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It was the established custom with this type of Aerial Show business for the male members to take off one after the other and after their display of aerial tricks, the air was cleared of all planes and a great to-do was made of the only woman flyer.   A bugle was loudly blown.   This was followed by an announcement that Blanche Stuart Scott, the premier aviatrix of the world, the TOMBOY OF THE SKIES, would now take off and go through her entire repertoire of sensational stunts. This day the bugle sounded at least three times before I got back to the infield where my plane was parked.

It was only on the way to the plane that I became aware of what my little act of substituting for the nurse in the hospital tent, a brand new experience for me, I might add, had done for me. Imagine, if you can, my state of mind as I walked in a blood soaked flying suit, damp with persperation, then getting into my plane and taking off into a lonely sky with at least fifty thousand people waiting for me to go through my bag of tricks.    The ordeal of the [[crossed-out]] surgical [[/crossed-out]] hospital tent, plus the heat, plus the people plus the ever present fear of the uninsulated high tension wires topped by my great concern for Tom.  Sure I knew he would live but the ordeal was a trying one. I was just plain scared. I was so shook up that I found myself flying with my teeth chattering so I sounded like I had a troupe of Spanish dancers on the roof of my mouth each banging the Hell out of a pair of castanets.  I could hardly concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing. I had flown dangerous fields before, I knew that before I hung up my goggles, I'd fly other dangerous fields but never was I ever put to the test as I was that day at the Emeryville Fair Grounds.  I gave the customers what they wanted to see. I am sure that you can forgive a pardonable surge of triumph as I came in safely over the wires and made my double 'S" landing safely and perfectly." It was a major triumph of mind and training over shock and emotion!