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RUTH LAW WITH FRENCH TRENCH DOG... By World Staff Photographer Yesterday... - Miss Ruth Law, Back Home, Tells of Ambition and What She Saw Abroad. --- "I am at the service of my country for flying duty at any moment I may be called upon," said Miss Ruth Law, aviator, as she came into port yesterday on the steamer Alfonso XII., after several months spent in England and France observing the latest methods of using aeroplanes in warfare. "I am willing to fly a fast little scout machine alone, travelling 130 or 150 miles an hour, or I'll drive a heavier machine carrying a gun and gunner and go into actual battle with the enemy." added the diminutive holder of the Chicago-New York flight record. "That's what I'd like to do more than anything—get right into the flight. "The only request I shall make of the Government when I offer my services formally, which will be in a day or so, is that I be sent to the front, wherever it is. Above all things, I'd like to go to the front of France, if America sends any soldiers over there. "If we have a woman Congressman, why can't we have a woman fighting aviator?" she demanded.. - Record Shows Her Ability - Of Miss Law's ability there is no question. Her performances prove that. She holds the altitude mark for a woman—nearly 12,000 feet—and the cross-country American record for either sex. "I am arranging to get a Morane-Saulnier monoplane from France, and am willing to enter it in the service of the United States," Miss Law continued. "That is the fastest plane in use in Europe. I had a flight over Paris in a two-seater with Robert Morane, the inventor. I thought I had flown fast before, but my eyes were opened by the speed of that 'bus." The little queen of the air was enthusiastic in her praise of the way in which young men of England and France had turned out for aviation training. She displayed a picture of one of the French fields at Le Bourget, near Paris, where there are 150 hangars and 100 machines in each hangar. "I never dreamed there were so many aeroplanes in the world," she said. "Why, they buzz over the city of Paris almost like mosquitoes. "You'll see a big triplane carrying a crew of three or four men and a three-inch gun, surrounded by twenty or thirty fast little 'planes armed with machine guns to protect the big fellows." - Met the Famous Guynemer. - Miss Law tried to get to the flighting front, but was permitted no further than Compiegne, close to where the Germans were turned away from their march toward Paris early in the war. "I met all the boys of the Lafayette Escadrille—the American flying group," she said, "and I had the privilege of chatting with the greatest fighting flyer of all, Lieut. Guynemer, who has shot down more than thirty flyers. He gave me a ring fashioned from the button of a German airman's coat." Comparing the foreign aeroplanes with those in use here, Miss Law said ours are entirely too heavy. The English and French machines are very much lighter, and therefore easier to handle and capable of far greater speed. "Just think of those Morane machines getting up 6,000 feet in seven minutes," she said., "Many of them can climb almost 1,000 feet a minute—and it took me an hour and a half to get up to 12,000 with my little old biplane when I made the altitude record. Our materials and bodies should be refined and lightened." The little aviator said American men by the thousands ought to be turning out for air service right now, particularly for the coast defense duty. - Saw the "Gimlet Trick." - "I saw a wonderful new bit of trick flying at Le Bourget," she went on. "It is a stunt called 'le vrille' (the gimlet). While the machine is on a level, the head stands still and then the tail whirls around and around. It is done by jamming the rudders. But, with all the fancy flying I saw, I still believe the best trick aviator I ever beheld was Lincoln Beachey, our own Yankee boy. Miss Law brought back with her a French trench dog called Poilu, who saw much actual fighting and was wounded several times. He wears a miniature steel helmet. He had to go into quarantine because of the regulations regarding the importation of animals. The flyer will remain in this city a few days, at the Hotel McAlpin, and then to Chicago --- THE CHICAGO SUNDAY T [[?]] EXPERT FLYERS HERE --- Greatest Aviatrix and U. S. Army Flyer Arrive in Chicago. [[Image]][[/IMAGE]] Miss Ruth Law and Capt. Roy Brown. Miss Ruth Law, the aviatrix who has been closer to heaven than any other American woman and who last year astonished the country by a magnificent flight from Chicago to New York, has offered her services to the government as a recruiting officer of the aviation corps. She arrived at the Hotel Morrison yester-day with her trench dog Poilu. Capt. Roy Brown, U. S. A., and an aviation corps mascot also arrived yesterday. He will assist in training army aviators. "Poilu is really a