The Trail of the Hawk: A Comedy of the Seriousness of LifeLewis, Sinclair
General
The Trail of the Hawk: A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life
Lewis, Sinclair
City and town life -- Fiction; Minnesota -- Fiction
Two nights later, in a hotel at Portland, Maine, Carl was plowing
through the Psychology. He hated study. He flipped the pages angrily,
and ran his fingers through his corn-colored hair. But he sped on,
concentrated, stopping only to picture a day when the people who
honored him publicly would also know him in private. Somewhere among
them, he believed, was the girl with whom he could play. He would meet
her at some aero race, and she would welcome him as eagerly as he
welcomed her.... Had he, perhaps, already met her? He walked over to
the writing-table and scrawled a note to Gertie Cowles--regarding the
beauty of the Yale campus.
CHAPTER XXII
(_Editor's Note_: The following pages are extracts from a diary kept
by Mr. C. O. Ericson in a desultory fashion from January, 1911, to the
end of April, 1912. They are reprinted quite literally. Apparently Mr.
Ericson had no very precise purpose in keeping his journal. At times
it seems intended as _materia_ for future literary use; at others, as
comments for his own future amusement; at still others, as a sort of
long letter to be later sent to his friend, Lieut. Forrest Haviland,
U.S.A. I have already referred to them in my _Psycho-Analysis of the
Subconscious with Reference to Active Temperaments_, but here reprint
them less for their appeal to us as a scientific study of reactions
than as possessing, doubtless, for those interested in pure narrative,
a certain curt expression of somewhat unusual exploits, however
inferior is their style to a more critical thesis on the adventurous.)
_May 9_, (_1911_). Arrived at Mineola flying field, N. Y. to try out
new Bagby monoplane I have bought. Not much accomodation here yet.
Many of us housed in tents. Not enough hangars. We sit around and tell
lies in the long grass at night, like a bunch of kids out camping.
Went over and had a beer at Peter McLoughlin's today, that's where
Glenn Curtiss started out from to make his first flight for Sci. Amer.
cup.
Like my new Bagby machine better than Blériot in many respects, has
non-lifting tail, as should all modern machines. Rudder and elevator a
good deal like the Nieuport. One passenger. Roomy cockpit and enclosed
fuselage. Blériot control. Nearer streamline than any American plane
yet. Span, 33.6 ft., length 24, chord of wing at fuselage 6´ 5´´.
Chauviere propeller, 6´ 6´´, pitch 4´ 5´´. Dandy new Gnôme engine, 70
h.p., should develop 60 to 80 m.p.h.
Martin Dockerill my mechanician is pretty cute. He said to me to-day
when we were getting work-bench up, "I bet a hat the spectators all
flock here, now. Not that you're any better flier than some of the
other boys, but you got the newest plane for them to write their names
on."
Certainly a scad of people butting in. Come in autos and motor cycles
and on foot, and stand around watching everything you do till you want
to fire a monkey wrench at them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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