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diff --git a/old/51720-0.txt b/old/51720-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 98d0238..0000000 --- a/old/51720-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5198 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dinsmore Ely, by Dinsmore Ely - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Dinsmore Ely - One Who Served - -Author: Dinsmore Ely - -Editor: James Owen Ely - -Release Date: April 10, 2016 [EBook #51720] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DINSMORE ELY *** - - - - -Produced by ellinora and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - Transcriber’s Note: - - Obvious errors in spelling and punctuation corrected. - - Inconsistent accenting of words made consistent. - - Italic text is represented by underscores surrounding the _text_. - - Small capitals in the original have been converted to ALL CAPS in the - text. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: cover page] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - Dinsmore Ely - - ONE WHO SERVED - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - Second Lieutenant Dinsmore Ely - 1894-1918 -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - DINSMORE ELY - - _ONE WHO SERVED_ - - [Eagle Wing Decoration] - - - “_It is an investment, not a loss, when a man - dies for his country_” - - - [Publisher Logo] - - CHICAGO - A. C. McCLURG & CO. - 1919 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - Copyright - A. C. McCLURG & CO. - 1919 - - Published April, 1919 - - W. F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY, CHICAGO - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD - - -In the battlefields of France there are thousands of American graves; -graves of our best and bravest; sacred places to which we shall make -pilgrimage in the years to come and over which we shall stand with tears -on our faces and with pride in our hearts. Our heads will be bared -because the ground is consecrated; the last resting place of heroes who -gave their young and beautiful lives for their country’s cause. - -Dinsmore Ely was one who gave. His was the Great, the Supreme Sacrifice. -Never was Crusader of old inspired by higher and holier motives. In his -letters home, which we have the privilege of giving to the public, there -is revealed a knightly soul: the soul of a Bayard “without fear and -without reproach.” - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PRELUDE - - BY DR. JAMES O. ELY - - - MY SON - -Of old Scotch-Covenanter blood he came. - -Into the Presbyterian Church he was born, and at her altar dedicated to -the service of his God. - -Taken back, when four years of age, to the old home in the Pennsylvania -hills, he was present at the Centennial Celebration of the church where -his ancestors have worshiped for five generations. - -Called on to say his little speech—I can see him yet—he marched bravely -down the long aisle of the crowded auditorium, climbed up the pulpit -steps, too high for his short legs and, facing the great audience, the -childish treble rang out true and clear, as he volunteered for his first -service under the banner of the Cross: - - My name is Dinsmore Ely, I’m only four years old; - I want to fight for Jesus and wear a crown of gold; - I know he’ll make me happy, be with me all the day; - I mean to fight for Jesus, the Bible says I may. - -Twenty years passed. His country called. Among the first to answer, he -volunteered in the American Ambulance Field Service that he might secure -immediate passage to France and go at once into active service. Arriving -there on the fourth of July, 1917, on the sixth he volunteered and was -accepted the same day, in the Lafayette Flying Corps. - -Taking his aviation training for a fighting pilot in the French schools -and leaving the last school in January, with the reputation of wonderful -skill as a flyer and aerial gunner, he volunteered at once for service -with a French escadrille, serving and fighting with it from January to -April in the Toul Sector near Verdun, when his escadrille was ordered to -Montdidier, then the center of the great German drive. - -On reaching Paris, he was notified to report at American Army -headquarters to receive his commission in the United States Army. Having -received it, at his own request, he was assigned as a detached volunteer -American officer to go into battle at once with his old French -escadrille. - -On the following day, in closing his last letter to his parents, he -wrote, in a single short sentence, his creed as an American Soldier, -and, all unknowingly his own epitaph, now carved in stone upon his grave -in the cemetery at Versailles, the heart of France: - - _It is an investment, not a loss, - when a man dies for his country._ - -Flying in his Spad to Montdidier, Death met him near Villacoublay. - -In his poem, _To Whom the Wreath_, an appeal for the fatherless children -of France, he wrote: - - Give us to help beat back the Hun, - But give the French the honor won; - Pray God, we’ll know when Death is done, - That France is safe and Children’s Homes. - - * * * * * - -Death is done, my Soldier Son, and you know, aye, you know, that France -is safe and children’s homes. - -And the little mother (ah! well we ken, Laddie, you and I, how much she -gave herself to you) sends you this message: - - “Thank God I gave my boy to be a Soldier,” - -and saying it, her face glowed with the pride of the mother whose -first-born son, flying in the heavens, was transfigured before her eyes -as he soared upwards into the presence of his God. - -We’ll nae’ forget you, Laddie, and we’ll be greeting you soon, but while -we tarry here, sitting often alone by the fireside in the old home you -loved, we won’t grieve for you, Laddie, and if we are a wee bit lonely -at times, we will open the treasure box of “pleasant memories” you left -us and let the joy of them fill our hearts. - - YOUR FATHER. - -_Winnetka, Ill., March 1, 1919._ - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - Dinsmore Ely - - - _Monday, June 25, 1917._ - -O great day! O wonderful world! O fortunate boy! Can it be I sail for -France—France, the beautiful—the romantic—the aesthetic, and France the -noble—the magnificent? Yes, it is true. It is all real. The babbling -crowd and gangplank and piled trunks and excited companions—the hissing, -roaring, thundering whistle, the cry of shrill voices, the moving of -mass, the joyous and sad faces, waving handkerchiefs, passing boats and -docks, the Battery, Liberty, the open sea—and New York fades behind with -the pilot boat taking back the last letters of frantically written -farewells. The noise is past now; there is a strange silence as the -gentle swell of a calm ocean comes to us; we become aware of the steady -throb of the engine. People wander about restlessly with hands dangling -at their sides. They know the past; they try to realize the present; -they are ignorant of the future. We are on the great Atlantic, we are -sailing to France! - - - _Tuesday._ - -Five-thirty found me wide awake, so I got up, and with great difficulty -succeeded in making the _steward de bains_ understand that I wanted a -bath. They all speak French very fluently—just as fluently as I speak -English. Well, I shall know how to take a French bath by tomorrow, or -know the reason why. There were only a few on deck, so I had a good -walk. Breakfast (_petit déjeuner_) was at six-thirty. Real breakfast -comes at ten-thirty, but one eats so often that it is too tiresome -talking about meals. The real topic of conversation is seasickness. It -is enough to make anybody sick. Everyone looks at everyone else and at -themselves in the mirror to see if they can find or create symptoms. The -ocean is as smooth as glass, and still they talk. If I am to be seasick, -it must come naturally. Darn if I’ll create my own atmosphere. The -boundless blue is the most beautiful and serene outlook imaginable. It -is great. Already I am at perfect rest. After breakfast I went right to -sleep on the deck. At nine there was a Y. M. C. A. French class on the -hatch cover, and we joined them. It is a “blab” school in which -everybody yells in unison with the leader. It is very funny while your -voice lasts, and remarkably instructive. It gives confidence in -pronunciation. There are a lot of people outside of our party whom I -know. Probably more will turn up. I have not met all our own men yet.... -Well, there is time to burn. The day was mostly spent in lounging about. -I did not try to make any acquaintances. Dave Reed and I were lucky -enough to get chairs. He is the “salt of the earth.” - - - _Thursday, June 28._ - -We had a preliminary life-insurance drill today, which consisted in our -assembling in our proper positions on the deck, and then going to -dinner. Rumor has it that on the last trip this boat had its rudder shot -off and that our captain sank a submarine. Yesterday a freighter passed -and they kept our guns trained on it from the time it came in sight till -it sank away to the rear. The Germans are using such boats now to sink -transports. We are not allowed to open portholes, and the lighting of -matches and cigarettes is forbidden on deck at night. This sounds like -war. From the time when I first read _Treasure Island_ and _Via Crucis_ -I have envied those who lived in the ages of pirates and crusaders and -Indians. I felt that they faced real hardships and fought real foes—in -short, lived life to its fullest—while we, raised on milk and honey, -were deprived of the right to face our dragon and bear our metal. But -behold! Here we are facing the greatest foe of civilization in the -greatest war of Christendom—a war not merely of steel and brawn—but a -war on and over and under the seas; on and around and through the -earth—a war in which plants and animals and all that is animate take -part—a war of physical energy, mental versatility, and worldly resource -taking equal part. Here the war god is taking the world at its prime—a -world thrilling with the vitality and enthusiasm of achievement. He is -taking this world which for thousands of years man has labored to -cultivate and promote, and is marring and crushing it and sending it -hurtling back through the ages to another hopeless, obscure beginning, -and we are insects upon its surface. Each one of us gambles with Fate, -putting ingenuity against the laws of chance, to see if he will be -crushed as the good old world rolls down the slope of progressive -civilization into the murky vale of barbarism. And we live in this age. -If we die, it is for the Cause. If we live, it is to see an era of -remodeling which will be unparalleled. Maps and boundaries, governments -and peoples, religion and science—all will be reconstructed. Terms such -as “international law,” “humane justice,” “survival of the fittest,” -“militarism,” “monarchy,” “culture,” and—who knows—perhaps even -“Christianity,” may be laid away on the shelf as no longer practicable. - -And, oh, the outcome! Will the lucky ones be those who go or those who -stay? We are told that without doubt we go into transport driving. Me -for aeronautics. It’s no use, I cannot think of anything else. It’s what -I am best fitted for, and it is the way I was meant to live. Stake -all—spend all—lose all, or win all—and that is as it should be. - -As per father’s advice, I am reading a history of France. On my own -hook, I am reading a _Reserve Officers’ Handbook_. - -This morning we had setting up exercises on the foredeck. This -afternoon, a doctor of some kind or other gave a lengthy discourse on -the elements of philosophy. It was cloudy, but warm all day, and the -sunset was beautiful. We gain half an hour a day on the clock. At this -rate, we will be over in nine days if the weather continues. - - Good night. - - - _Friday, June 29, 1917._ - -This is really Sunday afternoon, but I want to keep up the bluff of -seeming to write every day. As a matter of fact, I do not think that a -diary should be written every day just because the person has resolved -to do it. Anything so written is bound to be lifeless and uninteresting. -As a catalogue of events, a diary would be monotonous reading. As an -outlet to thoughts, it should be spontaneous. When events of importance -take place, they will be incentive enough to write. This day has really -been lacking in events—let it go at that. - - - _Saturday, June 30._ - -There are some sad French birds trying to sing. It sounds like the first -rehearsal of a ragtime opera, the cast being depressed by the -experiences of the night before. I cannot grant them much. - -Well, today we had track meet on board. Good exercise, entertainment, -and time killer it was. First came the three-legged race; then the sack -race; then the Japanese sword fight; then the cock fight; then the bar -and jack fight; and finally the tug of war. Dave Reed and I had the -three-legged race cinched when I, like a poor simp, started to go on the -opposite side of a post from him and we fell in the final. I lost the -sack race and won the Jap sword fight. I also won the bar and jack -fight. They made me captain of the M. I. T. tug of war, and that is why -we lost, because I was the hoodoo right through. The thing I did was the -only one they forgot to award a box of candy for—that is my luck—but it -was great exercise, and I slept better than any time yet. - -A pretty fair wind is coming up. They have put two men in irons I -understand; one for insulting a lady, the other for being drunk. There -is far too much drinking to please me. I had my porthole open last -night, and a wave slushed in and soaked my bed. This “rocked in the -cradle of the deep” must stop for the present. - - - _Sunday, July 1._ - -And the strange part about it is, that it seems like Sunday. The Lord -made the water so rough that we almost got seasick. I do not know -whether it made people more or less religious. I didn’t go in, because -the fresh air seemed better for seasickness than a sermon would be. The -waves were dashing over the prow and tossing buckets of water up on the -deck, so I got on my waterproof outfit. You know, there is a system to -the waves. The longer one watches them, the surer one gets, but it’s -with the waves as with human nature. The laws governing them are so -complex that one cannot discover them in a single short life. There was -a good singing festival in the evening. - - Good night. - - - _Monday, July 2._ - -We have entered the danger zone. The life boats are swung out; the guns -are uncovered, and the men beside them ready. Passengers are requested -to sleep on deck with their clothes on and life preservers near at hand. -The day is clear and calm and excellent for submarine fishing. This -evening as the sun was setting, two whales spouted on the starboard sky -line—get that “starboard.” Some claimed it was a sea battle between two -submarines; others mentioned water spouts. A few of the _blasés_ who -were nearsighted, said it was imagination. Everybody was a trifle -nervous. - -The people down in the steerage have great times. We sit up and watch -them play buzz and elephant, and when the idea of the game is grasped we -imitate them. Buzz is played by three men standing in a row. The middle -man wears a hat. He puts his hands up to his mouth and buzzes like a -hornets’ nest and then slaps the face of one of the other men. The man -who is hit tries to knock off the hat. If the buzzer ducks quickly, the -hat stays on. It is hard to describe, but fun to watch. The result is a -good complexion. - -Today, I made a pencil sketch, assorted my letters of recommendation and -catalogued them, and read fifty pages of history. Never have I been -content to do so little. Each day I approach nearer to perfect idleness -by doing half as much as the day before, but at that, I am getting in -better condition all the time. - -Last evening at ten-thirty I strolled aft and looked down on the main -deck below. The moon was shining dreamily on the smooth, billowy ocean, -and there was a faint trickle of water at the prow. As our ship cut its -path in the gossamer, phantom couples glided about on the moonlit deck -to the soft, tinkling music of the ukuléle; gentle voices and soft -laughter made you know the phantoms were real, yet it was all so like -dream fairies dancing to a lullaby. It was one of those scenes which you -recognize on the instant as a treasure in the scrapbook of memory, and -you hold your breath to drink your fill at a single draught, that the -impression may be perfect.... After the dance we took some exercises on -the horizontal bar and then turned in on deck. Sleeping in the moonlight -is great if one has the strength of intellect or fatigue of body to keep -the mind off those who dwell in the moon. Each heart recalls a different -name, but all sang _Annie Laurie_. - - - _Tuesday, July 3, 1917._ - -Well, today was the day a submarine was sighted about a mile to port at -three in the afternoon. It submerged before any shots were fired, but -the passengers on deck saw it and the captain swung the boat sharply to -right and left. Everybody was pretty much excited. All day the calm -surface of the ocean has been bespecked with drifting boxes, kegs and -spars from ships, which have been sunk in the vicinity lately. Two dead -horses drifted by. We are in the Bay of Biscay, and due to arrive at -land in the mouth of the Garonne River at three tomorrow morning, and at -Bordeaux at six in the afternoon. Today I have written ten letters, -three days’ diary, have made a water-color sketch, and done twenty pages -of history. To think we are to be in France tomorrow! Why, we are so -close that we could row to shore now if the blooming Huns didn’t shoot -us in the life boats. - -But I don’t believe they’ll get us. - - - _Wednesday, July 4, 1917._ - -We slept out on deck in a fast wind. We had a fight with the steward -because he wouldn’t let us bring our mattresses down on deck. We slept -fitfully during the night, for danger was imminent, and at three o’clock -we were awakened by hushed excitement. A little sail boat pulled -alongside and the pilot boarded us. We had come to the harbor mouth and -lights showed the promontories which marked the mouth of the Garonne -River. Slowly we wended our way through the mine fields as the dawn -broke through the haze; still we were not safe until the net gates of -the harbor were pulled behind us. When the day was really with us, -French soil was a welcome sight on either side. France, wonderful -France! I went down and bathed, dressed in khaki uniform, packed my -baggage, and then came out to enjoy the sights. They more than fulfilled -all my hopes. The harbor was fairly full of all manner of boats, of -which many were old, four-masted, square-rigged schooners. The shores -were beautiful. A little town, Royan, nestled on the shore, its stucco -tile-roof buildings ranging up from the water in picturesque terraces. -Spires and towers protruded above the sky line of trees. Along the beach -were beautifully colored bathing canopies. The bay itself was an -olive-green. We stayed arranging our baggage and then started up the -river. The countryside on either bank was as picturesque as an artist’s -dream. It is the claret land of the château country, home of the world’s -finest wines. Wonderful villas nestle up on the crest of wooded hills -and the long rows of vineyards sweep down the slope to the little -peasants’ farm houses on the river bank. These little farm houses with -their small windows, low doors, and red-tile roofs are the most -picturesque imaginable. The building material is a warm yellow stone or -stucco, mellow with age, and the tile of the roofs is stained, -weathered, and mossgrown, but most beautiful and wonderful of all is the -natural environment. It seems as though nature had absorbed an education -in art from the art-loving French. The trees in the manner of their -growth have caught the spirit of refined cultivation, and grown in a -limitless variety of oddly picturesque forms which want no training. A -long line of stilted poplars with bushy heads march up the roadside over -a hill. A few gnarled and hump-backed beeches squat about the little -ferry wharf, and to the side are well-rounded clumps of maples and -beautiful pointed boxwoods, while in the distance great bare-legged elms -stand close together, their great arms waving great masses of foliage -toward the sky. But it is all beyond description. It looks as if it had -been laid out to the master-plan of a great landscape gardener. As we go -up the river people run to the bank and wave and cheer from under the -trees. We pass neat, newly built factory towns which house German -prisoners in long barracks. Farther along, yellow chalk cliffs loom up -on the left. Along the ridge are wonderful châteaux—not an extravagant -show of wealth as in America, but substantial old country seats. At the -base of the cliffs are little villages and the cliffs themselves are -dotted with doors and windows where the peasants have cut cave -dwellings. - -But here we approach Bordeaux. Considerable manufacturing is done in the -suburbs, but there seems to be little smoke. Every factory has an -orchard and garden in its back yard, and rows of poplars hide its dump -heaps. The river is lined with docks and as we come to where the large -boats are anchored a burst of color in the form of flags of all nations -greets us, and what a pleasant surprise—the Stars and Stripes float on -the top of every mast. France celebrates the Fourth of July, and from -the ferries that hurry about us cheer after cheer came up, “_Vive -l’Amérique_.” The sailors of our ship formed a snake dance and went all -over the decks behind a silk flag singing _The Star-Spangled Banner_ and -then the passengers joined in answer with the _Marseillaise_, whistles -shriek and fog horns bellow as the gangplank shoots out. Then down the -gangplank, behind the gorgeous silk banner, march two hundred and fifty -khaki-clad Americans and draw up four abreast on the platform. - -Crowds lined the streets that lead to the railroad station. American -flags waved from windows and people cheered and clapped as we sang our -marching song, _Smile, Smile, Smile_. In the hour before train time we -raided the eating houses in a riot, as sailors are supposed to do when -they first reach land. Then we piled into our special train and with -little delay were off in a cloud of conversation. First attempts at -sleep were not very successful, though we were not crowded on the train, -and everything was very comfortable. At twelve we opened our prize -package luncheons, and each contained a can of sardines, a can of horse -meat, a roll, a package of raisins, nuts, prunes and figs, mixed, and a -bottle of lemon pop. After lunch I stood for two hours looking at the -landscape. The moon was shining, and it was almost as bright as day. -Everything looked so clean and orderly. Neat little villages, all white -and mystic in the moonlight whizzed by. Then I went to sleep on the coat -rack, and woke up in Paris. - - - _Thursday, July 5, 1917._ - -“So this is Paris!” It was the general exclamation as we stepped off the -train. In a few moments the crowd had dispersed, and Reed and I found -ourselves lost. By patient endeavor, however, we succeeded in reaching -21 Rue Raynouard. It is a fine old residence, its grounds covering -several blocks, situated in the very heart of Paris. It is older than -the United States, and its artificial terraces are covered with aged -trees. The lawn is now covered with tents and barracks, and it is a -delightful home for the ambulance men. There they come to spend their -leave and to rest. We spent the day in arranging and adjusting -ourselves, and lack of sleep for the last few nights sent most of us -early to bed. - - - _Friday, July 6, 1917._ - -And now things begin to move. At seven this morning we were told that we -leave in the transport division for the training camp at seven tomorrow. -We must pack, buy the necessary incidentals, and see Paris in -twenty-four hours. Well, I did all my packing in two hours and had the -rest of the day to carry out my other plans. - -Yesterday I was talking to another fellow interested in aviation. He has -been here some time. He said Dr. Gros, who is head of the Ambulance -Medical Advisory, is vice-president of the LaFayette Flying Corps, and -is the man to see. He gave us our physical examination this morning, and -I made a date to see him at one-thirty this afternoon. He gave me an -examination for the aero corps at two, and I passed it with ease. At -three I was released from the service of the American Ambulance Corps by -the help of a letter from Dr. Gros. At four I made out my application -for the LaFayette corps, and so in a day was accomplished what I had -allowed six months for. My plans go like clockwork. Fortune runs ahead -of me, and everything turns out better and quicker, but just as I -surmised it would. Dr. Gros is a personal adviser to the flying corps, -and he is a wonderful man. He talks to you with the interest of a father -and the intimacy of a friend. In asking his advice as to the -advisability of my making the immediate change, he, a member of both -organizations, said that every American’s duty was the place of highest -efficiency, and that if I were fitted for aviation it would be wrong to -waste my time in the field service, and he also said it was for me to -know if I were fitted for the higher service. Well, I have known that -for some time, and the American ambulance officials were very cordial in -their releasing me. They said that aviation was undoubtedly a higher -service, and that they would be glad to take back into their service -anybody with my spirit. (This was not a compliment.) It is what I have -wanted to do, but it keeps me from being stranded in case of some -unforeseen failure in aviation. - -I still cannot believe the extent of my good fortune. While in Dr. -Gros’s office I talked with a man who came over on the _Chicago_ which -arrived four days before the _Rochambeau_. He said Al Winslow and his -friend had come over on that boat, and that they were staying at the -Hôtel Cécilia. As I could not stay at 21 Rue Raynouard, I immediately -went over and signed up for a room at fourteen francs a day—a room and -meals, for two dollars and eighty cents. I did not see Al, but I found -he was there. That evening the “Tech” Unit took dinner with Mr. -Lansingh, who came over to establish Technology Headquarters in France. -After dinner we went down to some _Folies_, and took in some speedy -Paris life. - - - _Saturday, July 7, 1917._ - -I stayed last night with the bunch and saw them off this morning. They -congratulated me on my nerve, and said they wished they could do the -same. There was much picture taking, and good-byes. I hated to part from -the bunch, for they were a fine set of fellows, but there are good -friends everywhere. After attending to several things, which they were -forced to leave undone, I took my things to the hotel. The Cécilia is a -clean little family hotel occupied by Americans. It is in a nice -neighborhood, within half a block of the Etoile. The Arc de Triomphe of -Napoleon is in the Etoile and forms the hub of a wheel from which -radiate many beautiful boulevards and avenues. I will send a circular of -the hotel. It seems that it will take a week or ten days to hear from my -application. What could be better? Had I remained in the A. A. C. I -should have left the city immediately. As it is, I am forced to remain -ten days and get an introductory insight into the wonders of Paris—and -it has its wonders. To further my luck, I find that the LaFayette Fund -pays twelve francs (two dollars and forty cents) on our keep while we -are waiting acceptance. That makes food and lodging cost me forty cents -a day. As soon as we are accepted, we receive a commission of two -hundred francs a month (forty dollars) and all expenses. - -Maybe all things come around to those who wait, but that does not prove -that those who seek shall not find. - - - _Sunday._ - -I slept late and then took a walk in the Bois de Boulogne. It is -beautiful—a park which resembles a forest in the density of its -foliage—a wondrous, natural feeling retained in spite of the finish of -it all. I made a sketch of the Arc de Triomphe, and a woman came along -and charged me two cents to use a park bench. - -In the evening I met a French gentleman who walked about six blocks -helping me look for a store to buy a map of the city. Most obliging! His -name was Crothers. He told me of an English club that I would probably -enjoy, and said if I needed help to call on him at his office. I invited -him around to my hotel without smiling. The movies were all right. _The -Hunchback of Notre Dame_ was playing. - - - _Monday._ - -This morning I did some shopping. A shirt, a pair of garters and another -sketchbook. Then I walked all over town.... I walked some twenty miles -or more in a vain endeavor to understand the plan of Paris and to see -Notre Dame. I found the cathedral about four-thirty, and went in. I -cannot describe it, but it was surely wonderful. The exterior was a -trifle disappointing, but the interior—mammoth piers, soaring arches, -gorgeous stained-glass windows—all gloomy and magnificent—all solemn and -religious. The hollow echo of footsteps, the distant passing of -flickering candles and the low chant of monks—no wonder the Catholic -faith is with us yet. With such monuments and such mystery, there will -always be those to sign the cross and bend the knee in reverence. - - - _Tuesday, July 10._ - -It was my plan, to go to Versailles today, but Mr. Lansingh called up -and asked me to send a package to one of the boys. By the time I had -attended to that the morning was half gone, so I returned to the hotel -for lunch. In the afternoon exercise was wanted, so I went out to the -Bois de Boulogne and after walking round the pond, hired a boat. In -coming up to the dock, I had noticed a young lady, very American -looking, gazing at me with a twinkle in her eye. When I looked again she -smiled, as one glad to see a friend. I said, “What’s the matter? Do you -speak English? Come on for a ride.” She said, “Oh, the children will -talk about it.” She was very refined and pretty and very English, and it -seems she was a governess for these French children. She would not come -until I had taken a turn around the pond. Then she did come and was very -entertaining. She told me what she thought of French, English, and -American men and women; how the different societies seemed to differ. It -is the most sensible bit of conversation I have had since the voyage. I -am going to take advantage of being away from home to meet all the -various kinds of people. Such incidents are the punctuation marks of -travel. - - - _Wednesday, July 11._ - -The morning was spent in writing my diary. At lunch a couple of the men -asked if I were going to Versailles, so I joined them. We went direct to -the Tower, where a guide was waiting, who had made arrangements to visit -an aeroplane depot. We took a hurried view of the grounds, and then by -taxi went to the Buc Farman Depot, where aeroplanes are made and turned -over to the government. The guide introduced us to three aeronauts, who -showed us about and ended up by asking if we wouldn’t fly across to -another depot in some new machines. Did we refuse? Well, it was -wonderful. Sitting in the long, dragon-fly body, there was a moment to -think. Then the pilot gave the signal for the blocks to be taken away, -and like some animal the machine snorted and quivered as if unable to -realize it was released. Then there was a bound; a crashing roar of wind -passed my helmet; a blurr of ground as we sped along the turf; and then -suddenly all vibration stopped. The ground flew away beneath, and we -mounted. I had thought to see things diminish gradually, but the earth -_fell_ away. We