The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-07-07
AUTO PILGRIMAGE
The Glidden Tour Greatest Test
Made for Motor Cars.
Route Mapped Out Is Indeed a
Difficult One.
THROUGH 2 STATES
Twenty Three Days EnrOute to
Cover 100 Miles.
TrOphy-Awarded to Team Who
Loses Fewest Points.

New York, July Next Thursday
morning from Buffalo will start the
NTH annual touring contest for the
Glidden trophy and second annual for
the Hover trophy, under the auspices
OF the American Automobile associa-
ton.
Between so and so cars will start
at Z a. m. in the long and arduous
competition which will cover a period
or 10 days and distance of nearly
LOO miles, through seven different
states. The route this year is pecu-
liarly circuitous, exceptionally ardu-
Gus and particularly picturesque. In
the course of their travels the touring
contestants will have to cross five
mountain ranges, in doing which they
Will encounter roads more fit for the
path of wild sheep and goats than for
the refined sheep and goats of the
automobile factories, with their rub
ber-shod wheels and delicate mechan-
ism. After leaving Buffalo and going
to Pittsburg the tour travels entirely
across the Keystone state, up to the
capitol of the Empire state, and then
through all the New England states.
excepting Rhode Island.
This annual tour is this year, for
the first time, an avowed out and out
contest to test the efficiency and en-
durance of the different makes of cars
entered in a strenuous trip. The tour
originated in 1905, when Charles j.
Glidden, the chronic globe-girdler, do
mated a big and handsome trophy to
the American Automobile association,
to be a perpetual prize for a yearly
tour. According to the original deed
of gift the prize was to be for driving
qualities, and was to go to the club
of which the winning driver was a
member. The first year the trophy
was voted, at the end of the tour, to
Percy Piece of the Buffalo Automo-
bile club.
The second and third years it re-
manned in the possession of the Buff
falo club. because of there being tie
scores at the end of the tour, and no
club had explicitly won it from the
Buffalo club.
This year new rules have been
drawn up and everything possible
done to effect a distinct winning of the
trophy by the cars forming the team
of some one club. Before the start of
the tour the Automobile club of Buff
faio will formally turn over the trophy
to the touring board of the American
Automobile association, and the con-
ditions require that all ties be run off.
The rules for this event have been
changed each year with the consent of
the donor of the trophy, but the 1908
tour will be the first time it has off,
ciaily been called touring contest: 1t
is the first year in which the cars have
been required to carry observers, who
will note every repair and adjustment
and all that happens to the cars.
Points will be forfeited for all repairs
and for failure to run on schedule. The
conditions, the route and the schedule,
taken together, are such that ii will be
a credit to every car that survives and
no disgrace to lose few points. The
trophy will be awarded to the club
whose team loses the fewest points,
and it will be any ones prize until the
finish. because the very worst day of
travel will be the last day, when the
schedule calls for nearly 200 miles en-
tirely over mountain roads. On this
day any of the weak brethren who
likely to lose points galore, or be left
by the roadside. The scenery will be
glorious all the way, but going will be
as vexatious as the path of the most
wicked. Yet these strenuous cOndi-
lions are what make this one event
the most important in the country to
the great average run of men and wo-
men who want to know the respective
merits of the different cars, not for
racing, but for hard travelling across
country. More than any other event
this is watched by motorists far and
near by those contemplating joining
the ranks of the automobiles.
The itinerary of the tour giving
the places where the OVERNIGHT stops
will be made and the distance of each
days run is as follows:
July 9-Buffalo to Cambridge Springs 117.f
July 10-Cambridge Springs to Pitts
July 11-Pittsburg to Bedford Springs 1864
July 12-Sunday, rest at Bedford
July 13-Bedford Springs to Harris
DuTS Iut.o
July 1tHarrisburg to Philadelphia. 1885
July 15-Philadelphfa to Milford--.-.-. 132
July 1S-Milford to Albany....1 1855
July 17-Albany to Boston. 1912
July 1S-19-Rest at Boston.
July a0-Boston to Poland Springs. 154
July 21-Poland Springs to Rangeley
Lake. Me. Observation-Disclosures. 141-7
July 22-Rangeley Lake to Bethlehem
n. ii. lJt
July 23-Bethlehem to Saratoga N Y. 1S45
Total 1863 z