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Miss Ruth Bancroft Law,
Aviation Pilot Number 188,
as Her Husband Sees Her

Robert Oliver, Liege Lord, Master Mechanic, Business Manager and Press Agent, Talks of His Wife's Flying

Though most men may not be heroes to their valets, there are some who are heroes to their wives.  There are also wives who continue to be heroines in the eyes of their husbands.  When this happens there is no use in trying to deny the evidence.  So when Charlotte Shaw edits "Wise Sayings From the Works of G.B. Shaw" or Robert Oliver declares that Mrs. Oliver (whom the world knows as Ruth Bancroft Law, Aviation Pilot 188), is the greatest woman aviator of the day, one must accept unquestionably the fact that the one is a modern Solomon and that the other is an incomparable human bird.

And of course Mr. Oliver knows (the Shaws are dismissed, having served their turn in comparison), for not only is he her husband, but he is also her press agent, business manager and master mechanic -- four important posts, one must admit.  It was as master mechanic that the representative of THE EVENING SUN found him, but as he talked it was difficult to distinguish in which of his various capacities he at various times acted.

In the hangar that stands on the daisy-filled plain of Oakwood Heights, S. I., and bears, in large black letters, the name of the 188th pilot, this representative, who was seeking that pilot, found a brown, sinewy man in overalls, very busy working over a huge mosquito skeleton of steel with money-wrench and screw driver, but not too busy to talk as he worked.
The master mechanic of an aviator, be it understood, is a more important person in the game of flying, for if he should happen to forget to adjust a single screw or to test every bit of wire- pity the man behind the steering gear. A flier is no safer than his mechanic makes him.
"Flying's an easy matter," said he, "when you're a born aviator- but you've just go to be born to it. Women are just as good at it as men, of course Orville Wright once said that a woman aviator was either as good as a man or no good at all. Women are the best passengers, Miss Law says, because they either know they will have the nerve or they won't go up at all. A man- well, every man is sort of expected to have the nerve, you know.
"What makes a born aviator? Instinct- if you haven't got your equilibrium in your 'feel,' you can't get it at all. You must be able to feel that you have an even keel, fore and aft, without looking 'round to make sure. Why, when Miss Law starts off she doesn't look worried and she doesn't fix her eyes on this or that in front of her like an automobilist: she's looking at you, laughing and talking all the while, and before you know it she's up and off.
"She anticipates what's coming- that's what I call instinct. Do you see this over here? well, when she pushes that that moves these lateral planes," and as he demonstrated the big wings of the machine moved like the muscles of a supple body, writhing and rising and slowly falling. "She doesn't wait until the wind strikes her and then push her levers: she pushes them first and is ready to meet that wind. That's why she never has an accident. The other fellows, they react afterward, and sometimes they spill!"
It's easy enough to learn how to fly- the main thing is to be temperamentally fit for it. Miss Law takes only two and a half hours to teach her pupils, most of whom are men, by the way. "Is teaching the principal thing she does now? Or what is the business of an aviatrice?"
"Flying for exhibits and flying with passengers. She's made over 900 flights, principally down in Florida, at Seabreeze, where she took up some very famous people- John D. Rockefeller's physician, Dr. Biggar of Cleveland, for one. Now she's going to Newport- that's why I'm packing up this machine- where she's going to have all the biggest society people as passengers. Mrs. -" but one should not record hopes; that shatters them.
She gets $50 an ascent and on some fine days she makes two or three [[?]] from twenty to thirty minutes each. For exhibition flying she gets $1,000 each time. 
"Big profits in this business, aren't there?"
Mr. Oliver laughed, thereby forgiving the speaker for her quick presumption.
"You might think so, when you hear

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New York Sun.
Miss Ruth Bancroft Law

