furniture, with a sprinkling of antiques. There, on a golden-oak bureau, was what looked to be a large Greek vase! The man handed it down and said that he had bought it at a country-house sale six weeks before. It stood some fifteen inches high, broad in proportion. We hesitated, thinking it an absurd thing with which to burden ourselves unless we were convinced of its being genuine. This, sanity forbade, since it was without blemish, not a chip or a crack! Furthermore, the artistic member of my family, having numerous classical friends, did not wish to be the brunt of their jokes over such a purchase. However, the idea of it pursued us! Throughout the remainder of our stay we cast furtive glances at its exquisitely drawn figures as we passed by. On our last day we succumbed. Each stiffening the other's resolution, we sought out the stall, trembling with anxiety for fear some one had been before us! But no! We purchased it for seventeen and six, packed, feeling all the while a bit sheepish about the whole transaction. In London, we decided that we'd make sure just what we were taking home, so we consulted the curator of Greek Vases at the British Museum. His verdict was, as soon as his eye fell on it-a genuine vase of the late Fifth Century B.C., by an Athenian artist; an excellent example of the period! Not a bad investment and an adventure worth having!

And the cake shops! Nothing can so quickly take away the fatigue of brain and body that dogs the traveller's footsteps! I suppose the properly serious person would be horrified at the number and variety of patisseries which I bear clearly in mind, not to mention the vivid recollection of their wares, from the spicy pan forte of Siena to the ethereal candied fruits of Avignon, the apricots and plums, and most beautiful of all, the small golden melons which must surely be the lineal descendants of the apples of the Hesperides!

It is wise to plan for contrast and change on a more extensive scale, too. After a bout of city sightseeing, of museums and galleries and churches, make a break by going to some interesting small town and settling down for a while, seeing absolutely different things, where you can get closer to the people and their ways than is possible in a great city; a view intime, as it were. After Naples and Rome try a few days at Perugia, and a fortnight or

three weeks at Siena, before you go on to Florence. Don't feel that it is only the great places which have anything to offer. They are choc-a-bloc, these little cities, with quaint and unusual sights. (Their medieval character is less changed, far, than in the cities of importance where the stress of business and affairs has necessitated modernization.) For example, late one afternoon, while walking through a narrow stone street in Perugia, we were met by a delicious smell of herbs and roasted meat. Then two lads appeared, one pushing, one pulling, a cart with a spitted calf, still sizzling. The cart was provided with a huge wooden dripping-pan underneath, so evidently it was no uncommon thing. It smelt so good that we could think of little else until dinner! Perugia is absorbing at dusk, with its many bake-houses where one sees men firing the ovens with boughs, leaves and all, which make such a fat and crackling fire, setting the dark street aglow. A jolly sight!

And Siena! No words are good enough for that wonderful view from the windows of the Pension Sacarro, down over the terraced vineyards and peach orchards, the latter changing from deep pink of buds to a cloud of rose as the days wore on, to the old city wall of mellow brick, with the valley and mountains beyond, the loveliest view anywhere about. The whole countryside invites to enchanting walks, proffers unending delights along your path; grape hyacinths in such quantities that they appear to be bits of fallen sky, so blue are they; knots of star of Bethlehem; scillas white and blue, orange calendulas, jonquils and tulipsthese latter among the wheat; tromboni, the children call them. "Hawthorn hedges hung with snow," cherry and mimosa every

where!

One sees the people about their work, washing and gossiping at the very Fonte Brande which Dante tells of, or in the market, bargaining over a squirming rabbit, held up by the ears for inspection, or examining a basket of snails, its occupants busily crawling about, heads out and horns up. On the Sunday before Easter, after the blessing of the palms and olive branches in the cathedral, I saw an old peasant woman, down in the vineyard on the slopes below my window, tying a spray of these same olive boughs to each row of vines, to ensure an abundant harvest!

Such a place as Siena is full of interesting things to see and to doto see and to do with ease.

Speaking of museums, how some of us do behave in them! It was while looking at the marvellous altarpieces by Duccio in the Opera del Duomo, there, that I first came to realize how many people see with their fingers-how many who must touch with their hands before seeing with their eyes! One person after another paused to look, and to rub his fingers over those incomparable panels! Veritable St. Thomases! During a single visit I counted five. The guards were to blame, of course, and a thing so precious should be under glass, but equally of course should travellers learn something of the etiquette of travelling!

