Los Angeles herald., 1910-04-17
PATHFINDER WILL
GET GLIDDEN LOG
A. A. A. to Turn Over Route to
Official Framer of the
Guide Book
LEWIS TO START AT ONCE
To Have Benefit of Roadside
Data Accumulated by
Noted Driver
LEWIS TO START AT ONCE

At the request of S. M. Butler, chair
man of the contest board of the Amer
lean Automobile association, the COM
pete log of the Glidden tour route,
which was just completed in Chicago,
will be turned over to Dai Lewis, the
official pathfinder, who will leave Cin-
cinnati next week to cover the same
route in Chalmers car, by the Of
ficials of the Mitchell-Lewis Motor
company, whose car, the Mitchell
Ranger, just covered the 290O miles
embraced by the tour.
Frank X. Zirbes, VINO drove the
Mitchell Ranger over the Glidden
route, has made a detailed log of the
trip, which Mr. Butler thinks will be
of assistance to the official pathfind-
ers. Zirbes gathered a maze of Valua-
bic data concerning inundations, fer
res, bridges blind roads, levee high
ways. corduroy roads, etc.
The famous pilot and his comrades
left Cincinnati on February % and
reached Chicago, according to their
the last lap of the journey from Nor
rs, ILL.,, a distance of eighty miles,
through mud and rain.
For eleven days after leaving Gin
cinnanti we battled constantly with
snow and slush and heavy rains,' said
Zirbes. THE kentucky portion of the
trip was made under more difficulties
than l experienced during my war
dispatch mission from New York to
San Francisco or my pacemaking eX-
pedition from New York to Atlanta,
Ca, in the good roads run last year
with this same ear. Not even the
floods of Wyoming quite approached
the Glidden scouting trip in Ken
lucky.
Notwithstanding the rocky and rut-
ty roads in Tennessee and the floods
in Arkansas, our tour was remarkably
free from accident, although there
were places in Tennessee where a slip
or a false move might have meant the
disabling of the Ranger. A few miles
south of st. Joseph, Tenn, where the
inundation obliterated the road,
turned the district into swamp and
presented many dangers from sub
merged stumps, l ran the car into a
mud hole and had to back out in a
hurry and in some way the front axle
was bent. Fortunately, however, the
damage was easily repaired.
"Frightful. If not worse, is the term
that I might apply to the condition of
the roads between Iuka and Corinth,
district where we were the first to
bring in an automobile, yet the battles
subsequent experiences in the Mis-
souri, valley did not prevent me from
getting to the terminus of the route on
schedule time.
There are many places on this
Glidden route where the best car in
all the world will have its most siren
uous tryout Careful driving will be
required, combined with a sturdy car.
Especially are the hills and turns in
Tennessee treacherous. The long hill
east of Gottelsville, which for five miles
presents bad turns, rocks and road
way that often runs so close to the
brink of a precipice that bit of care
less driving would result In sudden
death is one of the memorable feat
ures. There will be an arrangement of
controls to suit the convenience of the
A. A. a officials. Yet with one con-
troll the longest in the history of re-
liability events and others abounding
in difficulties as well as scenic pleas
ures, the Glidden will be death to
perfect scores. My opinion is that no
car will get through without penalty"