S A Question That Lindbergh Has Put in the Minds of EVERAL weeks have now passed since Captain Charles A. Lindbergh flew his Ryan monoplane from New York to Paris, but as his flight passes into history and public interest turns to new heroes and new adventures, one fact remains: Lindbergh has killed the bogy of American aviation-fear. He has accomplished in thirty-six hours what ten years of speech-making and $10,000,000 of investment have failed to accomplish. Lindbergh has sold aviation to the American public. Aviators and airplane manufacturers confidently expected at the close of the World War that commercial aviation would win immediate popularity because of the development of aircraft during the war and because of the spectacular part they played in it. Such a development has taken place in Europe, slowly to be sure, but nevertheless on a great scale. By HAROLD A. HOLBROOK IN the United States and throughout the Western Hemisphere there has been no such development. For some reason, never clearly explained, newspaper editors in America have thought that their readers were far more interested in the disasters of the air than in the accomplishments of commercial and civilian flying. The story of every accident has won a prominent place in the daily press, but statements that commercial and training planes from Curtiss Field, Long Island, flew more than 1,000,000 miles in 1926 without accident, or that Wright Whirlwind motors have flown 2,500,000 miles without trouble in the air, are lucky to be mentioned in a paragraph. Such treatment of aviation stories created a profound prejudice against flying, and non-fliers were convinced that aviators were not only heroes but daredevils who took their lives in their hands every time they left the ground. No assertions of the safety of aircraft, no demonstrations of their reliability, were able to break down this prejudice. Then Lindbergh came to New York, looked over his plane much as one would prepare his automobile for a long trip, took his seat in the tiny cockpit, and flew without mishap from New York to Paris. The world was amazed, then tremendously impressed by the reliability of the plane, engine, and instruments that made this flight possible. The man on the street said to himself and to his friends: "If 3,600 miles across the Atlantic can be flown safely by a lone pilot, and again by a pilot and a passenger, surely it must be safe enough to travel across country in hops of three or four hundred miles." The attitude is no longer, "Why take a chance and fly?" but "Why not fly?" This is the real significance of the first flight from New York to Paris, and it will remain long after the memory of the flight is dim and This is the plane in which the author got his introduction to aviation. It is powered with the same engine which carried Lindbergh and Chamberlin across the Atlantic Lindbergh's name is forgotten, as are the names of other intrepid fliers who achieved great things in the past. THE HE changed attitude toward aviation was heralded first by the enthusiastic aviators who have so often predicted in the past that the dawn of commercial aviation was upon us. Said one, MajorGeneral Lester D. Gardner, "Fifty per cent of the crape-hangers have been won over, and the other fifty per cent driven into retirement." Said Daniel Guggenheim, donor of $3,000,000 to New York University for the advancement of the study of aviation, "The plucky captain's flight should remove beyond peradventure of a doubt any pessimistic tendency toward aviation." These words have been said on the occasion of other momentous flights, but this time they are supported by facts, an abundance of definite indications of the public's interest in flying. Colonial Air Transport, Inc., has opened a passenger line between New York and Boston, the first regular passenger line in the East. The company has formed a subsidiary, Colonial Western Airways, Inc., capitalized at $1,000,000, which will run planes from Boston to Albany and Buffalo, connecting with Ford planes to Chicago, and from New York to Albany and Montreal. The National Air Transport has announced that passenger service would be operated in conjunction with its air mail. service from New York to Chicago, and later from there to Dallas. Other air lines are proposed, by people with the capital necessary to operate them. Flying-fields have experienced a great increase in the number of passengers taking short trips. At Curtiss Field traffic has increased fivefold. Flying schools and airplane manufacturers are deluged with inquiries and applications from men, and women too, who want to learn to fly. I NDEED, why not fly? The success of commercial aviation depends on whether people like to fly, whether it is easy to learn to fly one's self, whether it is within the range of the average man's pocketbook, and whether it is safe. Almost without exception those who have flown have liked it. I had my own first flight recently, and found it comfortable, pleasant, and not at all terrifying. The plane was the Travel Air, which won the Ford Reliability Tour in 1926. It was equipped with all the instruments made by the Pioneer Instrument Company (which equipped Lindbergh's plane) and with a Wright Whirlwind engine (similar to that used by Lindbergh). Rail and water routes now have a young rival in the field for the passenger traffic between New York and Boston. Here is the cabin of a Colonial plane serving the needs of these two cities As the plane was wheeled out from its hangar and I prepared to take my place beside the pilot in the cockpit, a buxom Italian woman, who had apparently brought up a large family safely by keeping them on the ground, advised me once, when I looked over the side and the wind got under my helmet, which I had neglected to fasten, and threatened to blow it off. I didn't want to lose a perfectly good helmet overboard. to pray to the Virgin Mary for my safe T return. IT T was indeed a strange sensation to leave the ground behind and soar a thousand feet above the earth with no visible means of support beneath us, but it seemed perfectly safe because I could feel the plane securely supporting me. The cockpit was snug and sheltered from the wind, and I was surprised to find that the noise of the motor seemed to be left behind and that I could talk easily with the pilot. A crowd gathered about as we landed, and I couldn't understand why they should look at us with such awe. They asked me if I was all right, if I had been afraid, what it was like to fly. Of course I was all right; there was no reason to be otherwise. I had been afraid only 'HERE wasn't any reason to be really afraid. The pilot was experienced and capable, the ship had won the Ford Reliability Tour, and the motor was the same as that which took Lindbergh to Paris. One cannot say what flying is like because it is quite unique. One can only say that it is better than a boat because there is no regular rolling, better than an automobile because there are no jounces over bumps and no cares of traffic and blind corners in driving, better even than a railroad train because it is faster and entirely free from dust and smoke. Piloting a plane is surprisingly easy. It takes experience to become proficient, of course, but one soon learns to handle a ship moving in three dimensions as automatically and subconsciously as one learns the more complicated process of throwing out the clutch, applying the brakes, and putting the gear shift lever in neutral when stopping an automobile. Planes are surprisingly cheap, too. plane requires less mechanical attention than an automobile, because it is less complicated and there are fewer parts to adjust and keep in order. Three or four passenger planes can be FINALLY, airplanes are safe and are bought for the price of a good automobile. Two-passenger training planes can be had for as low as $600, and palatial five-passenger inclosed planes, such as the Ryan brougham, used by Lindbergh, can be bought for $9,700, including a Wright Whirlwind motor. The cost of operation for gasoline and oil is far less per mile than that of an automobile, and the depreciation per mile of the plane is also far less than that of a car. An air being made safer every month. Actual statistics of the Department of Commerce show that 95 per cent of the airplane accidents are due to sheer carelessness in one form or another, such as overloading, loading to maximum capacity with no factor of safety, or stunting. Most planes now built are so perfect in aerodynamical balance that they will fly steadily for many minutes when the pilot takes his hands off the controls. Only a railroad train guided by rails can do that. Failure of motors, the chief cause of forced landings, is becoming rare indeed. I am in no way connected with aviation, I I am just an ordinary young man, working in a busy office like countless others. I was led to fly because of the success of Lindbergh's flight, and I liked it. My experience simply bears out in at least one instance the assertion of manufacturers, pilots, and others who will prosper with the development of aviation that Lindbergh has sold aviation to the American public, and that its early development on a great scale may be expected. The Book Table Jerome K. Jerome J EROME K. JEROME'S "Three stant fame. It appeared in 1889, and has been reprinted in tens of thousands of copies, read all over the earth, and translated into foreign languages. A simple and unpretentious account of a trip on the most thoroughly tamed and domesticated of all rivers, its humor appealed to nine readers out of ten. The things that happened in it had happened to all of us on holidays or at picnics, but they were related by a man with the gift of humor which is possessed by about one man in a billion. The time was opportune. Such other humorists as there were in England were members of the perfectly well-bred, teacup-and-saucer school of village-curate humor. In America, Mark Twain's best books were written, and the finest of them had appeared five years earlier. Artemus Ward and the Civil War humorists were partly forgotten, except by older people. It is no wonder that the adventures of George and Harris and Montmorency went around the world. and furnished allusions and anecdotes for thousands. Two other famous books, which had preceded this one, were also about