EMBARRASSING HERO WORSHIP

Otago Witness, Issue 3443, 9 March 1920, Page 66

EMBARRASSING HERO WORSHIP

FOE, SIR ROSS AND SIR KEITH SMITH. (Feom Oub Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 19. "When Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith arise in their Vickers Vimy on Monday and turn their faces to Melbourne, they may be expected to breathe great sighs of relief. They are the heroes of the hour here, and hero-. worship has proved more than a little em-. barrassing. . - ■ ' * ' Ross Smith is most courteous and ap-. ; proacbable—a typical lighthearted , young, Australian,, and he makes no barrier of his; honours and his glory. It would be better for him if he did. Every day this week,; from breakfast time till midnight, his room in the Hotel Australia has been beset< byimportunate callers. Some have legitimate business with him; quite. two-thirds are', mere pests. Yet he tries to give -all ofthem a moment. His mail piles- up hourly— :■ ' a distracting mass. It has been'■ attacked by a couple of his friends, volunteer secre-' taries, but they can't keep it .under. Autograph books, telegrams, more autograph, books, scores of invitations and appeals, still more . autograph books. The brothers. say that if they signed steadily from now : on until they fly away they, could not get :> through those " infernal books." •• They are good-naturedly doing their best forthe 'graph-hunters —but they are beginning to hate the sight of their own signatures. The brothers have received " about a hundred" odes of welcome : composers want to dedicate songs to them; and happy parents write to say they propose to name the newborn after them, but don't know whether to make it Ross Keith or Keith Ross; they think Keith Ross "sounds better and would Sir Ross mind his name *

not going first "? They are preparing a riotous welcome in Melbourne, it- seems, and urgent messages from that city are piling in an top of the Sydney correspondence. There are scores of letters from infatuated girls—the aviators might, if they chose, outdo Don Juan's Mediterranean adventures. Some of the girls make" what are practically offers of marriage. Well, this is Leap Year. Such are the penalties of fame.