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R, CINCINNATI, MONDAY, MAY 28. 1917 --- SCENES --- In War-Raked Europe --- When Town Is Threatened Depicted By Miss Law. --- Siren Sounded To Warn People of Danger From Above, --- But Throngs Pour Into Streets To Watch "Fire-Flies" Chase Raid-ers, Aviatrix Says. --- Miss Ruth Law, the daring aviatrix who holds the long-distance flying record for the United States by reason of her Chicago-to-New York trip last fall, and who has just returned from a three months' tour of the war-stricken territory in France, arrived in Cincinnati yesterday to prepare for the flights she is scheduled to make at the Speedway Wednesday The trusty old soaring machine which has been Miss Law's closest friend for many years arrived yesterday afternoon and was put in readiness at the Sharonville track, but owing to the forbidding weather no trial flight was attempted. With Miss Law came her now famous dog, a big, handsome cross between a Belgian shepherd dog and a Siberian wolf, the breed now being employed in the French trenches for sentry and other purposes. Miss Law's visit in the section contiguous to the portion of France now being raked by bomb and shrapnel fire is told by her in remarkably interesting narratives, which, pieced together, would make material worthy of the best morocco binding. Sought To Study Aircraft --- Her purpose in visiting France was to study air craft and to obtain one of the latest type high powered airplanes now being used by the Allies. From the outset she encountered gravest difficulty in accomplishing her purpose was under suspicion many times as to her real purpose in coming into the war0ridden country, subjected to search by officials of various departments and finally denied the pleasure of bringing back her the object she sought. However, she was enabled to witness many unusual sights, among them being the spectacle of London under the danger of a raid from the skies. "When we arrived in London," said Miss Law, "there were rumors of enemy craft overhead, and the huge searchlights of London began scouring the heavens for a sign of them. At the same time a siren sounded the alarm to unprepared citizens, which was intended to direct all good folk to go to their cellars and wait until the signal was given that the air was cleared of danger. Instead of doing this wise thing, however, most of them came pouring out into the streets, gazing skyward, filled with curiosity to see the raiders. It was just dark, the early part of the evening, and I was sure I could see the light of one of the machines, but after some argument I had to admit it was only the evening star." Makes Journey to Front. --- Miss Law was in Paris for a few weeks, from which point she made a journey to the nearest approach to the war front allowed by the authorities. Owing to the great preparations which were under way in anticipation of the great spring offensive, civilians were not allowed beyond Compiegne, a distance about 50 miles northeast of the French capital. During her visit in Paris Miss Law took a flight in one of the latest type Fresh airplanes, which negotiate a speed of 135 miles an hour. She went up with Robert Moran, one of the old school aviators, who took up the business of cloud-punching along with Wright brothers, Glen Curtis and other veterans of the air. In describing her sensations in this flight Miss Law declared that for three or four minutes she was unable to take a breath, the speed was so terrific. She declares a vacuum is created by the inordinate speed through space, making it almost impossible for the lungs to perform their proper functions, and she was only able to maintain her consciousness by placing her hand tightly over her nose and drawing her breath through her teeth. "The entire city of Pris in one eyeful is indeed a wonderful sight," she said, --- When the sky was literally swarming with fireflies-French airplanes scouting for the enemy. That is one of the most wonderful sights in Paris at night, and they are always on the qui vive for danger from this quarter. The scout planes continued their firefly dance on the clouds for a while and then seemed to have sighter their quarry, for they suddenly started in a northeasterly direction, as if they were pursuing the object of their search. We found this to be a correct surmise, for we learned they chased the enemy dirigible for 50 miles, finally bringing it down in Compiegne. We saw the wreck lying where it had crashed to earth-a misshapen mass of steel framework of delicate design over which hung the remainder of the huge hgas bad which carried it. Strange to tell, the monster fell in the center of a public square in Compiegne, and not one person was injured in the crash. Mis Law left New York on tan American line steamer January 14. All of her luggage was subjected to a most rigorous search in England, and when she would tell officials her business was that of flying they would regard her with a cold, inscrutable gaze and wonder whether or not she might be on a mission for an enemy power such as many women who have been caught during the war with letters looking innocent enough to all outward appearances, but having an entirely new meaning if the secret were discovered to thaw out that which was written in invisible ink between the visible lines. Officials Become Suspicious --- At Liverpool, officials could not bring themselves to believe that she was anything but bent on doing some mischief in favor of the German War Office. They delved into each and every one of her vanload of trunks, and scanned every bit of writing or printed matter found therein. At the very bottom of one they found a scrapbook clippings, describing a "raid" at night by Miss Law over the city of Chicago. "Do you mean to say that you fly at night and drop bombs?" inquired