"THIS HUMDRUM LIFE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 155, 29 December 1936, Page 6

"THIS HUMDRUM LIFE"

After an adventurous flight from England to-the Cape, in an attempt on the record which failed, the aviator Mr. J. A. Mollison returned by steamer" and, landing at Southampton, is reported by cable today as saying: "I am tired of this humdrum life. . . . I am glad I did not break the record on my recent flight, as I would have beaten it only by a few hours. I want to smash it by a day arid also fly home." Mr. Mollison is now one of the veterans of stunt aviation, having at different times flown from England to Australia and from England to America, as well as between England and South Africa, and having suffered the usual ups and downs of recordbreakers. It might have been thought he would be ready to settle down, but, no; the humdrum life is too slow for him. He is tired of even an ocean trip by liner from South Africa. Habituated to the swift swoop across the skies of the racing aeroplane he yearns for something swifter still to capture new records not "by a few hours" but "by a day" and to "fly home." 'Thus flying gets into the blood of its devotees, and, not content with past achievements, they essay some new and more startling feat until their luck fails them and they pass from the scene. How often that has been the fate of famous airmen is only too well known. The names of Hinkler, Kingsford Smith, Ulm, and Wiley Post, their epoch-making flights and their tragic ends, cross the horizon of the memory. They could all have settled down, but to them, like Ulysses, there was always "some work of noble note" yet to be done. Not for them "this humdrum life," nor for Mollison. May his luck be better.

Mrs. S. C. Hess, of Clarkesburg, West Virginia, U.S.A., began collecting buttons in 1898, beginning with those on her wedding dress. Now she has 10,000. One, made of brass, dates back to the American revolutionary war. She also has several wooden ones worn *w confederate soldiers in 1865,