The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1909-08-29
New Dementia Americana
Which Keeps Abreast With
Demand to Hurry.
LESSONS TAUGHT BY
INDIANA TRAGEDIES
Just How 1t Feels to Be Part of q
Huge Hurled Projectile of
Steel and Wood.
By ALLEN D. ALBEIT. Il


bile with a cold sensation
in your stomach. The ma
chine is a great deal smaller than
you had expected and when you
look down between your knees and
see that there is no bottom to it
you wonder why people don't get
killed from falling through Instead
of being thrown into the air
The noise is deafening. Twen-
ty times a second the engine shoots
of like a rapid-fring gun, onIy
with a bark like a six-ineh rife.
The steady fzisilade confuses you
so that you overlook for a moment
the fact that the exhaust is direct
ly in front of you and that the
engine is splitting fre-a foot, a
foot and half, maybe two feet
right into the air. The smoke
Of the Unconsumed gasoIene hangs
over your head until you choke.
Everything near you throbs. A
rough fOotrest beats against the
bottom OF your shoes. The seat
shakes When you glance across
at the steering wheel you note that
1t is making the drivers forearm
tremble like the palsy. Your
whole body quivers.
There is a quick sound of eU-
u-ngh!" IN spite of your rigid
shoulders your head jerks back
ward Sine dirt flies against your
goggles. Before you have time to
adjust all this in your mind You
find yourself whirling past the
poles beside the track at a speed
which makes you wonder if express
trains ever 90 so fast as this. Then
there is a queer lurch forward.
Then another Then two long ones.
The flesh on your cheekbones
shakes The wind blows the heat
of the engine against your face.
What's that Iunging?" you ask
yourself You think a moment and
the cold in your stomach gets
worse, and you wave your hand
before the drivers face to get him
to stop.
That kinda pull forward. d'you
mean?' he QUizzes when he has
turned the back Of his hood to-
ward you so that you can ask
him through the hole behind his
ear
yes. What's that?"
Why, that's when the cars or
the ground"
You get in again. Your head
hobs back, you throb all over. and
there is the same whirring about
your ears. You can't possibly
make yourself heard if you talk.
So with your stomach getting cold
again and the sweat coming out on
your lips and chin YOU wait for
the next lap. 1t comes. The driv-
e. stops for you TO measure the
rise in the track that took YOU OFF
the ground You run back. You
put a board across the little
'thank-you-ma' am you find there.
You take a rule and measure the
rise Of it. 1t is five-eightns of an
inch Yet that's the hummock that
sent your car forward fully twenty
feet before it touched the ground
again.
We're goin' t'hit it up some
now" says the driver when you
climb in. "U-u-nght" goes the car.
This time you hold your chin to
your breast The wind brings the
heat to your face again. Little
specks of dirt fly against your face
and ears. The noise grows from a
rapid fire into a steady din. You
see yellow and red come inces-.
sanity from the pipe in the side
Of the engine. When you breathe
deeply you feel something hard
81 up your nose, you cough, and
you taste dirt. The car lunges
now every moment
Suddenly you bump the driver
at your side He has taken the first
part of a curve You hold your
self to the other side by gripping
Continued on Fourth PaEe3