The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-27
A Wild Morning Ride to Selma
 Carrying The Advertiser i'm an Auto

string suddenly became a bridge and as we drew nearer a two mule wagon with two negroes and two bales of cot ton passed over us. the negroes watch Ing with wide-open eyes the strange thing shooting along the track. The
 mules and the negroes were the first living things that we had seen since leaving Montgomery.
 The Stop at the Switch. Phelps pulled hls watch and looked anxiously at 1t. He shouted in our ears, We are at the junction now, three miles from town. We have made tn. forty-seven miles in an hour and three-quarters. A passenger train leaves the station in Selma at 5:1S. Rush her up or we won't get in." Beavers touched lever and the ma chine sprang forward with heightened speed It was light enough now for us Io see that we were flying up grade, but we were flying ahead just the same. The draw-bridge across the Alabama river flashed into sight. At the same moment Phelps said, Its too late. Yon- der she comes"
 We saw the smoke of the passenger | engine. Beavers touched a lever and | reversed the auto. We flew backward to the junction as the big passenger engine steamed down upon us. Phelps sprang off and unlocked a switch and We ran on one of the tracks The pas senger engine slowed up and l saw my friend Engineer and Alderman Charlie Coins leaning from the cab. He rec ognized us and waved his hand with a Hi, take that baby carriage off the track. I'm liable to run over 1t before 1 see it."
 A brakeman with d turned-up nose stood on the baggage car steps, He made pair of telescopes of his hands | looked so tiny compared to the big train. called:
 T can't see her. but l know she's | out there, because l smell the gasoline. '' The trainmen were speaking of her | size, not of her speeding qualities for her schedule to Selma was something | under the regular schedule the day passenger train usually makes from the | capital City.
 Still another annoying delay was at
 hand. A freight for the F1omaton
 branch of the Louisville and Nashville l left five minutes after the passenger, | and we were held at the Junction an l other ten minutes for 1t to pass, losing | in all no less than twenty-five minutes. l The last car of the freight train had | hardly passed over the switch before | It was thrown and we had glided over l for the three miles spurt into Selma.
 The gates of the city were open and
 Beavers threw the lever back to the last notch. The speed of the machine | was barely lessened as we dashed over | the wide drawbridge across the Ala bama River, and as we struck the draw | each man was bumped a few inches in | the air, an experience that was not | altogether reassuring, as his eye caught | the glimpse of the brown and eddying
 waters far below. We glided into the
 yards to find at the crossing Circula- l ton Manager Lee, who has charge of the business end of the paper at Selma
 He sprang aboard the big wooden box | and rode into the station at the foot Not Broad Street.
 The car was stopped short, It's pas
 sengers dismounted and it's cargo of
 papers was unloaded, and the run was
 over
 The run to the Junction had been
 made in one and three-quarters hours
 and after losing twenty minutes at the
 switch. the car pulled up at the pas | senger station two hours and fifteen
 minutes after the order had been re-
 ceipted for in the train dispatcher's of flee at Montgomery. ~ We spent something over an hour in Selma, had breakfast and started on
 the return trip a little after ! o'clock We side-tracked a few minutes on the I return trip at Burkeville for the morn ing passenger train, and then ran into
 the union depot at Montgomery within
 the two-hour mark, and shortly after
 9 o'clock. '5+# ..:= .=
 Herein are set down some heeting
 sensations of the wild ride from Mont gomery to Selma on the auto-car ot The Advertiser. It Is an important
 move, an expensive move, that Circula-
 ton Manager Noble has made In put
 ting on the car. The car Itself was
 costly. Moreover The Advertiser is paying the salary of a practical en.
 gineer and railroad man to run the car
 as well as the salary of a young man
 who will go along to throw switches
 and turn his hands to whatever may come up. .-.+ II. .. .: The Purpose of the Car. I The enterprise has but one aim-to furnish the people of West Alabama | with The Advertiser at the earliest pos
 sible moment. The inconvenient sched. ule in going from Montgomery to West Alabama or in coming from West Ala
 bama to Montgomery Is too we'll known | to require comment Going either way
 1t means stay of six hours in Selma To bridge the break in the schedule be- 1 tween the Western and the Southern | Roads, Is the purpose of the auto-car 1 Before the car was put on, the man who l wanted an Advertiser in Marion, New berne, Greensboro and other west Ala l bama towns, would have to wait until
 late in the afternoon on the day on
 which 1t was printed.
 But with the auto-car the train
 which leaves Selma at 5:30 o'clock will
 carry The Advertiser through the ricf and prosperous towns of the Black Belt I and the Cane Brake. The man in Ma l rion and the man in Greensboro car get his Advertiser almost as soon ai 1 the man on the outskirts of Montgom-
 cry. If the Montgomery man Is late
 riser the Marion man will be the first
 to read the news of the day
 l A passenger train leaves Selma fol | Montgomery at 5:13 o'clock every
 morning. With the auto-car running | the passenger on that train fifty miles
 from Montgomery can buy an Adver- l tiser a few minutes after daylight. | The car Is simply another step for ward In the progress of the great daily
 It is an expensive effort to give the 1 people what they want at the earliest possible moment. Q
 The car may not in the strictest
 meaning of the word be on permanent | ly. Some contingencies may arise
 which will sidetrack 1t for few days
 but such contingencies are not expect ed. Nothing The Advertiser can do will | be left undone to have 1t run each day
 of the year.
 The officials of the Western Railway
 have been most kind and appreciative