Word: public
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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When he landed in Paris-equipped with letters of introduction so that he would not be stranded-he had his first taste of public adulation and it was good. He had done something which, after it was done, his logical mind could perceive, was reasonable occasion for acclaim. He had the time of his life standing on the Aero Club balcony with Ambassador Herrick and waving flags at the crowd below. When he returned to the U. S. after visiting the capitals of Europe and rode, up Fifth Avenue in a paper shower, he knew that...
...hero worship went on, slowly, almost imperceptibly, Lindbergh began to freeze up. People wanted to paw him and he did not like to be pawed. Women wanted to kiss him and he angrily pulled away. Because he kept a distance, the public became more hysterical. In St. Louis, after he had left an outdoor table where he had eaten-as heartily as usual-with fellow officers of his old squadron, he finally saw what he was up against: women broke through the lines and fought for the still damp corncobs which he had chewed clean and left in a small...
...knew he was a good flier and had been pleased to have the public acknowledge it, but matter-of-fact Lindbergh could no more understand the public's mass hysteria than the public could understand...
...this the U. S. press was largely responsible. Its original sin was omission-failure to tell what kind of man he was, to treat him with the customary cynicism with which it keeps public characters in perspective. Instead the press succumbed to mob psychology, augmenting it beyond belief. In Lindbergh's mind, however, the press became something far worse: a personification of malice, which deliberately urged on the crazy mob and printed lying stories about...
...Lindbergh sees before him the friendly prospect of a normal life in his own country, but between it and him lies the high fence of misunderstanding. To his old friends he is almost unchanged, still direct, cheerful, frank, a little more mature and self-possessed. To the U. S. public before which he cannot appear without growing gawky, from which he instinctively shrinks, he is still the enigmatic hero...