Roosevelt High School - Bwana Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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ktEe5i?Wl I H5-1-fj UNCLE SAM'S ALBATROSS OF GOOD WILL ONG after sunset, on the twenty-first day of May, 192 7, a trim, silver monoplane soared high above a milling throng of warm- hearted Frenchmen, frantic with anxiety. Precariously hovering there for an instant, it careened down over the mob, as the sea petrel skims the endless whitecaps, and Chas. A. Lindbergh soon landed with ease and safety, only to experience a peril which, to him, was greater than the oceanic flight he had just achieved. As he brought his cherished Spirit of St. Louis to a stop on this foreign field, his name was necessarily chronicled along with Balboa, Polo, Magellan, Columbus, and dozens of other fearless navigators. incidentally, like Columbus, he had fash- ioned his own ship, secured the necessary backing, and, in fact, single-handed and alone, planned and executed the whole voyage. l-le was an acknowledged champion of navigation-Lindbergh, the Navigator! A trait of far more importance, however, revealed itself, for the flight. disguised in the raiment of Opportunity, served as an open sesame for conveying the good will of the country from which he had flown. Slim Lindbergh, truly representative of American youth incarnate-the spirit which charms and subdues to its purpose all things, was nonchalantly serving in the capacity of America's unofficial envoy of benevolence and good will. A sea of humanity rushed to greet him, and in doing so endangered the safety of the conquering silver bird, so recently of trans-Atlantic fame. Only by the heroic efforts of the French police was the daring navigator delivered to the waiting welcome of the American Ambassador to France, Myron Herrick. The Spirit of St. Louis was likewise saved from the ravages of the wild mob by the capable French police. There is no spot on the civilized globe that would not have accorded Lindbergh the same sort of reception that he received from the impulsive people of France. While it is true, quoted Myron Herrick, that unusual ties bind this country fFranceJ to ours, it is not doubtful that had Lindbergh chosen London, Brussels, Vienna, or Berlin as his destination, and with the same degree of success, he would have been tendered a similar ovation in any of these cities. Colonel Lindbergh was deluged with the highest honors that could be bestowed. France, the impulsive, had not witnessed anything like the enthusi- asm created by Lindy's success since the days of the Armistice. One of the great airman's first acts was to call upon the mother of the unfortunate Nun- gesser, who, a short time previous, had made an unsuccessful attempt to do what the American aviator accomplished. This immediately won to the American any of the French people who might have been harboring ill feelings toward the United States for political reasons. The French aviators whom Thirlevn