LINDBERGH'S POST-BAG

Evening Post, Volume 105, Issue 4, 6 January 1928, Page 7

LINDBERGH'S POST-BAG

Commander Green, who helped Colonel Lindbergh to handle the huge mail which flowed in on him before,and after he returned to America from his lonely Atlantic flight, gives some amazing particulars of this correspondence in the "Popular Science Monthly." Innumerable offers of marriage to tho "fair-haired Apollo," as ono of his admirers styled him, astounding business offers, and invitations to exploit prodigious inventions, were among the contents of, his post-bag. But the most remarkable feature about these letters was their almost incredible number. No fewer than 3,500,000 letters reached Lindbergh between his arrival in Paris and his return to St. Louis. There' were also 14,000 parcels, containing gifts, samples, and articles for trade, and 100,000 telegrams. What was he to do with them all? His first impulse was to read every letter and answer with his own hand. But when he got to America he gave it up. A skilled business acquaintance told him that with a force of stenographers he might average 200 letters a day. At that rate he might get through his stacks of letters in about 70 years. More letters came from women than from men. The poems that were enclosed would probably fill 100 volumes. Most of his fair correspondents were convinced that he would like them. What did this modest young man think of it all? "Well," writes Commander Green, "he never has said. Whenever these letters have been mentioned-he always has smiled his famous smile —and changed the subject." About the cinema companies' offers the newspapers have told. They were estimated to amount to 6,000,000 dollars. There was one which was particularly typical of Hollywood taste. Lindbergh was offered £20,000 to appear in a firm in which he would actually be married, the stipulation being that there would be close-ups of his face when he first met the girl that-appealed to 'him, and at the moment he was pronounced her husband. Of course, the young air hero disdained to cheapen himself and his achievement.