adventures on the water-the travels of the Innocents in the Quaker City and the expedition down the Mississippi of Jim and Huckleberry Finn. The conservative writers of England and the editorial staff of "Punch" disapproved of Mr. Jerome. They thought him a cockney, like Dickens. Moreover, he had the grievous handicap, from the view-point of Oxford and Cambridge, of Born at Walsall, England, May 2, 1859. Died at Northampton, England, June 14, 1927 being a humorist who made his readers laugh out loud. The academic mind hates a writer who can provoke anything more than a faint smile, unless that But writer is named Rabelais and is sanctified by centuries of tradition. nearly all others took the Three Men into their hearts. Their chronicler could diverge into bypaths, and still be hilariously readable. At the very outset of his trip he told of his researches in the British Museum to find out what was the matter with his health, and of his discovery that he had every disease in the medical dictionary except housemaid's knee. His account of Uncle Podger hanging the picture is in the same vein which Mr. Clare Briggs in his comic pictures has worked and reworked and grown rich upon. Montmorency is one of the finest dogs in English literature. He exhibits the soul of a genuine fox terrier, although I believe that Mr. Jerome had never owned a fox terrier when he wrote about Montmorency. It has been said that Sir James Barrie had never smoked when he wrote the great book for smokers, "My Lady Nicotine.' The Three Men wandered about the Thames and never got anywhere in particular. It has been divulged recently, in the author's autobiography, that the book was planned for a serious history of the river, just as Pickwick was planned to be the text to accompany some sporting prints. Harris and George and the narrator are human and recognizable, and attract other familiar persons wherever they go. Harris is the experienced traveler, or man-full-ofuseful-information, who can act as a guide-book at any time. He volunteers to guide some people through the maze at Hampton Court and is blessed by them as an angel, until he lands them all in more of a mess than they were at first. He sings comic songs and spoils the evening for every one but himself. No one who has been boating or camping can fail to enjoy the incident when George's shirt fell overboard, or when all three tried to open the can of pineapple. Mr. Jerome wrote a number of humorous books and some serious ones after "Three Men in a Boat," but he never surpassed it in merit or in popularity. It was his third or fourth book, and it is possible that he had written a briefer but more perfect example of humor when the "Three Men" came out. This is "Stage-Land: Curious Habits and Customs of Its Inhabitants," with the incomparable pictures by Bernard Partridge. Its humor is of that very high form which combines with amusement acute observation and criticism. I doubt whether from Aristotle to Alexander Woollcott there have been uttered any more discerning comments upon the drama. It was, of course, the old-fashioned melodrama which was satirized, 66 but the characters of hero, heroine, and villain are eternal, and eternally true are these studies of them. We see their peculiarities, as Mr. Jerome described them, if not on the stage, then on the moving-picture screen, and if I taught a class of students in play-writing I would make them read this book word for word. Years ago Mr. Jerome's comments on stage "law" were quoted by Sir Henry Irving in a lecture on "Macbeth." Within a week I have seen evidence that the writers of scenarios still follow them trustfully. It is a principle Glory o' the Dawn of stage "law" A story that will stir the hearts of all who love the ways of ships and the mystery of the past "GL LORY O' THE DAWN," by Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer, a story of singular beauty, is told with a quiet impressiveness suggestive of Hawthorne. In the once flourishing Maine port of Middlehaven Caleb Gurney, stone-mason, ship-builder, and maker of models, gave years of his life and all the passion of his soul to recreating in miniature "Glory o' the Dawn." It was not merely a ship model that he fashioned, but a symbol of past greatness. The splendor of those ships which once carried New England's fame through all the seven seas lived again in the moving beauty of the model. The Savor of the Sea The San Francisco "Journal" says: "This little story is one of remarkable beauty and strength." The Boston "Globe" says: "It is a rare occasion in the world of books when such a little gem as this is born." The New York "Herald" says: "Mr. Pulsifer has compounded the pathos and humor of this text into a pleasing mixture." The "Public Ledger" says: "Mr. Pulsifer has molded his prose to the same sensitive craftsmanship he has given to the shaping of poetry." An Autographed Copy for You! Mr. Pulsifer has kindly volunteered to autograph special copies of this book for those who accept the offer which appears below. The offer is limited, however, to subscribers of The Outlook. Simply mail the coupon today. Send no money now. Attractively bound in blue cloth