Bug

For goodwill, for science, and for publicity, Amelia Earhart Putnam set out from Los Angeles one day last week to fly nonstop to Mexico, D. F. (1,700 mi.). The prospect of a visit from the world's No. 1 woman aviator so excited Mexicans that most Government employes were given a holiday, a special postage stamp issue was arranged, and swarthy Foreign Minister Emilio Fortes Gil prepared to greet the lady in the name of the Republic.

Scientific purpose of Mrs. Putnam's flight was to test a radio homing compass in her capacity as $1-a-year employe of the Department of Commerce. Over the State of Hidalgo both radio and compass went sour, a bug flew into her eye and she lost her bearings. Thereupon Flyer Putnam "sat down" in a cow pasture, learned that she was 60 miles from her goal.

In Mexico City an hour later she was given a wild Latin reception by Government officials, some 20,000 shouting Mexicans and her ubiquitous husband George Palmer Putnam. More impressed by her reception than by her performance, Mrs. Putnam told newsmen: "From a pilot's standpoint the record was not very satisfactory."

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