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This is Roger Lapham of San Francisco.  I just couldn't resist the temptation to take this trip. Three years ago I made the first trip on the Hindenberg eastward to Europe, and now here I am a few hours out of the Azores on the first passenger trip of the Pan American Dixie Clipper. I have just had breakfast, a pretty good breakfast at that -- corn flakes, coffee, pretty good strawberry jam, and toast, and butter, served very nicely. A couple of men which whom I played bridge last night are sitting here. I am smoking my cigar, way up above the clouds with the sun shining and I want to tell you this whole thing is just a cinch. We had a great send-off yesterday afternoon -- lots of people. We had our pictures shot galore, waved to everybody and taxied out into Long Island Sound. We headed up into the wind, and zingo in no time we were off. We skirted the northern shores of Long Island. Somewhere around Point Montauk, I think it was, we lost sight of Long Island, then we picked up Nantucket, in a little while left Nantucket, and then had the blue ocean beneath, and then straight out toward Azores, and by 3:00 we had a nice bridge game, played 7 or 8 rubbers before dinner, adjourned to the rear compartment to look at the sunset, and after we had looked at enough sunset came forward to the middle compartment for our dinner. I can't remember what it was but it was a fine dinner, well served, and after dinner a little more bridge, a little more chatting. We even started to sing a bit, and everybody got pretty well acquainted.

I want to tell you my, what shall I say, my comparison between the Hindenberg and this Dixie Clipper. You know, this Dixie Clipper makes much more in the way of speed. It is very, very comfortable and has been very smooth so far. The whole think is like a nice private car. It has the atmosphere of a nice little night club, too, only 22 people passengers. The captain drops in occasonally to tell us about where we were, and all that. Now on the old Hindenberg we, of course, had no straps. That trip I was on took about 48 hours, and there was much more room. I think there were about 50 passengers on board, 50 people sat down to dinner at one time, we had a fine meal, well served, and all the German wines and everything else you wanted. Then you went around on the other side, and you sat and wrote letters, played cards. It was the same as this except on a little more palatial scale. The only trouble about the Hindenberg was that it had hydrogen gas instead of helium. Once they get helium why the Hindenberg or the Zeppelin type lighter-than-air travel ought to be very good. 

I wonder if any of you have ever read Kipling's "Night Mail". If you haven't I advise you to read it. I am sure it was written before the Wright brothers every flew. That man had imagination. I have thought of it constantly every time I fly, and I have flown quite frequently. Particularly at night -- I think of Kipling's "Night Mail". To those of you who haven't tried the flying game, either across land or ocean, my advice to you is to read Kipling's "Night Mail". What is goign to happen in the development of air transportation, heaver-than-air and lighter-than-air in the next 10, 15, or 50 years is beyond anyone's imagination today.