HUMOURS OF AVIATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1364, 15 February 1912, Page 6

HUMOURS OF AVIATION.

GOOD STORY OF M. BLERIOT.

The newly-opened salon of aviation at the Grand Polais is just now the centre of attraction in Paris, and the men whose names are known to every newspaper reader in the world aro seen by the curious public dressed as ordinary individuals and strolling quietly on the grounds instead of skimming the air in costumes resembling that of a diver.

Onn of the most Dopular of these is M. Blerint, whose oilskin suit, ami goggles always made liim easily recognisable in Iho early days of flying. His first, ({rent feat of traversing the Channel put him in possession of n curious-, document which is sure to figure honourably in the future museum of avi.itinn, which there is already a talk oi instituting. When lie landed at Dover on that memorable occasion, a coastguard who si«- him alight, informed a ('idioms official; who at oi.ee repaired to the spnl and put, thenewlynrrived traveller .through the usual formula, asking him if lie had anything lu declare, or if lie had any cases of infectious diseases on board. M. rileriof, having answered the (i>icsti»\ls salisfactorily, was then given Hie followingcertilicntc:—

"1, tlia undcrsienctl, declare that J have examined Louis Hleriot, master of a ship (monoplane), recently touching from Calais, and that from the oial answers of the said master to my questions it npp'wirs that during the voyage there were no cases on board of infectious diseases, requiring the detention of the ship, wherefore he is frc« to continue his. voyage. (Signedl X ." "Non e vero, e ben trovato," and if it exists this historical document certainly deserves to be placed in a glass caso, together with a photograph of the eagle of the Pyrenees that attacked Vedrines on Iho way to Madrid.—London "Daily Telegraph."

M.r. Andrew Carnegie has offered to give .£1."iOO for a free library at Listowel, the Karl of Li.stowcl providing a site and contributing .tiOfl. ' Lord Ash ton atinined his sixly-ninth birthday on Xew Year's Kve, having been bora at" Lancaster in 1812. Mr. Simon .Incob, the father of unionism in South Northamptonshire, has entered upnii hi.-; hundred and first year ill Wickeu village. Mv, Umlyard Kipling celebrated hi* Jorty-iisth. birthday on January I,