the officials, incredulously. When told that she considered it nothing uncommon to do that very thing the officials detained them until the matter could be better grasped by them, and she and her party were held incommunicado at the Liverpool station. None of their appeals for permission to cable New York were heard. They were told they were not in New York, but in Liverpool, and that New York could not help matters any until the department was satisfied Miss Law was a safe person to tread English soil. "I thought it was me for the Tower of London," said Miss Law, "But we finally succeeded in furnishing ample proof of our identity and purpose, and were allowed to go." Miss Law left her luggage at London, thinking to use that city as her base while in Europe, and when the submarine barred zone went into effect the American Line stopped all sailings and she had to make other plans for returning to America, which she expected to do from a French Port. Baggage Not Delivered. She sent for her luggage when she was ready to sail, but it was never delivered, and she says all of her trunks are perhaps on some channel streamer or lost in some other place and unredeemable forever. The uncertainty of French sailings caused her to heed the advice of friends in France and to take a ship from a Spanish port, which she did March 25, arriving home April 4. Miss Law has many friends in Cincinnati and has made exhibition flights here before, appearing at Coney Island during the season of 1915, when she made a decided impression by reasos of her spectacular daring and her wonderful knowledge of the art if air-piloting. She is presenting her Cincinnati friends with a "trench ring" made by the French soldiers from the aluminium on the new shells being used, set with a diadem made from the brass button off the coat of a dead Bosche. "They rip the buttons off for souvenirs," said Miss Law, "then shape them into these things and send them to the friends they have left behind." The intrepid young aviatrix created --- something of a sensation at the hotel where she is stopped by her uniform of khaki, made with the frogs, the visored cap and the cut of la militaire. --- THOUSANDS ARE THRONGING FAIR FOR LADIES' DAY -- Overcast Skies Fail to Keep Down Crowds--41,000 Attend Opening. -- RUTH LAWS FLYING THRILLS THOUSANDS -- Despite threatening skies and a hint of rain, thousands of women began to arrive at the Trenton Fair at an early hour today. Great interest in the exhibits, especially those of the women's department, was shown. Most of the ladies displayed keen curiosity as to the entertainment facilities offered in the midway and the attractions were early receiving generous patronage. Not all of the children of Trenton attended the fair yesterday, apparently, for there are large numbers of them present with their mothers today. At the colliseum where the judging of cattle is taking place many women congregated and talked over the various points of the exhibited live stock with the keenest of interest and marked appreciation. BREAKS ATTENDANCE RECORD All records for attendance at the Fair were broken yesterday when the turn stiles registered 41,000 admissions to the grounds. Of this number, about 25,000 were school children and about 16,000 were adults. The former record of attendance on Monday, that of last year, was 32,000 admissions. Judging of live stock and poultry exhibits began in earnest this morning. W. H. Pew, Ravenna, O., and a national authority on beef cattle is judging the exhibit of short horns. Prof J. R. Dawson, of State College, Pa., is judging the exhibit of Jersey dairy cattle. prof. W. H. Skelly of New Brunswick is judging Hampshire swine. Prof W. H. Tomhave, State College, Pa., is judging Berkshire swine. Prof. Skelly is judging Chester White swine. Arthur Danks of Allamunch, N. J., is judging sheep. PICKUP FOLLOW FAIR RUTH LAW THRILLS Thrills - all the thrills promised in the rosy forecasts of the Trenton Fair Association - gripped the hearts of the more than 25,000 children who attended the fair yesterday as the guests of the association when Ruth Law and her "Flying Circus" put on their spectacular aerial act. About 10,000 adults also in attendance at the far yesterday had their hearts in their mouths as the daring aviators put on their death-defying spectacle. While Lieutenant Verne Treat drove her plane through two loop-the-loops above the race track Miss Law stood boldly on the top plane of her machine, her figure, in the white suit she dons fir her stunt, sharply outlined against the sky. All other activities at the fair practically ceased during the performance while the thousands gazed upwards feaful lest --- Some Random Comment --- What a drag "Pa" Margerum must have with the celestial spirits! For four days they blessed him with almost perfect weather; then, with only a few minutes to go on Friday, they doused the Fair grounds with enough moisture to enable him to pocket $7,000 in rain insurance. If "Pa" ever feels like making up a poker party, he'll have to leave us out. ..... Wille Kane's latest collapse eliminates him forever from the ring in Trenton. The incident is regrettable, because he's a fine chap and a corking good boxer. More than two years ago, the Times declared that Kane should never be permitted to get into the game again. That opinion [[page cut off]] Kansas City Star Y. JUNE 15. 