wonder," said Miss Law. He did outpost duty at the battle of the Somme, going ahead and sniffing out the enemy and then reporting to his superior officer. His master lost an arm in the battle and Poilu himself received a frightful scalp wound in spite of his little steel helmet." Miss Law left France on March 26 after some daring flights over the French trenches, the only woman aviator to fly in France since the outbreak of the war, she says. "The French know far more about flying than we do," said Miss Law. "In France, an aviator who does only straight flying does not count for any-thing." Miss Law will make a series of flights over the middle west from Chicago in the hope of encouraging young men to join the aviation corps. "Aviatrix Brings Home From Paris the Latest Style in Dogs" ----------------------------------- Two poses of Ruth Law, holder of the American long-distance flight record, and the Belgian police dog she brought from France. By FRANCES HOOPER. Let war and strife and even death stride blatantly through the streets of Paris - yet. Paris will continue to paint her cheeks and rouge her lips and set fashions for the world. That is Paris. At present it is a dogs with her. Every woman has a dog. No fashionable woman can afford to be without one, and the others - they must have one too, lest the absence of a dog makes then conspicuous and lays them open to comment. Paris has gone wild about dogs. The women take them into the restaurants with them, to the theaters, out to drive, out to call, to teas, to dances - in fact, everywhere they go. Even the hotels have made special accommodations to meet the new dog craze. At the Ritz, for instance, spacious and luxurious dog apartments have been built upon the roof, where the guests of the hotel may procure the best that can possibly be afforded for the comfort of the dear, darling beasts. Brings Police Dog. ------- Ruth Law may have gone to Europe to study the latest improvements and uses of airplanes and she may have flown high above the French lines and seen what no other woman has ever seen of trench warfare below, and she has, no doubt, brought most valuable information home to the government, but there is nothing which she was had to offer which has struck the women of the country with more interest upon the wonderful tips upon this latest dog fad in Paris. The big axiatrix was unable to withstand the fad when she was in Paris and so has come back to America with a dog. He is a beautiful Belgian police dog - same as the German P. D., but diplomatic relations have caused him to have one name in one country and another name in other countries. He belonged to a wounded French soldier who had been dismissed from the army and for whom the selling of Poilu meant in the way of funds. Poilu means hairy one - that is what the poor old shaggy French soldiers are called. Calls Valet for Him. ------ When Miss Law landed in New York she sent her bandboxes and bags to the hotel in a taxi, and then she and Poilu walked. The dog was terrified with the crowds; at the front he had never seen so many people, and in Paris - goodness, no. When Miss Law registered for her own rooms she told the clerk he might send for the valet to take Poilu up to his apartments on the roof. The clerk look dumbfounded. "Valet - a valet for the dog - apartments on the roof?" he repeated. And then Miss Law laughed. For the moment she thought she thought she was in Paris. Of course New York as yet has not the dog craze and naturally the hotels have not as yet found it necessary to cater to dog guests. Upon explanation, however, the management of the hotel most agreeably offered to fix up pleasant quarters for the dog. Since the other women have asked for similar arrangements and the management has arranged them. What You Do in Paris. -------- In Paris you go to a hotel with your little beast or your big one, as the case may be. On no consideration would you be accompanied by a medium-sized one. Medium ones aren't in style. You must have either the tiniest little dog that can be bred in the shape of a miniature poodle, a toy black and tan or a wee wee Pom, or you must have a dane or a collie or a police dog or a wolf hound, or best of all, a St. Bernard. You go into a hotel with your dog. You are promptly shown your own rooms and a valet is called to take the dog to his, which are upon the roof. Valet services go with the apartments. The valet sees that the dog is amused by taking him out into the roof garden to play ball with him, or throw sticks or shoes whichever game the animal prefers. The valet brushes and combs the dog whenever he needs it. In each apartment there is a nice, soft pillow and a very attractive bowl for water. I suppose there are no telephone connections - Miss Law did not say - but the dogs must have some means of signaling when they desire attention. Perhaps it is one bark, ice water; two barks, valet service; three barks, bones.
