The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-09-16
AUTO FLIGHT
IN THE DESERT
Tale of a Record Run From
Goldfield to Manhattan
and Back.
OVER FIFTY MILES AN HOUR
SPEED or EXPRESS OVER NOUN.
TAIN ROADS.
BY JOEL L. PRIEST.

| II
\ Sr@SN more than eighty
w S miles of unadulterat-
| \\ ed desolation in an
automobile that could
so some. The auto
mobile is to the Nevada desert what
! water is to the sagebrush steppes OF
| Idaho, Utah and other western states
| Through the Use of the fast-fiying cars
it has become possible to advance the
mining industry in Nevada by at least
a decade. We had a practical illustra-
! ton of the difference between the old
and the new on the trip OF which ann
about to tell, but the story must he re-
served until later
It was $3.50 o'clock at night. Cold
field, always lively, was just entering
upon its liveliest period the hours be-
| tween 3 O'Clock at night and o'clock
in the morning. The big fifty-hOrse-
power Pope owned and used by L. NJ.
| Sullivan of the Sullivan Trust COM
pany stood in front of Mr.. Sullivan'a
offices, with Bill DeJarlais, speed
merchant. at the steering wheel Bin
was kicking. He said II would not be-
! possible to make any speed because
our party-there were five OF us-waS
too big.
Chauffeur Is Discouraged.
Wen he luckyif we do fifty miles
on hour on the fat" Bill growled He
said it just as if fifty miles an hour
was mere infantile crawl That
! Jared me some, because I have been
used TO riding with chauffeurs who fig
ured themselves out dare-deviIs when
they did eighteen miles an hour I'm short
spurts 1t was no joke with Bill.
| though. He is accustomed to moving
rapidly, and he Is said TO be one of
the most daring chauffeurs in country
of daring chauffeurs.
In addition to the party. consistine
of Jack Campbell. mining experr for.
the Sullivan Trust company; w H.
| Hopkins, a Chicago broker; w a.
Crooks, broker from Pittsburg; Char
ley Caldwell a New York lawyer. and
myself the car carried Let OF ex-
ira stuff. Taare was a water bag about
the size Of a mail sack, a couple of ex-
ira shoes or tires, special tools for
use IN emergencies and a lot Of bag
gage. Bill could only hope we would
reach our objective point Manhattan,
| a t1tie more than eighty miles away
| He wasn't sure of it bit from which
you may gather the quite erroneous i'm
preston thai Bill is a pessimist He
isn't.
We dropped out Of Goldheld as the
clocks struck the half-hour use
the word dropped" in the literal sense.
Goldfield is On a bench and our road
led down into the valley Bill let go
all holas and we simply fell over to
Columbia, mile and half from, Cold
field, and famous chiefly because it con-
tainS the Merchants hotel run by Mr.
and Mrs. Casey Mcdonnell. who ara
worth IL story all by themselves. AS We
passed the hotel Mr. and Mrs. Casey
waved welcome and goodbye and We.
were really off for the desert.
Nioht on the Desert
The moon had risen in a sky that
was fecked with clouds. The lights OF
the automobile punctured the gloom
ahead of us like long, quivering fingers,
and the beat of the big engines under
the, hood in front settled into steady
hum. 1t was not hard to understand
that the desert has its fascinations,
that the dweller on its bosom NAV learn
to love ii. Perhaps the soft moonlight
had something TO do with the senti-
ment. for it shOne between the clouds
IN great. broad bands with a beauty
that varied with every moment
Back in the roomy tonneau Crooks.
Hopkins and myself tried for a while
to make conversation. Crooks was a.
former newspaper man, and it devel-
oped that we had many mutual &C.
quaintances- Hopkins told of expe-
riences he had had while hunting in the
forests of Michigan and Wisconsin, and
Caldwell had ridden the range I'm Tex
as. None of us had ever had an ex-
perience such as the one ahead OF us,
though, and little by little the CONVEX
sation Jagged While we gave up our
selves entirely to solid enjoyment OF
life in a desert greyhound.
In front sat Campbell a perfect pic
ture of a man. He looked as If he had
just stepped out OF a Remington pic
M oh va ha
a type of the men who are wrestling
from the desert places their stores OF
precious metals The ride was an old
story for him. He had made ii many
times before. and he had made much
harder trips. trips that took all the
courage and the manhood there was in
him. 1t was an Old story with Bill too.
He said never 4 word, looking straight
ahead of him and attending strictly TO
business.
Flash Through DiamondfieId.
1t seemed only a moment after leav-
ing Goldfeld that we passed through
Diamondheld, seven miles out. And
again we passed on into the great quiet
of the desert With rever skip or a
halt we sped along. the miles trailing
out behind us on the automobile road
that wound in and out and around the
low hills like ribbon tossed aside by
a titanic child grown tired of playing
! with it. Steadily rose the moon and.
as the clouds passed away, the desert
was flooded with its light Here and
there a Yucca palm, known locally as 4
Joshua tree" or a clump OF withered
sagebrush struggling up through the
/, forbidding soil showed that even in this
desolation nature was struggling to
beautify. and adorn herself
y Continued on Page 3.