skimmed a grove of trees. I glanced up at the pilot to -see how he controlled, and when I looked down again I noticed a team of -white flies drawing a match head along a crayon mark. It was a team of -horses on a country road. Then the sense of speed was lost and we seemed -to be drifting along like a cloud. That rush of air had been caused only -by the motor. Then I saw our shadow cross a large field in three -seconds, and I decided we were still moving. A design in the map below -proved to be the gardens of the palace. - -The great lagoon looked like a veined setting of lapis lazuli. Still we -were going up, but there was no fear, no doubt, nor distrust. It was all -wonderful sport. How could anyone think of it but as a sport? I was so -elated that I almost missed the city of Paris as it passed beneath. - -Then we came into some light clouds. Up there the sky line, the horizon, -was made of clouds that seemed to encircle us at the edge of a crater, -with the multicolored molten lava beneath. Then the plane began to rock, -as on a choppy sea, and we encountered what they call “bumps.” All of a -sudden the engine seemed to stop. There was a queer sensation of having -left something behind, and before I realized it, we were almost on the -ground, having dropped two thousand feet in less than a minute. The -landing was like passing from asphalt to cobblestone pavement in an -automobile. We had been in the air twenty minutes, and had gone -thirty-two miles. When I found that out, I felt like a wireless -telegram. And then what did those cordial French aeronauts do but take -us home in a taxicab and invite us to lunch with them at their homes -next day. At supper we were the heroes, the envy of the table, and it -was just luck that I was included in the party. - - - _Thursday._ - -We landed at Versailles at 11 A.M. and were met by the aviators. My -host’s name is Louis Gaubert. He is a splendid, unassuming man. He took -me out to a little country home, a few miles from Buc, where his wife -and little three year old girl met us a hundred yards from the gate. -Both were pretty and affectionate and thoroughly French. Gaubert himself -speaks poor, broken English, which he learned in the States some years -ago. He is the oldest living French aviator, and his wife was probably -the first French woman in an aeroplane. They had a garden and arbors and -chickens and dogs and rabbits and birds and a player piano and a Ford -and trellis roses—in fact, everything that a man could desire. To be -taken into such a home is to me the greatest favor. They were so free -and hospitable and so entertaining. On our way to the aviation field -Gaubert took his wife and mother-in-law and baby to the station to go to -Paris. They let me hold the little girl going into the station, and -twice she reached up and kissed me on the cheek. It was surely a happy -day. Again we went high over Paris on the cloud path, and again rode -home in a taxi. - - - _Saturday, July 14._ - -Up at six to get down to see the great parade. A boy by the name of -Bosworth went down with me. The crowds were twenty deep about the -streets, so we went up to the sixth story of a flat and asked if they -had room. They said their windows were full, but the man below had a -large balcony. He took us in on hearing the words “American aviator” and -treated us with the utmost cordiality. The parade was good, and -enthusiasm ran high. As the soldiers passed along, the crowds threw them -trinkets, fruit, and money. When it was over, we were unable to find a -means of conveyance, and as it was too far to walk, we asked the man who -was just getting into a Red Cross automobile with his wife, and an -American flag, if he would take us up to the Etoile. He said “Yes” and -again “American aviator” was the key. By the time we had reached our -destination we had offered the lady flowers to pay for the ride. He had -offered to take us out to Versailles as an afternoon ride. We had -accepted on condition that he take dinner with us. We had dinner at a -regular Parisian restaurant. As he talked fluently with his hands, I -could follow his French, and then a strange thing occurred. A young -lieutenant in French uniform with a more distinguished than strong face, -came in with a rather doubtful-looking girl and sat down next to me. I -could see the man’s face. He seemed of good blood. He watched our new -friend closely. While we were eating dessert our new friend was talking -to Bosworth, the officer winked at me a warning, and leaning over said, -in poor English, “Do not go with that man, he is a bad man.” As we left -the dining room I remained behind and talked with the officer. He said -to come and see him, and we made a date for Monday. From then on I was -on my guard. We had a very pleasant day, but our friend was so -strenuously entertaining as to be tiresome, so I declined further -engagements with him. - -The gardens and buildings are very wonderful, and I am going out there -more. I took a number of pictures and developed them in the evening. -Both of my cameras are giving extraordinary results, and I am delighted. -I shall not try to send my pictures or films home for the present until -I make sure that my letters carry safely. I shall await with interest -the outcome of my interview with the French lieutenant. - - - _Sunday._ - -This morning I went over and helped Mr. Lansingh get settled in the new -“Tech” apartment. It is a Technology Club at Paris, and a very -gorgeously furnished apartment it is. - -This afternoon I walked ten miles around that wonderful park.[1] They -have great groves of Norway pine as large and straight and thickly -distributed as the grove from which our cabin logs were cut, and right -near by are oaks and beech and locust and bay trees, and under the pine -trees is wonderful turf, natural and unspoiled by the needles. - - Good night. - -Footnote 1: - - Bois de Boulogne. - - - _Monday, July 16._ - -In the morning I did a little shopping, and then met my friend, Sergeant -Escarvage. He spent two hours and a half showing me through the National -Museum of Arts and Sciences. There were experimenting offices and -laboratories for testing material. He showed me the gas-mask -construction. He speaks a trifle more English than I do French, so it is -very interesting each trying to make the other understand. I asked him -up to the hotel for Wednesday supper. He accepted. - -I like him very much. His superpolish seems natural. His friendship is -sincere; his sympathy unusual. - - - _Tuesday, July 17._ - -It rained, and I read _The Dark Flower_ by Galsworthy. His style is -clean-cut and masterful. The story weighed on me. I walked ten miles and -could not sleep. What this war does to people’s lives! - -My papers came today. - - - _Wednesday, July 18._ - -I spent the morning in getting some more papers signed in final -preparation for going to Avord. We are to leave Saturday. In the -afternoon I went down and saw the buildings about Napoleon’s tomb. The -tomb itself was not open. There were several Boche planes down there. -They do not look any better to me in point of construction and -workmanship than do those of the Allies. I think that rumor was bull. - -Escarvage and I went for a walk and ended at the hotel. After supper he -took me to the _Femina Revue_. He is interested in music and -photography. He wants to help teach me French and insisted that I write -to him in French and he would correct my letters and return them. He -also said that when I come to Paris on my first leave I should stay with -him at his apartment and we would go to the theater and to visit some -places of historical interest. - - - _Thursday._ - -Again the morning was spent in getting clearance papers, the afternoon, -in packing, and the evening in a good walk. The pictures I developed -make the results of both my cameras very good and satisfying. - - - _Friday._ - -The day went slowly. I just waited around, read a little, wrote a -little, sent a box of candy to the aviator Gaubert and his family, and -slept. - - - _Saturday._ - -And we are off to the Front. We took off on the 8.12 from the Gare de -Lyon. The trip was good and the country beautiful as ever. We stopped at -a garlic hotel at Bourges and then proceeded to Avord where a truck met -us and took us to the camp—and it is a wonderful camp. After -registration we had a few hours before dinner to look around. The -buildings are well built, the grounds are clean, and, outside of a few -insignificant lice, the barracks are very comfortable and the grounds so -extensive that it would take a week to explore them. They stretch away -for miles on every side. Well-made roads lead to the various camps and -here and there hangars form small towns. Motor cars and trucks carry the -officers about and the troops of aviators are marching on and off -duty—but most wonderful are the machines themselves. Imagine a machine -leaving the ground every fifteen seconds! Do you get that? Four a -minute! The air is so full of machines that it seems unsafe to be on the -ground. The environment is lovely; the weather pleasant; the fields are -covered with clover, buttercups, and red poppies. To those who can find -pleasure in nature this cannot become monotonous, but all bids fair to -be very pleasant. The first meal was very good, thanks to the numerous -pessimists who had prepared me for indigestible food. From the first -night I had been assigned to a barracks with a delightful bunch of men. -The prospects are of nothing but the brightest. - - - _Sunday, July 22, 1917._ - -The day was spent in resting and becoming settled. I went to the station -at Avord to get my bed, only to find that it would not arrive for -several days. When I got home the bunch had gone out to the Penguin -field to make their first sorties. I hurried out and got there just in -time to answer roll call, but we failed to get a chance, so we came back -disappointed. We ate bread and soup at the _ordinaire_ and turned in. - - - _Monday._ - -There was a lecture this morning on various types of aeroplanes. In the -afternoon we went out and I had my first sortie in the Penguin. Well, it -was rare sport. A Penguin is a yearling aeroplane, with its wings -clipped. It has a three-cylinder motor and a maximum speed of -thirty-five miles an hour. A person gets into the darned thing and it -goes bumping along the ground, swinging in circles and all kinds of -curlicues. It was thrilling and fascinating, but the conclusion derived -is that flying is not one of the primal heritages, but a science with a -technique which demands schooling and drill. It is a thing to be learned -as one learns to walk or swim. It is necessary to develop a whole new -set of muscles and brain cells. - - - _Tuesday._ - -I am reading a book on aeroplanes, which is of benefit in my technology -training. - -My second sortie today was not so good as the first, but I understand -that that is usual. I saw a Nieuport fall and had all the thrills of -witnessing a bad smash-up. We saw it coming for the ground at an angle -of thirty degrees. It happened in just three seconds. In the first -second, the machine struck the ground and sprang fifteen feet into the -air; in the second it lit again and plunged its nose down; and in the -third it turned a straight-forward somersault and landed on its back. It -was over a block away, and as I was nearest, I reached it first. A -two-inch stream of gasoline was pouring from the tank. When I was -twenty-five feet from the plane the man crawled out from under it. Well, -I had expected to drag out a mangled form, and it was some joyous thrill -to see him alive. And he was cool—he took out a bent cigarette and -lighted it and his hand did not shake a bit. The strap and his helmet -had saved him. Everybody was happy just to know that he was not hurt. -The machine had its tail, one wing, the propeller, and running gear all -smashed. - - - _Wednesday._ - -And this morning when the men came in from the morning classes they -reported five Blériots and one Penguin smashed. One Blériot dove and -turned turtle. Another lit in a tree. The other smashed running gears; -and the Penguin ran through a hangar. Not long ago a Blériot dove -through the roof of a bakery at seventy miles per hour. In all these -accidents not a man was scratched—absolutely miraculous, but the -conclusion is encouraging and reassuring, for it shows how much better -the chances are than we figure on. I didn’t get a sortie today. - - - _Thursday._ - -No sortie today either. Went over to see the construction of the Lewis -machine gun. Just before going to bed a machine flew over camp. A big -white light and its red and green side lights—then suddenly, as we -watched, a rocket shot out and downward in a graceful curve and burst -three times in colored lights—truly a pretty sight, and as wonderful as -the stars themselves. - - - _Friday._ - -We have a regular program now. We rise at twenty-five minutes to seven -and have drill for ten minutes. It is just a form to get the men out of -bed. Then I come back, bathe, eat a crust of war bread and read or write -until ten o’clock, when the first heavy meal is served. Another form -drill, lasting fifteen minutes, comes at a quarter past eleven. There is -often a lecture at twelve o’clock, and the men are supposed to sleep -from one till three. At three they may have another class of -instructions. At five supper is served. At five-thirty the troop leaves -for the Penguin field. We are there till nine-fifteen and return for -soup and bread and jam at ten o’clock. - -This afternoon I had my third sortie in the Penguin and I begin to feel -at home in it. We have been smashing one a day lately—running gears or -something. - -I received my first letter from home since leaving New York. It was from -father, written on June 28—just one month. I hope my letters home have -not been so delayed. - -Some of the boys answered an advertisement for _les marraines_, girls -living in France who would correspond with boys in the army, so I made -application. It will be interesting to watch the outcome. - -Tomorrow I shall print my pictures and send some home. I have not taken -many since coming here, because I figure that there will be so many more -interesting aeroplane pictures offer themselves. - -The French Government pays us twenty-five cents a day and I spend that -on candy. I am getting an awful appetite for candy. I can hardly wait -till the meal is over to eat some, though it isn’t very good candy at -that. It is because there is no sugar in the food, I guess. - - - _Ecole d’Aviation, Avord (Cher)._ - -DEAR LITTLE MOTHER: - -I am letting my diary slide for a few days and writing letters -instead.... I do not care how often you people write to me. It doesn’t -matter much what you say—it is just the sensation of receiving letters. -I had a letter from my _marraine_ (godmother) yesterday. Some of the -fellows sent their names and mine to the doctor who made introductions -by correspondence to some of the well-to-do Parisians, and as a result I -now have as godmother a lady of about fifty who has two married -daughters. She is of French family, but was born in Illinois. She -married a Frenchman. Her home is in Paris, but she is now in their -country villa at Croix-de-Brie. - -We have had much rain in the last week, and there has not been much -doing. I now have seven of the necessary sorties required in the Penguin -class. The classes are large, and the machines break quite often. That -is why progress is slow. I think I am doing somewhat better than the -average, but it is too early to tell much about it. I am anxious to -progress faster, but one must wait his turn, and they say it is better -to go slow. There is no reason why I should not make a good flyer. - - YOUR SON. - - - _Tuesday, July 31, 1917._ - -Now I have forgotten the last day and page of my diary, and so I’ll just -write today. Well, I got kicked out of my bed because the man whose bed -I was using returned, and I had to go into another room because there -was no more room in that one. I now have a nice new bed. That is the -second time I have had to change rooms and roommates. Oh, well. - -I have made a regular discovery. One of the boys has a whole set of -Balzac’s works. I shall devour them. I have read a book a day for three -days now; all my spare time I read. The weather is too hot to enjoy -beating about; also I do not want to risk being handed a prison sentence -for being out of place. They have strict rules and lax enforcement, but -they get men now and then. - -I had a letter today from Gaubert thanking me for the candy and asking -me to come to stay at his house while in Paris. - -Oh, I have meant to say that nothing was ever better named than the -comfort bag. In hotel or in camp it is equally good, and nothing is -lacking. Marjorie’s wash rag is the best I’ve ever had. I didn’t suppose -a knitted wash rag would be any good. Another thing that fills the bill -is my suitcase. It is the best looking and lightest one I’ve seen on the -trip. Maybe more of my equipment will be of use than I had thought. - - - _August 10, 1917._ - -DEAR FATHER: - -In reading _The Gallery of Antiquities_ by Balzac, I came across this -passage which made me think of your parting admonition: - -Remember, my son, that your blood is pure from contaminating alliances. -We owe to the honor of our ancestors sacredly preserved the right to -look all women in the face and bow the knee to none but a woman, the -king, and God. Yours is the right to hold your head on high and to -aspire to queens. - -I can say for the first time in my life with assurance that I know the -honor of the family is safe in my sword. So much for my experiences—and -I aspire to a queen. - -Progression in my work is steady; the upper classes are so full as to -retard our immediate advancement. Our class is an exceptionally good -one. I changed from the evening to the morning class some days ago, and -I find it was a good move. The morning class is better, and advances -faster. I am reading all the literature on aviation that is to be had -about camp. I wish you would communicate with the M. I. T. Aviation -Department and get from them a list of the books that they are using -there in the study of aviation. From this list strike out _The Aeroplane -Speaks_ by Barber, and _Military Aeroplanes_ by G. C. Loening; also -strike from the list all books published before 1915, and from the -remainder you can judge what will be of use to me. They should not be so -elementary as to be a waste of time, nor so technical from a -mathematical standpoint as to be boresome. Compact, reliable, up-to-date -as possible information is what I want. If any of these seem worth -sending, do them up in separate bundles and mail them at intervals of -three or four days apart to prevent their all being lost. The less -bulky, the more practical for my use. Mail these books to me—C/O _Mr. -Van Rensselaer Lansingh, Technology Club of Paris, 7 Rue Anatole de la -Forge, Paris, France_. - -Mr. Lansingh keeps in constant touch with “Tech” students and -communicates with their parents and with the Institute in case of -accident. I will send my films to him and he will keep them after -development. They are charged to my account and a set of prints returned -to me. I will forward these prints to you. The films will be filed at -the “Tech” Club of Paris. Any mail or cables sent to that address will -be immediately forwarded to me, entailing about two days’ delay. I have -opened a checking account, and deposited 1,000 francs with the Guaranty -Trust Company of New York. - - - _August 14, 1917._ - -DEAR LITTLE MOTHER: - -Nothing much has happened lately, so I have not been moved to write. You -will remember I told you about getting a _marraine_; how she was born in -Illinois, has two married daughters, lives in her country home at -present, but will be in Paris during the winter months. Well, in her -second letter she asked me if she could send me tobacco or anything else -I might need, so I told her to send me candied fruit and golf stockings. -They arrived yesterday. Say, but that fruit was good, and the stockings -were the best I ever have seen. Dark brown, with a fancy top—not too -brightly colored, of light and dark green. They are most too good to -wear around here with my old khaki suit. - -Most of the men are buying uniforms and thirty-five dollar aviator boots -and eight dollar belts and all that, but I think it will be better to -wait. If the United States takes us over, it will mean another change of -uniform. Perhaps my uniform will come in after all. At all events, I’ll -have to buy a light serge uniform which will be cool enough for summer -wear and dressy enough to wear when accepting invitations. They spend a -good deal of money on clothes here, and dress pretty lively when they go -to Paris. Around camp, though, there is no uniform or discipline. We -wear black and brown leather coats; red, black, brown, yellow, and blue -trousers; sweaters, flannel shirts; and green vests and hats ranging -from sombreros to the Turkish fez. This is a division of the Foreign -Legion, you know. All manner of strange people are to be seen here. The -_refectoire_, called the _ordinaire_ is the place where we feed, in the -animalistic sense. A crowd gathers about the steps as meal time -approaches, and clamors in a multitude of tongues. There are carefully -dressed Frenchmen, with sensitive features and dainty little moustaches. -There are heavy featured Frenchmen, with coarse manners and rough -attire. There are sallow-skinned Portuguese in dandy dress who have an -air of dissipated ennui, and yet have a solicitous cordiality which -makes them strange and out of place. There are dark-brown Moroccans and -Turcos with red fezzes, Assyrian beards, and brass studded belts. The -Russians, with their gray-green sweat shirts belted at the waist, their -bakers’ hats with highly colored diadems in front, and their loose black -knee boots, stand aloof and talk little, but with vim. They somewhat -resemble Irish in their features; and in the heart of the crowd, -pressing close against the doors, as eager and clamorous and more rough -in action than all, are the Americans, pushing, scrambling, elbowing, to -be first into the _ordinaire_. Only their inexhaustible good humor -prevents one from criticizing them. Once inside, there is a great -scramble for the head of the table. Men jump up on the benches and step -on and over the tables with their muddy hobnailed shoes in a vain -endeavor to arrange themselves favorably. Then enterprising mechanics, -who get one franc per person per month for their service, bring in -stacked pans of food. These are large receptacles of a gallon capacity, -and there is one stack to each table. In the top pan is meat—usually -beef cut in chunks, sometimes tough, sometimes tender, always -nourishing, never savory. In the second are boiled or baked or French -fried potatoes, or beans or carrots, or _mélange_, similar to succotash. -In the third and largest container is soup, which tastes better by -artificial light, and is always the same. A weak solution of beans and -cabbage and potatoes with scraps of war bread afloat. This is seldom -tasted, and passes on from week to week until it becomes richer from -many cookings, and is finally eatable. At the end of the meal comes the -dessert, and it is the redeeming feature. Each man has a good big -spoonful of _confiture_—apple butter. - -The men at the head of the table have heaping platefuls of food; those -in the middle get theirs level full; those at the end are dependent upon -the foresight and generosity of those above them. But the food is -wholesome and clean, and if a man eats to live it will nourish him -satisfactorily. For those who live to eat, there are high-priced -restaurants just over the fence which are run with the sole idea of -getting the soldiers’ money. - -This morning an order was issued that thirty of the men in the Penguin -class who have had less than thirteen sorties are to leave for Tours at -two o’clock. That is another school. My changing to the morning class -enables me to get seventeen sorties, so I remain here. I am glad for -that, because it means starting to learn on a new kind of aeroplane. - -I could not make the facilities for printing pictures here suffice, so I -have sent the films to Paris. It will be a couple of weeks before I can -send them to you. I have taken very few pictures here, but intend to -take some soon. The country hereabout is very beautiful and fertile; the -sunsets have been simply glorious. The country is moist and rich in -color. I am not much pleased with the group of men in this barracks and -will change as soon as there is a vacancy in the one I like, but I sleep -and read and walk. I am reading _Catherine de’ Medici_, by Balzac. It is -rich in the history of Paris. Tell father to write me whenever he can. I -wish you and father would get a little vest-pocket camera like mine and -send me pictures whenever you can. I find that I have a passion for -photographs. Those that I have I look at almost every day. - -It’s good to hear that you are enjoying yourself at Black Oak. I hardly -think you will be able to be miserable because Bob and I are not with -you. Send any newspaper clippings of interest. - -A man just came into the room with a rumor that sixty more men are to -leave here in a couple of days, but does not say where they are going. -At next writing I may be almost anywhere. Guess I’ll scout around and -get some pictures right away. Well, much love to you, Mother dear, and -to father, and to everyone else. - - Your loving son, - - DINSMORE. - - - _Bourges (Cher), August 19, 1917._ - -DEAR MOTHER: - -Day before yesterday I got permission to come down to Bourges where the -great cathedral of St. Etienne is. It is the third best cathedral in -France, and is simply magnificent. I stayed till yesterday afternoon, -and then returned to camp. Bourges is fifteen miles from Avord. Then I -found we had _repos_ and did not go to class till tomorrow evening, so I -came right back to Bourges on the first train. I will have been in the -town two days and a half—well, nothing could be better. The town is -built upon gentle slopes which fall away from the cathedral in its -center. Houses are here ranging from just before the war back to 1200 -A.D., perhaps further. Hundreds of architectural treasures are hidden in -its narrow streets. A town of 45,000, it contains more good -architectural designs than Chicago. But the cathedral—oh, how wonderful! -I went straight to it, led by its towers showing above the house tops, -and when it came into full view I stopped still and held my breath. -Ponderous, massive, standing elegant, magnificent, mounting upward, -delicate, airy in the skies. It held me and pressed so upon my feelings. -What was it? The wonderful spirit of endeavor and faith and love of a -hundred generations trying to please their God. The genius of seven -centuries bending its power to produce a single masterpiece and then the -endeavor of one small human being to grasp all this and hold it in one -glance—as the sound of a hundred thousand voices cheering their parting -army. It made me want to cry. I walked all around it twice. I took -pictures of it from every angle in case something should happen to it or -me. Then I went in. Oh, why try? It cannot be described. No wonder they -kneel. My thoughts whispered to each other in awe. Faint glows in -rainbow hues from the gorgeously stained windows played in the distance -among the forest of columns. Across the altar, which seemed like a dwarf -shrine in a giant citadel six candles twinkled, as if to demonstrate the -smallness of the life of man. There before the altar knelt a priest, -small, with bowed head. Then there was a stir in the air, slight at -first, but growing with rising and falling crescendo, and the monotonous -drone of the chant echoed and reechoed among the columns till it filled -the whole vault, and then died away into religious silence. I turned and -mounted the winding stair into the bell tower, counting the steps—four -hundred and six—four hundred and seven—oh, here was something that I -could grasp and describe. There were four hundred and seven six-inch -steps. The tower was two hundred and four feet high. - -The fine old warden of the keys told me he couldn’t take me over the -place without a permit from the architect of the city, so I went to the -architect’s home, only to find him out. When I returned to the -cathedral, disappointed, the old man said that if I would return at nine -in the morning he would take me through. At nine in the morning we -started. We started up the tower and branched off at one of the little -doors into the clerestory that led all around the inside of the church -nave. Here we saw the organ. From here we mounted a dark, uneven passage -within the walls which brought us out to the lowest stage of the roof, -where the bases of the flying buttresses rest. We traversed the gutter, -which was really a promenade, to the choir end of the cathedral. Here -again we wound up a circular stairs within a great buttress pier and -came out on the little narrow stair cut right up the flying buttress -span to the main roof. Here we entered another little door, and found -ourselves right in the garret over the altar. Under my feet was the -great span of the main vault, and over my head the original joinery of -the great peaked roof. In the darkness of the garret we passed great old -windlasses for lowering the huge candelabra which hung in the nave. We -traversed the garret to where through a little door a shaky scaffolding -led over a deep pit to the tower of the prison. Here, again, was a huge -chamber lighted by narrow slits in twenty-foot walls. We descended again -and at every landing was a narrow cell which came to a point in a small -slit which admitted light and indentation in the stone on which to sit. -It was uncanny. It was a relief to come again to the day, where the -bright sunlight played upon gargoyles and grotesques hiding in the -carved stone. - -Such a feast of the imagination! I could sit down now and write a novel -laid in the confines of that pile. Then a fellow whom I met and I went -down and explored the crypt. There were unlit shrines and unaired vaults -which ended by a wall one could not see over, and the air was cool and -damp and so bad a match would not burn. We went out to breathe fresh -air, and dream in the sun. - - YOUR SON. - - - _Ecole d’Aviation, Tours, August 28, 1917._ - -DEAR MOTHER: - -I am so sore I’ve got to give expression to my feelings. You see, the -truth of the matter is that I’ve been in the hospital five days with -bronchitis, and though I am practically better now I have just heard -that the doctor said I must stay eight more days. It will put me so much -behind my class that I am furious. It all started with a stomach ache -and high fever the day I arrived in Tours. They put me in the infirmary -two days and then sent me to the hospital. I was pretty sick the first -two days, but it’s all gone practically. My temperature is thirty-seven -degrees centigrade. But it is all bull. I shall be 2,000 meters in the -air when you receive this. So it will be the height of folly to think of -worrying. - -Tours is a pretty town on the river Loire, and I am waiting to go for a -swim the first time my nurse takes me for a walk. They have not brought -in my suitcase yet, so I must still use this paper. I have a number of -sketches to finish up when the suitcase comes. Also it contains my -books. This is a good place to study French. One of the men here was in -Salonica two years and now has been in the hospital eleven months with -colonial fever. Another cannot talk above a whisper. They are all -generous and all think every American is deathly rich. One of the -fellows set up a box of _petits gâteaux_ (French pastry), and I passed -it around. As these cakes are