Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-09-17
AN AUTOMOBILE TRIP.

lntlt arg fdIlUuS ways VI oPon%-s'e z
vacation. Your readers may be in
terested in an account of how we
travelled $500 miles over five states,
and grew fieshy and happy the while.
The sun shone brightly upon the pol
ished auto as we slowed away the
camera, suit-cases, rain-coats, lunch
box and paraphernalia on the afternoon
of August 18th, and made ready for the
start. A merry group of frieEds sur
rounded us and waved fond 'adieus,' =
and so we sped gaily away with hearts
as light as the downy aigrette that
floats far up on the blue. II you mark
on the map from a point 100 miles south
of Chicago, where we started, through
La Eayette, LoganspoH, II. Wayne.
Fostoria, NorwaIk, Cleveland, Con
meant, Erie, Buffalo, Rochester, Can
andaigua, Auburn, Syracuse. Water
town and Herkimer, you viii be follow
ing our route.
Enjoy it Well The air was laden
with incense of flowers and as we neared
the great lakes it seemed to act like
tonic to the lungs Turtle doves flew
up before and plymouth rocks scurried
for cover, crossing in front and Just
escaping with their necks in almost
every case Here and there a rabbit
scampered through the grass and one
bob-white blinked unabashed from his
perch in the hedge tree, Everywhere
were vast areas of rank, tasseled corn.
the second cropping of clover was be-
ginning to blossom, immense orchards
of peach, pear and apple trees and
vineyards of grapes through Pennsyl-
vania and western New York, extending
far as one could see and literally cover
ing hundreds of acres in single fields
with long rows of vines that in the dis
tance seemed quite like the queenly
corn that waves over Indiana and
Illinois, spacious fields of sauerkraut
and Boston baked, tomato and aspara-
gus beds as big as oat fields near Wan
sau, raspberries and strawberries in
profusiOn, sweet-potatoes, sugar beets,
onions, garden-sauce for nearby city
and metropolitan markets.
How varied are the products of
mother earth? Around Syracuse are
acres covered over with vats for evap
Grating water that is pumped from the
depths in order to obtain the savory
crystals from which is refined the salt
of commerce, while along lake Erie,
huge. derricks are dotted here and
there like skeleton wiudmills on Hol
land landscape, and these are pumping
grease There are huge oil storage
tanks, and refineries, with miles of pipe
leading to them. In some localities
the water and air exude petroleum,
which calls to mind the remark of a
man who said he'd been north the
winter before and didn't like it. "Why
everything tasted sprucy, the petatss
tasted sprucy." The pumps groaned
complainingly as they lifted and
strained, as though distressed because
of the added burden that is put upon
them of having to raise John DIS fine.
What an injustice that one of natures
rarest products and remarkable con-
tributions to human need, the treasure
which through ten thousand years of
the coal epoch was storing for our good
should now be cornered and controlled
by man or set of men who may say to
the rest of the world, "hands off,"
Many of the farms along the swells
of the upper Appallachians count
natural gas among their resources, and
with so lbs. pressure are enabled to
light their homes and operate stationary
engines. We took snapshot of ex-
president Gariield's beautiful home at
Mentor and shouted to the people on
the broad veranda to 'look pleasant"
We got a kodak view of an acre of
geraniums, several of county fairs and
some where the white capped combers
were chasing each other onto the
pebbly beach. In front of one magnifi-
cent display of farm buildings, bor-
dered by wealth of flowers, stood a
statue of the god of agriculture over
coming the capricious beast of the
elements, and looking for all the world
as though it had been secured from the
PanAmerican. A grey eagle restlessly
paced his cage at one place near the
roadside, annoyed perhaps by the
whirling autos that, like birds of pass
age, went fitting past.
1t was interesting to pass The great
Lackawana steel plant, near Buffalo,
the mammoth iron founderies at Erie,
the biggest milling plant in Ohio at
Fostoria, the plate glass factories at
Alexandria, and other industrial estab-
rounded the Grand Reservoir, which is
said to be the largest artificial body of
water in the world. The scene varied.
Now we were bowling along the boule-
wards that lead through dreamy parks
in vicinity of cities where whole streets
have been converted by the skill of
landscape artists into veritable glimpses
of Paradise. Again we are speeding
upon the smooth macadam that is
skirted by the limerick lodges and
blue hills of the Empire state, while the
air is racy with the breath of old
Ontario. There is this difference
noticeable between newer and older
settled portions that, there, attention
is directed 10 the aesthetic in nature as
in architecture, and this attention is
not only bestowed upon personal
property as where houses and lawns
are well kept but collectively as affect
ing neighborhoods and the appearance
of the whole community.
The American people are prosperous
and prosperity is reflected in a thou
sand ways, substantial business blocks.
palatial homes, systematic road i'm
provement, towering monuments and
heroic statues erected to the memories