EMBARRASSING HERO WORSHIP.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 March 1920, Page 4

EMBARRASSING HERO WORSHIP.

SYDNEY, February 19. When Sir Boss and Sir Keith Smith arise in their Vickers-Vimy on Monday and turn their faces to Melbourne, they may be expected to breathe great sighs of relief. They are the heroes of the hour here, and hero-worship has proved more than a little embarrassing. Ross Smith is most courteous and approachable, a typical light-hearted ■Australian and he makes no barrier of his honours and his glory. It would l>e better for him if he did. Every da y this week, from breakfast-time till midnight, his room in the Hotel Australia has been beset by importunate callers. Some have legitimate business with him; quite two-thirds are mere pests. Yet he tries to give all of them a moment. His mail piles up hourly—a distracting mass. It has been attacked by a couple of bis friends, volunteer secretaries, but they can’t keep it under. Autograph books, telegrams, more autograph books, scores of invitations and appeals, still more autograph books. The brothers say that if they signed steadily from now until they fly away they could not get through those “infernal books.” They arc good-naturedly doing thenbest for the ‘graph hunters—but they are beginning to hate the sight of their own signatures. The brothers have received “about a hundred” odes of welcome —composers want to dedicate songs to them; and happy parents write to say they propose to name the newborn after them, but don’t know whether to make it Ross Keith or Keith Ross; they think Keith Ross “sounds better, and would Sir Ross mind Jiis name not going first?” They are preparing a riotous _ welcome in Melbourne, it seems, and urgent messages from that city are piling in on top of the Sydney correspondence. There are scores of letters from infatuated girls—the aviators might, if they chose, out-do Don Juan’s Mediterranean adventures. Some of the girls make what are practically offers of marriage. Well, this is Leap Year. Such are some of the penalties of fame.