a rare delicacy and considered quite dear, -each man had to be pressed to take one. There is an English-speaking -nurse here with a face like a blighted turnip. There is a gentle old -Catholic Sister with great white wings on her hat, who is wonderful. She -speaks only French, but she smiles in every language. I am getting a -profound respect for the Catholic church. - -Well, my suitcase came today and I am all cleaned up. I’ve finished two -letters that were started, so guess I’ll close this one with love. - - YOUR SON. - - -DEAR FAMILY: - -It has been quite a while since I have written you, and this letter must -be a short one, but lots of things have been happening. As a matter of -fact, there is a good long letter half written in my note book, but it -is not here yet. - -Well, in the first place, I spent three days in Bourges. It is an aged -town, was once the stopping place of Caesar, has been twice capital of -France, and is rich in architectural treasures of all ages. The best -thing there is the cathedral of St. Etienne, which I think you will find -pictured and described in the encyclopedia. I spent my whole time -sketching and sight-seeing, and will be perfectly contented to live -within two hundred yards of it for a month. Traveling alone is the best -way to see things. There are more doors that a single person can pass -through. I traversed much worn, winding stairways, and chilling -passages, darksome. I saw cells and pits of torture of the Inquisition. -The youngest part of the cathedral is four times as old as the United -States. For the architect, it is a jewel; for the historian a treasure; -for the poet, a dream; for the conqueror, a tomb; for the soul-torn, a -haven; and a place of worship for everyone. A French nurse whom I met -this morning said, “Why do they destroy the churches? The churches -belong to everyone. They are theirs as well as ours.” - -It was fortunate I took the opportunity of seeing Bourges, for the day -after I returned to Avord we were all sent here to Tours to another -school of aviation, devoted entirely to Americans. There is another -wonderful cathedral here. We are learning a little more about our -prospects. There are both U. S. Army and Navy men at this camp. The -conditions of this camp are infinitely better than at Avord. Sheets on -the bed, much better food, tablecloths, china, a piano, and better -system. - - DINSMORE. - - - _September 4, 1917._ - -DEAR MOTHER: - -It is rather tiresome sitting in the hospital when I am not sick in the -least, but to suggest leaving is to insult the man with authority to -release me. When he finally decides to let me go, it will take three -days for the red tape to be carried through, which permits me to return -to the Ecole d’Aviation. Meanwhile, I am losing several hours of flying. -The good September season is just opening, and the days are delightful. -We are given permission to leave the hospital and spend a day wandering -around the historical city of Tours. I have been making pencil sketches -and water colors, and it would really be very enjoyable if I were not so -restless to get to work. You see, the time is a rather critical one. -Anything is liable to happen; the United States Government may take us -over. They want monitors in the States to teach flying, and if we are -taken over we will probably be sent back without any fighting experience -to act as monitors in the training school over there. - -This is all very indefinite, but I do not like to get behind the bunch -or be away from the camp at a time when these changes may be made; still -there is no use fretting and I suppose things will work out all right. -Anyway, I am not sick, and they must let me out pretty soon. I am on -good terms with the chief doctor, who is a painter, and took an interest -in my sketches and paintings. He offered to take me out to his house and -show me his collection. I do not know when he will do so. I am trying to -develop my general culture while there is opportunity, and have read six -of Balzac’s novels, historical and otherwise. There is a wonderful -chance to study architecture, and I am keeping up my sketching in water -color, as well as studying a little French. Unfortunately, I left my -history book in Paris, but will get what I can from Baedeker, and all -the time I am storing up energy to use when the time comes. As to this -prospect of the members of the Foreign Legion returning to America as -monitors, most of the men do not like the idea of returning without some -fighting experience. I am of that turn of mind. Men going back would be -so much more able monitors if they had served on the Front, and they -would be much more contented to return. There would be no doubt in my -mind that I would remain in the French Foreign Legion if it were not for -the fact that at present they are making monitors first lieutenants, -with high pay, and a respectable office. Reason dictates that this will -be changed very soon. I believe the men who are already officers will -not be put back, however. If this should be the case, the time to enter -United States service is now. Money is not everything, but three -thousand a year is not to be ignored. This is all conjecture, and I have -not made up my mind as to what to do, and shall not until fuller and -more reliable information is given out. - -The life here in the hospital is very pleasant. We wake at seven and -have a little French breakfast of bread and coffee in bed; then we lie -awake and read or doze for an hour or so. Rising at eight-thirty, we -clean up and make our bed and read or write letters till lunch, which is -a heavy meal served at eleven. By permission from the doctor, we are -then at liberty to go out and spend our time as we please until five, -when we eat again. Of late I have been going over and watching the full -moon rise on the river Loire after supper; I retire at eight or nine. - -The French have a strange custom of closing all their windows at night, -but Americans are permitted to have one window open in their end of the -room. French medical authorities are convinced that two open windows in -the same room are very unhealthy and dangerous. - -We have a good time wandering about the quaint, narrow streets, where -strange people peer out of small, low windows, and undersized doors. The -houses are so old that different materials and workmanship of a dozen -repairs give their façades a mottled appearance of many centuries, which -suggest a strange collection of antiques within. This is carried out by -glimpses through windows whose shutters are hanging aslant or thrown -open. Within are seen old four-poster beds with canopies and feather -mattresses which are round and swelled up as if inflated. Wrinkled old -women with queer caps squint as they peer out, while their hands rest in -embroidery. Elsewhere, little low passageways open into crammed little -courts, with uneven tile floors, scrub trees, and a half-open circular -stone staircase. Natural flowers and grass grow from the moss-covered -tile roofs. - -Washing hangs from front windows, and people come out to empty their -wash water and their refuse in the street gutter. Cats abound. I hope -the sights and experiences of war will not wipe out all these quaint and -pleasant sights which make Europe what it is. - - YOUR SON. - - -DEAR FAMILY: - -Things are speeding up. I’m out of the hospital. Came to the school -Friday. Found I had about the best bed in our barracks and was in the -smallest class with one of the best monitors—more luck. I am an hour and -a half of flying behind the other fellows, but that is not bad. - -Well, the hospital did not cure my bronchitis. That, however, is nothing -but a chronic cough which will mend here better than there. What it did -cure, however, was my distaste for my fellow-countrymen; the cure was -absolute, and of greater value than my physical cure could have been. -My, but it was good to get back with the bunch again. All my old -interest in people has revived, and I am more than content. - -And I have flown! Wonderful. Oh, it was great. Saturday evening I went -up for fifteen minutes as a passenger. Then Sunday morning we went up on -my first ten minute lesson. When we were a hundred meters off the ground -and had gone a quarter of a mile, the pilot gave the controls over to me -and rested his hands over the side while I drove entirely alone. It is -more simple than driving an automobile because there is no road to -watch. A glance at this side, a glance at that, to see that the wings -are level. The throttle is set full at the outset and forgotten till you -descend. There is a speedometer to watch and that is all. - -Of course this is just driving in a straight line through good air. -Ascent is dangerous; landing, an art in itself. Every curve has its -corresponding angle of bank, and the angle varies according to the -direction of the wind relative to line of flight. Perfect carburetion is -essential at all altitudes, but that all comes later. An understanding -of air currents and their effects must become instinctive; so, after -all, the statement that it is easy applies only where someone else is -there to do the worrying and look after the important details, any one -of which stands between the here and the hereafter. The pilot said I did -well on my first two sorties. - -Monday I went in to paint with the doctor, but he was going to an Allied -musical fête given by the hospital for the reeducation of wounded -soldiers, and so I accompanied him. Like all charity affairs, some of it -was very boresome, but there was some very good music and one singer -from the Opéra Comique of Paris. I shall go another day to paint with -the doctor. - -This letter has been written out on the field, and as it has been -continued through three classes I had better mail it. Have not heard -from home for ten days or more. Had a couple of letters from my -_marraine_. - - SON. - - - _September 11, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -From the sky the world is just as beautiful as from the ground, but all -in a different way. Fields and farms become checks and plaids in varied -greens and browns. Stream necklaces and jeweled lakes bedeck the -landscape around. Horizon lines jump back ten leagues, and clouds swim -by in droves. The setting sun may rise again for him who mounts to fly. -Man, groping about in great fields assumes his actual size and -importance in the universe; instead of being the egotistical, dominating -element in an unimportant foreground he shrinks to an atom, and the -eternal infinite engulfs him. I can imagine a future life as a soul -speeding through space, existing upon a sensation, a boundless view, and -a breath of air. - -The flying is progressing well. The monitor said tonight that he seldom -had seen a pupil so apt, that I was doing well and would take up -landings tomorrow. Twice today he let me take the aeroplane off the -ground. I’ve had an hour and fifteen minutes of flying now and will soon -catch up with the class, as far as ability is concerned. Our monitor is -a wonderful teacher and a splendid flyer. - -I’m just as busy as I care to be. Up at five o’clock; work, six to ten; -lecture, ten to eleven; repose to three; lecture, three to four; work -four to nine. I haven’t had time to mail this letter, but I’ll do it -tomorrow. - -Well, I’m simply wild about this life. The country is beautiful; -châteaux abound; pretty farms—but I must go to bed. - - Good night, - - DINSMORE. - -One thing I forgot to mention—the machines we are running now take all -the strength a man has to operate one of them in rough weather. After a -ten minute ride, my right arm and shoulder aches. The story of an -aviator landing and fainting from physical exhaustion does not seem as -far-fetched as it did. - - -DEAR FAMILY: - -My first solo ride was this morning. It consisted of going in a straight -line for half a mile at a height of two hundred feet. Everything went -finely—no fear, excitement, nor difficulty. Oh, how I am going to love -it! I am inclined to believe that the nervous strain of driving will be -less than that of driving an automobile after I have mastered the -technique. Imagine being lost in the clouds, having to fight for one’s -life in a storm! Great stuff! One man had his engine stop at low -altitude, went into a wing slip, and smashed his machine to atoms. He -bruised his knee, but goes up tomorrow. Some of the final tests consist -of _petits voyages_ about the country—a couple of hundred miles. This is -the château country, and several of the men have been having -experiences. One man’s motor went bad and made him descend near a little -town. He was arrested as a German spy, but on proving his identity was -released by the mayor of the town. When he returned to his machine he -found a Renault limousine waiting for him. The liveried chauffeur asked -if he would favor the madame by taking dinner with them. He granted the -favor, and rode back through the streets down which he had been led -thirty minutes before by a _gendarme_. He came to a great château, was -introduced to some twenty girls (guests) among which were six girls of -his age, both French and English. He was given a room and bath and -fitted out with clothes which belonged to the son of the house, in -aviation service at the Front. It was three days before he could get his -machine fixed. During that time he was the chief guest, escorting the -hostess into the dining room, canoeing, pheasant hunting, motoring, and -playing tennis with charming girls. He had a small car at his disposal, -and a valet to attend him. They called him “Sammy” and urged him to -return. It was the home of the Councillor of Gasoline of France. What -luck! Half the men that go out have some such story when they return, -but this man received the “aluminum lawnmower.” It is everybody’s hope -to have some such trouble. - -We are so busy now that I cannot write as much as I should like to. I am -trying to keep up some other correspondence. - - Your ever loving, - - DINS. - - - _September 14, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -Major Gros of the United States Flying Division arrived here at ten -o’clock last night and gave us a talk. We are given the choice of going -into the U. S. Army as first lieutenants at $2,600 to $2,700 a year, or -remaining in the French service. I shall change immediately. It is the -advice of all officials, both French and United States. We are to be -examined today, and certain papers are to be signed applying for service -in aviation. In a few weeks we sign into the service if we are accepted; -meanwhile we continue our training without interruption, being corporals -in the U. S. Army until we obtain our brevet (pilot’s license). -Thereafter we automatically become first lieutenants and continue our -training in French schools, in French machines, with French instructors. -We are better off all around, and all well satisfied. Dr. Gros, an -American doctor, is the man who gave me fatherly advice. We received two -hundred francs from him for this month’s pay from the Franco-American -Flying Corps. Things are still turning out just as I had hoped—no worry, -all happy, wonderful experience. - -Thank you for sending the things. They will, no doubt, reach me in due -time. There is nothing else I need, thank you, and most of the men are -not in need. Everything will be supplied us by the U. S. Army. Already -its organization over here is far superior to that of the French. United -States newspapers have much better war news than French papers. -Incidentally, even France is not free from the graft hookworm, and -rumors that float around here are just as wild and untrue as anywhere. -My _marraine_ sent me a box of nice candy the other day. It arrived just -at a time when I was blue and a little envious of others receiving -letters. When the candy came they were all keen to have a _marraine_, -and refused to believe she was a married woman, and all that. It filled -the bill, and the stomach. - -The other day I did about a month’s washing and saved about two dollars. -Tomorrow I shall darn and sew on buttons. There are a few good popular -novels around here and I am enjoying them. There is not time enough for -me to go around and see the châteaux here. Extra time goes for sleep. -My, but I am interested in art and architecture. As we go to our field, -we pass along a great, tree-arched national road, past the entrance of -an old twelfth-century château. Our field is some five miles from camp, -and is entered by a country road which passes through an ancient -vineyard, with big stone granaries, and a pond. We picked berries and -pears about the borders of the field. Little children come out with -baskets of peaches, plums, and pears for sale very cheap, and in the -morning a woman who speaks English comes out with coffee, and marmalade -sandwiches. That’s our breakfast, and then we fly and look at the -sunrise. - -It’s time to go to bed. I’ll write more tomorrow. - - - _September 15, 1917._ - -We are now taking our physical examinations. Mine has been perfectly -normal; they found nothing wrong with my heart, and a special -examination of my lungs (by request) showed nothing abnormal, though I -have still a little bronchial cough. It looks as though we were to have -a few days of rain. I can stand it for sleep. Just received my two -hundred francs, and I feel rich. I am going to deposit it, as I have a -hundred francs left from last month. I am pleased with the financial -outlook. At the end of the war I’ll have enough money to travel, or get -married, or finish “Tech.” If the war lasts long enough I may have -enough for all three. If anything happens to me my life insurance pays -for Robert’s education, but there is no particular reason why anything -should happen to me. I am not counting on it. - -Say, I have so many clothes that they are becoming positively a burden. -When we enter the U. S. Army in two or three weeks we will be provided -with a complete outfit of U. S. Regulars uniform. When we have our -brevet we get a complete leather uniform. My khaki uniform has not been -washed since the beginning and is all covered with grease spots and -“tacky” looking, but it is comfortable, and I saved two hundred francs -by waiting. The sweater you knitted for me is doing good service—so -light and neat inside a coat. It is very handy. That picture of Robert’s -is mighty good. Tell him to write to me. I just received my pictures. -Printing is very expensive here, and the work is not very satisfactory. -I hesitate to let them develop my pictures. Our time is filled now all -right. I must sleep some more. That is one of the great requisites in -aviation. - -You might send me things to eat now and then. Dates, figs, candied -fruits, fruit cake, candied pineapple, fig newtons, and salted nuts. -They come through pretty well in about a month or so, and keep well. It -is best to sew cloth around the package before putting on the outside -cover. It’s pretty nice to receive packages. - - Your son, - - DINSMORE. - - - _Personnel Dep., Aviation Section, A. E. F., - 45 Ave. Montaigne, Paris, September 19._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -The above heading is the official address of the U. S. Aviation Section, -and the one which you must use from now on. Yesterday I got a flock of -letters—three of mother’s, one of father’s, one of Robert’s, two or -three others, and a bunch of the “_Tech_” magazines. The “_Tech_” has -more news of vital interest than any paper I see over here. - -Tension is rather high in camp. Major Carr, when he was here, told the -French lieutenant that there were 500,000 men in the States anxious to -fill our places. Since then five men had been _radiated_ (a polite -French word for “fired”), for breaking machines. Everybody is -frightened. The men had been sent up from our class, two and three a -day. One man is in the hospital, one in Paris, and today the last two go -up, so at present I am the only one in the class. The hospital put me -behind all right. Though I should like to catch up with the other men -and would be willing to take a chance, yet it is not the best way to -learn. They say a “slow beginning is time well spent,” and I am with an -excellent instructor. I could not learn faster than I can with him, so -it is for me to be content. The men that were _radiated_ were men who -had been sent up too quickly. - -There is a bad fog this morning, so I guess we will not get any work. -Many things interfere with aviation training. Sun makes heat waves, fog -bars the view, wind makes it dangerous, yet we get a good deal of flying -at that. When we are _lâched_ (released) we have a machine of our own -and go out and fly whenever we feel like it. That will be fine. - -I went to Tours day before yesterday and had a swim. The Loire River is -very swift, and it was all I could do to swim up it thirty feet. They -have the natatorium floating in the river, and have it fixed with a -strainer to hold the people in. I would like to swim down the river -about ten miles, floating with the current, but it is against the law to -swim in the open. Day before yesterday was the first time I’ve been -swimming this year. - -We have a great time in our barracks. Every night there are a number of -rough houses. Last night we had a real fight. One vulgar, loud-mouthed -fellow called a smaller man the forbidden name, and the little fellow -lit into him. Everybody wanted to see the vulgar one cleaned up—and they -did. After a couple of blows the big one clinched in the strangle hold, -but the little one was a college wrestler with a neck like a bull. He -squirmed around in a circle and nearly broke the big man’s arm; then he -punched the big one’s face. They knocked over some beds and rolled on -the floor; then they got up and talked till they got their breath. The -big one was dissipated, and shaky on his feet. The light man lit into -him again. Neither of them were fighters, but they meant well. The heavy -one lunged with a hammer swing, missed, and the light man came in short -and quick on his jaw. The heavy man reeled back to the wall, but came -again and clinched before both eyes were shut. The little man went -under, but it was only from weight, and he was on top in a minute. He -rubbed the big one’s face in the floor, and then let him up. Then the -yellow streak showed up. The big one sat down on the edge of the bed, -whimpering and holding his arm, which had been fractured. He said he -wasn’t licked, but had enough for the night. The crowd mumbled -disapproval and went off to bed. A few gullible ones stayed to fix up -the big man’s arm. He cried like a baby. He hasn’t shown his face for -two days. - -One of the fellows just tells me I have been shifted to another monitor -who is very violent, so I do not know what the outcome will be. The fog -grows thicker; we shall not work today. The greatest lesson of war is -patience. There are many days in which we do not work. I am trying to -use that time to rest and build up for what may come. The way things are -run here prevents one from having a system by which he may utilize his -time, so I work by inspiration. The time will come—and a long time it -will be—when I must work by routine, so I guess it will not hurt to work -by inspiration for a little while. My stay at the hospital must have -done me good. I am in splendid condition, and very healthy and happy. - - YOUR SON. - - - _September 28, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -Everything is going fine, but slow. I was passed to the next solo class -today and will be on my brevet work within a week, so I should be -delighted—but I am as blue as the devil. What I want is to see and talk -with a good, beautiful, splendid, charming American girl. - -I am sleeping and eating like a beast. Made a little water color today; -had a few letters from my _marraine_, but no one here has heard from -home for weeks. I am going into town today, just for a change. It would -be easy to get into a rut here. I love these little French pastries, and -fill myself full of them every time I go to Tours. There is one place -where you can get ice cream. Just imagine, and Tours once the capital of -France! There is a great big old twelfth-century castle built by the -Norman lords not far from here. I am going up and see it tomorrow. I -must find some way to get around to these châteaux near here. Perhaps I -shall take a week’s _permission_ after my brevet. If I do not break a -machine I’ll go back to Avord for Nieuport work, but I’m pretty good on -landing, so if luck is with me there will be no difficulty. Robert’s -letter just arrived, telling me of long pants and hoping his brother is -out of the crowd of unclean men. - - YOUR SON. - - - _September 29, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -Today I was called to the top sergeant of the U. S. Army here and -presented with a telegram thrice forwarded from Washington asking after -the health of one Dinsmore Ely. I reported that I was in the hospital -two weeks with a slight attack of bronchitis, which did not confine me -to my bed. After being reprimanded for the folly of mentioning such a -sickness, I was dismissed. Where men are being killed at the rate of -fifty thousand a month, note that it was a most absurd thing to clog -official wires over the ailment of a private. Incidentally, it marked -him as a pampered pet. Lately, Reno, the aviator, was reported dead and -mourned in world-wide publication. He later entered a Paris bank to draw -his account and return on _permission_ to America. He will arrive before -this letter. This goes to prove that absolutely no report can be -believed. There are undoubtedly a great many aviators listed as dead who -are prisoners in Germany. The only news you can rely upon will be from -my hand. I am in perfect health now, and will continue to be as long as -I live. You will hear nothing more in regard to my health until my -obituary notice reaches you, and as that will not be from me, you will -be foolish to put any trust in it. My letters will be most irregular and -undependable, by accident or intention, so you need not try to guess my -health from them. Also keep in mind that one blue evening may give rise -to more dissatisfaction than a deadly disease. It has been a custom of -the Elys to keep the wires hot when one of them had a cold. That must -stop in war time. If you people are determined to let your imagination -turn your hair gray, nothing on God’s earth can stop you. In spite of -the fact that I am an Ely, I am only one of the eight million men whose -lives are worth the ground covered by their feet. If you do not believe -unmentioned health is the best way to prevent worry, wait a year and -see. You need not try to persuade me to keep you informed on my health. -Meanwhile the war will continue as usual, I doing my part. Do not take -this letter as curt, it is just entirely lacking in romance. I am in -perfectly good humor; also I am thinking just a little clearer than my -parents did when they telegraphed around the world in war times to find -out if I had recovered from a minor attack of bronchitis. You must have -the same faith in me to look after my physical health as after my moral. - -The _Tribune_ is coming and it seems good, but you would be surprised -how little current events are touched upon here. What we crave most in -reading is romance. The _Saturday Evening Post_ fills the bill more than -anything else. If you could send me a subscription of that for six -months, it would be greatly appreciated. There are plenty here, but by -that time will be sent to different posts. - -I wrote to Robert today, and will probably write to him quite often. -Wish he would find time to write to me frequently, at least once a week. - - YOUR SON. - - - _Ecole d’Aviation, Tours, September 30, 1917._ - -DEAR MOTHER: - -Something pleasantly interesting happened today. Early this morning -Loomis in the bed next to mine asked me if I would join him in a party -with some friends of his. They were to come out to the school for us, so -I borrowed a blue French uniform and stuff and dolled out as fine as you -please. The friends came at ten-thirty in a touring car. The party -consisted of M. and Mme. Romaine, who were our host and hostess, and -Mlle. Gene Recault, and her future father-in-law. She was very pretty, -charming, and entirely French. Her father-in-law, M. Vibert, was as -jolly as a youth of twenty-five. They were all so cordial and generous, -and entirely agreeable. We went to Tours and called at a music store, -where Mlle. Gene purchased some music. Then we went to the hotel at -which we had spent the night, and she gave us the treat of a wonderful -voice. It was too strong for the small salon, but when she lowered, it -was delightful. She was the leading pupil in the National School of -Music at Paris, and withal, modest and charming. We proceeded to a café -in the Rue National where we had a good breakfast at twelve-thirty. The -meal was lively, and we were able to take an interesting part in the -conversation, thanks to the sympathetic courtesy of our companions. M. -Vibert was full of pranks and humor, so at the end of the meal I started -to use a nutcracker on a peach, and Mlle. Gene took it from me in -consternation and showed me how the French peeled a peach and cracked -nuts; so I cracked the peach nut and ate the kernel and showed them the -American method of cracking nuts under the heel. They were extremely -considerate of my ignorance. After dinner we got into the machine and -rode to a wine shop where we had some tea. It always takes half the meal -for me to make new acquaintances understand that I do not drink wine or -coffee. The family asked me to come out and stay with them during our -_permission_. We returned to the school about three-thirty. It was a -mighty pleasant Sunday. - -All the mail is being held somewhere—and we want letters. I get about -two letters a week from _marraine_, which fills the gap between those -from home. - - With love, - - YOUR SON. - - - _October 2, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -Yesterday’s mail brought a good long letter from father and about -fifteen Chicago papers. It simply was good to hear the doings in Chicago -and suburbs. I imagine there will be a stack of letters come in some of -these days. A letter came from my _marraine_ saying I must surely stay -with her while in Paris. - -We have just been out in the field, but wind brought rain up from the -south and we returned. When we got back, the mail was in. Oh, golly! -Thirteen letters for _me_. It has been a pretty long wait, but they came -in a bunch. Letters ranging from September 2 to 12 arrived. My, but it’s -a pleasure to hear from father. Of course your letters are just as good, -but they come natural, as you have been always the official -correspondent, but father’s letters combine surprise with novelty, and -the newspaper clippings are so interesting. They appeal more than the -newspapers themselves, because they allow me to follow the interests of -my friends through my family. How they do marry off! It will be a -different country, a different town, even a changed family when I -return. I am not quite sure which is changing the faster—father or -Robert. Mother seems to remain the same. Being constantly in my own -company keeps me from seeing a change in myself. It is natural that -Robert should develop rapidly, but father has changed so greatly that I -can hardly keep pace with him. He seems to be entering a new youth from -the day he ran up the stairs at 1831 to put out the fire in your room -started by my little alcohol engine—I recall him as a silent, serious, -weary-with-work father, whose only real friends were in books and in his -office. He was nervous and particular, and never would tell me when he -was satisfied with what I tried to do—kind, patient, silent, oh, so -careful. I could not move him, win