with silver stamping, printed on heavy paper. I MAIL THIS COUPON The Outlook Company, Book Division, "That if a man dies, without leaving a will, then all his property goes to the nearest villain. "But if a man dies, and leaves a will, then all his property goes to whoever can get possession of that will. "That the evidence of one prejudiced witness, of shady antecedents, is quite sufficient to convict the most stainless and irreproachable gentleman of crimes for the committal of which he could have had no possible motive. "But that this evidence may be rebutted, years afterwards, and the conviction quashed without further trial by the unsupported statement of the comic man." For a while after his early success Mr. Jerome wrote humorous books. His "Told After Supper" is one of the few tolerable examples of the comic ghost story, and contains the delicious anecdote of the curate who tried to exhibit his skill in playing three-card monte. "The Diary of a Pilgrimage" took its author to Oberammergau and other parts of Germany, a country which he always regarded with affection, due to his early residence there. He tried the dangerous experiment of sending the youthful heroes of his boating trip years later on a bicycle tour, and made a readable book of it. Like Mr. W. W. Jacobs, he could write a good horror story, as he showed in parts of his "Novel Notes" and in the tale called "The Woman of the Saeter." Like America's greatest humorist, he grew increasingly serious as he grew older, and, like him, his heart was torn by the sorrows and suffering which men inflict on their fellow-men. Probably his most successful novel was "Paul Kelver," and certainly his most popular play was "The Passing of the Third Floor Back," in which ForbesRobertson toured England and America. This play was expanded from a delicately beautiful short story, and its theme, the appearance of a personage like Christ in modern life, is widely known. The only production of it which I have ever seen, by highly competent amateurs, gave me the impression of a rather cloying sweetness. Mr. Jerome had been an actor, and of his many other plays, before and after the "Third Floor Back," the one best known in this country was probably "Miss Hobbs," in which Annie Russell used to appear. Mr. Jerome made extensive lecture tours in America. His recent autobiography, "My Life and Times," reveals a humorist, a passionate reformer, and a man of deeply religious nature. Fiction TWILIGHT SLEEP. By Edith Wharton. D. Appleton & Co., New York. $2.50. The central figure of Mrs. Wharton's new novel is a wealthy woman in middle life, married happily enough to a second husband after divorcing her first, and living complacently in a world of activities more or less conspicuous and chiefly futile. She is tremendously efficient within her limits, and enjoys a serene conviction that she can handle lives, her own and others, as adequately as she does household affairs, social crises, and committees; and can wave aside sorrow and suffering with the same smiling authority. She devotes herself with no conscious insincerity to fads and causes, some of them scarcely compatible. Mrs. Wharton even risks a descent to the farcical in the amusing scene where the lady's memory for one terrible moment plays her false and she finds herself opening an address to the assembled Mother's Day Meeting in words intended for next week's Birth Control Dinner. She recovers herself with a gasp in the nick of time and switches gallantly into "This is what our enemies will say-" and the sensational beginning goes far toward making the occasion a brilliant success. It is delightful; but could it have happened? One is not sure, and there are other moments when, despite the force and finish with which she is portrayed, Mrs. Manford seems rather the too perfect specimen of E. P. a type than an actual woman. That the type itself is all too real no one will doubt. The two husbands, the daughter of the second, the son of the first, his wife, the Italian cousin with no money and an ancient title-these and others form a highly sophisticated circle of complex relations and reactions such as Mrs. Wharton knows so well how to depict. A sorry circle it is, seeking for the most part smoothness, comfort, pleasure, with little sense of the larger and higher values of life. Dreams pass through the twilight sleep in which such people wrap themselves against reality, but they rarely come true; when the sleepers do awake it is oftenest to tragic disillusion, or, like Mrs. Manford, after one aghast glimpse, to close their eyes again as quickly and as tight as possible. GIANTS IN THE EARTH. By O. E. Rölvaag. Harper & Brothers, New York. $2.50. A novel as good as this, remarkable in style, in characterization, in the perfect adjustment of figures to a setting rightly dominant yet never allowed to become overpowering-such a book needs no heightening of appeal through exterior circumstances. Yet in this case the circumstances are in themselves too interesting to ignore, for this book, written in America upon an American theme by a professor in an American college, is yet by an author of recognized European standing, and was |