and set the ship and pilot on fire. Mathilde was rescued with her hair and leggings singed.
Then in earnest did the Moisant family step in. They had previously urged their daughter to abandon flying and this time they succeeded in gaining their end. It is said the reward for parental obedience was a plantation in San Salvador. At all events, after five strenuous months, Mathilde Moisant ceased to fly.
Outstanding among the earlier women flyers was Ruth Law. She was born in Lynn, Massachusetts. She obtained the third license granted to women in America and I don’t believe aviation has seen a more picturesque figure than this original Ruth. She went after flying with great determination. With her there was a real feeling of competition against the men of the day who in training and equipment were forging ahead of the few individual women struggling for a chance in the air.
Here is a story which gives a picture of the kind of thing Miss Law wanted to do and how she did it:
Early in November, 1916, Victor Carlstrom took off on what was to be an epoch-making flight. He started from Chicago hoping to reach New York, in an effort to establish a new non-stop distance record. No one had ever flown so far. Carlstrom flew a Jenny, the latest in military planes, and he carried the then very large load of 206 gallons of gasoline.
He had covered 452 miles when a fuel line broke and he had to come down at Erie, Pennsylvania.
