The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-03-31
BY GEO. SCHUSTER.

| guess there are mighty few
people who know what it means
to establish a lead of 900 miles in
race like this. 1t means a lot of
gruelling work night and day with
the thought always in the back of
your head that every minute and
every mile is of the utmost impor-
lance.
We had this idea when we left
New York. We started in to win
at the crack of the gun. We were
after lead and we got it. We ran
into snow the first day out. For
three days we shoveled snow until
we found that our car was break
ing the way for the others. We
got sick of this and on the third
day following we let ourselves out
and established our lead. We beat
the French car from Buffalo to
Erie by two hours. Only twice
from New York to San Francisco
have We been beaten into gar
age. We haven't seen the other
cars since we left Chicago. (
We had pretty fair going until
we struck Indiana. | believe that
state has the worst roads in the
country. It's mud, mud, mud. From
10 to 30 miles a day was good
average. Between Burdick and
Hobart, Indiana, we. took to the
railroad ties for % miles.
We had a good run across Hi
nois but sloughed into the mud
again in Iowa-Dlack, heavy, Shiny
mud. We had to call at the fire
departments of several towns and
turn the fire hose on the machine
so a person could tell what it was.
Nebraska was as good as Iowa
was bad. 1t has the best roads of
any state we crossed except Cali
fornia. We kept plugging ahead
and must have established big
lead here. OF course We had only
general idea where the other
cars were, but as far as | was con-
cerned the excitement of the race
was as keen as it was when we
started. The further west we got,
the bigger welcomes We received.
We ran up against it good and
hard as soon as We struck Laramie,
That is not an eXaggeration. There
were nothing but rough trails
drifted with snow or hub deep with
mud.
The trails were absolutely i'm
passable a hundred miles further
on, and we took to the Union Pa
cific tracks. For AZ miles we plow-
ed on, Earring, jolting, wrenching.
We were a couple of hundred
miles or so from nowhere and an
accident would have hurt us a
lot. We had to take the chances.
At Aspen, Yyoming., We ran slap
up against a tunnel We decided
to go through it, 1t was a mile
and a half long. 1t seemed like a
hundred. We expected to see a
headlight any time. If you want
some real excitement try sprinting
through a railroad tunnel over the
ties in an automobile. It's excit-
ing, all right.
We came over the Utah line on
TIE tlCo anu iiiduS oSuth at
o'clock in the afternoon of March
16. There were no roads over the
Salt Lake marches, SO on to the
ties we went again. A few miles
out of Godfrey We straddled the
tracks. 1t was on a high grade
We ran into a washout and for q
few seconds we hung by two
wheels 100 feet above a ravine
| know my heart wasn't where II
is supposed to be, We got out
of the scrape with nothing more
serious than a bent steering gear
The only serious accident on the
entire trip occurred 10 miles east
of Ely, New. We had been making
good time with pretty good roads
when we stripped double gear il
a gully The nearest station wa:
IS miles, There was nothing e