Evening star., 1939-07-16


House of Hapsburg. Strengthened
in 1882 by the addition of Lucerne,
the league became known as the
Four Forest Cantons. When Berne,
the most important town of Switzer-
land, concluded treaty with the
league in 1889 the feudal aristocracy
was aroused and laid siege to the
town of Laupen. In the pitched
battle that ensued tactics were en-
ployed which were later to become
permannt part of Swiss military
lore. The barons and lords were de-
feated and the victorious confed-
eracy was Joined by many new
members.
"Honoring this brave defense,
there is a new semi-postal COM
memorative with a value of 10 CEN
times plus 10. The surtax is to aid
invalid soldiers. A view of the
Castle of Laupen and the dates
'1339-1939 are features of the design.
Colors are brown and gray, with the
Swiss emblem printed in red and
white"
w. j. Eek, assistant to the presi-
dent of the Southern Railway, was
the guest of honor and principal
speaker at a meeting of the WASH
ington Philatelic Society, Hotel
Mayf1ower, Wednesday evening. He
told the story of his experience as
passengerNo. l on the Dixie Clipper
from Port Washington, Long Island,
to Marseile, France, and return.
Having applied for passage in 1881,
Mr.. Eek explained: Il wrote to the
Pan American Co. from time to
time to remind the booking office
of my application. Finally, 1 re-
ceived telegram offering me tick
ct. I called my wife on the tele-
phone to ask If she had any objec-
ton to my accepting. She wanted
to know: is it safe?' and I an
swered: Certainly, it is So I wired
to New York that I would go. Then
my troubles began. Somebody noti-
fed the newspapers, and an army
of reporters and photographers de-
scended upon us. Because of the
publicity, friend I had not heard
from for 40 years wrote to me. I
was solicited to indorse all kinds of
toothpaste, automobile tires. cigar
cites, chewing gum and other things.
At Port Washington pile of tele-
grams and letters was handed to me
as I went on board the plane.
There were % passengers, is men
besides myself and six women. The
ship will carry "a passengers in day
time, 40 sleeping passengers at night.
I was glad to find that the berths
are longer than those in Pullman
cars. The public space is IS feet
long, and we had plenty of room to
walk about and stretch our legs. To
illustrate the size of the plane it may
be mentioned that the wing spread
in 152 feet. something like 30 feet
longer than the first flight of the
Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.
"We rose from the water into
the air almost without realizing
that we were moving. Once above
the clouds, we did not see the ocean
again until we came down at Horta
in the Azores. We flew on an av-
erage 5000 feet above the surface
of the earth, and the light of the
moon on the white upper portions
of the clouds was indescribably BEAU
tiful. Coming back, saw the finest
sunset that could be imagined-the
rays of the sun turning the clouds to
different shades of pink and rose,
and the upper sky crystal blue.
The first day of the trip was 10
hours, the last day 20 hours"
Mr.. Eek said that the Dixie Clip
per made the distance to the Azores,
2,490 miles, in Is hours, flying an
average of 154 miles an hour, "but
to look out, you would have sworn
that you could walk faster" The
plane, he told his audience, is air
conditioned and practically sound
proof. AS to his fellow-passengers,
he discovered: Most of them were
experienced travellers. We sat
around and recited our adventures