eal of moral
cowardice. So-and-So has probably become afraid of the intoxicating
fumes of publicity. Fame, he discovers, blended with the unfamiliar
high-tension atmosphere of Manhattan Island, is heady stuff. He finds
many of his old notions burst asunder amid so much noise and light and
swift movement. He will, if he be British, feel constrained to run down
England, just as later on, when he returns to London, he will write a
book running down America. So-and-So flies from temptation and "refuses
to talk."

All this is more or less _apropos_ of Mr. Francis Lord's arrival in New
York after having crossed the Atlantic in a sea-plane. As a matter of
fact Mr. Francis Lord was making for Key West, when what is called
engine-trouble caused him to descend to the surface of a perfectly
smooth sea. The weekly mail-boat from Belize to New York was speeding up
the Florida Channel when the officer of the watch made out a large
triplane ahead of him. It was apparently trying to rise, but without
success. The course of the steamer was altered to bring her more in the
way of the machine. Just as they were approaching, the triplane rushed
across their bows, rose out of the water, and instead of "banking," slid
down side-ways, completely submerging the right-hand planes. The ship
was stopped and a boat lowered. According to the laconic report of the
commander, who seemed more anxious to claim a record for his boat-crew
than to share the glory of salving an eminent airman's life, they had
the boat up and were under way again inside of eighteen minutes. And so
Mr. Francis Lord arrived in New York in the usual prosaic way, and our
enterprising friends, accompanied by a score of other hunters of
"scoops," had to return hastily. It does not appear, however, that they
would have gained anything had they remained, because the astute Lord
Cholme had provided a press-agent. This gentleman, we heard long
afterwards, was in Savannah superintending the first rehearsals of a
gigantic film-drama depicting the Conquest of the Atlantic. On hearing
of his principal's arrival on a steamer he took the next train north,
and from the moment he reached Mr. Francis Lord's hotel on Fifth Avenue,
Mr. Francis Lord seemed lost to view. We found in the papers no
interviews with Mr. Lord. He "refused to talk." The press-agent,
however, handed out type-written statements about the trip, the islands
where landings were made, the readings of the instruments, the
di