The San Francisco call., 1908-12-20

'HOmmery" made the worlds record
In an eight cylinder Darracq, which he
held for several years.
From Marseilles I sped along the
Riviera 70 Nice and Monte Carlo. where
j left few American gold pieces with
the prince. going from there over the
beautiful country of the Basses-Alpes
to Lyon. which Is quite an automobile
center. From Lyon made the run over
the Swiss frontier to Geneva. Lucerne
and other of the famous Swiss resorts,
over the Brunug pass 10 .Interlaken.
peculiarity Of all Swiss mountain
passes is that there are stated hours
during which automobiles can travel.
and strict regulations regarding the
number of minutes required to cover
the distance, the certificate being taken
at the point of departure and registered
at the end OF the pass. This law is to
guard against excessive speed on the
dangerous mountain roads, and failure
to occupy the required time in making
the distance would result In arrest. In
retracing the route from Interlaken to
Lucerne and going around the Swiss
lakes to the st. Gothard pass in the
Alps found the same existing regula-
tions as to speed. During the season OF
1908 our car was the first to cross the
Alps. In some places we found ten
inches of snow. and some very winding
roads. necessitating in two instances
the backing of the car TO effect a turn.
PASS STATION LAKES
On the way to Milan the italian
lakes were passed, and we visited the
Isotta factory, which is a very complete
plant absolutely filed with American
machinery. AS the weather was very
hot and gasoline in Italy 95 cents per
gallon we left the car at Milan and
In, RI, a
Naples. then returned to Milan. took
the car and drove to Mestre. as being
the closest point to Venice, about four
miles by water. One week. including
the fourth of July, was spent in Venice,
when we took the car through the Alps
by way of the Brenner pass to Munich
Leaving Munich. the car took us to
Vienna. and / visited Oberammergau.
where I had long talk with Anton
Lang and succeeded in getting him to
pose In the car for the first time. Then
on to Vienna over the Austrian from
tier, though the roads round Vienna for
90 miles are very bad. Leaving Vienna,
we made for Berlin. Dresden and Leip-
sic, where the roads were fair except
through Bohemia. where one encount-
ers, in addition to rough road stretches,
innumerable hocks OF geese which
stand defiantly in the road and hiss,
making it necessary at times to NOW a
few down. After going through a flock
of these geese the back of the car
looked as if some one had just opened
feather bed 1t is not wise to stop
to count the number of dead geese;
you might number yourself among the
slain.
At Berlin. through a little under
handed work. we succeeded in visiting
the kaiser's garage, which holds 16
cars-a Mercedes, Benz. a Fiat and
several minor makes seldom heard of
in this country. There we discovered
the name of the maker of the special
horn used by the kaiser, and after
promising the maker not to blow it
in Berlin. we succeeded in buying one
From Berlin the car was driven to
Frankfort-on-th Main. from which is
a beautiful drive up the Rhine river.
Passing through small town we ac-
cidentally ran over ladder belonging
to some linemen at work on a tele-
graph pole but we did not stop to- see
how badly it was hurt, but ran abour