ONCE TO EVERY MAN.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4008, 14 July 1931, Page 6

ONCE TO EVERY MAN.

People often say to me. ‘What is the sensation of flying ? How does it feel to be up in the air? I would like to go up, they say, “but I am nervous as to how 1 should feel if I do.” To widen I always reply—and I have answered the question a hundred times—- “ The fust sensation, the first lift off the ground as you find yourself rising above the tree tops is perhaps one of the most delicious sensations ever experienced. I shall always recall that wonderful feeling —the first lime I ever went up.” I add in a quiet, modest tone, “It is a good many years ago, of course, but I shall never forget that sense of soaring above the tops of trees.” What I take care not to say is that the first time I went up is also the last time I went up. That is my own prr ale business. I went up in an aeroplane just once—about ten years ago. 1 was up in the sky for quite a time, I rim not sure __ just how long, but say a week. Then I came down. And I found that when I came down I had passed into a new class. I was a man who had the light to talk of flying. Once is all you need. Notice how easy it is: 1 speak modestly of “the first time I ever went up, many years ago, of course. ’ The fair inference from that is that in the intervening years that have since passed 1 have been pretty well up in the air all the time just down for meals, so to speak. If people sav to me, “Is flying really dangerous?” 1 can truly answer, “Well, it's ten years since I first went up in a machine and i have never had the slightest accident” then I correct myself—“well, once, periiaps. a little trouble in landing.” That, you see. is true, because on the only oc'•asim when 1 landed I -was in such a hur-v to get out that I broke one of the straps. That made a little trouble, about fifty cents’ worth. Please observe, any one who wishes to follow my example, the use of that word “machine.” If you want to qualify as an indoor aviator, don't call an aeroplane bv its own name Call it a “machine, ’ or a “bus.” or an “old horse,” or better still “a freight car.” Speak of it with contempt. Act as if yon weren’t afraid of it ; I always say, "I shall never forget the first old box' I went up in : nothing would tempt me to go up in an old banjo like that.” I don’t add that nothing would tempt me to {go up in a new banjo, with Colonel Lindbergh to run it. The reader must take careful notice that sometimes questions and answers become a little embarrassing. It needs a really good command of English to fit them in. Put a little reflection and practice will do a lot. Thus at times people say to me. point-blank: “Do yon fly much?” The answer to this is, “Not now!’ with a very strong and serious emphasis on the now. I don’t fly much now. This implies, yon see, that there was a time when 1 flew like all Hades—a regular dragon fly. Then you may add, if yon like—“l don’t think one ever gets tired of it, though.” In my case I am sure I didn’t get tired of it. I was tired of it before I started. Hut I repeat I did actually fly once, and most people won’t even do that. I may not be a Colonel Lindbergh, but I have the right to lord it over the ordinary man in conversation. Any one of my readers can enjoy the same increasing reputation and the same glowing retrospect who will merely go “once up” in the air and then come down and talk,about it tor ten years. — Stephen Leacock, in Hie “Spoilsman Pilot.” No cold is “NAZOL”-proo'f 1 This remedy treats colds scientifically, giving pyornpt relief Keep a bottle handy! 120 full doses for 2s fid. Penetrates to the points of infection GO doses for Is 6d.