The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-11-17

pleasant news, for I was, after all,
a lonely tourist in very foreign
land. They now sent small boy
to bring back this connecting INK
between us. l waited and waited,
while they all pointed and jabbered
about me. Finally the steak came,
and got cold while my mouth wa
tered, but I felt I had to wait and
ask the American if he would eat
with me. At last there was a COM
motion at the entrance, and ] turned
anxiously to see my American
friend.
Through the door waddled a dark,
dirty little man-evidently a former
fruit-vendor in New York. He saw
me, stopped his Croatian talk, threw
out his arms, and cried, "Son OF
beetch! Son of a beetch!" To my
discontinue, that was the only Eng
lish he seemed to know. But l
halved my steak with him and pat
ted him on the back as he tried to
talk, and in the end I guess his COM
patriots really thought their friend
spoke American anyway. could
hear them calling me Americanskl.
I continued on, keeping clear OF
the tourist routes, and finally, after
forty-ive-day trip from Cherbourg,
I rode into Constantinople. Here I
came close to getting in real jam.
Back through my life I had concen-
trated on scouting, archery, and fly
ing anything but girls. could re-
member crossing the street to keep
from having to talk to them. But
that real bashfulness was far behind
me. Now I had about gone to the
other extreme; had found dates in
Paris, Venice, and other cities, and
had had a fine time.
Before reaching Turkey, / had
been warned by the head of the
American Express in Sofia that l
should be very careful in Istanbul
and should confine myself to the
Americanized Turks in and around
the Pera part of the city. They told
me above all to stay clear of Ga
lata-the old Greek and Turkish Sec
ton. AS luck ruled, however, my
first acquaintance was from Galata,
and that night I headed for the city
of the yelled women.
Well, even with right ideas the
men in that quarter had the wrong
idea. I saw the danger just in
time, and even then 1 had to jump
through a window-glass and all
into an alley. can hear the yells
even these years afterwards as !
ran through Galata back to Pera for
my motorcycle. Stopping at the ho-
tel just long enough to check out, I
was off in more dust for Scutari and
East in Asia to Ankara.
So raising the veil of a Moslem
female shortened my stay in Con-
stantinople. Even in my, return to
the West from Ankara, I found
way to dodge the city on the Helles-
pont by getting a Black Sea steam
er and crossing North of Istanbul to
land at Varna in Bulgaria. From
here I crossed the Danube at Rust
chuk and went to Bucharest.
My spirits had risen a little after
missing the Turkish knives in Ga
lata, but here / found a cablegram
awaiting me. The Comptroller Cen
eral had ruled that the Economy
Act of June, 1882, affected all Off
GERS on leave. He had decided that
l, like many others, was on leave
without pay. My orders were to
report to the nearest American EN-
bassy for duty; I remember that
they were signed by McCo1l. I sent
my champagne back and ordered
beer, for the money for this trip
had been borrowed against my three
months leave pay. Here was,
thousands of miles from home and
Randolph Field, where my flying
training would start. If reported
to some ground officer in Europe, !
would probably never get to fly.
Anyway, just to make sure, I
hoped on my motorcycle that night
and headed for Texas by way of
Budapest - Linz - Bingen-on-the-
Rhine-and Paris. I sold the motor
SyS1C al SiSA 6O0AS c1AAN OOaA0C0 Tic
Bremen for a quick trip home. I
had used pay that I was expecting
to get during leave, and I'd be pay
ing the bank for long time. But
I resolved right then and there that
I would pay that money back from
the Air Corps at Randolph Field and
not from some desk in an Embassy.
And so I came at last to the Air
Corps Training Center at Randolph
Field, Texas.
It's hard to describe my feelings
as I walked into the North gate Of
that field and down the nearly mile
long road to the Bachelor Officers
Building, where I was to report. It
seemed that all my life had wait
ed for this moment. Now at last
the great day was at hand when I
would begin my government flying
training. There above me against
the blue Texas sky I could see the
roaring airplanes in their Army col