him, nor understand him. This was, of -course, after my curls were cut. After he had been my Santa Claus and -birthday godfather and Easter fairy in granting my every wish, then came -the high-school period when I would have given anything to have really -heard his approval, when I no longer feared him nor yet appreciated him. -At college I wished to be worthy of his name. There I learned something -of men—and, oh, how proud of him I was Junior Week! But from my -Christmas vacation there was a great change—the barrier was broken and I -began to see in him a future friend and companion, the equal of whom I -had not met among all my friends. Of course the change has been mostly -in me, and my growing point of view; but, still, father has grown -jollier and freer, more witty and talkative, and more intimate with -people and nature and animals. I have wondered at the causes: two, -anyway, were prosperity and Robert—God bless him and our happy home. To -the other, no legend, story, or orator ever succeeded in giving to it -its due; that single word more than godly, more than eternal, a title, a -prayer, a caress, guardian angel of the mind—_mother_! - - Good night, dear family, - - DINSMORE. - - -DEAR FAMILY: - -A few days of poor weather is confining us. There is time to think, and -time to do everything you think of—and then time to think. - -One of my lines of thought has been how I might make a little money on -the side. Our spare hours come in such small classes that it does not -permit me to go about seeing the châteaux of this country, or to go to -Tours a great deal to sketch, except when it rains; then is not the time -to go. Mother mentioned giving my letters to some paper, I believe. I -know that a great many people over here are receiving quite a nice -little pay for just such letters. I wish I could work it some way, but -as I speak of it I feel a queer family pride which would spoil it, I -suppose. For some reason or other, there are only certain ways of -commercializing one’s assets without loss of pride. Is this loss of -cosmopolitanism, and an approach to caste? I guess not. I can sketch, -but that is not great fun when you haven’t interesting subjects and good -weather. I can make some post cards and try coloring them, which would -not be bad practice withal. Well, I’ll be going to Paris soon, and -laying in a good supply of good books. - -Had a letter from Gop today. His letters are full of foolishness, and -most refreshing. He has gotten off all his conditions this summer, and -will probably get his degree in mid-year. The fraternity house opens on -the seventeenth of September, and Gop thinks there is a promising year -ahead. I see from the “_Tech_” there is to be a great increase in the -freshman class. My, but I hope they pull through with a strong line. I -put a lot of interest into the development of that fraternity, and got a -lot out of it. My feeling of ease in the barracks life is improving. I -believe adaptation can be made without concession, and get fair results. - -Fifty more American pilots from the ground schools in the States arrived -yesterday. They have spent their first month in digging trenches and -foundations. They arrived in France August 22 via England, and are glad -to get here. One of them tells the story of their passage. One of the -boats was torpedoed in sight of the Welsh coast. There were seven -transports and a convoy of eleven torpedo boat destroyers. They were in -the dining room when they felt a heavy jar. All rose to their feet and -turned white, a few screamed, and others cried, “Steady.” They got to -the deck in time to see a destroyer rush to a spot a half mile away, -drop a sinking mine, and start up again. Before the destroyer had gone a -hundred feet the ocean over the bomb raised up in a mighty spout, which -lifted the rear of the destroyer thirty feet on the swell. It was one of -the new mines which destroy a submarine within a radius of six hundred -feet; meanwhile they had manned the life boats. Inspection proved that -the torpedo had struck a glancing blow and had not exploded. It made a -rent in the hull of the ship four feet long in a hold containing baled -cotton. The ship contained three hundred nurses besides the troops. It -is claimed that the submarine was sunk. It seems the mine does not harm -the destroyer any more than a rough sea. - -Well, so much for today. - - YOUR SON. - - - _Ecole d’Aviation Tours, France, - October 4, 1917._ - -DEAR BOB: - -Your letter arrived about three days ago. I am mighty glad to hear that -you are going to Lake Forest to school. - -You will make good; you have to make good because your name is Ely—and -we are here to prove that the Elys make good. You will be away from home -a good deal and I think that will do you a great deal of good. But when -you do go home, make the most of it; it is your duty to be with mother -and father as much as you can; they need you and it is the one way you -can repay them directly. There is another thing, confide in mother and -father; just because they are older, don’t you think for a moment that -they do not understand children. They will not blame you if you tell -them things which you think may be wrong, and your conscience will blame -you if you do not tell them. And they will show you the best way out of -trouble; father can give more of a sermon in three minutes than any -minister I ever heard could preach in an hour—and it will not make you -feel foolish either. That’s at home. - -At school you will have no trouble making friends. It is worth your -while to make acquaintances with everyone, there is good in all of them. -But the best of them are none too good to be your friends. Most of the -boys swear and smoke and tell vulgar stories and a few may try liquor; -they do it because men do it and they want to be men. Men do it usually -because they started when they were boys. - -Vulgar stories will keep you from becoming a strong man; once in a while -you cannot help listening to them; never remember one, never tell one -under any condition, and people will learn to know you as a boy with a -clean mind. Liquor will keep you from having a happy home; never touch -it. Smoking will keep you from being as strong and healthy as God meant -you to be. Everybody who smokes will say it doesn’t hurt them, but when -they want to make a team they quit smoking. Nobody can keep you from -smoking but nobody can stop you either. Many good business men will not -hire boys who smoke. Swear if you must, smoke if you want to after you -are a man, but for goodness sake, do not do it in order to be a man or -because other boys do it. If you cannot be a man without it, you can’t -be a man with it. And an Ely doesn’t do things because other people do -them. And you’re an Ely. - - Amen. - -You should be over here and see France. It’s the greatest farming and -fruit country I ever saw—Wisconsin included. I went for a long walk -today and I was eating all the time. I’d come to a vineyard with white -grapes—just finished them and along came purple grapes. I’d just -finished the purple grapes when I came to a place where walnut trees -were on each side of the road and the walnuts were being blown down -faster than one could pick ’em up—just as the walnuts were gone, I came -to the apples and then the raspberries and blackberries and peaches and -chestnuts. I was full by that time. At one place there was a village dug -out of the chalk side of the cliff; strange doors and passages and dark -rooms as old as America and wells a hundred feet deep; wine presses and -wine cellars and stables—all cut from the rocks. - -We still have our good scraps. Yesterday there was one with eleven men -in it. We knocked over seven beds and one man, whose head was cut, got -blood on five of them. It’s our only real exercise and we enjoy it. - -The other night three Frenchmen stood out in front of the barracks -keeping us awake. George Mosely ran out in his nightshirt and tumbled -one over, and the other two ran away. Ten minutes later, four men who -had been drinking came along and put a man in the rain barrel full of -water. - -Some of us have been put up in the next class. Soon we have spirals and -voyages. Two weeks from now I’ll get my license as an air pilot if I -have luck. Then come acrobatics. - -Write me a letter telling about your school life. Write often. Nothing -is better practice in English, composition, spelling, and penmanship, -than letter writing; and your being away from home will make you -understand how much your lovin’ brother wants your letters. - - Always an Ely, - - DINS. - - - _October 9, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -I decided on the spur of the moment to go to Paris. The equinox has -come, and we bid fair to have a week of bad weather. So I borrowed a -French uniform from “Stuff” Spencer and am now waiting for the train. I -have the privilege of being in the city forty-eight hours. While there I -shall go to the Hôtel Cécilia to get many things from my trunk—things -that I need here. I shall probably eat and sleep at my _marraine’s_ -home. I just needed a change, and as this is not likely to interfere -with flying, I feel all right about it; neither will it detract from my -week’s _permission_ after my brevet. Yesterday I was reprimanded for -having United States buttons on my clothes and told to take them off. It -is getting cold enough now to use my heavy suit that I got at Field’s, -so I shall have some gold buttons put on it, and blossom out. No use -talking, leather goods are pretty high priced. The stock shoe furnished -by the U. S. Army costs $9.50, the high field boots, such as aviators -are wearing, cost $35.00 to $40.00; officers’ belts cost $8.00 to -$10.00. You see, we will have to come across. Have not heard concerning -my shoes yet, but hope they may have arrived at the club. The “Tech” -Club, by the way, has been closed in favor of a University Club, which -evolves from it. - -Well, I must be off, will probably not write again till my return. - - Yours truly, - - DINSMORE. - - - _October 15, 1917._ - -DEAR BOB: - -Sometimes we go two or three weeks without enough happening to write -about—but yesterday something occurred. They told me to take my altitude -test, and put me into the machine. In the altitude test the object is to -climb to a height of twenty-six hundred meters (eighty-five hundred -feet) and stay there for an hour. Well, I started with a good motor and -a joyous heart, for the weather had been bad for six days and I felt -like a horse that needs a run. The plane climbed wonderfully. There were -quite a few clouds in the sky, but I saw blue spots to go up through as -I circled high over the school. In the first fifteen minutes I had -climbed fifteen hundred meters, but once up there I found that the holes -in the sky had disappeared and there was nothing for it but to go right -up through the clouds. The low-hanging cloudlets began to whisk by and -the mist gathered on my glasses. Never having played around in the -clouds much, I didn’t know what was coming. Well, the mist grew thicker -and thicker, and looking down I found the ground fading away like -pictures on a movie screen when the lights turn on. I began to wonder -what I’d do without any ground under me. I soon found out when the -ground disappeared entirely. Have you been in a fog so thick that you -couldn’t see your hand before your face, and you sort of hesitate to -step any farther for fear of falling off the edge of something or -running into something? Then imagine going through such a fog at eighty -miles per hour. - -When I had been out of sight of ground for less than a minute something -strange seemed to be happening. There was a feeling of unsteadiness, and -I thought maybe I was tipping a little. I tried to level up the plane, -and found I couldn’t tell whether it was tipped to right or left. The -controls went flabby, and then the bottom dropped out. You understand I -couldn’t see twenty feet—but I was falling—faster—faster. The wires and -struts of the machine began to whistle and sing and the wind roared by -my ears. I began to think very fast. No one has ever fallen far enough -to know what that speed is, and lived to tell about it, unless he was in -an aeroplane. There was no doubt about it, I was falling—falling like a -lost star. I was frightened, in a way, but there was so much -excitement—too much to think about to be panic-stricken. It was awful -and thrilling. You wonder what happened? Why, I tell it slowly. That is -how I wondered what was going to happen. The seconds seemed like -minutes. I began to reason about it. Was it all over? Had I made my last -mistake when I entered those clouds? Had all my training and education -for twenty-three years been leading up to this fall? It seemed -unreasonable and unjust. Still, there I was, falling as in a dream. -Well, I didn’t need my engine, I was going fast enough without it, so I -cut it off, but that’s all the good it did. I couldn’t see my propeller, -and yet I plunged downward. That’s right, I must be falling downward. -Ah! a bright idea. Downward, therefore toward the earth. - -Then I recalled the fact that the lowest clouds were eighteen hundred -meters above the earth, and I was still in them. I must come out of them -before striking, so I waited. My head felt light; my eyes watered behind -the glasses. I remember watching the loose lid on the map box waving and -tilting back and forth; then suddenly I became aware of a shadow, a dark -spot, a body, and there, ’way off at the end of my wing, was a map of -the world coming at me. I headed for it and then slowly let the machine -come to its flying position and it was over. I was flying serenely above -the earth, with a surprising lack of concern. I had fallen a thousand -feet. That was the first one—the thrilling, fearful one. - -But I hadn’t made my altitude, so I tried again, and fell the same. Many -times I tried. Once I saw the sun through the mist, and it was under my -wing instead of over it. I was then falling upside down. I do not know -the capers that that machine cut up there during the hour and a half of -my repeated endeavor to go up through that strata of cloud, but no -acrobatic was left unaccomplished, I am sure. Spirals, barrel turns, -nose dives, reversements—all unknown to me. I pressed on one side, then -on the other. I hung by the belt and pressed forward and backward. Again -I would fall into the open. Again I climbed into the clouds, but it was -all useless and vain. I could not keep my balance without the world or -the sun to go by. Then my motor began to miss, so I decided to go down. -Well, if a person has undergone all the dangers and surprises that the -air has to offer without being able to see what he is doing, he feels -perfectly at home doing anything when he has a clear outlook. I had -proved that the machine couldn’t hurt itself by falling a thousand feet -and as I was still some seven thousand feet high, I decided to -experiment, so I did spirals right and left, wing slips, nose dives and -tail slips, reversements and stalls, vertical banks and crossed -controls—everything, in fact, that I had ever seen done with the -machine. They were all simple, without terror, and quite safe. I failed -in my altitude, but I learned enough about the handling of that machine -to make up for a dozen failures. I’ll try my altitude again on a clear -day. I am glad I had the experience, for it gave me great confidence. I -did three hours of flying yesterday. - -The most dangerous thing that happened was one time when I fell in the -clouds and the fall seemed longer than usual before the clear air was -reached. Suddenly I realized that my glasses were covered with snow, so -I took them off and found I had fallen two hundred meters below the -clouds while blinded by my glasses. Just to show how nicely balanced a -good machine is, I let go of the control about two minutes, while -cleaning my glasses, and steered entirely with my feet. My, but flying -is a wonderful game. If I come through, I’ll give you one royal ride in -heaven before I give up aviation. - - DINS. - - - _Château du Bois, La Ferté-Imbault, France, - October 15 to 27, 1917._ - -DEAR MOTHER: - -The god of good fortune is still guarding your son, and touching his -life with experience and romance. I am a guest at an old French -château—but I must start at the beginning. For the past few days I have -been too busy to write. After the altitude test, which I completed the -following day, I took two _petits voyages_, which were pleasant and -uneventful, save for the second when I arrived at the school after dark -and made my landing by the light of a bonfire. It was a good landing, -and gave me more confidence. The next man after me crashed to the ground -so loudly that it was heard a quarter of a mile. The next morning I -started upon my first triangle, which is a trip of over two hundred -kilometers from Tours to Châteaudun, thence to Pontlevoy, and back again -to Tours. My motor gave trouble before starting, but ran well for a -time. When I had gone over three-fourths of the way the motor began to -miss, and I landed in a field. Four out of the ten spark plugs had gone -bad. They had given me only two spark plugs and no wrench. I borrowed a -wrench from a passing motor car, and managed to clean the plugs and -start up again, but as no one was there to hold the motor I could not -let it warm up and it did not catch well, so I only rose twenty feet. A -short turn and side landing was the only thing that kept me from landing -in a stone quarry. I taxied back to the field and tried again. By that -time the motor was warm and picked up pretty well. I ascended to seven -hundred meters, and proceeded confidently on my way, and there is where -I “done” made my mistake. For a little time I was lost. Then I found my -landmarks and continued. The wind had become quite high, and it took -some time for me to come back against it to my course. In fact, it took -an hour. Then I continued forty-five degrees into the wind for half an -hour. I should have arrived long ago and I was a little worried. The -engine began to miss again. The country was spotted with woods and lakes -and there were few good landing places. By now I knew I was totally lost -and would have to descend, anyway, to find my way. I had no more come to -this decision than the engine became hopeless, and I aimed for a field -right near a little town under me; but the wind was so strong that I -misjudged and overshot my landing and had to turn on my motor again. It -caught but poorly, and barely raised me above a hedge of trees and -telegraph wires. I had hardly speed to stay up and found myself over a -wood, skimming the tree tops by no more than a meter. The slow speed -made the controls very difficult, and the currents from the woods tossed -me about like a cork on a choppy sea. The wind was blowing thirty miles -per hour. For half a mile I staggered over and between the tree tops -till I came to a little triangle of field. I made a vertical bank twenty -feet from the ground and landed into the wind. It was a good landing, -but the trouble was when I touched the ground I was going at thirty -miles per hour, and there was a row of trees twenty feet in front of me. -I hit between two trees, and when I crawled out, the wings, running -gear, and braces and wires were piled around on the ground and trees, -and I wasn’t even scratched. A crowd gathered to collect souvenirs, and -I telegraphed and telephoned to the school to come and pick up the -pieces. There was nothing to do but wait, so I went out to a bridge and -talked French with a little boy. - -Soon a motor car drove up, and out stepped a young French chap. He asked -if I was the guy and I says “Yes,” and he “’lowed” that he was just back -from Verdun for his _permission_ and asked if I would come out and have -supper and stay overnight, so we got in the car and went out to a -beautiful château. I met the family and apologized for my clothes, which -they said were fine for war times. Then the children came in and played -until supper. - -They were all charming—no formality or constraint. They all spoke -English, more or less, and the dinner was jolly, with difficulties of -understanding. The eldest son of the family had lost his life when a -bombing plane burned over Verdun last year. That gave them and me a -special bond of sympathy. The other son, of about twenty-two, is a -sergeant in the First Dragoons. The eldest daughter, of about -twenty-eight, mother of all the little children, sat beside me. Her -husband is a captain in the First Dragoons. She was very entertaining -and spoke English quite well. The other member was the little daughter, -about fifteen. Later I learned that M. Duval is a viscount, of the old -blood of France. - -After dinner we went into the _petit salon_. They entertained me by -showing me innumerable photographs. M. Duval is a camera enthusiast, and -does all his own developing and printing. He takes these double pictures -on plates, and you look at them through a stereoscope. They have -traveled very extensively. They have hunted big game and small game in -mountain, forest, and plain, and the pictures tell the story like an -Elmendorf lecture. Meanwhile, they all contributed interesting remarks -in broken English, and so we got better acquainted. Mme. Duval showed me -her postcard collection of French châteaux. The Duvals owned more than -twenty through Touraine and Normandy, they and their direct relatives by -marriage. We all went up the old stairway together and bid each other -good night in the upper hall. They asked what I wanted for my breakfast -in bed, but I came down bright and early and joined them at a seven -o’clock breakfast. We looked at some more pictures and then went rabbit -hunting in the drizzling rain. They gave me an American repeating gun. -M. Duval assigned us to our positions, not far from the château, and we -waited. Three or four men set about to drive the rabbits. Off among the -trees I saw the strangest looking rabbit. I pulled up, about the fire, -when it struck me there was something wrong, so I looked again. There -were two of the creatures gliding around from one rabbit hole to -another. Their color was cream yellow. After a little guessing, I -concluded they must be ferrets, so I let them live. Suddenly a man -called “Oh-ee,” and a rabbit humped past right by my feet. I took a pot -shot, but it had me scared and I almost hit my foot, it was so close. -Two more went by and didn’t mind my shooting at them. They were so close -it seemed a pity to shoot them, yet that didn’t quite explain my -missing. Well, you know what an old hand I am at rabbit shooting. I was -just a little out of practice, having fired a shotgun, once when I was -twelve years old. The blessing was that no one was there to see. Then I -got one at a good distance, and found that it was much easier to hit -them at a hundred feet than twenty-five. My average began to go up, and -the first fifteen shots I had three rabbits. Then we changed positions, -and I found that the son had eleven. I don’t think he had fired more -than ten shots. At thirty shots I had twelve rabbits, and I felt a -little more respectable. It was a pipe after you got used to it. Then we -took a walk about the place and went in to lunch. All the food they had -was from their own place: meat, wild and tame; fish from the river near -by; and chestnuts, mashed like potatoes and baked. These latter are -called _les marrons_. There were also sweet cakes, salads, mixed and -dressed by M. Duval, and—wonder of wonders—American apple pie! I ate -three pieces, and they had it for every meal while I was there. I -understand why menus are written in French and old novels rave on French -cuisines. Never did I eat such delicious food. Every dish is served -separately as a work of art. The service was fine old china, with cracks -all through it. The knives, forks, and spoons were gold plated, and the -daughter would get up from the table and serve the bread if the maid -didn’t happen to be in the room. Everyone eats the food as he gets it -hot, and one person may be a course behind the others without causing -inconvenience. - -My word, how I enjoyed every minute of it! It would have been a lark any -time, but it was a humming, white-feathered buzzard of a time to one who -has been eating in a mess for a month. - -Well, that afternoon we hunted some more, and I drove the Renault down -to see if the plane was still where it had fallen. That evening the -mechanics came with a truck to fetch it, but it was too late, and they -had to stay at the château all night. Then their machine broke, and they -had to telephone for another. Well, I did not get away until after -lunch, so we hunted some more and played tennis. They all came down to -the gate to see me off, and truly they made me feel that they were as -sorry to see me go as I was to go—and that was “some sorry.” - -I’ve tried to finish this letter and send it off, but like all the great -things man attempts, it is never finished. - -When I left the Château du Bois, they gave me their address in Paris, -where they will go in a fortnight; their address at Pau, where they go -the last of December, and where I shall probably go at the same time; -and the address of their cousins who have a villa a short way from -Bordeaux (the place where I shall probably be perfected on the -Nieuport). That opens up considerable opportunity to make some friends -that are really worth while. - - * * * * * - -Gee! when things happen here they happen in bunches. I have enough more -to tell to make another letter longer than this. Since I started this -letter I have finished the school at Tours, gotten my brevet, and now I -am down at Blois seeing a couple of the best châteaux. - -I am collecting post cards to beat the band. They will make a wonderful -library for my architectural design, as well as a foundation for a -little series of travelogues I am going to give the family, and while I -think of it I am growing more convinced that when you are young is the -time to see the world, especially for the architect. When the war is -finished you can figure it will take me a year or more to get home. The -education of travel is so far superior to that of school (not “Tech”) -that there is no comparison. - - Love to all, - - DINS. - - - _Paris, November 4, 1917._ - -DEAR MOTHER: - -You see I am in Paris and am staying at the house of my _marraine_. I -wrote you a letter in Châteaudun which was lost through my fault. I -wrote father a letter a week ago and carried it till yesterday without -mailing. The other letter I mailed, which you should receive, left Tours -over two weeks ago. This all goes to prove I am getting careless in my -letter writing, for goodness knows there has been so much to write about -that I scarcely know where to begin. In the first place, I am a pilot—no -longer an _élève_ pilot. My brevet is gained and I am recommended for a -Nieuport—that is a fighting machine—all of which is as it should be. -They overlooked my smash-up, as it was the fault of the motor. - -Having finished at Tours, I went for a day’s sight-seeing to Blois. -There I saw the grand old historic château of Catherine de’ Medici, and -the beautiful architectural dream, the château of Chambord. It was a -pleasant day, starting at six in the morning and ending with a five-mile -walk between twelve and two-thirty last night. Then by a little -flower-tossing, I got them to extend my _permission_ so as not to -include the day at Blois, and left for Paris. I came to my _marraine_ at -eight-thirty in the evening of Saturday, October 29, and she gave me a -room. They have entertained me most generously ever since. I told you of -her family in another letter. The daughter, who married a captain, looks -for all the world like Marie Antoinette and keeps up an unending -flirtation with her husband with refined French coquetry, which is a -delight to watch. The two children of the other daughter are jolly -little youngsters. We have an hour’s romp in the evening, and they have -become my shadows. I have been doing Paris, as one might say. I have -visited Napoleon’s tomb, the Palais de Justice, Sainte Chapelle, the -jewel of Gothic architecture, Notre Dame de Paris, Sacred Heart, the -Madeleine, and numerous other well-known sights of Paris. I have seen a -French vaudeville, a French cinema opera, an afternoon musical of the -first order, and four operas: _Madame Butterfly_, _Werther_, _Sapho_, -_Cavalleria Rusticana_, and a little opéra comique. Never have things -come my way stronger to make for a pleasant time. Outside of my clothes, -my expenses for the week will not exceed twenty-five dollars, such is -the manner of French courtesy. - -You should see your son. Never has an Ely come so near being a dandy. -Picture a modish khaki uniform of French cut and the best cloth, with a -high collar, gold buttons, gold wings on the collar, a khaki cap with a -gold crescent of the Foreign Legion on it, a Sam Brown belt and high -leather boots of a well-kept mahogany brown, and over all, a very -distinctive and refined Burbury coat and gray gloves. The effect is -worth two hundred and fifty francs for the suit, one hundred and -sixty-five francs for boots, one hundred and forty francs for overcoat, -thirty-five francs for belt; everything is of the best and will serve as -my officer’s outfit In the U. S. Army with a few minor changes. I felt I -had better have the wherewithal to dress well when I was entertained, -and I have not regretted it. - -Yesterday I met two Chicago ladies. Some time after Christmas one of -them might call at father’s office to say that she saw me. - -The other day when walking from the flying school to the station in -leaving for Paris, Frazier Hale, of Cherry Street, passed me in a -machine. He yelled, and I did, and that was all. There will probably be -a growing frequency of such meetings as time passes. In war news we hear -of ignominious defeat in the Italian sector and good work in the French -sector. Your war news is more reliable than ours, no doubt. I shall -follow father’s advice as to study of the map. The first book on -aeronautics arrived last Saturday and seemed satisfactory, though I have -not taken time to read more than the introduction. I have plenty of -general reading material at my disposal now in the way of history, -aeronautical study, and novels by classic and modern writers. - -Now, I do not see how anyone could hope to be an architect without -seeing the works of this old country. I never knew what design or -interior decoration or landscape gardening were before. Every day -reveals a new jewel whose impression may leave an idea for future work. -Certainly the unconscious assimilation of ideas and proportions will be -invaluable. I am not endeavoring to drive myself into following any of -these new interests, as I feel it essential to conserve all physical and -nervous energy for what will probably be the greatest tax on my life at -the Front. My natural tastes seem good enough for the present to lead me -to an enjoyment of the best, and I am experiencing the novelty for the -first time in my life of living entirely according to my natural -taste—not that I have ever been cramped, but family environment and -educational influence have always dictated my course in life. Now I am -swimming entirely alone, and it is pleasant for a new man. This living -abroad puts one in tune with the ways of the world. - -My love to you all. - - Your son, - - DINSMORE ELY. - - -DEAR FATHER: - -My first experience, a bit exciting, came rather early. On my second -solo flight when I was half way around and going with the wind at a -height of one hundred meters the motor stopped. That is about as bad as -can happen at such a height for a student. The minute your motor stops -you have to peak at thirty degrees and land into the wind. When my motor -stopped, I looked