Evening star., 1941-08-27


meLemore. Americus with
the America they had pictured to
them in the movies. They expected
skyscrapers that reached to the sky.
And Americus is still a bit excited
over the new four-story bank build
ing. They looked forward to night
clubs Of unbelievable luxury and
gaiety, and Americus dances TO the
nickels dropped in juke box. They
thrilled to the thought of coming
to a land where there was an heiress
on every corner. and Americus girls
go in for ginghams and curtseys and
blushes.
Americus didn't know just what to
expect when it launched its aviation
training school for r. A. F. flyers,
but it had sort of hoped that dukes
and earl and other assorted peers,
with dashing uniforms and court
manners, would make their littIs
town as gay as Mayfair.
The cadets and the citizens are
now in the process of getting ad-
justed to one another.
=
talked to an Americus lady, mis-
tress of house that has stood so
long that the termites in the white
pillars stop gnawing when Dixie"
is played. She was asked by the pas-~
tor of her church to have some Of
the English boys in for Sunday d:n-7
ner, and graciously agreed. 20
I'D like to see the letters the.
boys wrote home" she said. Il am
quite sure they said they had Just
had dinner with barbarians who ate
with their fingers, or with misers
who were afraid to risk the use OF
their silverware. When the fried
chicken was served. and the boys
tried to manage it with their knives
and forks. suggested that they use
their fingers. When the corn on the
cob was served they asked me how
they should eat it, and I said for
them to pick it up in their fingers.
Dear me. they did give me such
startled looks" ~
-
A cadet from Manchester told mo
of a most unusual experience he
had had when asked to Sunday
breakfast by some hospitable Amer,
leans in nearby Moultrie. 1T was a
lovely home" he said, land the
breakfast was quite perfect until my
hostess asked me if I would care
for some grits. In my country, grits,
is sand and silt and soil. and has
never been used as food. I was
quite alarmed. So said, No, thank
you, won't have any Do you know
that every one else at the table had
some grit or grits and ate it as If it
were excellent fun. They put but
ter on it, and seemed to relish
the mixture. Say, old boy, what
kind of constitutions do you chaps
have to eat roadbed for a cereal?""
The Georgians like to hear the
British talk. They ask the flying
lads, just as if they were asking for
a match or direction to the post Of
flee, to talk -5s
Say something-just anything,
the Georgians request. -g
It's most remarkable" one Brit
ish chap told me, 'how they liked
to hear us talk, when, Lord knows,
their talk is so strange 1t seems to
me that they would much prefer to
listen to one another" 80
The flying school at Americus is
a good tip-off on modern warfare.
Why, one is bound to ask. does
Britain send hundreds of young men
this many thousands of miles away,
to learn how to fly? Certainly it
can't be that the tight little isle ise-
so tight that there isn't room for
them to learn combat flying in their
own country
The main reason for the r. A. r.
schools in this country is this: The
training ships that all the countrieso
use, Germany included. must neces-r
sarily be easy to handle and to be-
easy to handle they must be slowsf
The trainers have a top speed Of O
100 m. p. h. or thereabouts. This
makes them easy prey for enemy
fighting ships. Put 40 or so help.
less training ships in the air in
England, and one Messerschmidt,C
with a speed of $50 or 400 miles an
hour, could wipe them out in fivez
minutes. Given the location of aa
training school, German fighter
could destroy an entire class in one.
attack.
So, to protect the fledgelings, Eng
land sends them thousands of miles
from any danger. Here they work
from $50 am. to $50 pm. Over
peaceful farms they learn the art Of
warfare in the clouds. They dog
fight over cotton fields, drop inagi.
lid1 OOllko oAi SliS1l VIZ
jectives as smokehouses and chicken
coops.
"It's shame the world can't be
this quiet and happy" big Scot
from Glasgow said. But perhaps
1t will be if we can clean up the
ferries" 81
Driving back to Americas, on the
clay road that led through the mag
nolias and the pines, even as poor .
thinker as I could not help but won-
der II this world of ours was always
going to be busy cleaning up ferries
of some sort or other: that If my
time and your time and the time Of.
those who are to- follow after us q
will always have to be devoted to :
shooting to make the world worth
shooting.
distributed by McNausht Syndicate. IncJ