombardme ut airplane as q serious
weapon.
Willis S. Fitch was one of the COM
pany Of United States aviators who
served with the Italians against Austria
in the World War. There he fought
in the company of such men as
Clarence S. Young, the First Assistant
Secretary of Commerce for Aeronau-
tics: Maj. Fiorello H. La Guardia, now
Mayor of New York, and Albert
Spalding, the violinist. La Guardia,
in fact. was Fitch's commanding officer
through much of the war and has
written brief foreword for the volume.
These Americans flew Italian bonn
bardment airplanes during the period
Of development of night bombardment
tactics. Fitchs story. therefore. is of
considerable historical Importance,
since it deals at first hand with flights
over the Alps, the Piave River front
and the Adriatic Sea, which played
vital part in the fighting on the
Italian front. j. S. E.
FIRST THE BLADE. BY May Merrill
Miller. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf.
The author of this epic of early
California is Washingtonian by
adoption, although she is a native
daughter of the State about which
she writes in this, her first novel. and
upon that account her book is Of
more than ordinary interest here.
In its handling Mrs. Miller's story
is reminiscent OF Gone With the
Wind" in that the history Of land
and its influence upon a people is
related, as we'll as the incidents OF
their lives. Like Margaret Mitchell,
Mrs. Miller heard tales Of her State
from her grandparents and parents
and always knew that some day she
must write a book about its pioneer
era.
In her story the gold rush in '49
is relegated to second place in interest
to the later conquest Of the San
Joaquin Valley. that central. arid, fiat
section between San Francisco and
Los Angeles that Fasteners rarely
hllO" dbOdt' Alilo lioW IL uit-
full valley was almost a desert when
the first home builders came there.
Herds Of cattle roamed the land under
the eyes of few ranchers and out
laws
Within a single generation it was
converted into rich agricultural
country. only because the settlers
toiled necessarily, pooled their for
tunes for irrigation and even gave
up their lives in their battle with
San Francisco's own "robber barons,"
the railroad magnates, who had Sc
cured a first claim of sorts on much
of the land.
Out of these events, which have
found their way into few history
books. Mrs. Miller has made a fas-
cinating story. The conquest Of the
valley is told around the story of
woman, Amelia Mcneil, who spent her
girlhood in Missouri during the Civil
War and was Tilted there. To her,
as to so many people Of her time
and since, California was the prom
ised land.
She found. as countless people have
discovered, that the best remedy for
a broken heart Is q new love. To
Westerners her story has the unmis-
taxable ring of authenticity. Every
California family seems to have been
founded by grandmother or grand
father with 4 broken fortune If not
a broken heart. who discovered that
the Pacific slope Of their day was too
exciting a spot in which to indulge
in introspection. There were no free
hours in which to relive scenes Of
defeat.
Mrs. Miller is the wife of Judge
Justin Miller of Washington. With
their family they spend most Of the
year here and the summer on their
farm near Boone, N. C. v. K. c.