for a landing, and peaked. The landing was a little -behind me, so I made a short turn with a steep bank and managed to -straighten her out just in time for a bare landing. It is very difficult -to turn and bank with a dead motor, and I feel rather elated; and the -best of it was that I was not frightened or worried in the least. It all -went just as easily and naturally as I believed it would when I took up -aviation. The great problem is not to lose speed, you know. In the -Nieuport hangars they hang a motto: “Loss of speed is death.” Well, the -field I had landed in was a bit rough and weedy, but there was a smooth, -long stretch adjacent, so I decided to try to get her out myself. You -see, the engines we use are Gnome rotary, an archaic type, and very -impractical. At the field men hold the machine while the mechanic -adjusts the carbureter, and then at a given signal it is released and -soars skyward. The charm is that when shut off it won’t start again till -you prime it, and the mechanic adjusts the carbureter over again for -full speed. Well, a Ford was just passing, and they stopped and waited -to see what I’d do. I went over and got a can from them to prime the -engine with gas, then I cranked the thing and when it started up it darn -near ran away with the poor scared man before I could get to the seat, -so then I taxied the “girl” up to the far end of the field and wheeled -her around. It takes two hundred yards to get to twenty feet height. I -had three hundred yards to adjust the carbureter in and clear a row of -trees thirty feet high, into the wind, of course. Well, they had -explained the thing to us, and I had watched the mechanics, so I gave it -to her and didn’t look up till I got the engine going. By that time the -trees were one hundred yards ahead. She rose a little and I kept her low -till she gained speed, and twenty-five yards from the trees I pulled her -up and she fairly bounded over the road. I made an “S” curve and just -got over the field at the school when the engine died again, and I came -down by the bunch with a cylinder burned out. - - - _November 15, 1917._ - -DEAR FATHER: - -Where the sky turns from an azure blue to a rosy pink the delicate new -moon rests with its points toward the evening star. From these two -jewels of heaven, the sunset sky grades away to a misty, mysterious -horizon. The gray distance is offset with a delicate lacework of the -autumn-stripped hedge of poplars with their slim, graceful lattice work, -reaching to points in the pink, and where the dark earth and the white -road come to the foreground, two great apple trees with their gnarled -autumn boughs frame the scene of simple beauty as it fades to night. As -I entered the kitchen of a little old farm house, which people who eat -there choose to call the “Aviator,” cheery voices and appetizing odors -greeted me in preparation for the evening meal. The clean tile floor, -the whitewashed walls, the low-hung, richly stained rafters, and the old -walnut chest by the brick fireplace all made me think of Aunt Maggie’s -old kitchen where the pies and the cookies were kept, and that makes me -think of other fireplaces and other rafters—and the folks at home. - -So I just sit down to the oilcloth-covered table and try to tell them -what a restless, twentieth-century lad thinks of the environment of his -parents’ childhood. - - DINSMORE. - - -DEAR FAMILY: - -Today started out very foggy, because there was no wind. We stood in the -field till one o’clock waiting for the air to clear. I got a machine by -four. The next hour contained enough excitement to do for the day. The -planes are like mad little Indian ponies turned loose in the field—or, -better still, like Pegasus bound into the air with a spirit that must be -tamed by steady nerves and gentle hand. It is hard to describe just the -feeling which possesses one. We are taught the principles and the -movements that control the machine and then we are sent alone into the -air to find an understanding of them. Perhaps you are turning a corner -at an angle of forty-five degrees on the bank. Suddenly you feel -something is wrong. The wind whistles louder than usual. Is it because -you are pointing nose down, or are you sliding out over the rim of the -curve, or down into the center of it? It is one of the three, and to -correct the wrong one is to make worse the other two, yet the correction -must be made. Now it is too late to figure it out, so you just correct -it without thinking, and wonder which fault it was. In an animal we call -it instinct, but there is an instant there which, when it passes, leaves -a vacuum in the nervous system. The machine climbs like a tiger, and as -we are not yet permitted to cut down the gas, it takes much strength to -hold its nose down. I made fifteen five-minute rides, and now I’m -pleasantly tired and relaxed. - -I had ten rides in the eighteen-meter Nieuport and am getting the run of -it. It is one of the most difficult machines to drive. I had bad luck in -motors or would have finished today. My motor stopped twice when I was -twenty-five meters from the ground, but I landed without mishap. With -these machines the wing area is so small you head almost straight for -the ground and just straighten out in time to land. You make a tour of -five or six miles and mount a thousand feet into the air in five -minutes—but you will be tired of reading this sort of thing very soon. -The thing to do is to go to some aviation field and see it all done. - -One of father’s letters arrived with a lot of clippings in it. Those -clippings are very interesting. I enjoy them much more than the papers. -The _Saturday Evening Post_ is read from cover to cover and passed about -till the pages are thin, so it would fill a big demand. Another book on -aviation came. I have not yet had time to finish the first one. As they -go into the technical end of things rather deeply, I can only study a -small amount at a time. Most of my reading lately has been history. - - DINS. - - - _Bourges, November 7, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -I am at Bourges on my way to Avord after my happy _permission_ in Paris. -As there were no train connections I had to stay here over night. Well, -last Sunday we went to an American church, with an all-American service. -It seemed rather pleasant. In the afternoon we went to the Opéra Comique -to see _Werther_ and _Cavalleria Rusticana_. They were both splendid and -included some of the best stars. Oh, how I love the opera! - -... I spent Monday afternoon in roaming about Paris. I went to the -Louvre and Gardens of the Tuileries and Luxembourg, and to several of -the less important churches. I saw St. James’s church from the tower of -which the bells were rung as a signal on the night of St. Bartholomew. I -believe I know Paris and its sights better now than Chicago, not that I -have seen everything—one could never do that—but just the general -layout. I never will get tired raving about the architecture. - -My train leaves soon. - - With love, - - YOUR SON. - - - _November 10, 1917._ - -DEAR FATHER: - -Yours of October 13 received. The letters of my family are of more -interest and intimacy than ever before. You say I should be glad you are -not in the machine with me to give me advice, but I say unto you, “You -are the one to be glad.” If you are worried by the thought of what might -happen if a steering buckle in an automobile should break, how would you -feel to be hanging on wires and compressed air? Once in the air it is a -fool’s pastime to think of what might happen. The god of luck is the -aviator’s saint. Man pits his resource against the invisible, and never -for an instant doubts his ability. Those who doubt are probably those -who do not come back. They are much in need of Nieuport pilots, and -rushing us through as fast as weather permits. - -Cannot write tonight as everybody is telling flying stories. - - Good night, - - YOUR SON. - - - _November 12, 1917._ - -DEAR BOB: - -Your letter came yesterday, and as I am in a great writing mood tonight -I shall answer it. First, to tell you what we are doing. We are now back -at the school of Avord. Here we learn to fly the Nieuport. A year ago -that was the fastest plane at the Front and they still use them as -fighting planes. First we ride in double command “twenty-eight’s.” -(Twenty-eight means twenty-eight meters square of wing surface.) Then we -do “twenty-three” double command and then are cut loose on them. Lastly, -we finish with twenty rides solo in an “eighteen.” I finish the -“twenty-eight” class tomorrow and will be through at this school in ten -days. The eighteen-meter machines land at ninety miles an hour. They are -wonderful little things and will do anything in the air. We go to work -at six in the morning, and return at six in the evening, but the hardest -work is waiting when there is too much wind to fly. We build a fire and -sit about telling stories and making toast. When we cannot get bread we -just tell stories. When it rains we go in the tent and read. I am -reading a history of France. It is more fun to read history than to -study it, and I think you know more when you get through. Of course I am -surrounded by all the old castles and battle grounds and graves of the -warriors of seven centuries. That makes a difference. - -There was a bad accident the week before I got here. A two-passenger -plane struck a solo plane in the air. It was a head-on collision, and -all three aviators were killed. That is a very rare accident, though. - -I see America is preparing for five years of war. You may get over yet. -Write me whenever you can. You do not know how much your letters help to -buck up a lonely brother sometimes. - - Your ever loving brother, - - DINS. - - - _November 13, 1917._ - -DEAR MOTHER: - -Today was a wonderful, clear, crisp November day, and we breathed our -fill of it. I had seven rides in a twenty-eight meter and one in a -twenty-three meter Nieuport. In life the things we look forward to -usually fall below our expectations, but not so in aviation. In -aviation, every experience so totally eclipses all expectations that you -realize you were totally incapable of imagination in that field. We -change planes five times in progressing from Penguin to Spad. Each -change is as great an advance and difference as stepping from a box car -to a locomobile limousine with Westinghouse shock absorbers. - -The Nieuport is the plane we are using now, with a man to give the -scale. It has a supporting area of twenty-three square meters. It is the -fighting plane used at the Front seven or eight months ago. - - DINSMORE. - - - _November 15, 1917._ - -DEAR MOTHER: - -Things are going quite well. Day before yesterday I left the -twenty-eight meter Nieuport class and today finished the twenty-three -meter class and was advanced. Tomorrow I shall finish solo work on the -twenty-three’s and take up eighteen’s. The monitors seem to think my -work fairly good. The little eighteen-meter Nieuports are great. They -are small and racy, with a wing spread of twenty-five feet. They have -fine speed and land at eighty-five miles an hour. You land by cutting -off the power and pointing the nose for the ground. By pulling the tail -down she slows up and finally drops a yard to the ground. It is a very -precise sport. - -You would like it fine above the clouds, Mother. It is most beautiful -and dazzling as the sun’s rays bounce along on the snowy billows, and -you can swoop down and skim the crest of the cloud waves till the frost -turns the wires to silver and your cheeks sting red in the mist. - - DINSMORE. - - - _Ecole d’Aviation, Pau, November 22, 1917._ - -DEAR FATHER: - -This is the most pleasantly situated and best regulated camp I have been -in yet. Pau itself is on a little plateau overlooking a valley with a -river and surrounded by the foothills of the Pyrenees. On the sky line -to the south and west of the beautiful snow-capped peaks, 4,000 feet -high. - -In this environment we are to attain proficiency in the handling of the -war plane. The trip down from Avord was a tedious one, with a pleasant -break of day at Toulouse. I came down with two Frenchmen who were -excellent company. We spent two nights on the train. All the sleeping -cars are used at the Front to carry wounded, so we slept sitting up. -Sleeping cars are not so common in Europe, I guess. When I woke up -yesterday morning the character of the country had changed from the -rolling valleys of Touraine to the more rocky and broken country of -Toulouse. The buildings were brick instead of stone, and one could see -the round arch and barrel vault of Romanesque influence, combined with -the low broken roofs of Spanish architecture. Here and there appeared -the beautiful pines which suggested the blue of the Mediterranean and -cliff villages, as pictured in paintings of Naples and southern Italy. -Arriving in Toulouse about nine in the morning, we washed and had -breakfast at a very pleasant hotel restaurant. It had the atmosphere of -a good Paris restaurant, but the waitresses were of the brunette -southern type, with sparkling eyes and impetuous activity. We liked it -so well that we had all three meals there. At lunch, the table next to -us was occupied by a good-looking gentleman with a dark moustache, who -evidently was suing the favor of the proprietress’ very attractive -daughter, therefore the waitress who attended him was gifted with -ability and liberty. She caught the spirit of her position, and ushered -in each new delicacy with a pomp and grimace, playing the part of bearer -of the golden platter and king’s jester with a flippant coquetry and -grace which was more entertaining than any show I’ve seen in France. - -We spent the day in seeing the town. It is rich in monuments of history -and art. The cathedral of St. Etienne is a monument of brick which -opened to me a whole new field of possibility in the use of that -material. It combines the mass of Romanesque with the Gothic form of an -early vitality. The great basilica of St. Sernin is truly Romanesque and -a perfect example of the Provincial style which introduced the -Romanesque influence into France. We saw the paintings in the Hôtel de -Ville, done by masters of the city of Toulouse, who were of the Ecole -des Beaux-Arts. These works were distinctly of the most modern school, -and they appeal to me more than anything I ever have seen. Wonderful -composition and lighting effect, combined with a freshness of color and -naturalness which shows what really can be done with paint. - -The large museum was in a great old monastery, built of hand-made bricks -by the monks of St. Augustine in the ninth century. It is still -beautifully complete, with cloistered court and brick-vaulted chapel. -Past peoples live in monuments they leave. Monuments express the life -and art and religion of a people. To build such monuments is the work of -an architect. This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. It -shows me the purpose and benefit of education; for the rest of my life -what I read will be absorbed with so much more interest and insight and -profit. Maybe the course of technology is narrow and technical, but I -find that never did I want to study and learn by reading as at present. -It has waked me to the fact that I have tastes and the right to follow -them as I please. And I can follow them in my many spare hours without -detracting from my service in the Cause. - -Your letter containing clippings and cartoons was very entertaining. I -believe cartoons serve the purpose of keeping alive the trend of public -thought without being filled up with unreliable censored facts and -rumors. - -Love to you all. - - Your son, - - DINSMORE. - - - _November 29, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -Today was Thanksgiving, and we all had the very pleasant surprise of a -day of _repos_ given us by the captain that we might be present at a -banquet given us by the American colony at Pau. It was held at one of -the good hotels and had all the proper characteristics of a regular -Thanksgiving dinner. There were forty-two of us there. After the meal we -had some songs from local talent, which were of no mean variety, and -then we went to a moving picture show which was rather a failure except -as a place to digest an excellent and more than hearty meal. - -My, but the machines we have now are a joy to run. They climb, they -turn, they dive, and recover as you think. You have but to wish in the -third dimension and you are there. It is beyond description. You sit -comfortably behind a little windshield without glasses and watch the -country far below. You forget the motor and space, and speed until -suddenly something of interest causes you to lean out and you are struck -in the face by a gust of wind which bends your head back and pumps your -breath back into your lungs. Then you know what speed means. Soon your -motor begins to miss, and you become worried and look for a place to -land. You find the fields not more than one hundred feet square. You -glance at the altimeter and find that you have unconsciously climbed to -an altitude where the air is light, and your motor pants, so you make a -readjustment, glance back at the school fifteen miles behind, which you -left eight minutes ago, and go on your way. - -Tomorrow I do spirals in fifteen-meter machines, and then go to _vol de -group_. There we learn to fly in group formation and keep relative -positions. They play “follow the leader” and “stump” in that class—some -class! Then come acrobatics. - - DINS. - - -DEAR FAMILY: - -This is a country of beautiful views, wonderful colorings of distant -hills and the snow-capped mountains as changeable as the sea. We fly -among the foothills and look down upon the beautiful estates and castle -ruins nestling among them. There has been little sun, but the fact that -one catches but passing glimpses of the mountains among the clouds does -not detract from their charm, and the moisture in the air makes the -coloring richer. I am in no hurry to leave. - -Erich Fowler, one who has been with us from the beginning, and one of -our best liked and most congenial fellow-sportsmen, was the first among -our crowd to be killed. He fell five hundred meters with full motor and -did not regain consciousness. It is believed he fainted in the air, as -the controls were found intact and no parts of the machine missing. He -was buried today at Pau. When the fellows find no way to express their -feelings it is taken laconically, and the subject has been dropped -already. No one is unnerved or frightened by the experience. Fortunately -the ego is strong enough in every man to make him feel the fault would -not have been his in such a case, and he believes in his own good -fortune enough to be confident nothing will happen to his machine. - -This is the school where the poor aviators are weeded out. The men who -have dissipated relentlessly have lost their nerve and dropped out. The -poorer drivers have voluntarily gone to bombing planes. The physically -unfit have dropped off in the hospitals, and here those who have not the -head to fly come to grief. Four out of five of the Russians who enter -this school leave in a hearse. Some national characteristic makes it -almost impossible for them to complete the course. - -Out of twenty-five machines broken in a fall, one man is killed. Out of -ten men killed, nine deaths are caused by inefficiency on the part of -the pilot. They say I have more than the ordinary allotment of -requirements of a good pilot. My assets are perfect health and a clear -mind to offset the chance of misfortune which may stand against me. -Knowing me, realize that all the statements I have made are -conservative. - -In a letter I received from Viscountess Duval the other day she said: -“As you are interested in art, it will be a pleasure to show you through -our galleries when you come to Paris. They are as fine as any in the -city.” Her husband is evidently a writer of some distinction. They are -coming to Pau and I hope will arrive before I leave. - -I shall be quite busy for the next week and not have a great deal of -time to write. No letters have reached me from home for over three -weeks. - -Yours with love and wishes for a very Merry Christmas. - - Your son, - - DINSMORE. - -Not till the last line did I realize that Christmas was so near. -Naturally, the war Christmas will be more conservative than ever, but I -hope that real festivities will continue. America is far enough from the -Front to keep the sound of battle from breaking the rhythm of the dance. -I should like to be back there for three or four days of the Christmas -vacation, with a fair round of dancing and turkey and calling on old -friends. I shall make every effort to spend Christmas at my -_marraine’s_. - -My present to mother is a silver frame containing a picture of her son -in war array of leathers and furs, helmet and goggles, standing by the -propeller of France’s fastest war plane. To father I give my _croix de -guerre_ representing the first Boche I brought down, and to Bob goes a -penholder shaped like a propeller and made from a splinter of the -propeller of my first Boche plane—all imaginary gifts, but true. - - Your son, - - DINSMORE. - - - _December 1, 1917._ - -DEAR BOB: - -Your letter written November 10 came yesterday with a lot of other -letters and about five packages. Gee! it was just like Christmas. We all -sat about the stove and ate nuts and dates, figs and candy, till our -stomachs ached. You can’t appreciate what wonderful and necessary things -figs and prunes are till you go without sweet things by the month. Take -a prune, for instance. If I could have a candied prune for every mile I -walked, I would use up a pair of shoes every week. Myrtle sent me three -cans of salted nuts; and a girl in Boston sent me a surprise package. - -Well, Bob, I am a real pilot now. I can play “stump the leader” with -anybody. Turning loops and somersaults and corkscrew turns are nothing -any more. The hardest things to do are the “roundversments,” “barrel -roll” and “vertical bank.” - -Here they give us a machine and we go up and do what we like for two -hours. One day I went ’way up over the mountain peaks and circled close -around the highest one; then I went down in the valleys and played -chicken hawk over the villages and followed the railroad train down the -valley. You should see the cows and sheep run when my shadow crossed -their fields. You can head right for the mountainside and then whirl -around and skim along with the fir trees passing close by—twice as fast -as an express train. - -Inside the machine the seat is comfortable and you huddle down behind -the windshield as comfortable as can be. The wind roars by so loudly -that it drowns out the noise of the motor. Before long your ears are -accustomed to the sound and you feel as if you were slipping along as -silently as a fish. - -Another day we went sixty-five miles to Biarritz. It is a bathing resort -on the ocean. I went down over the ocean and circled around the -lighthouse on the way back and then sped down the beach just over the -water line. I didn’t see any submarines, but maybe they saw me first and -beat it. I got back to the school just before dark and didn’t have -gasoline enough left to go five miles. They gave it to me for being gone -so long, but it was a great trip. The next day I tried for an altitude -and made next to the highest in this school—6,500 meters or 21,320 feet. -It wasn’t much joy. I froze three finger tips and frosted my lungs I -think, and had chills and headache till supper time. For an hour I -pounded my hands together while steering with my knees. There were six -strata of clouds. The last was above me and at the top. I didn’t see the -ground for an hour and a half. When you realize that they do their -fighting between five and six thousand feet, you see what endurance it -will take. They are right to make the test high for aviators. - -The most fortunate of us are being sent to Cazaux on the coast near -Bordeaux. There they have all kinds of target practice from an -aeroplane. You shoot at floats in a lake by diving at them, and at -sausages dragged through the air by another plane. Well, we have done -some of that here. We went up and dropped a parachute and then pretended -it was a German plane and dived at it back and forth. Believe me, it was -no easy matter to aim a gun into that machine while you are diving down -at a speed of 250 miles an hour. Then we go in pairs for team work and -dive at it turn about. - -The last few days we have been having a great time. We divided into two -groups and called one the French and the other the Boche, and we go out -and hunt each other up and down the valley. We have sham combats and -keep our squadron formation during the maneuvers. We do this for ten -days before going to Cazaux. I am unusually lucky to get so much of this -training, and am pleased about it, though I’m afraid I’ll not be in -Paris for Christmas. (I hope you will write and tell me about your dance -and your Christmas holidays, and I’ll tell you what I do Christmas.) As -for this war, I’m not saying a word, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you -and your children would get a chance to fight in it. There have been -hundred-year wars before now, and our modern civilization is not so -small that it can’t reproduce what has been done before. But if every -American has to return to the United States and start producing, -raising, and training soldiers for the next fifty years to beat them, -we’ll thrash them, by God, if it leaves America a desert and Germany a -hole in the ground. - -The shoes the family sent me are a perfect fit and just what I wanted, -and the socks were a surprise. As for that surprise box, I will continue -to enjoy that for many a day. I ate a little and passed around a little -each day. - -Good night, Bob. - -Don’t lose any sleep over studies. - - Your loving brother, - - DINS. - - Merry Christmas—Happy New Year. - - - _December 6, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -The past few days have been wonderful in weather and accomplishments. I -have been seeing southern France at the rate of a hundred miles an -hour—five hours a day. Yesterday morning I flew to Notre Dame de -Lourdes. It is a place to which thousands pilgrimage each year to be -healed by the flow of waters there. It is a beautiful little village at -the base of the mountains, and is hidden in the shadow of steep cliffs. -From there I wandered among the foothills and circled over the little -mountain hamlets. In the afternoon I headed straight for Pic du Midi. It -is the second highest mountain in this vicinity. In three-quarters of an -hour I was a thousand meters above it. I swooped down around it and took -pictures, with it in the foreground. Then I came back by way of another -canyon, and arrived at the school at dusk. After a lot of foolish monkey -business, I spent the last hour running at a height of two hundred feet -with my motor throttled ’way down. Sitting low in my seat, hardly -touching the controls, skimming the tree tops in the quiet hazy evening -air, it made me think of how father used to love to see the old White -throttle down to two miles an hour, the difference being that I had -throttled down to ninety. - -This morning four of us went down to Biarritz and out over the ocean. I -went down and circled around the lighthouse. All these things are -forbidden by the school, but as men are daily risking their lives in -gaining proficiency in flight, it is difficult to waive a punishment, so -they all do it. - - DINSMORE. - - - _Hôtel de l’Univers, Tours, December 8, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -I am too tired tonight to write a real letter, but all the stuff -arrived, and it was great. The shoes and surprise package with the -Christmas card, and letters from October 20 to November 10 arrived. If -you knew how we gloat over those prunes and dates and figs and candies -and nuts, you would—send some more. Thank you much. - -I am now a real flyer in every sense of the word, and am working five -hours every day. I’ll tell you all about it soon. - - YOUR SON. - - - _Pau, France, Saturday, December 15, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -We are having sham battles every day. They thought a few of us good -enough to hold over for extra training ten days and send us to a special -shooting school as Cazaux. This increases our efficiency some fifty per -cent before going to the Front and gives us that much more chance. I -have had more training than the average, due to more luck and interest. -Today I shot a machine gun at a pointed aeroplane. Out of eighty shots, -of which three bullets failed to leave the gun, sixty-seven hit the -square target; of these sixty-seven, twenty-seven struck the plane and -the man in it. It is the best score I have seen, and encourages me. This -shooting is very vital. - -We leave here in about two days, and remain at Cazaux about ten. Then we -go to Paris and wait for our call to the Front. I’ll be in Bordeaux -Christmas, and in Paris New Years. At the Front we go into different -escadrilles, French, and spend the first month as apprentices before -going to fight the Boche. We attend lectures and fly all the time here -and sleep twelve hours a day. It is a full-sized job, and enough for me. -It may be a beautiful life in training, but I am beginning to realize -that the real service will take all that war requires of any man. In -fact, it will be all that I anticipated before entering the work. There -has been a period in which I thought it rather an easy branch of the -service. But I am much better fitted for it than the average man doing -it. I was a little afraid I would be too conservative; not devilish -enough—but I guess my reason does not curb my abandon. There is not much -to be told just now, as we follow a pretty steady routine from 6 A.M. to -9:30 P.M. The weather has been beautiful; frost on the trees and mist on -the mountains, lighted by a rose-colored winter’s sun in beauty -unsurpassed. I sketch a little and read a little and struggle to keep up -my correspondence. Family letters are slow in coming, but have been -delayed or lost, no doubt. - -Good night, and love to all from - - DINSMORE. - - - _Ecole de Tir, Cazaux, December 18, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY MINE: - -Here I am back near Bordeaux where I started on my tour of France. We -came to this school understanding that we were to be abused by the -severest military discipline, but we are delighted to find that they -continue to spoil us. We have as pleasant barracks as are to be had in -France. We are permitted to eat in the _sous-officers’_ mess—a very -special mark of favor, which is really a break of military -discipline—and to cap it all, they are giving the whole camp _repos_ to -go to Paris for Christmas and for New Years. That is pretty nice. You -know we are really only corporals—that is to say, privates of no -rank—yet they really treat us like commissioned officers. - -My affection for the French people continues to grow. They are not more -gallant in action than the American is at heart, and they are less -gallant at heart, but the French politeness which irritates some people -seems to me to express a desire to be inoffensive to one’s fellows. - -Our interpreter and lecturer speaks English very well, and is an -excellent fellow. He has served in the Arabian division of the French -Army, and in the French lines also. He says the Arabians are volunteer -veterans of the French Army and make some of their best fighters. They -cannot stand bombardment and so are used only for attacks. They go over -the top with bayonets, swords, revolvers, cutlasses, and war cries. They -throw the weapons away in the order mentioned, as they close with the -enemy. At the finish, they are using only cutlasses, and they