Evening star., 1938-10-23

v. n. -.
HIGH, WIDE AND FRIGHTENED.
BY Louise Thaden. New York:
Stackpole Sons.
One of the best of American femi-
nine pilots. Mrs. Thaden, like her close
friend, the late Amelia Earhart Put
nam, has done much to impress upon
American women the suitability of fly
ing as an outlet for self-expression and
means Of sport, recreation and travel
This, her first book, is very frank
story Of her experiences. She makes
no effort to sell" aviation by CLOSING
over its hardships or risks. Nor does
she attempt to make any secret Of the
fact that flying eventually becomes a
necessity; that it is, to some extent,
habit forming. In this respect, she
admits. her flying has created a con-
flict between her own desires and her
duties as a wife and mother.
She admits that, despite the "un-
adulterated joys" which a pilot feels,
her flying has been, for the greater
part, routine: in fact, rather monoto-
nous. This she attributes to the fact
that much of her time has been de-
voted to the grind of demonstrating
airplanes or the vast labor of pre-
pairing for competitive or record
flights, in which she has achieved in
ternational fame. Nevertheless, she
says, aviation for her has been "in-
terspersed with high points of ex-
quisite beauty, and woven through
with a satisfying peace"
She says, too, that although she has
been badly frightened on a number
Of occasions and intimates that any
flyer who says he has not been fright
ened also Is large-scale prevaricator,
| flying Is safe-"as safe as anything in
which the human element has part"
I'VE suspect the airplane because it
is a strange mechanism transporting
us through strange medium" she
says. Our children will not have
that conscious fear, as we have no
conscious fear of those forms of
transportation which grew up with us
the train, the automobile and the
bus"
Mrs. Thaden was for quite while
resident of Washington, while en-
ployed as an air-marking pilot by the
Bureau of Air Commerce She tells
of her experiences there and of con-
facts with local flyers, among them
Ben King, noted local sportsman pilot
and international record holder
Her story makes good reading It
moves briskly and to q small extent
opens a new door to the grounding.
]. s. E.
TOLD OUT OF SCHOOL. BY A. B.
Shiffrin. New York: Little, Brown
& Co.
1t is delightful to run across q novel,
Unexpectedly, that has the ring of
truth, the breath of life, and q style
Of depicting them that is both smooth
and interesting. Such q novel is Told
Out of School" It is sorry Of Brook
lyn school teachers, told by one of
their pupils grown into a school teacher
himself.
Who has not looked with scorn on
the "old maid school teachers" as they
emerged from their red brick fast
nesses at the end Of the school day?
Who has not derided the solitary male
members of the grammar schools fac
ulty for being either inefficient or un-
ambitious. two crimes in the Amer
Han roster of crimes? Who has not
envied the assured income and the
long vacation Of the school teacher
or stood in awe Of the portly and dig
nified man principal? What dramas
and tragedies are cloaked by the pro-
fessionsl manners and routine be-
haviors Of a city school faculty are
seldom guessed at and seldom described