1919. EDITORIAL SECTION. --- Ruth Law, the Girl Who Flies The personality of the nation's leading aviatrice has carried her to great heights. --- Ruth Law says: "There is only one sort of flying that is dangerous - that is the flying done by a person who is afraid to do anything but just merely fly." She has been flying for seven years and has never had a real accident. She is the only woman the United States government has permitted to wear the uniform of an army aviator. She has flown both in America and in Europe and established records. You will be interested in knowing just what sort of a young woman Ruth Law is. The accompanying interview is by a special correspondent for The Star in New York. --- Perhaps it won't please Miss Ruth Law, to say nothing of the board of directors of the League Opposed to Women's Suffrage, to know that there --- achieved by Ruth Law. They were born in her. She comes from English stock and was born and brought up to her five feet four in Massachusetts. Her father and mother never were known to have made any nonstop records with the family horse and buggy or to have leaped off the wide Netherlands style chimney of their home into a 4-foot pool of water. But they certainly gave to the world two children who have set a fast pace for the men, women and children who put their lives in "hock". Rodman an Intrepid Brother. Rodman Law, Ruth's brother, is the man who was first to step out of an airplane hanging to nothing but a parachute. Quite fortunately it opened and he floated down to earth from a heigh which would have enabled him to flirt with the stenographer on Mars, with the grace and ease of the well know snowflake. Then he took to climbing up the sides of buildings without the aid of those "stickers" telephone pole explorers wear on their shoes. He won the name of "Human Fly" and, although almost swatted on two or three occasions, lived through it. You probably were one of those who shuddered when he attempted to be shot out a gun charged with 900 pounds of powder and attached to a --- her as far back as 1912. She kept right on flying and hasn't stopped yet. A NONSTOP RECORD IN 1916 Miss Law really became a celebrity in 1916, when she established a record, the importance of which few people realize. She made a nonstop flight from Chicago to Hornell, N. Y., a distance of 590 miles, in five hours and forty minutes. That record, made by a woman, stood until six weeks ago, when Captain White of the army flying corps winged into New York from breezy Chi bettering slightly the distance and the time. Miss Law's record is all the more phenomenal when it is realized that she made the flight in an exhibition plane of very flimsy construction, a plane she had been flying for three years. she used it because the big companies wouldn't, or didn't, give her a bigger one, being afraid of the chance she was taking, she says. She loaded the old plane down with fifty-three gallons of fuel, when its capacity was only seven gallons. And it was the fact that the fuel ran out that lead to her descent at Hornell. "My motor was purring beautifully and I could have flown much farther," she says. YEAR'S WAGES IN FOUR DAYS. Since then Miss Law has been dabbling in the air, getting New York hotel meal prices for her stunts, which is a gentle way of expressing fabulosity. Just last year she thrilled the natives at an Indiana state fair and got $4,500 for four days' work. Which would be considered a fair year's wage for a woman - or even a man. When the war broke out she desired to enter the service. A bill was introduced in Congress which would have permitted her to win a commission. But despite the fact that the bill gave the power of approval of all feminine appointments to the President and Secretary of War, it was defeated, because it was said there would be difficulty in discrimination. The blow was a severe one to Miss Law, but she gave the government her best - flying for the Liberty Loan, as a reward for which she now wears a medal, sparkling with many diamonds. Then she went to Japan and did some --- [[image]] IN GOVERNMENT AVIATOR'S COSTUME [[image]] MISS LAW IN HER AIRPLANE [[image]] (c) UNDERWOOD AND UNDERWOOD -N.Y- RUTH LAW LOVES ALTITUDE Photo.taken on roof of McAlpin Hotel, NewYork --- are just three things - little feet, a wonderful smile and a husband - which convince the interviewer that she isn't a man. Nevertheless, it is true. There is a certain trimness about the figure of the most daring woman aviator in the United States, but is is masculine trimness, with the daintiness of feminine lines completely lost in the jaunty khaki serge aviator's uniform. The light hair which blends so splendidly with khaki was tucked under an overseas cap in a manner which gave no indication it would reach to the middle vertebra if undone. There was snap to the walk, unquestionably a man's swing. She was being interviewed by a correspondent for The Star in New York. --- parachute which was to open and with the aid of John J. Gravitation pilot him back to Mom Earth. The human sky rocket stunt didn't materialize. The powder didn't have the heart and exploded prematurely, "busting" up the party along with the ribs of several on-lookers. The only reason he hasn't taken a swim in the canals on the moon is that when war was declared he enlisted in the army and still is in France. He'll probably come back walking back on wireless waves some of these days. But this is a story about Ruth, and Rodman is introduced only as a proof that the spirit of dare was inherited by the aviatrice. She and Rodman played together on a farm near Lynn, Mass., --- flying that gave the mikado, one of Yoshihito the thrills of his Nipponese life. She has just returned from the Philippine Islands, where she established the first air mail service. She carried letters for the Filips from Manila to Baguio, 178 miles by train and 128 miles as the crow and airplane fly. Ambition? To Cross the Atlantic. Now she is back with just one ambition - to fly across the Atlantic without making a stop. The day she was interviewed she has just come back from a conference with Glenn Curtiss, the man who built the NCs used by the navy in bridging the briny. Miss Law believes in aviation, its past and its future, as well as its present.