take no -prisoners. They fight like devils, and ask no quarter. We see many of -them around the aviation school. They have fine, sensitive features, and -those novel, keen but dreamy eyes of the Orient. Their carriage is -proud, and their smile disarming. - -The Senegalese are another interesting factor in the French fighting -forces. They, too, are volunteers, and of the finest aggressive troops -used only in attacks. Great, stalwart blacks from Africa, with -intelligent faces and a rather indolent air, which impresses one as -masking a latent virility. They little suggest the man-eating -head-hunters that they are. They are of many tribes, and are -distinguished by a tribal mark in the form of great scars, which have -mutilated their features since childhood. One will have great -symmetrical slashes cutting each cheek diagonally; another a large cross -upon his forehead; another a ring of little pie cuts enclosing his eyes, -nose, and mouth, and anyone able to remember their strange name can -recognize the tribe by the mark. - -They tell some terrible stories of these men. It is rumored that at this -camp two of them went wild under the influence of liquor and killed and -ate two members of an enemy tribe. In an attack these men are worse than -the Arabs and outbutcher the Huns. The Germans fear them like death. In -the advance, when they come upon a German who may be playing ’possum, -they drive the bayonet in an inch or so to test him out and sink it to -the hilt if he moves. They charge with their teeth showing, and do their -nicest work with a weapon which is a cross between a butcher’s cleaver -and a corn knife. They are called “trench cleaners” and return with -strings of human ears and heads, which after boiling make good skull -trophies. Yet these vicious Africans make reliable soldiers, and one -sees them standing guard night and day in prison camps and aviation -schools. - -There is a great Russian camp near here in which thousands of Russians -are held in detention. There was a mutiny of Russian troops in the -French lines and they sent them down here. They will not fight or work, -but only wander about the landscape eating good food. Something will, no -doubt, be done with them as soon as it is possible to focus on the -Russian question, but this is cause enough for the French to hate the -Russians. A man in Russian uniform is mobbed in the streets of Paris -now. Officers there are forced to go about in civilian clothes. It is -very hard on some of the conscientious aviators who are anxious to -fight. For a time they were quite broken-hearted and disconsolate. But -now it has been arranged that Russian escadrilles will be formed as part -of the French service. One of these Russians, with whom I’ve struck -quite a friendship, is a great, six-foot-two fellow, with a splendid -face and a genial nature. He has served three years in the Russian -cavalry, and was describing their life. They travel in groups of six for -reconnaissance work and are gone from their companies days at a time. -One will forage the meat, another the bread, another the drink, and so -on. Their experiences are fascinating, but too long to tell here. He -spoke highly of the valor of the Cossacks. He said he had seen a Cossack -attack an entire company of German infantry single-handed. (As he told -it, a light came in his eyes and he lowered his head, making gestures -with his big hands. His name is Redsiffsky.) The Cossack drew up in -front of the Germans, looked on one side and then the other, drew his -long saber and raising in his saddle charged into the heart of them. His -great frame swayed and his saber cut circles of blue light about his -horse’s head as he slashed down man after man. A German’s arm would be -severed as it raised to strike; a German’s head would roll down its -owner’s back; a German’s body would open from neck to crotch. Still the -Cossack on rearing horse slashed through and the Germans crowded in. -Then the Cossack’s mount went down, stabbed from beneath, and with a -final slash, the Russian threw his saber and drew his poniard from his -belt. He ripped and stabbed at the Germans as they closed in for the -final sacrifice. His life was marked by seconds then, but every second -paid till a telling musket in full swing descended on his skull. When -the Germans withdrew, nine of their number stayed behind and seven left -with aid. Of the Russian, nothing was to be found. The German revenge -had been complete, but a Cossack _had died_. - - YOUR SON. - - - _December 19, 1917._ - -DEAR UNCLE: - -Please consider this a Christmas letter. It will not arrive on -Christmas, it isn’t even written on Christmas, but the Christmas spirit -is responsible for its writing, and wishes for a “Merry Christmas” and -“Happy New Year” go with it to you, Aunt Virgie, and all my Cleveland -friends. - -There are a whole bunch of us sitting at the same table writing home. We -have just discovered that we are to have _permission_ to Paris for -Christmas. The result is that it has required three-quarters of an hour -for me to write this much. Between the silences are bursts of -conversation connected by laughter. - -We have now arrived at the last stage of aerial training in France. It -is a school of special merits, and the best of its kind. Not only that, -but it is also a very pleasant place to live. The barracks are situated -in orderly rows in a wood of Norway pine bordering a large lake. From -the shores long piers and rows of low hangars painted gray and white run -out into the water, forming harbors. In the little harbors, speed boats -with khaki awnings and machine guns on prow and stern lie anchored in -flotillas, and hydroaeroplanes are drawn up in rows on the docks. Flags -float, and sailors and soldiers in the uniforms of five nations move -about in military manner. From one broad pier containing a row of -shooting pavilions, the rattle of musketry and light artillery keeps the -air tense. The sky line is dotted with man-flown water birds going and -coming, and off In the distance the chase machines at practice look like -dragon flies as they swoop and whirl about the drifting balloon which is -their target. Though it has the sound and aspect of war, there is the -spirit of a carnival present. - -Our work consists of lectures, target practice, and air training. In the -lectures we learn the science of gun construction and that of -marksmanship in aviation. It is a science, too. Considering that the -target and shooter are both moving at the greatest speed of man, -allowance must be made instantaneously without instruments for the speed -of each plane. The angle of their flight is in three dimensions, and in -addition there is the speed of the bullet to be considered. Of course, -each plane type of the enemy has its own speed, which varies according -to whether it is climbing or diving. Practice must make all this -calculation second nature. The calculation made, we are then ready to -try our ability in directing the course of an aeroplane in carrying out -the calculation. The target practice consists of shooting clay pigeons -with shotgun and rifle, shooting carbines at fixed and floating targets -and shooting floating targets from the observer’s seat of an aeroplane. -The third branch is shooting from a chase monoplane; we shoot at -balloons and sausages towed by other machines, and dive at marks in the -water and on the ground. It is great sport. - -In twenty days we leave here. We hope to be at the Front. - -I must eat now. Love to all. - - Yours ever, - - DINS. - - - _December 19, 1917._ - -MY DEAR MRS. HALBERT: - -After all, it is the surprises that add the most spice, and it was -certainly a pleasant surprise to receive your knit helmet. As a matter -of fact, no gift could have been more aptly chosen. The only helmet I -had was knit by a girl friend whose enthusiasm was greater than her -skill; it no doubt represented much painstaking, but romance will not -keep the head warm nor the ravelings out of one’s eyes when aloft, and I -had wished hard and oft for a helmet of just the type you sent; others -had them. Thank you so much for it, it fits perfectly. - -You probably know something of how my time has been spent. I am still in -the LaFayette Flying Corps of the French Foreign Legion. We have been -through four French schools of aviation and are now as good pilots as -can be made without experience at the Front. We are now working in -machines the same as are used at the Front, and engage daily in target -practice and sharpshooting as well as the theory of gunmanship. We have -been trained for pilots in the class machines, that is, fighting -monoplane biplanes. They travel at a speed of from ninety to one hundred -and fifty miles an hour; in a dive they will go two hundred and fifty or -so. Aerial acrobatics in these machines are like a morning swim, and -they have the appearance of a clipped-wing dragon fly. The life is -wonderful and healthy and full of thrills. Every flight brings a new -experience. We have flown circles around the highest peaks of the -Pyrenees and swooped over the bathers at Biarritz. We have played -hide-and-seek in the clouds and fought sham battles above them. One day -I went to an altitude of 21,500 feet and froze three finger tips; I came -down out of the sunshine through a snow storm and landed in the rain -after sunset. Such changes were never possible before this age. They are -a great strain on the system, and it is resisting that strain which is -an aviator’s real work. The rest is play and sport. - -I would like to write more but must go to bed. Thank you again for your -thoughtfulness. My best wishes for a happy, prosperous New Year to the -Halbert family. - - As ever, sincerely, - - DINSMORE. - - - _December 28, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -I awake to the melody of the same reveille which brings ten million -soldiers to action over the world each morning; the same bugle which -sounds the end of the night’s bombardment, and the beginning of the -day’s carnage on battle fronts from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. -I yawn, stretch, lie in ten or fifteen minutes of delicious indecision -and then dress sitting on the edge of my cot. My underwear in the -daytime is my night clothes; socks are changed almost every week, dried -of the dampness of the day by the warmth of the night in bed; my sweater -and shirt also work twenty-four hours a day. The muffler mother knitted -for my neck is a fine pillow; my great sheepskin coat—my greatest -comfort and the envy of officers—plays the comforter; all these are the -constant guardians of the warmth of my body. It is they, and not parade -dress that should be allowed to wear war’s honors if they are worn for -it is they who have served. Then I rush out and wash hands and face -dutifully in cold water. Then I hasten to my breakfast—three slices of -bread and butter. The bread is free, but the butter costs five cents, -twenty-five centimes in French money, and is eaten while walking to the -field. During the morning I fly perhaps an hour and a half. I return to -lunch and an hour’s repose. Another hour or so of flying and a lecture -occupy the afternoon. On the way home at four o’clock we stop in at a -little shanty where three amiable and good-looking country girls serve -us with oysters and jam and chocolate. The oysters are better than blue -points, and cost ten cents a dozen. We talk and sing and walk home. At -six I have dinner and after dinner write letters till weary. Then I go -to bed. - -The war’s toll has been 3,000,000 lives or so. A fourth of the ships are -sunk. The great nations will be bankrupted. Will we dare speak of God? -Will architecture be a good profession after the war? What is one man in -all this? I go to bed each night trying to get a perspective of life and -the world and my place. - - DINSMORE ELY. - - - _December 28, 1917._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -My Christmas was spent in Paris with my _marraine_. There was snow on -the ground. On Christmas Eve I went to the great Paris Grand Opera -House. It is a monument to the artistic appreciation of the French -public, and as a piece of architecture it is a masterpiece. As you -ascend its grand stairway and pass through the foyer and grand balconies -into the gorgeous theater, you feel the power of the master designers -and builders and artists who contributed to its conception. The opera -was _Faust_. The French singers are no better musically but they are -splendid actors, which is not the case in American opera. The love scene -in _Faust_ was done with the taste of Sothern’s and Marlowe’s _Romeo and -Juliet_. The _Faust_ ballet was splendid. Oh, how I enjoyed that -evening. On Christmas day I went twice to see David Reed, whom I liked -so well in the Ambulance Unit, and who has been sick in the hospital -with grip and a broken arm. He is one of those the war cannot soil. - -My _marraine’s_ grandchildren gave me a big box of candied fruit, which -I found in my shoes on Christmas morning. I gave the little girl a doll, -dressed in “Old Glory,” and the boy an American pocket flashlight. The -train left at eight on Christmas evening. My four comrades and I met in -our reserved compartment and had a very pleasant journey back to Cazaux, -arriving at ten-thirty in the morning. We all had a good time telling of -our merry Christmas. The cakes and chocolate which my _marraine_ gave me -helped to fill five empty stomachs at five in the morning. - -My worst experience in the air was awaiting me. We flew in the -afternoon. I took a machine and a parachute and climbed to 1,800 meters. -We were only supposed to climb to 1,400, but I disobeyed and it probably -saved my life. I threw out the parachute and took a couple of turns at -it. After diving at the thing and mounting again, I started into a -“roundversment” with my eyes on the parachute. Unconsciously, I went -into a loop and stopped in the upside-down position, where I hung by my -belt. I cut the motor, and grabbed a strut to hold myself in my seat. -The machine fell in its upside-down position till it gained terrific -speed, then it slowly turned over into a nose dive, and I came out in a -tight spiral which slowly widened into a circle at _ligne de vol_, but -the controls were almost useless, and it took all my strength to keep -from diving into the ground. You know what skidding is, so you can -imagine what loss of control in an automobile going at high speed would -be, but you cannot imagine what loss of control of an aeroplane is any -more than a lumberjack can imagine a million dollars. - -When a machine is upside down, the stress comes on the wrong side of the -wings and is apt to spring them. My plane had fallen a thousand meters, -and the wings had been thrown out of adjustment so that the controls -were barely able to correct the change. I did not regain control of any -sort until I was 400 meters from the ground, and then I could do nothing -but spiral to the left. In that fall, when I found I could not control -the machine, I believed it was my last flight. It was the first time I -ever had been conscious of looking death squarely in the face. After the -first hundred meters of fall, I was perfectly aware of the danger. I was -wholly possessed in turn by doubt, fear, resignation (it was just there -that I was almost fool enough to give up), anger (that I should think of -such a thing), and, finally realization that only cool thinking would -bring me out alive—and it did! From 400 meters I spiraled down with -barely enough motor to keep me from falling, in order that the strain on -the control would be minimum. The old brain was working clearly then, -for I made a fine adjustment of the throttle and gasoline—just enough to -counteract the resistance of controls, crossed in order to counteract -the bent wings, and just enough to let the plane sink fast enough so -that it would hit the ground into the wind in the next turn of the -spiral, which I could not avoid. Allowing for the wind, I managed to -control the spiral just enough to land on the only available landing -ground in the vicinity. The landing was perfect, but the machine rolled -into a ditch and tipped up on its nose. As I had cut the motor just -before landing, the propeller was stopped and not a thing was broken. If -the wing had been bent a quarter of an inch more, they would have -carried me home. The machines they use here are old ones, and that was -probably responsible for the accident. This weak spot of the Nieuport -caused many deaths before anyone ever survived to tell what had -happened. Again the gods were with me, and I lived to be the wiser. - -When I undid my belt and climbed out of the machine my hands were never -steadier nor my mind more tranquil. Many Russians from the detention -camp near by swarmed around, and I set them to work righting the plane -and wheeling it over to a post, where an American was on guard. - -Leaving the machine in his care, I hit cross-country for the aviation -field. As I walked through the brushwood, the beauties of nature were -possessed with renewed charm, the sea breeze laden with the scent of -pine seemed a sweeter incense, the clouds were more billowy, my steps -were wondrously buoyant, for I felt like one whom the gods had given -special privilege to return among the treasures of his childhood. The -passing of death’s shadow is a stimulus to the charm of living. - -Today I had an hour and a half of flying, and engaged in a sham combat -of half an hour with another pilot. We both killed each other several -times. - -It is rumored that a plot was discovered in the Russian camp. They were -to attack the camp here today at two o’clock and seize the armory. They -had all the machine guns and armored planes ready and a guard around the -school and camp, but nothing came of it. It would have furnished good -target practice. - -We get another _permission_ New Years, but the trip to Paris is a long -one, so I shall stay in Bordeaux. An invitation from Countess Duval for -Christmas dinner at Arcachon was too late to reach me. I shall pay a -call, as it is only an hour on the train from here. - - - _Villa St. Jean, Arcachon, January 1, 1918._ - -MY DEAR FAMILY: - -Happy New Year. Fortune has again been very kind to me. You will -remember the Duvals who were so kind to me when I had a forced landing -at La Ferté-Imbault. When I left them, they gave me the address of their -cousins at Arcachon, and said to be sure and let them know when I came -down to Cazaux, so that they could write to their cousins, and give me -an opportunity to meet more people of such charming hospitality. An -invitation reaching me after my return from Christmas in Paris, invited -me to Christmas dinner here at the Villa St. Jean, where I am writing. I -acknowledged the invitation, and received another one for New Years -dinner. I said I would call two days before New Years to pay my -respects, and it was then that the Marchioness Duval asked me to come -New Years. I remained that night and returned to the school, where four -of us had to do patrol duty over the Russian camp. Returning to Arcachon -that evening that I might stay at a hotel and so not have to rise for -the early train, chance caused me to run across the Viscount Duval, who -was returning on the same train from Bordeaux. He insisted that I return -with him and spend the remainder of my leave with them, which I am -doing. - -Now, who are they? Lord only knows. I have not been able to distinguish -their titles from their names yet, but finding me interested in pictures -they thought perhaps I would be interested in looking over one of the -family albums. It was a daughter-in-law of the Viscount Duval who showed -me the album. The Countess Duval had three sons, the eldest an author of -some note; the second owns Château Du Bois, and the third is the one -with whom I am staying now. This family consists of a married daughter, -formerly the Marchioness Duval, now Viscountess Richecourt; the son, -married to the Marchioness Ribol; and the daughter, still the unmarried -Marchioness Duval. - -Devoting a short paragraph to the latter, which is her due. She is -charming, beautiful, of what might be called the flower of French -gentility, and is twenty-three. She speaks English very well, plays the -piano and violoncello, and is much interested in art. She has not had so -much time for these, however, since the war has centered her real -interests in the soldiers at the Front. It was she who described the -spirit of Frenchmen as “so beautiful.” Speaking of a mass for their -dead, which was held by the family some six months ago, the smile did -not fade, but there was sadness in her voice as she said, “More than -twenty-five of our poor boys had died at that time.” That included -cousins and second cousins of their family, but she said, “We must be -happy.” She just came in where we are all writing letters, with her hair -hanging about her shoulders. I didn’t notice what she was saying, but I -think she was thanking me very much for a little sixty cent maiden-hair -fern with a little white flower in the center which I brought her on the -way from the barber shop as a New Years present. She set it on her desk. -It will grow there. - -They are going out to distribute meat to some poor people, so I shall go -with them, and continue this anon. - -This being anon, I have forgotten titles and history and nationality in -the acquaintance of the finest people I have ever met.... There is a -climax in one’s estimate of the worthiness of people, and I believe I -have reached it. Their fortunes and family have been irreparably -depleted by the war, yet they devote all their time and energies to the -poor, the wounded, and their soldiers on the firing line. They are -French, yet knowing them has wiped out the possibility of superiority of -nationality or race. They are Catholics, yet knowing them has wiped out -the possibility of superiority of faith or religion. I do not understand -their language well enough to know them as they are to be known, nor my -own language well enough to give them their due. Their faith, their -hope, their charity, is superior to any I have ever known. - -They attend mass early and late. They share their prosperity among all. -They fill their holidays with the writing of letters to those in the -trenches who are theirs to cheer. I have known the home life of American -families as I am seeing the life of this French family, and I am -convinced that these people are no less superior in the art of living -than in the other arts. - -My standards of life and ambitions and ideals and philosophy are not so -high as I thought they were. They fill the bill as far as self-restraint -is concerned, but as for using the superior ability so gained in the -benefiting of other lives I am almost wholly lacking. I thought my -character was getting pretty well rounded out, and now I find it is -still only a bulged seed, with the skin cracked by sudden growth. - -Whether the atmosphere of this family is the indirect result of the war -I rather doubt, but if America is to be subjected to such a renaissance -this war is a blessing. This may all be enthusiasm on my part, but -enthusiasm involving higher ideals seldom is dangerous. Every so often -one bumps his head as he passes through the less prominent doorways in -life, and is suddenly brought to realize that he has been asleep. My -last bump is still on the rise. Since coming to France I have been -resting, and now I am through. It is time to set a new pace for myself. -It is a foolish thing to write that down, but it emphasizes the fact -that it’s the truth. - -Another short paragraph to this girl. She is the first girl I have ever -met who I am sure knows more than myself, and whose faith inspires all -in me. The interesting details of the daily life of this family would -hold your interest in many such letters as this, but they fall into such -insignificance in the light of my admiration for their bigger qualities, -that I cannot recall them. - -For the present, I shall say good night. Tomorrow I fly. I am coming to -take dinner here and stay all night day after tomorrow. I have not -received mail since December 10, save one short letter from father. - - Love to you all, - - YOUR SON. - - - _January 8, 1918._ - -DEAR FATHER: - -Check No. 7498 for 250 francs arrived yesterday. Thank you very much. I -had four francs left. I am living at the home of the Duvals for the -remainder of my stay at Cazaux. I’ll tell you all about it when I have -more time. Till then, know that the Prince of Ely is guest of honor to -the best blood and truest people of France. Their daughter reads many -English books and would like to read some American novels. Will you -please send to me at 45 Ave. Montaigne the following books: _The -Virginian_, by Owen Wister, _Laddie_, by Gene Stratton Porter, and _The -Turmoil_, by Booth Tarkington. These depict American life as she would -enjoy knowing it. She is giving me French books to read. - - YOUR SON. - -My final shooting record was very good, fourteen per cent at a flying -target. The reward for merit, a two days’ _permission_. - - - _Villa St. Jean, January 9, 1918._ - -DEAREST FAMILY: - -Here’s to say that I am still enjoying your Christmas presents and those -of our kind friends. It is mighty good to eat the nuts and “rocks” that -make me think of the home pantry. The only thing lacking is a great -glass of milk. The money, too, came just in time. Not all of it came, -but I have checks Nos. 7506, 7504, 7505, 7488, 7499, which will be good -insurance against hard times for many a month, I hope. All my mail had -been sent to my next address by the Personnel Department, and was -returned by special request. The Personnel Department will continue to -be my address until further notice. - -You asked what the Lafayette escadrille is. It is the continuation of -the small group of American flyers who originally went into the French -service in the early part of the war. Its signal service was made the -basis of romantic interest and used to bind the feeling of friendship -between France and America. The interest caused other Americans to seek -admission in such numbers that a new division of the French Foreign -Legion called the Lafayette Flying Corps, and, later, the -Franco-American Flying Corps was formed. It was for selected Americans. -The original Lafayette Flying Corps, a group of ten men, continued -distinct. It was the Franco-American Flying Corps that I joined. Many -men please to let the public believe that they are members of the -Lafayette Flying Corps, and so profit by its valor. It is because of -this that it is essential to keep one’s position clear. - -As to my letter which was so widely published—I am sorry that my name -was attached. I find there is a distinct repulsion at seeing my name in -print in connection with such an expression as “quiet valor.” The letter -described a milestone in my life, but in the world of aviation and the -war at large such an incident is no more than a blow-out in an -automobile race. To people not acquainted with aviation, it would be -very interesting, indeed, but the name would not add much to its -interest. The editor’s comment was encouraging, but that he should think -of the book which was recommended to all their reporters, is not so -extraordinary; nor does it mean that my letter was on a level with it. -It would be a great pleasure to me if I could turn my letter writing to -actual advantage, but to do so in the first person, with name attached, -is something I am not ready for. You spoke of all good things going into -the _Post_. Did you mean the _Saturday Evening Post_? If it were -possible to get an article in the _Saturday Evening Post_, I could -aspire to that. I know that it is a pretty big thing, but every number -has an article in it written by a night-shift reporter who got out to -some aviation school over Sunday. What I have in mind for the _Post_ is -an article, not on aviation, which is already over-written, but on the -intimate side of the French people, our allies. - -On this I want your advice and help if it proves possible. Everybody -agrees that the United States waited too long before entering the war, -but I always felt that it did right in waiting until the people were -ready. However, having waited too long, it cannot take its full part -except in that part of the war which remains. I do not believe that that -fulfills its duty. As France has been the field of devastation it is to -France that further aid should be given in completing the duty of the -country. This could best be done in aiding her to recover after the war. -This has all been thought of and acted upon to some extent in the -States. - -One method suggested and perhaps carried out was that American towns -should act as godmothers to French towns ruined in the battle front. -This method is thoroughly practical if rightly carried out, and contains -a touch of the romantic which would probably appeal to the public mind -enough to interest it. It has been long since I left the States as far -as the changes which have taken place are concerned. I suspect that the -attitude has changed from “Help France to beat the Germans” to “Help the -United States to beat the Germans.” The result would be that where the -godmother movement would have received hearty support earlier, it might -now fail. It is of this I want you to tell me, if possible. Would the -people, by the right method of approach, be willing to adopt a French -town and subscribe quite liberally to its rebuilding, and does the -government permit such donations? - -The United States is athrob with the scale of its task and the -enthusiasm of its attack. It pats itself on the shoulder that a liberty -loan of two or three billion dollars should be oversubscribed. Though -one heard very little about it in street conversation in French towns -and Paris, the French oversubscribed a two billion liberty loan after -three years and a half of this war. This speaks for itself. - -But to return to the godmother movement. I have been asked by the family -Duval if such a thing were possible and if I might be able to find the -ways and means of doing it. The town is one in which their family is -interested and they wish to take the responsibility of looking out for -its welfare after the war. I have not talked with the people who are -directly interested and in charge of detailed information concerning it. -I shall see them in Paris in a few days and may withhold this letter -till then. - -I am going to write to Dr. Gordon, Mr. Davies, and Professor Lawrence to -find their opinion on the possibility of raising such a godmother fund. -Professor Lawrence spoke of the possibility of architectural societies -sending representatives to engineer the building of such towns. My -letters to these people will be brief, written from the position of one -speaking for friends here who wish to know possibilities. - -Just a glance at the possibilities will show you the cause of my -interest. I am interested in France, and if I could spend a year of my -life in doing some such service, it would be no more than I believe any -American owes. I might even take charge of the rebuilding of the town. -It would benefit France, as you can see. It would benefit America in -making stronger the feeling of love between herself and France. It would -gratify the Duvals, who have been so kind to me. As for me, it would -give me permanent access to the best that France can offer; an -opportunity of architectural study and practice are among other things. -Tell me what you think of it. - - YOUR SON. - - - _Arcachon, January 13, 1918._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -I’ll tell you what the Duvals have done for me and let you judge what -kind of friends they are. First, they invited me to Christmas dinner, -and having failed to reach me, invited me again for New