By the time you have stayed in Siena two weeks, and have seen the Palazzo Publico in every possible light, perhaps by good luck seen it illuminated for a festa with oil flambeaux blowing in the wind, and have visited the Cathedral two or three times each day, and possibly again at night have walked in the great piazza under its wing, so to speak, your impressions fuse into a consistent whole, the individual glimpses drop into their proper relation to one another, and you carry away a living, breathing image in mind and heart.

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The beauty of such travelling, of tucking in an interesting small place between the great ones, is, that you are perfectly fresh and rested to begin again. Florence has all the charms you expected of her, and more. Then after Florence and Venice, possibly Milan, choose some spot in Switzerland and settle down again. Lugano is perfect for the purpose. Such walks into the high valleys, with snow capped peaks on every side, such armfuls of narcissus, forget-me-nots, heartsease and lily of the valley, all the steep hillsides a-trickle with melting snow, old women toiling up and down with baskets of manure on their backs, to enrich their bits of garden; children climbing home after school; you see life as it is! Even the myriad attractions of Paris and London are shorn of their power to weary one so fortified. To those who say, "But we can't spare the time to settle down a week here and a fortnight there," the answer is, attempt less, have faith in the next time, save something for that; leave a nest-egg, as it were, to lure you back again.

AIRSHIPS VERSUS AIRPLANES

BY ARTHUR R. BLESSING

COLONEL LINDBERGH's famous non-stop flight to Europe is easily the outstanding milestone in aviation's steady march of progress. This young aviator's skill and daring have helped to make him one of the world's best known citizens. Yet thinking people recall distinctly the fate of so many other courageous flyers who started so hopefully but who have finished so tragically. Long distance flight is undoubtedly in the sporting stage of its existence and as such cannot be blindly condemned. However, in order to survive as a definite phase of transportation, the vision of it as a commercial success always must be kept in mind. All scientific developments are the result of painstaking research and study, and the rule of necessity causes the elimination of many nebulous theories. The development of transportation is no exception to this rule, and where passengers are to be carried, speed counts more and more. New means of transporting people supplant old ones simply in accordance with economic law. This law, whether interpreted economically, scientifically or sociologically, must square with the principle of utilitarianism, and this means the survival of the fittest.

Aircraft now seem destined to play a greater rôle in the pageant of civilization than any other mode of conveying persons and property from one place to another. Transoceanic travel in particular will have to be considerably revolutionized, and there is little question that in order to compete at all successfully with aircraft, steamship companies will have to pool their resources, both technical and financial. Even now, one American firm is about to establish a fleet of liners designed to cross the Atlantic in four days. Lord Thomson, a British air expert, in his book Air Facts and Problems, states the proposition as follows:

Regular airship services should be established across the North and South Atlantic during the next ten years. With these, once the safety and con

venience of airships have been demonstrated, the great shipping companies will be forced to combine, and a new, and eventually world-wide, industry will come into existence, whose economic effects will be as far-reaching and beneficial as those which followed the application of steam power to sea-craft.

Thus it would seem that a definite choice must be made as to the most practicable medium of long distance air travel. While all aircraft enthusiasts vociferously praise their own favorites, in the end the travelling public will decide. Any permanent commercial success in the transportation field depends upon the "paying load". Right there is the crux of the whole matter. No business can last if it does not at least pay expenses, and capital will not be forthcoming to develop aviation unless there is a reasonable profit in sight eventually. While mail and express can furnish some revenues to the air carriers, passengers must be attracted and held in order that air transportation may compete successfully and survive. For most persons, travelling in the air is rather revolutionary and a spirit of "air-mindedness" will have to be fostered; just as we have acquired "automobile-mindedness" and "radio-mindedness".

For the most part, persons considering transportation by air will naturally turn to airplanes, the craft with which they are most familiar. But are airplanes the most satisfactory? Will they attract the average traveller? Are they stable enough to span oceans and continents? Can they command a sufficient "paying load" to justify their existence economically? These are questions that will have to be answered satisfactorily before airplanes can hope to compete favorably with other means of covering long distances.

The airplane's greater speed is of course recognized. Where human beings are concerned, no other method of mechanically eliminating space has yet been developed that can rival the airplane. However, great as this advantage is, it is only one qualification, and several things must be taken into consideration from the practical point of view. A few of these items are: relative safety; comfort of passengers; costs of maintenance; and the general efficiency. As a business proposition, the problem of long distance air transportation would seem to be much better solved by airship than by airplane.