New-York tribune., 1909-09-05
PACING a Motor Car OUer tie Alps
Mishaps That Befell Two Women Automobile
Tour from Italy to France.
BY Blanche McManus.

still ahead of Bravely had started out
through the ice and snow in the streets Of Oulx,
with everything going we'll for matter of half a
dozen kilometres. when the road. running through
the narrow. main street Of CesanaT Torinese. ended
in two sharp hairpn turns. which stopped our
motor again.
Isabel and I got out and with the help of an
interested knot of natives Marius able to get
the motor pulling again. Don't stop, we called
out We will do the foot If only you can
get the across the Scala the stiffest bit
of all, at the very top. was known locally
Again we set out foot. each carrying a stone
to first aid" the automobile in helping
1t 10 start / believe we sampled that day every
kind of portable stone on that pass Meanwhile the
automobile laboring like one with asthma in
the rarefed atmosphere Of these Alpine heights.
Occasionally 1t would stop altogether and take a
rest; then would do the pacing. At times we
held breath il lost to view around some
turning. Had II given out again? No, 1t still
crawled along, its movement scarcely TO be dis
cerned unusually rough bit of roadway near
ly put IL out of commission MGrius was admirable
lie petted and worked that automobile and
coaxed il along if 1t were sick child-he al
most wept over 1t. But luck beginning to turn
We were all of us on the last stiff lap WITHIN
a few hundred yards of the crest of the pass a
great fortress blocked the snow covered road with
a passage leading drawbridge and through
two fortified gateways. There nothing to be
seen ahead but snow, three feet deep.
through which the road now wound like a wet
black ribbon. The pass. col, lay a sort Of
plateau, tableland. nearly two thousand metres
above level. white, frozen peaks rising still
higher. on every side masked French batteries
spied on masked Italian batteries.
At the edge of the plateau we stopped and looked
back: an ashamed and crestfallen automobile
came creeping into sight. 1t had taken us many
times across Europe: we had climbed the Pyrenees'
the Apennines, the Ballon d'Alsace and the Col
Bayard together, and now, for the first ume Il
had failed We had paced ii over the Alps!
Half buried in the snow found the lonesome
little mountain hamlet of Claviers. Of perhaps
half hundred inhabitants the last settlement on
Italian soil Here, in little roadside shack, called
pornpously the Dogana Italiano had the trip
tych" signed, which gave us leave to take our au-
tomobile of Italy and TO recover the 4n francs
of duties which had already paid on entering
The only other structure of remark was a rough
looking Osteria. bearing, however, a plaque an
nouncing that it the headquarters OF the Club
Alpin de France This bespoke n warm welcome
and good food, If LIMITED in variety Here on 'he
roof Of Europe made our last Italian meal OF
cheese bread and a bottle of sparkling Asti.
Refreshed, we took once more our places IN the
automobile our troubles over. Away went
the car down an ever increasing slope, gaining
in spirit and strength at every turn OF 'he ny
wheel 1t was running as well as II ever
had in its life. and so il continued 10 run after
uard even over the Col de Lautret IN france,
some four hundred metres higher in altitude than
Mont Genevre.
VOLTA. la belle France" cried Marus. pointing
IN sn,nle signboard that stood up out of the
snow within kilometre or so Of the great Ma
poeonic obelisk of historic memory on It was the
str,nle word France! our automobile had come
in to its own again. It now in the land of It's
birth. Like mad, Marius plunged down. lap after
Ian sloughng around the facets of the French
slope over a magnificent hard road like polished
marble No more stony stretches. no more ruts.
no more mud.
Quickly the snow was left above we came
down through the pine woods and into the village
of La Vachette where passed the formalites
of the French custom house and swung hilari-