The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-09-16

suggested that the name was an odd
one, it came out
Some years ago two prospectors were'
In that country A burro carried their
outfit. When they reached the ground
nQW known as the Jumping Jack the
burro, either because he had eaten
some loco weed or from pure mulish-
ness, began to act most crazily He
kicked and reared and plunged. Look
at that jumping jack said one OF the
prospectors to his partner. And the
two watched the beasts antics for q
few moments. Then, in his gyrations,
the burro kicked a piece of rock loose
The prospectors examined it. 1t was
1ecked with gold. So the Jumping
Jack claim was located, and later be-
came Sullivan property.
1t was o'Gock in the afternoon be-
fore we finished our round of the mines
and returned to the club house for
luncheon. Now what do you think of
sitting down fifty-seven miles from a
railroad, in the heart of a desert coun-
try, to a luncheon of chops. French
peas, sliced fresh tomatoes, shoestring
potatoes. apple pie, coffee and other
good things? Doesn't seem possible?
Well, / know Of at least six people who
will be very glad to make an affidavit
covering the subject. IL necessary.
The ride home was a Joy. We left
Manhattan at 1888, expecting to get
back to Goldfield not much before bed
time. Fifteen miles out somebody sug-
gested that we make a little pool on
the time of our arrival at Tonopah
One man suggested Gas, another said
$780, Nobody put the time before s
o'clock until CampbelPs turn came. He
whispered something to Bill. Bill smiled
and nodded, and '5;29'' said Campbell
Then Bill cut loose sure enough. The
speed indicator crawled up TO forty,
forty-five. fifty miles an hour Then,
very gradually, 1t went on to fifty-five.
fifty-six, and at last to fifty-nine miles
an hour for a sohrt stretch.
1t Will be many, many years before
any of the tenderfeet I'm the car have
that sense OF exhilaration again. One
of the infrequent rains of the country
had fallen, hardening the road and free
ing it absolutely from dust. Occasion
ally the car would strike a bump and
all four wheels would go whirling into
the air. At such times Bill would say
without turning his head: "An in back
there?" and let out another link It
was great, but I hate TO think of what
might have happened if something had
suddenly gone wrong.
Old Way and the New.
| Halfway TO Tonopah we met TWEEN
ty-four mule team pulling a gasoline
! hoist toward Manhattan. That team
had left .Tonopah Tuesday morning. We
| left Goldfield Tuesday night, Goldfield
! being twenty-seven miles farther from
Manhattan than is Tonopah went to
| Manhattan, spent most OF q night and
a day there, and were back In Goldfield
| before the team reached Manhattan
There was the illustration of the diff
| ference between the old way and the
new. 1t was the difference between two
| or three miles an hour, with frequent
| stops to rest, and many miles an hour
with no stops.
A little further along / got my first
| glimpse of a band Of wild horses. They
were out in the desert thousand Yards
from the automobile when we first saw
them. Then they raced along with us
for quarter of mile, their long
names and tails streaming in the breeze
IA beautiful sight. There must have
been a dozen of them. and not one had
ever felt the touch of bit or spur.
| Twenty miles out of Tonopah we, the
tenderfeet, had real thrill. Down the
automobile road toward us came an
| automobile travelling at the rate of
perhaps forty-five miles an hour. We
were going toward it at about the same
rate 1t was five or six miles away
when we first sighted it, but I'm breath
1t was upon us. At Just the moment
when a collision seemed inevitable, Bill
turned out and gave the other car half
the road. The other driver did the
same thing, and we shot by each other
In the flicker of an eyelid.
We were making splendid time when
it occurred to somebody that there
might be a chance to break the record
for loaded car between Manhattan
and Tonopah. The best time for a load
was two hours and five minutes. Bill
agreed to make it in two hours. He did
better. Something went wrong with
the automatic gasoline pump but
Campbell worked il by hand from his
front seat and we fairly made the
ground smoke when we had anything
like a level grade, At exactly 5:29
! Campbells guess precisely, we reached
the outer limits of Tonopah, one hour
and f1fty-six minutes out OF Manhat-
tan. Considering everything. it was q
wonderful performance. Three hours
from Manhattan TO Tonopah is consid-
cred very good time.
We loafed around Tonopah until after
o'clock and then headed for Gold
I field. This lap was made, grades and
all, In one hour and thirteen minutes
From this should be deducted five min
utes we used up on the road to put
down the canopy top, making the ac-
tual running time one hour and eight
IllluCeS, Ut just Inree hours ana TWO
minutes from Manhattan to Goldfeld
running time. And the distance is
eighty-four miles. No railroad I'm that
section OF the country operates trains
on faster schedule.
To Mr.. Sullivan. who placed his car
at our disposal, the writer and the
other tenderfeet owe a debt of graft
tude. Likewise to Mr.. Campbell for his
courteous chaperonage, and to Bill for
his admirable handling of the machine
From beginning to end there was moth
ing to mar the pleasure Of the trip, and
all OF us will remember for the balance
of our lives that dash across the desert
in a Pope-Toledo car.