Years. They have -insisted that I stay with them, and so I have had dinner and afternoon -tea here every afternoon and stayed all night since that time, and have -spent my four days’ leave with them. During that time their interest in -my pleasure has not relaxed in the least, yet there has been no feeling -they were neglecting their duties for my pleasure. Finding that I loved -music, there has been hardly an afternoon that other people of musical -talent were not invited to tea, the Duvals, themselves, being very -musical. Among these people have been some of the finest women of -France, many of them daughters of French nobility of the last three -centuries. - -On January 3 the aviation school gave itself over to a fête day in honor -of a delegation of the neutral countries of the world. All the guns were -firing from morning until night, and all the aeroplanes were constantly -in flight. The delegation consisted of the principal dignitaries of the -countries they represented and were arrayed in gorgeous attire. - -Conducted about in automobiles by the commandant of the school, they -beheld with strained dignity, the war preparation of France. We pilots -discussed among ourselves these dukes and lords of different skins, whom -the French call “Neuters.” The work finished and pomp dismissed, I went -as usual in the officers’ special truck to Arcachon. The array of -automobiles before the door warned me of what was coming, so I swallowed -my surprise successfully when I was ushered in among the array of -“high-heads” to inspect their medals at close range. As I passed from -room to room all the Duvals, each in turn, stepped out from their -“Neuter” guests with marked cordiality to say how glad they were to see -me, and where it was convenient, introduced me to the others as an -“American aviator in the French Foreign Legion.” It always pleased me to -note the embarrassment of the duke or prince in question when he tried -to decide whether or not he should shake hands with me. When they seemed -anxious to do so, I permitted it. Then Catherine Duval, the daughter, -led me to the next prettiest girl in the room and said I would find her -charming. We talked of music and the difference between French and -American girls. Meanwhile, the “Neuters” were trying to make their -school-French a common meeting ground. - -In the next room, the sister of my partner was occupied with a gentleman -from Argentina. She being a very charming girl, he proceeded to scatter -“bouquets” with glances ardent. “Of course,” said she, “while you are -paying me pretty speeches here, your brother may be suing the favor of -some general’s daughter in Berlin.” The “Neuter” lapsed to more -commonplace remarks. If you knew what the French have endured, you could -excuse her frankness. - -Among those present were first consul to the king of Spain, the prince -of Siam, and others of the same hue. They departed, and as I happened to -be near the door when the migration started, most of them thanked me for -their pleasant time; the rest admitted the honor. Then we had a little -music feast; the girl with whom I had talked has a voice which would be -ready for Grand Opera in three years. Oh! They are all so absolutely -charming that I shall never be content till you meet them. You may begin -to plan now on a trip to France after the war. - -They had not told me of their intention to entertain this delegation -lest perhaps I would not have come. How courteous. But they didn’t know -me. - -Their family is numerous. The man in charge of the delegation was a -cousin. Another cousin is on the staff of the school here at Cazaux, -having been incapacitated by service at the Front; he said he would be -pleased to do anything he could for me at the school. Another cousin, an -aviator, with eight Boche to his official credit, and twice as many -actually, who is chief of his escadrille and came down to this school to -give lectures, has been staying here for four days. He is twenty-four, -and a charming fellow. I asked if he would permit me to apply for -admission to his escadrille, and he said he also would make the request, -and that it might well be accomplished. It might mean a matter of life -and death some day to be in the escadrille whose chief was personally -interested in one. Two years ago, this boy’s brother was brought down in -a fighting plane. Two days later the father and mother took this boy to -Paris and enlisted him in aviation to fill his brother’s place—and he -has filled it. Do you get the spirit? - -A captain whom I met here was a civilian at the beginning of the war. -His son enlisted in the infantry, and he enlisted, too, that he might be -by his son’s side. His son died in his arms. Now the father is a -captain, but his lips turn white when he speaks of the Germans. Do you -get the spirit? - -The First Dragoons are a company of cavalry whose ranks have been filled -by certain families for generations. One of them was killed. The boy’s -father, a captain of infantry, resigned his position and enlisted as a -private to fill that place in the First Dragoons which had been occupied -by his son, his father, and his grandfather before him. Do you get the -spirit? - -Do you see why I say that the United States can still bare its head to -France without loss of self-respect? Do you see why, though American, I -feel it something of an honor to remain for a time in the French Army? - -Just to give you an idea of what I have in mind, I’ll tell you the -possibilities, but bear in mind that is all conjecture, guided more by -my own reason than by knowledge of what is taking place. At first, all -men entering United States aviation were made first lieutenants. Some of -these, still unable to fly, are in this country helping to build -barracks. Others were taken from the French Army as first lieutenants -and are already making use of their experience at the Front. It is now -the policy of the United States to give first lieutenancies to aviators -only when they get to service at the Front; they are second lieutenants -until then. In other words, they started out by throwing first -lieutenancies about before they could judge the men that were getting -them, and they are having to back down by making men of superior -training inferior in office to men who have received commissions without -the training. This is obviously unfair, and although I can see why it is -necessary, I do not propose to suffer by their mistake and permit myself -to be cramped in service by accepting too low a position in the U. S. -Army. We signed papers applying for the offer of first lieutenancy about -four months ago, and no steps have been taken until very lately. Now -some of the men have been released from the French Army, but are not yet -taken into the U. S. I may be among them and will find out when I go to -Paris. I think, however, that an intentional failure to sign a duplicate -application for release from the French Army may have prevented my -release. In that case, I can go into a French escadrille and get a -couple of months’ service and experience with the French before they can -accomplish anything with their red tape. By that time, U. S. aviation -will be turning out men and planes in preparation for the summer or fall -drive, and will need men with practical experience as heads of the -escadrille which they will want to put on the Front. As there are so -many first lieutenant aviators, it will be necessary to make the chiefs -of their escadrilles captains. By that time I will have had experience, -a clear record, and a good recommendation from the French. It seems -reasonable to me that I will be in a position then to ask for a -captaincy, and it is this course of action that I propose to follow. In -staying with the French I must be self-supporting. If I do not play my -cards correctly I might be refused a commission in the U. S. Army, but -that would be rather unlikely. It really depends greatly upon that -signature of release from the French. I feel, however, that I will -eventually get what I deserve—whatever that may be—and I await results. -Meanwhile, I am serving the Cause as much as an aviator can. - -I have before me another letter to you as long as this, which I will not -mail until I talk with Countess Duval in Paris, whom the letter -concerns. - -My love is with you all. Be content that you are in America. Coal may be -high—but it is better than no coal. People in France don’t eat butter. -Lump sugar is jewelry. - - Ever your son, - - DINSMORE. - - - _Villa St. Jean, January 13, 1918._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -I forgot to say that I have five days’ _permission_ as a reward for -raising the school record in aero marksmanship from twenty-two per cent -to twenty-seven and a half per cent. It is the first thing which is -actual cause for believing that I may be a successful fighting pilot. -Many men can fly and many can shoot very well, but the combination of -the two is the rare thing which much increases one’s opportunity for -service and chance for survival in the struggle for existence over the -lines. - -The test is made on a sleeve the size of the body of the smallest -aeroplane. This sleeve is dragged behind another aeroplane traveling at -sixty or seventy miles per hour. The plane I drove had a speed of 100 to -120 miles per hour, and the machine gun is fired from it, and -mechanically arranged to shoot through the propeller. You approach the -sleeve from various directions, making snap judgments as to target and -shooter’s deflection, which I explained in another letter, and then fire -six or eight shots at a time at a range varying from 600 to 75 feet. The -centering of the bullets is important. You have a hundred shots. - - Your son, - - DINSMORE. - - - _Plessis Belleville, France, January 17, 1918._ - -DEAR BOB: - -Seven of us fellows met in Paris after a five days’ _permission_ and -took the train for this place. We arrived at about four in the -afternoon, and it was raining about one hundred per cent. We piled our -luggage into the truck and climbed up on top of it. It was some ride! By -the time darkness fell we had become skilful enough to keep our balance -on top of the luggage. It was very dangerous to ride that way. I -understand why they give aviators the balance test. We pulled in here in -the dark and waded half a mile through mud three inches deep, and -mounted to the second story of a one-story building where they served us -a three-course dinner in one course. We used the same half mile of mud -to get back to the barracks. The question came up as to how we were to -get our baggage into the barracks from the trucks, so we carried it in. -Meanwhile, the rain kept up its standard. I forgot to mention we had -been dressed in our best clothes. My hat was covered with mud because it -had fallen off; the rain washed the cap, and that’s how the mud got into -my eyes. We were to sleep on boards. I had my bed made when a Frenchman -came along and offered me a mattress, as he had two. I wanted to be -generous and give it to one of the other fellows, but I thought it would -hurt the Frenchman’s feelings, so I used it myself to sleep on. But -yesterday I put the mattress under the boards; I do not think he will -notice the change and it is more comfortable. The saving grace of it all -is that we have a great bunch of fellows. We have what _we_ French call -_esprit de corps_, meaning in your English language “good spirit.” We -sing when rained upon and laugh when we are sad. They are all pretty -straight fellows and do not let people stumble over their crooks. It is -only when others thrust their faults upon you that you object to their -faults. One might write a nice discourse on the moral rights of a person -to pollute the free atmosphere with the expression of poisonous -thoughts. But these fellows do not do that. - -In passing through Paris, I found that I can remain in the French Army -at my option, which I choose to do for some months. I am slowly using up -the great stock of clothing I brought over with me. The hip boots are -best just now. I was dressed in my brown sweater, my American campaign -hat, black boots, and rain coat. I had just finished signing up, when I -heard the door open and smelled some one come in. It was a mixture of -Port and Burgundy wines that I smelled. Having heard that the captain -had a taste for wine, I wheeled around and came to a salute. He looked -me over, up and down, and asked me who I was. I said I was an American -in the _Legion Étranger_, and that I had purchased my clothes at -Marshall Field & Company’s on Washington Street, in Chicago. I knew he -didn’t like my camouflage, because he turned to an assistant and said, -“Dress this man in a complete French uniform.” The man took me in -another room and tried on the clothes. I let him. When he started to -hand me a blue flag, I looked at him questioningly. So he sat down on -the floor and folded the flag lengthwise, running it over his knee to -make the creases stay. When he finished, it was a two-inch band which he -wound about my neck, gave a cross hitch, and pinned it with a pin he bit -out of the lower corner of his coat. He was very serious all the time. -He gave me a cap of the type discarded by the Miners’ Union in 1883. -Except when I see the captain coming, I wear it under my coat. My new -uniform is sky blue in rainy weather. In my next letter I’ll tell you -how it looks when the sun shines. When the weather improves, we may fly. - -We are in the war zone now, about thirty-two miles from the Front. We -can see the flare of artillery in the sky and hear the guns on a clear -night. Today we took a walk to a village seven miles away, and crossed a -road where many trains of trucks were passing with supplies. That begins -to sound exciting, doesn’t it? In each village the houses are marked -with the numbers of men and horses they can accommodate. I should be -excited, but I’m not, because I’ll not see the Front for another month. - - Your ever lovin’ brother, - - DINS. - - - _January 19, 1918._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -Today I received twenty-five letters dating from November 1 to December -1.... - -A little tin box containing sugar, candy, and candied pineapple came day -before yesterday. I ate it nearly all by myself, though I share all -other things. The big can of candy sent by Mr. Buchanan has set open to -the barracks for three days and has been a great pleasure to all of us. -A knitted sweater from a Boston girl whose father was a “Tech” man, -came, and I have all the warm things I could wish for and all the money -I can use for three or four months. I may go to Nice on my next -_permission_, with some of my Christmas money. Father’s check No. 7499 -for 250 francs came. Thank you for all these things. Those five pictures -of the cabin touch a chord of their own. - -We are near the Front now—twenty-five miles. Last night we saw the great -searchlights playing and the star shells floating at the end of their -fiery arcs. But the country here is fertile and well cared for, and the -only signs of war are a few scattered graves of unknown victims of the -battle of the Marne. We take long walks when not at work—work being the -business of waiting for a chance to fly. There were seven machines -broken yesterday and no one hurt; expenses for the day must have been -thirty thousand dollars. It is a rich man’s game. I had four rides. The -machines are better here. - -Today I got half a cup of water, so I washed my teeth. Next Sunday I -shall shave. I cleaned my boots from a puddle in the road. Water is -scarcer than wine, but I am still teetotaling. I am tired tonight. - - Good night, - - YOUR SON. - - - _January 20, 1918._ - -MA CHÈRE FAMILLE: - -Yesterday I made an appointment with the town barber to have him cut -my hair at 5:15 P.M. I was quite prompt but found him unprepared. He -lived off a little court yard which was connected by a close to the -main alley of the borough. In crossing the threshold of the kitchen I -entered the tonsorial parlor. His work bench was next to the family -range, and a moth-eaten mirror reflected pox-marked people. The madame -set the chair in the middle of the room and brought the scissors and -comb from the other room. The twelve-year old offspring was arrested -in the midst of rolling a cigarette when his father commanded him to -hold the lamp. So the little fellow stood transfixed with the -half-rolled cigarette in one hand and the family lamp in the other. -Every time the father hesitated, the boy tried to set down the lamp -and finish the cigarette, but the father would jump to it again and -keep the boy from making any headway. Believe it, the boy kept his -father hard at it. Sometimes the lamp nearly lost its balance, but the -cigarette kept level, so I took to watching the cigarette. He never -would have succeeded in rolling it if the father hadn’t had to go to -the shed to get the clippers. As it was, he returned before the boy -could light up. Meanwhile, the old dame, who needed a shave more than -I did a hair cut, was preparing to feed the animals. Once when she was -leaning over me to get a dipper of water out of the pail under the -barber’s table, she lost her balance and fell into my lap. But she -didn’t spill the water and the old man didn’t miss a clip. She would -stop her work from time to time and come over with folded arms to see -how the hair was coming off. The professor didn’t cut any off the top. -When I suggested that he cut just a little I think it hurt his -feelings, because he changed my hair from a “Broadway-comb-back” to a -“Sing-Sing-sanitary” in about ten strokes. But it was the quickest -hair cut I ever had and he didn’t tell me I needed a shampoo, so I -gave him eight cents instead of six. - - YOUR SON. - - - _January 31, 1918._ - -DEAR BOB: - -It has been wonderfully clear for the past three nights, and in the -light of a big London raid, the French have been expecting a raid on -Paris. Last night I went to bed early. Thump—thump—boom—boom—boom; I -rolled over to sleep on the other side. Boom—boom—bang—bang—bang; my -ears felt funny and I turned over on my back and looked at the ceiling. -Bang—crash—crash—thunder; something must be wrong. I sat up in bed, to -see figures passing the moonlit windows and voices whispering between -the continuous detonations which jarred the night air. Someone lit a -light, and a hiss went up from the barracks. One heard the words “Boche” -and “bomb” oft repeated. I yawned and pulled on the other sock. We could -hear the hum of motors as we crowded out of the barracks doors, scantily -clad. - -The air was crisp and clear. The moon was just rising. It was -twelve-thirty, and there were stars in millions. Now the crashes came -just over our heads. First, over to the east, just behind a clump of -trees not half a mile away we would see a couple of sudden flares; then -came the crash of the report, followed by the receding war song of the -shells as they went up through the darkness; then would come the bright -glare which would blind the sight and scare away the stars, leaving the -sky black; and finally, as we would blink and begin to see the stars -venturing forth again, the great crash of the shell on high would reach -us. Then we would discuss how close they may have come to the place and -whether the falling shells would come near us. But the hum of the planes -came and went in the direction of Paris without our seeing them, for -only the explosion of shells marked their course across the sky. We are -thirty miles from Paris. For fifteen minutes we watched the explosions -of the anti-aircraft shells. Then suddenly there were low grumblings, -booming with increasing rapidity of succession. The groups of lights -signaling in the Paris Guard formation flashed off and on, changing -location with great rapidity. Then came the returning hum of the motors, -the line of shells flaring in the sky, a series of red-rocket signals, -and the raid was over. - -Today I had my first rides in the Spad. It is the most wonderful machine -going. It has an eight-cylinder motor, and is built like a bulldog. It -is the finest thing in aeroplanes, and I certainly hope I get one at the -Front. - -The first copy of _Life_ came yesterday. Say, you couldn’t have given me -a present that would cause us all more pleasure. I read every word of -it, and now it is going the rounds. Thank you for it ever so much. - -Well, we have an _appel_ (roll-call) and I must stop. Love to you all. -Write me when you can. - - Your ever lovin’ brother, - - DINS. - - - _February 10, 1918._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -The first week here was restless, the second nerve-wrecking, and now I -have relaxed and settled down to pleasant, contented routine which -varies according to the weather. When it rains or is foggy, I come over -alone to a little wine shop in a near-by village; its name is -Tagny-le-Sec. Here I have chocolate, toast, and butter for _petit -déjeuner_ (little breakfast). Then I write and read and draw according -to my whim till lunch time. If the sky has not cleared in the afternoon, -I go for a walk and up to the barracks where I lie down and read until -supper. After supper a bunch of us go to a wine shop and talk until -roll-call at nine o’clock. - -When the weather is favorable, we stand out on the field eight hours a -day waiting our turn to fly; that is a strain. Usually we fly a half -hour a day, but at times, one may go three or four days without a -flight, but no matter how long you wait, a single half hour in the air -satisfies all desire for action, excitement, and exercise for the time -being. That is one of the strange things about aviation. Though a man is -strapped in his seat and moves no part of his body more than three -inches, an hour in the air will keep him in excellent physical -condition, provided he is nervously fitted for the work. And the mind -and eyes are equally fatigued. Absolute concentration is necessary. The -more I see of the game, the more I believe that nine-tenths of the -accidents and deaths are due to the inability of the pilot to -concentrate or to recognize that concentration is necessary. - -We are using the best and fastest fighting plane now, the Spad, -Guynemer’s plane. In starting, one must immediately throw every nerve -into stress to keep the machine in its given course; not doing so means -a quick turn, a crushing of the running gear, and a broken wing. This is -an inexcusable accident with a trained pilot; yet it happens about once -a day because someone is only three-fourths on the job. In gaining -speed, the machine must be brought to its line of flight, the danger -here being to tip it too far forward and break the propeller on the -ground. This is easy to prevent, and so is inexcusable, yet it happens -once a week because someone forgets himself. There is danger in leaving -the ground too soon, and danger in mounting too quickly. - -About one pilot a month is killed at the Front by attempting to mount -too quickly while close to the ground. At a height of twenty feet, one -must be all alert for sharp heat waves that are liable to get under one -wing. When one comes to make the first turn, there is danger of too -great a bank allowing the head-on wind to get under the high wing and -slide you down, yet this almost never happens because by the time the -pilot is up there he is all present. All this time he must have been -alert for arriving and departing machines which are dangerous, not only -because of collision, but because of the turbulent current of air they -leave in their wake. One machine passing through the wake of another -acts like a wild goose frightened by a passing bullet. - -As the pilot gains height and distance from the field he may begin to -relax and get his geographical bearings, and it is well for him to do -so, for the strain he was under in those first thirty seconds would -exhaust him in fifteen minutes. He can then glance over his gauges and -listen to his motor. When he gets to a thousand or fifteen hundred -meters he can lean back, throttle down his motor, and count the clouds -with a freedom from worry which the motorist never knows. At the Front -of course it is different. There the pilot must make a complete study of -the whole horizon every thirty seconds to be sure of his safety from -enemy planes, meanwhile changing his course and height continually to -evade the anti-aircraft shells. Most pilots are brought down at the -Front by surprise, which again is due to lack of concentration. - -Having had a pleasant flight and enjoyed the beauties of nature, it is -time to drift down to the home roost. You locate the hangars, cut your -engine down low, and strike your peaking angle. The good old machine -purrs like a kitten, the clouds whisk by, you breathe a sigh of relief -and wonder if dinner will be any better than lunch. Well, anyway, it was -a good ride. And just there is where “dat dar grimacin’ skeleton pusson -begins to rattle dem bones.” Maybe you have let the plane flatten out -its peaking angle a little and lost your velocity. Maybe the engine was -turning over a good speed because of your descent when you last noticed -it. Maybe the evening air has quieted down somewhat and it was safe -enough to drift along and settle as long as you had altitude. But now -that you are fifty meters from the ground and the _piece_ two or three -hundred meters away and you have come to horizontal flight a little and -your plane is slowly losing its speed of descent and your engine is -still throttled down too slow to even roll you along the ground—and the -sunset is beautiful—like a hole in the sidewalk, your plane gives a -sudden lurch, you jump all over and find your controls “mushy”—you slip -sideways, the ground coming at you—you jerk open the throttle—the motor, -cold from the descent, chokes a bit—you can see the grass blades red in -the sun—then she catches! God bless that motor—she booms! There is a -moment of clenched teeth while the plane wavers in its slide, and then -she bounds forward, skimming the ground, gaining speed just in time to -clear those deadly telegraph wires. With eyes set on the horizon, you -let her sink, and every nerve tense, she pulls her tail down, touches -the ground in a three-point landing like a gull on the wave. She rolls -up and stops; you take a breath and feel the color come back to your -cheeks. Slowly you raise your glasses to your forehead and undo your -belt. Slowly you raise yourself out and drop to the ground. Pensively -you wander back into the group of aviators who watched you land. - -“Some landing like a duck,” says an American. - -“_Très bien_,” says the monitor. But you go over and lean against a tent -pole silent, and without a smile. You know what your comrades do not -know—that “a fool there was,” and he lives by a fool’s luck. And you -swear an oath to yourself and the dear old world that you’ll never be -caught like that again. - -Most everyone has the experience sooner or later and almost everyone -lives to be a wiser and more prudent man, not excluding - - Your son, - - DINS. - - - _February 13, 1918._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -We are right here among the pines. Great forests of splendid Norways -stretch away over the rolling sandy country, broken only by the clearing -around some old manor château with its radiating vistas and its towers -standing white amidst the green. Would you think that France with its -dense population and old culture would be covered with great forests, -almost primeval in the abandon of their growth? Throw in a few lakes and -it would be Wisconsin. - -Yesterday I cut the noonday roll-call and succeeded in losing myself as -an excuse. As I swung along the road, I could feel the spirit of the -blazed trail humming in the pine boughs; and my breath came deep. Here -was a clearing with the logs fallen and the smallest branches cut and -tied in neat sheaves—there, off to the right, was a hill which mounted -above the tree tops. I climbed to the top and saw the stretch of woods -on all sides with here and there a rock-strewn, barren stretch of sand. -Going down the other side, a pheasant clapped up from under foot and -made me start. As my eyes glanced along the trail ahead of my wandering -feet, I saw many deer tracks. They say that since the war, wolves are -not infrequent; and have we not heard of wolves in the streets of Paris -not many decades ago? Now and then a rabbit bobbed out of sight. It -soothed me and yet made me homesick. Out there in the open woods with -the gentle spirit of the mighty pines, I could not help despairing at -the question, “What good is war?” - -Today we had an accident. A machine had mounted to fifty meters when it -stopped climbing and started to lose speed. It turned to come back to -the _piece_, but slipped sideways and fell in “_vrille_,” and crashed -headlong to the ground. The tail broke backward and the motor gave a -final groan, as in a death struggle. Men covered their eyes. It was a -quarter of a mile away. All started to run, and I was first there. The -pilot, a little Frenchman with whom I had been exchanging French, had -crawled out on top of the wreck. He sat shut in by the wreckage. There -was a whimper on his face. I climbed up on the wreckage and held him in -my arms. He called me by name and then managed to tell me that his arm -was broken. Well, you can imagine how relieved I was. I handed him out -to the others who had arrived by this time. The doctor came up and cut -the clothes away from his arm. There was no bruise nor blood, and as he -began to regain his color, we tried to divert his mind. About the first -thing he asked for was a piece of the propeller for a souvenir. Well, we -put him on a stretcher and into the captain’s car and went to the -hospital in a little town, Senlis, some two miles away. He seemed to -prefer me to all his French friends. The hospital was a nice old -Catholic institution, with old Sisters and young Red Cross nurses. We -left him contented and resigned to his lot of another two or three -months before reaching the Front. - -The village in which we found the hospital has been heavily shelled in -the early days of the war. Every third or fourth house was a monumental -ruin to the price of war, but by some happy chance the two beautiful -cathedrals of the town had been spared, yet the ruins seemed very old -and the vines which formerly climbed the walls now fell about the broken -stones and trailed through the blind windows, giving the whole an aged -aspect; and between these ruins were the untouched abodes of unconscious -inhabitants. - - Truly your - - SON. - - -DEAR FAMILY: - -A letter clipping describes that part of France which is shrouded in the -historic pages of knights and kings; that part which has pleased me so -much when written by another, makes me think of the poorer classes who -have lived and died in the environment of their birthplaces without -ambition, that those knights and kings might carve their deeds of blood -on shields of gold. - -In this great war, these poorer classes, peasants still, are the -_poilus_ who keep the trench mud from driving them mad by that pint of -the red French wine, and they sit about me now in a little old wine shop -whose many-colored bottles, oft refilled, are as numerous in shapes and -styles as the decades they have served. The walls are spotted and -stained, and the ceilings smoked, but the delicate moldings in the stone -tell of a day when this was the thriving hostelry of the village. Now -the poorly dressed, worn-out veterans of the Great War bend over the -scarred tables and confer or wrangle as to how their work, so hard -begun, will end. - - DINSMORE. - - - _February 18, 1918._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -I am told that the American captain at this school is looking for me to -offer me a second lieutenancy in the U. S. Army. I must decide -immediately, and I am tempted to toss a coin. - - * * * * * - -_Well, this is the result_: I signed for the release from the army -Français. I was refused a _permission_ to Paris and took it anyway to -find out from the American authorities what would become of me. My trip -to Paris was unsuccessful. I returned to camp late at night, and when I -awoke in the morning I was told that the _permission_ had been granted -after all and that I had been ordered to the Front at eleven o’clock -that day in Escadrille S 102, Sector Postal 160, located near Toul. I -stopped over at Paris a day and a half and landed here day before -yesterday. So now, God be praised, I am at the Front. It has taken eight -months to come to it, but I guess it will be worth it. - - YOUR SON. - - - _Near Toul, France, February 26, 1918._ - -DEAR FATHER: - -Plessis Belleville was a great strain. I had to fight the curse of -idleness and it is a losing fight, as with a man who is muscle bound who -tires himself out. Reading, studying French, drawing and walking helped, -but they were a failure through lack of inspiration. No Americans had -been sent to the Front and there was a rumor that we were to be held -there till the United States took us over. Then came the offer of our -commissions as second lieutenants, and so inactive had our minds become -that it upset us to decide. I asked for my release from the French Army -although it is not what I wished to do; yet it seemed best. It means -that I could hardly expect to go to the Front in French service and -might have to wait months for action in United States service. I was in -despair. - -The next morning I asked for a _permission_ of twenty-four hours in -Paris. It was refused. I took the eleven o’clock train the next morning -with an officer. I myself was mistaken for an officer. He was good -company. We went and had a Turkish bath. That night I went to the opera. -In the morning my _marraine’s_ grandchildren came up to see me. I held -them in my arms. Children seem to love me. I think children’s love -protects people from wrong and trouble. - -That day I found that I could not learn anything from the U. S. Army, so -I went to the opera again in the afternoon, but it was poor. Then I -walked in the crowds and laughed at all who would laugh with me. After a -good dinner, I rode back to Plessis with a pretty girl who was good -company. That night sleep came easily and was sound. - -The hoodoo was broken. - -The next morning when I awoke, they told me I was to leave for the Front -at eleven o’clock. I was assigned to the French Escadrille S 102, Sector -Postal 160, near Toul. Well, I was busy packing and getting papers -signed and saying good-bye to everyone. So now I was just where I wished -to be. - -It is the custom to take two days in Paris without permission on your -way to the Front. My _marraine_ was surprised to see me back so soon. I -spent the day shopping and then we went to see Gaby Deslys last night. -We sat with three American soldiers who had asked us to get their -tickets for them. The show was full of pep and American songs, besides -having some really wonderful dancing. Between acts there was a regular -New York “jazz” band playing in the foyer. It was a jolly way to say -good-bye to Paris. - -My _marraine_ had received your letter telling of wiring me money. As I -have received no mail whatever for more than three weeks I knew nothing -of it. I deposited the money in the Guaranty Trust Company of New York, -1 and 3 Boul. des Italiens, Paris. I have a trunk at the Cécilia Hôtel, -12 Ave. Mac-Mahon, Paris. With me I have two duffelbags and a suitcase. -At the “Tech” Club, University Union, 8 Rue Richelieu, Paris, are some -films and key to my trunk. There are some post cards and perhaps a few -odds and ends at my _marraine’s_. Thanks very much for the money; I hope -I shall not have to use it. - -Well, I went down to the station, and just naturally took the train for -the Front as if I were going to Milwaukee (if such a city does exist -anymore). There were three American flyers still in the French Army on -the train. Wallman, Hitchcock, and another; the first two have been -doing exceptional work lately. They explained to me how to kill German -flyers, and I am quite anxious to try it now. We passed through some -towns which had been shelled, but they didn’t look so terribly bad. -Arriving at Toul I descended and informed the captain by telephone that -I had arrived. An automobile was there in twenty minutes to take me out. - -So I am just where I have been working for eight months to get, namely, -in a French escadrille, at the Front; flying the best French monoplanes, -fighting plane, and with a commission (only a second lieutenant) in the -American Army waiting for me. All I wish for now is to be completely -forgotten by both French and American authorities until I give them -particular reason to remember me; and this may very easily happen (the -forgetting part). - -And now I am living in a nice little room, which with the room adjacent, -is shared by four Frenchmen; one of them is an architect of the Ecole -des Beaux-Arts. In the morning chocolate and toast is served to us in -bed, as is the French custom. We rise at eleven and have the day to do -as we wish, provided it is not good flying weather. Breakfast is served -at twelve and supper at seven. - -The first day was rainy, but the second day was beautiful, and the -captain, who is a corker, gave me a ride in one of the best machines. It -was only for forty minutes to look about the country, and of course I -did not go near the lines, but I was very lucky to get a ride at all. It -will be some time before I have a machine of my own and can work -regularly, but that is what I look forward to. Yesterday two Boche -planes came over, and the anti-aircraft guns blazed away at them, but -all the good it did was to reassure me in the fear of their guns; when -they hit it is by accident. - -Last night I heard booming and stepped out of the back door. The moon -was full and the sky clear. But the whole sky in front of the moon was -mackerel flecked with the puffs of anti-aircraft shells. This was -literally true, the sky was speckled as thickly as with stars. A minute -after I was out a plane passed before the moon, and for thirty seconds I -could see the light reflected on its wing. But the number of shots they -fired at it appalled me. You could see the little burst of flame which -left its puff of smoke. They went off at the rate of seven a second, and -they kept it up steadily for twenty minutes. Get out your pencil. The -air was still and the smoke remained; probably the smoke from the first -shell could be seen to the last (8,400 puffs in twenty minutes and every -puff worth $100—$840,000 without getting the effect). As a matter of -fact, I imagine it was more for the moral effect upon the populace of -the town being bombarded than anything. All night the sullen boom of the -cannon can be heard, one boom a second, every other minute. It sounds -like a heavy person walking on the floor above. We are twenty miles from -the Front and we can get there in thirteen minutes. - -Well, I shall probably have some interesting things to write these days, -though it is possible that it will be deader here than anywhere else; -that is sometimes the case. - -Today it was cloudy and I went down to the village and made a couple of -sketches of the cathedral which is very fine indeed. There is months of -study in it alone. - -Good night all; my love to everyone. - - Your son, - - DINSMORE. - - - _Escadrille S 102, S. P. 160, March 5, 1918._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -It will soon be boresome if I trouble you to read of all my narrow -escapes. As a matter of fact aviation is so full of them that they -become almost commonplace. What happened this time was only an incident -of the training for real encounters. There is a little lake near here, -and in it is a German aeroplane as a target. We go over and dive at that -target and shoot. It is the second good flying day we have had. The -captain told me to go over and shoot. On my first drive at the target I -shot two handfuls of bullets. I had been peaking 200 meters with full -motor. I pulled the machine up too quickly and there was a rip, a crash, -and the machine shot into a vertical bank upward. I swung into _ligne de -vol_ by crossing controls. A glance at my wing showed the end of the -lower right wing torn away. The machine was laboring but I still could -guide it, so I returned to the school and landed without mishap. It was -one more miracle of a charmed life that I returned. They all came out to -congratulate me. Well, sir, the whole front edge of my lower right wing -was broken away and bent down. The end of the wing was gone and shreds -of braces and cloth dangled along. I really cannot understand why a -machine has a lower right wing when you can come home without it. It was -caused by too brutal handling at a formidable speed. I had been led to -understand that a Spad could peak 500 meters with full motor and redress -quite strongly. I had only peaked 175 with three-quarters motor, which I -learned was far too much. I begin to think I am a fool, for reason tells -me anyone but a fool would have been afraid. But, honestly, there was no -more fear than with a blow-out on a tire. Yet all the way home I knew -that it would be probable death if anything more went wrong. I came home -because I knew the landing ground and it was only five minutes’ flight. - - DINS. - - - _March 12, 1918._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -In the first place, we are all sad because our captain leaves us today. -He is a wonderful man and everyone loves him immediately and always. I -have only been here three weeks and yet I wanted to weep. As for him, -the tears ran down his cheeks when he said _au revoir, mes amis_ -(good-bye, my friends). Another takes his place. - -Last night gave a pleasant diversion. It started with a visit to our -squadron of a group of aeroplane spotters for the United States balloon -service. At their head was the first lieutenant by the name of Grant, -from Ohio. He fell into conversation and it developed that he was a very -good friend of “Stuff” Spencer’s at Yale. We proved interested in each -other’s work and he invited me to come over to have dinner at his camp, -located some twelve kilometers from here. I said I’d be glad to some -time. He left soon after. - -I went over and shot a few rounds at the target, this time without -mishap. At about five the craving to walk was upon me, so I took the -road leading to the balloon camp, hardly expecting to reach it. With the -help of passing trucks I came to the camp, and passed through a town -swarming with Americans. Along the roads were blocks of American trucks -and ambulances, waiting for darkness to hide their movements. Many -mistook me for a French officer and saluted. Those who answered my -questions of inquiry stood at attention and replied with “sir.” I wanted -to shake hands with them all for they acted as if they had been at it -for years. When I came to the officers’ quarters I was introduced to -them as into a college fraternity. I was proud rather than angered at -having to salute them. They were gentlemen. Now I know why college men -will make the best officers. They had a victrola, good food, good -_esprit de corps_. I stayed all night and came back this morning. Well, -I want to be a member of the American organization. With all its -youngness and inexperience, it is good. God give it speed. I shall go -over there again. - -This showed me another thing: it is quite simple for me to go to points -of interest within a radius of fifteen miles from here and return by -morning, this giving me an opportunity for seeing other branches of the -service. I am reading up on ballooning, aerial photography, and map -work, artillery _réglage_ and reconnaissance, and after that I shall -study U. S. Army regulations and also wireless. I may have to change at -any time to the United States forces, in which case I wish to be in a -position to compete with the men I shall find in it. - -It seems to me in my last letter I told you of an accident while -shooting and said they were common. Well, since then I have had a real -accident, so miraculous in its outcome than I am superstitious as a -result. You have read of bandits whose bodies could not be marred by -bullets. The gods must be saving me for something. Father has always -feared a speed greater than twenty-five miles an hour in an automobile. -One has the impression that to hit anything at that speed is very apt to -kill one. Also, you know the marked increase in speed between -twenty-five and thirty-five miles per hour. Say you have gone fifty -miles an hour. Now imagine yourself going twice that fast along a -precipice road. Suddenly the machine comes to the edge of the cliff, and -plunges out into space, at a hundred miles an hour, and down three -hundred feet into a pine forest below. Picture what you would find if -you went down and looked into the remains of such an accident. Well, the -equivalent happened to me. As soon as I hit I cut the spark and turned -the cock which relieves pressure from the gas tank, to prevent fire; -released the belt which held me in my seat; reached up and pulled myself -out of the wreckage by the limb of a tree which had fallen over my head; -and made my way through the underbrush without turning to look at the -machine. As I stepped out upon a road half a mile away, a Red Cross Ford -came along and took me to a near-by village. There I ate a heavy meal -while talking to the madame’s daughter, and then telephoned for them to -come and get me. When they arrived we were all singing and playing at -the piano. - -It was my first flight over the lines. I had been flying alone up and -down our sector for half an hour. I had seen seven Boche planes a few -miles off, but they had immediately disappeared in the clouds. From the -first my motor had been running cold. I had attained the height of 4,700 -meters. When I started to come down I found it impossible to descend and -yet keep the motor warm enough to run. Clouds had gathered below. I -tried to wing slip, but still the temperature of the motor dropped. So I -wing slipped through the clouds. I had not planned on it, but they were -2,000 meters thick. I came down from 2,800 to 800 meters in some fifteen -seconds, a rate of considerably over 250 miles an hour. If the fog had -not been so thick the outcome would have been different for the engine -would not have gotten so cold, but by the time I could think of -adjusting my motor I was at 400. When I found the motor would not work -it was fifty, and over a pine wood. I tried to turn back to a field, but -started to wing slip, which is death, so I straightened out, let it slow -down a bit, and then pointed it down into the trees at an angle of -thirty degrees. It is less dangerous to hit an object that way than in -line of flight. Things happened just as I expected. The plane mowed down -seven or eight six-inch pines. The motor plowed ahead of me and the -trees took the shock as they broke. Just before the machine hit the -ground it pivoted on a tree and cut an arc, which slowed it up more. All -this happened with the suddenness and sound of a stick broken over the -knee, yet I was not jolted. The pine trees fell around me without -touching me. The wings and framework and running gear and propeller were -shattered, but I was not scratched. I was pinned in the very heart of -all this débris, without a bump, a bruise, or a broken bone. Goggles on -my forehead, a mirror within an inch of my face, and the glass -windshield in my lap were unbroken, though the steel braces all about -them were bent and broken. The gasoline tank under me did not have a -leak. The rest of the machine was good for souvenirs. It was too big a -mystery for me to understand. - - Yours in a horse-shoe halo. - - Son. - - - _March 21, 1918._ - -MY DEAR MRS. HAMILTON: - -It was a pleasure to hear from you, for if ever letters were welcome it -is here. People are so kind in writing that I really cannot pretend to -answer as I should, but as you were so near my family, I hope you will -forgive me if I let you learn the personal side of my experiences from -them. Your letter came yesterday. The box has not yet arrived, but thank -you for it in advance. - -The great German offensive began last night and we wait the results of -the distant thunder. Our sector is quiet. If this is not the final scene -of the war, I cannot look far enough ahead to see it. - -Aside from the war, I like my work. Wonderful architecture abounds. New -peoples fascinate. If not a pleasure, it is a privilege to serve in this -war. - - As ever, - - DINSMORE ELY. - - - _Wednesday, April 5, 1918._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -So long since I wrote, can’t remember where I left off. Last ten days -spent as follows: - -_Mar. 25._ Over German lines. - -_Mar. 26._ Ascension in United States balloon. - -_Mar. 27._ Orders to leave Toul with entire escadrille. - -_Mar. 28._ Packed and left Toul, arriving in Paris. - -_Mar. 29._ In Paris preparing to go to Front. - -_Mar. 30._ Reported to aviation center near Paris where escadrille was -to receive new equipment of planes. - -_Mar. 31—April 1 and 2._ Reported each day to headquarters and returned -to Paris in evening. - -_April 3._ Orders to the Front in new planes. - -Reported to headquarters to find I was released from French Army and -must go to United States headquarters. Left for Paris and there received -orders to go to American Army center in France. - -_April 4._ Arrived at A. A. C., was sworn in as second lieutenant. - -_April 5._ Returned to Paris, ordered clothes, and now await orders to -action. - -With love. - - Your son, - - LIEUTENANT DINSMORE ELY. - - - _A. E. F., 45 Ave. Montaigne, April 5, 1918._ - -DEAR FAMILY: - -You have probably heard more from me in the last ten days than you will -in the next ten. Please pardon me for not having written. Things have -moved fast, and all the world strains at attention. - -What do we know of the great German offensive? The Boche has made great -gains with suicide tolls as a price. The English have made splendid -resistance with a retreat which will need explaining. And the turn of -the battle came when the French Army arrived. It is hoped that the -American Army can be of assistance in the world’s greatest battle, of -which the first phase has lasted twelve days already. German communics -say this offensive may last for months, but it is the final of the war. -The statement was made when they thought the allied line was broken. -When the German people discover that the great offensive failed to gain -its end, they may interpret it as defeat. If the German people cannot be -made to believe that the ground gained in this offensive is of more -value than a place to bury their dead, the German Government is whipped. - -I went up in a balloon. Lieutenant Grant from Ohio, with whom I formed a -friendship, took me up one morning from five to six-thirty. The great -balloon made a curved outline against the sky above the tree tops. As we -approached in the morning dusk, the darkness and the night chill still -struggling to keep off the coming day, many figures hustled to muffled -commands. Then, at the order, the balloon moved out into the open and -upward until the men clinging to the wet side ropes formed a circle -about the basket on the ground. We were put into belts and fastened to -our parachutes before getting into the car. Then at the command to give -way, the car left the ground and mounted upwards. Soon we were at two -thousand feet, and the woods and machines and human forms were lost in -the ground haze which clung in the hollows. - -With all the flying in the sky which I have done, this was the first -time I had hung in the air. I had never realized the air was so empty -and so still. The stillness of the mountains is broken by its echo. -There are splashes in the stillness of the sea, but the air doesn’t even -breathe. Only the desert could be so silent. My companion spoke into his -telephone in low tones, to test the wires. He showed me the map, and -then pointed out the direction of the enemy lines. Suddenly there was a -flicker of fire in the western horizon, like fire flies in the grass. -Some time after, there came the distant booms. Opposition firing -started, and for a time the duel lasted. But as the sun began to rise, -and the mist clear, the firing became intermittent, and finally ceased, -and the appalling silence seemed to bear us skyward with its pressure. I -shivered. I wonder if the soul shivers as it leaves the earth in search -of peace. I think I should prefer to have my soul stay down in the warm -earth with my body and the kindly reaching roots of flowers and all the -ants and friendly worms than to float up in that everlasting silence. It -seemed high, too—much higher than I had ever been in an aeroplane, -though it was only seven hundred meters. It was a wonderful -experience—but give me the aeroplane, or the submarine, and leave the -balloonist to listen for the heartbeat of the Sphinx. - -We had just gotten our room nicely decorated with curtains, rug, table -cover, hanging lamps, and pictures when we were ordered to move; but -everyone was glad of the prospect to get into the fight. We had gone on -a patrol nearly to Metz that day and had tried but failed to catch two -enemy planes which were located by anti-aircraft shells. That evening we -ate our last meal in Toul, and the next morning were in Paris after an -all-night ride. - -Paris is neither excited nor exciting. Refugees were coming in and going -through. Many had left the city while it was being bombarded. All my -friends had gone to various country places, and I could see the streets -were not so crowded. - -I have been here for five days now. We came to a distributing station -just outside of Paris to get new machines and then go into the Amiens -sector. It took a few days for the machines to be prepared. I was to -have a new Spad. On the day we expected to depart, I reported to the -captain and he informed me that I was dismissed from the French Army and -had a second lieutenancy in the American Army. What could have been more -inopportune, just as I was going to the real Front? Well, I said -good-bye to the escadrille and hurried to Paris and from there to a -distant American Army center, and then back to Paris for more orders, -and by that time I was officially an officer. Meanwhile, my suit was -being made, and two days later, I was all dressed up in new clothes. -With the assistance of a letter from one captain, I had obtained a -promise from the lieutenant, the captain, major, colonel, and general of -the Paris office of the Aviation Section to have me returned to the -French escadrille as a detached American officer. As it was necessary to -receive written orders from another distant headquarters, I have been -waiting for them here in Paris. I went out yesterday to see the -escadrille leave; they had been detained by bad weather. - -I expect to return to the French escadrille in two or three days. After -that, I shall be an American officer and probably not be able to obtain -further _permissions_ to Paris. At present, my one desire is to reach -the defensive Front. Right now, it is hard for the French mind to grasp -how much the Americans have wanted to help in this defensive during -their first year of preparation. No matter how great a thing the -American organization is to be, if we suppose there are 300,000 -Americans actually fighting in this offensive (no one knows numbers) we -must keep things in scale by remembering that Germany alone has probably -had more than a million and a half put out of action in this battle -alone. - -_And I want to say in closing, if anything should happen to me, let’s -have no mourning in spirit or in dress. Like a Liberty Bond, it is an -investment, not a loss, when a man dies for his_ _country. It is an -honor to a family, and is that the time for weeping? I would rather -leave my family rich in pleasant memories of my life than numbed in -sorrow at my death._ - - Your son, - - DINSMORE. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - Dinsmore Ely’s grave in Des Gonard’s Cemetery, at Versailles, France -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ADDENDA - - - _The Services at Paris_ - -Dr. Alice Barlow-Brown (of Winnetka) was in Paris at the time of Lieut. -Ely’s death, and attended the services, which were very impressive, and -which indicated the appreciation of the French for the personal and -national service which we as their allies are endeavoring to render to -them and to the common cause. - -Extracts from Dr. Brown’s letter follow: - - Paris, April 24, 1918. - -DEAR MRS. ELY: - -This afternoon I realized how very proud you should feel that you have -given to the “great cause” one of the noblest and best of young men. I -was more impressed of this as I walked with many others behind the -hearse and saw the reverence and homage paid him by every one—men, -women, and children—to “les Americains,” as the cortege moved along from -the chapel at the hospital to the English church—in front of which was -draped the Stars and Stripes—where the services were held. The French -artillery escorted from the chapel to the church, remaining outside -until the services were concluded—then from the church to the gates of -the cemetery. - -After the detachment of French artillery came a detachment of U. S. -marines, the chaplains, then the hearse, on both sides of which were -members of the Aviation Corps, five of them from the LaFayette -Escadrille, on each side of these were four French artillerymen, -marching with their guns pointed down. Behind came the pall bearers and -then representatives of the government, the prefect of the Seine et -Oise, representatives of the Allied Council and French military. Then -followed civilian men and women, the representatives of the Y. M. C. A. -and Red Cross. The services at the church and the grave were conducted -by the English chaplain and a U. S. army chaplain. The songs were “Abide -with Me” and “For All the Saints Who from Their Labors Rest,” also a -solo. - -From the church the cortege proceeded across the Place des Armes to the -Ave. de Paris, for some distance. Here, while in progress, a friendly -aviator descended very low and followed for a distance. In passing, -every man bared his head, from the small boy of five years of age to the -gray haired old men, every one standing reverently while the cortege -passed. The silent tribute paid by the French was very touching. - -Two striking incidents occurred. At the church when we entered was -sitting a French woman in mourning, who joined us in walking to the -cemetery, and said that she had a deep sympathetic feeling for the -absent parents. Asked for your address to write you. She had lost two -sons. The other, an old French woman of 70 years, seeing that it was an -American who had given his life for France, joined the procession to pay -tribute to him. - -While waiting in Versailles, I spoke to Mrs. Ovington, whose son was a -fellow companion of Dinsmore’s. She has been the secretary of the -LaFayette Escadrille for some time and looks upon all the boys as her -own. As soon as she heard of the accident, she visited the hospital, -where two Y. M. C. A. workers had preceded her, and found that the best -surgeon and nurses were in attendance and everything was being done that -was possible for the boy’s comfort. He was taken to the hospital badly -injured, with a fractured skull, unconscious and never regained -consciousness. - -The casket was covered with the Stars and Stripes, over which were many -beautiful floral tributes, fully as many as if he were at home. Two very -large wreaths, containing the most beautiful flowers, were given by the -Aviation Corps, one for his family, the other theirs. These were -fastened to the sides of the hearse as it carried the remains. After the -lowering of the casket, the bugler of the U. S. marines gave the last -reveille. It is difficult for me to describe in detail all that I want -to, but I do so want to convey to you that if it had to be it could not -have been a better testimonial of one country to another’s countrymen. I -was so impressed by the reverence from every one—the military, standing -at attention and saluting, the civilians of every class, all in -reverence, not in curiosity. - -The French feel so deeply grateful to the Americans and love them all. -Tears were in their eyes, for they, too, have sacrificed much. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - VALHALLA - BY DINSMORE ELY - -This poem written a few days before Lieutenant Ely’s death was dedicated -by him “To My Comrades of the French Escadrille, the Fighting Eagles of -France; How They Fought and How They Died.” - - - Day breaks with sun on the bosom of spring. - Motors are humming, the pilot shall fly today. - Mists clear and find him regarding his bird of prey. - With crashing roar and whirr, three airmen mount the sky. - - Cael, tall, and gaunt, eyes of hawk, seeing far; - Parcontal, thrice an ace, steady aim, deadly fire; - Devil Le Claire, quick as light, wheeling like lark at play— - Three grow dim, turn to specks, lost in the morning sky. - - Off in the distant sky white bombs of thunder burst, - Signs that the pilot Huns pass bounds that they should fear, - - Signaling avions to turn their warpath there. - Men listen tense in groups to catch the sound of strife, - The purr of distant guns, like rustling leaves of death. - - While minutes pass, everyone waits. - - Then in their vision sweeps, curving in steep descent, - One plane returning. - Rushes by close o’erhead, skims like a gull to earth, - Races back, comes to rest; those in wait run to meet. - - Cael, tall and pale, unsteady of step but cool, - Dismounts to reaching hands. Eyes of the hawk are dim. - Helmet all wet with blood, fur coat all spotted red, - Fall into willing hands, showing raw angry wounds - To angry eyes that see how balls explosive, rend. - And riddled plane reveals how near death spoke and fast. - - Now Cael, in gentle hands, speaks slow to eager ears; - Tells of the cloudy fray that only gods could see; - How three, attacking three, put them at once to flight, - Till four more by surprise, made odds with the Huns. - Then, swift as hornet darts, fire-spitting eagles fought; - Wheeling high and sweeping low, hailed lead on foe. - - “Quick as the light” Le Claire, ere seconds passed, had two, - Falling like shrieking crows to death, three miles below. - Parcontal, nearly caught, feigning right, wheeled to left; - And so met another foe on him descending. - His gun spoke balls of fire, flashing true to the mark. - One more Hun fell in flames, leaving but smoke. - Three were down, four remained; Cael was apart with three, - Met and surrounded at each swoop and turn. - - Le Claire and Parcontal came now like vengeance sent; - All but too late for Cael; riddled and wounded sore, he left the fight. - - The tall, gaunt, frame relaxed, - Eagle eyes saw no more. - His comrades breathed a curse. - “Vengeance for Cael.” - - Than that, more is known from the survivor, - One Hun a prisoner in France descended. - How for great distance combat continued - Till the last Frenchman fell, vanquished victorious. - Vengeance for comrades dead, dearly the Huns shall pay! - Mead to the victors gone to drink in Valhalla. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dinsmore Ely, by Dinsmore Ely - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DINSMORE ELY *** - -***** This file should be named 51720-0.txt or 51720-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/7/2/51720/ - -Produced by ellinora and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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