Just then a timid, brown-eyed youngman stepped into the hangar and asked with a shy duck of the head whether Miss Law would have him for a mechanic. The two men stood aside for a while, discussing the stranger's qualifications. From the bits of the conversation that were wafted across the hangar and through the steel skeleton (much of it, by the way, is fine hand dried spruce) one learned that since he knew nothing about flying machines and Miss Law knew everything, but wanted to feel that her assistants knew just as much and could be depended upon to be mindful of all the parts he wouldn't do. Besides, she was the boss, said Mr. Oliver, and in the last analysis the one who did all the hiring.
"What led Moss Law to take up aviation- is she a very athletic person?"
"Her brother's Rodman Law, you know, and through him, naturally, she took it up.. She's very fond of rowing- rowing fast, and she's a good rider-- fine. But she's happiest in the air. Once she's up there she's at home, she says. She hates the excitement, 'the circus business,' she calls it; of getting started, and she's always impatient to be up and away.
"Did you know she holds the world's official record for altitude flying for women? Five thousand five hundred feet up she's been. Yes, others have claimed to have been 7,000 and even 8,000, but their records are not authentic, you see. And she holds the world's record for accurate landing- within four feet of a given spot.- Oh you ought to see her- glides down and in like a bird, smooth, without a hitch. It's great, I can tell you. I've never seen anything like it.
"She and her brother are going to fly across the Atlantic some day- you just wait and see. It will have to be with a monoplane, perfected and going at least 100 miles an hour. This here can take only forty-five to sixty, which is twelve miles more than the ordinary Wright machine, and made especially for her.
"What does she wear? Oh, black suit and goggles. Too bad you came just a day too late; you might have gone up with her. No one should write about aviation who hasn't been in a machine- nobody can."
But this is not an article on aviation; it is an appreciation of an aviator by her husband, master mechanic, business manager and press agent, one Oliver.

ROCHESTER FAIR IS ONLY ONE WEEK OFF
Attention is now being turned to the Rochester fair, which is only a week off. If fair weather prevails on the four days following Sept. 23, the management says the 38th annual exhibition of this famous institutions will be a record-breaker.
There will be four big days, with a varied program to salt the tastes of the most exacting. From the opening of the gates on Thursday morning until the closing Frklay there will be something doing every minute.
The management is assured of big entries in every department, especially so in the cattle show. Many noted horses will be seen on the tack and $10,000 in purses insures some of the fastest races of the year.
Among the special attractions will be the appearance of Ruth Bancroft Law, the famous woman aviator, who will give daily exhibitions in flying.
The vaudeville program will contain some of the most up-to-date acts extant, and there will be a continuous stage show in front of the grandstaud every day.
Thursday will be Governors' day. Hundred of dollars in prizes are offered for the slow race and the parade of decorated cars, which are to be the leading features of Friday, automobile day.

ROCHESTER FAIR 1913

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Tribune
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1912.-16 PAGES. ** PRICE ONE CENT
BLOWS UP HIS BALLOON AND DROPS INTO HUDSON
Last Word in Aeronautic Daring Witnessed When Parachute Jumper Touches Fuse.
Frank Rodman Law, the parachute jumper, who has added some thrills to the history of aeronautics, went himself one better than ever before yesterday afternoon, when he blew up his balloon with dynamite and dropped 450 feet into the Hudson River, just in front of Grant's Tomb. His parachute did not open until he was within one hundred feet of the river, but he dropped lightly enough, and was in a fine good humor when he was picked up by the tug Libby, which had been following him.
Law made his ascent from the New Jersey shore. A fresh breeze quickly carried him over the Hudson, but he had to wait until he had a space free of river craft in which to drop. Two dynamite bombs were attached to the balloon by long cords. Law used a cigar which he was smoking with which to light the fuse. He had stuffed his ears with cotton and also wore a helmet to protect himself against the force of the explosion.
The bombs went off almost simultaneously, and Law was lost for an instant in the thick cloud of smoke which blotted out the balloon. He shot out of the smoke at a terrific pace, but his parachute opened in time to check his flight.
Thousands of people along the drive and on the New Jersey shore saw the performance.

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Photographs By: Joseph Johnson
FRANK R. Law BLOWS UP HIS BALLOON HIGH IN THE AIR.
Photographs showing the burning gas bag after the explosion and the daring aeronaut coming down, hanging to his parachute, and of Law after he had been picked out of the Hudson River.

6 THE SUN, FRIDAY, MARCH
LAW FIZZLES AS HUMAN ROCKET
900 Pounds of Powder as Tail Piece Blows Out, Not Up.
STEEL WALLS BURST
Passenger the Only Thing in Vicinity Not Broken to Bits.
TAKES [[?]] DROP OF 50 FEET
Thousands in Jersey See the Fireworks-Movie-Suicide Performance.

PICTURES SHOW HOW LAW WAS INJURED
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Transcription Notes:
After the "ROCHESTER FAIR IS ONLY ONE WEEK OFF" there is a red note covering the last paragraph and is not known if it is the caption for the image.