MARGINAL COMMENTS
By ROSE MACAULAY THE British newspaper press has, during the past week, scored heavily in its prolonged match against the bereaved.
The two unfortunate and distraught American girls who fell, with apparent purpose, from an air liner, gave it a great innings. The victims became " The Air Leap Sisters," as if they had been a Vaudeville turn ; this name was invented just in time to meet the eyes of their arriving parents—definitely a score, more particularly as the mother had not yet been told that the fall was not accidental. The winning side proceeded to push its advantage by boarding the train in which the grief-shocked parents were travelling froth Naples, guarded and protected (vain hope) by officials from the impertinent prying which experience of their own newspapers and people had taught them only too certainly to expect.
Of course, they lost this point ; the " special corre- spondents " were too determined for them. These gentlemen seem to have scored all down the line. They boarded the train. One of them caught a satisfac- tory glimpse at Paris of Mr. Du Bois's face at the window; another (or the same) took up a strategic position outside his sleeping-cothpartment, and was fortunate enough to be rewarded by another glimpse of this " broken, ashen- grey man " at his door. At Folkestone and . Victoria further points were scored, for Mrs. Du Bois was observed to break down and sob in a friend's arms. " An attempt was made to smuggle the party to their car "—a vain attempt, it seems, for the winning side were now pressing hard.
" Then came the most dramatic moment of all the long journey of these grief-stricken parents "—for Mrs. Du Bois was seen to be walking down the platform, supported by a friend. Once in the car, they " drove swiftly away " to the house where they were to stay. But not so swiftly as their pursuers, who must have leaped into taxis and said " Overtake that car " ; or possibly the house was already " covered " by other members of their side ; in any case, they were able to report the words uttered by the parents on arrival there.
Then followed the inquest. Here the coroner took a hand, for, despite the father's protest, he read aloud (instead of passing them to the jury to read to them- selves) the girls' last letters to their parents, True, he expressed a hope that the newspapers might not print them ; needless to say, every newspaper (I believe) did so.; they could scarcely be expected to cede so telling a point as that to the other side. This triumph was followed by interviews with a priest who had given out that the sisters had spoken to him in church the day before their, death, and with " an intimate woman friend " of theirs, who seems to have betrayed to reporters an alleged confidence given her by the younger girl a year agO, 'and, to give it _verisimilitude, handed over an entry made* by the girl in her diary, to be facsimiled in the news- papers.
So far so good. But there were still some bereaved to be scored over : notably the -.flaw& of the dead flying officer, to whom one of the sisters" had become attached. Her mother said she was away. But she was easily run to earth, and asked for her views on the affair, which are printed.
The whole match was a crushing victory to that heavily equipped side which knows no law of fouls.
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