The Mena weekly star., 1911-09-21

recently made trip Co Decatur Ill.. and return. by auto, gives the following account of the return part Of the trip;
 We began Co leave Decatur, llIy rather early on Monday morning, August 2i, but it was after 10 o'clock before the final goodbye was said and we were fairly start cd. About dozen miles out of town rear tire blew out, tearing the inner tube into shreds. A new one was inserted and we were going again inside of 20 minutes, and to make up for lost time we set the throttle at 9 miles per hour. (20 miles had been our schedule limit Near noon we came to the National cemetery, Camp Butler, just east of Springfield, where many sol dier lies sleeping. A great many grave are marked unknown" and with the name and number of his regiment or company on the head stone. The cemetery is nicely kept, and visitors are requested to reg ister and are cautiously treated by the keeper. We ate lunch here under some beautiful shade trees. On getting out of Springfield we went through large and very beautiful park with splendid drives. lakes and springs, and it looked so very inviting that we staye there quite a while
 The 70 mile run from there to Jacksonville was made in little more than one hour, where we stayed that night and part of the next forenoon.
 From Jacksonville we went west through Merritt, Exeter and crossed the Illinois river at Naples. Then on to pittsfleld, where we met 9 autos making run from Hannibal, and then crossed the Mississippi river into Louisiana, Missiouri. From there we went through Bowling Green to Mexico, where we stayed that night. Corn, which is the main crop through this sec- tion, has been hurt badly by the dry weather, but will make half a crop. The roads from Jacksonville to Mexico by this route are good teh way. The sandy roads are treated with layer of straw, which works into the sand, making a good hard road.
 Our third days run was to Mar shall, Mo, by way of Centralia, Sturgeon, Higbee and Glasgow, where we crossed the Missouri river and had more straw roads. The corn this days run was not so good as the day before. At Glas- gow we found the official cross state automobile highway, which runs from Kansas City to St. Louis, and we followed it into Kansas City. It is the intention to make this high way model road and much work is being done on 1t this year.
 When within about 20 miles of Kansas City we struck freshly oiled roads--in fact, we passed sev- eral motor oil tanks sprinkling the oil. These oil tanks have rake attached to stir the oil into the dirt or gravel as 1t is distributed. This freshly oiled road proved al nuisance to us, as the wheels of, the car threw oil in all directions, and one could not get against the car without gettil s oil on the cloth ing. 1t took about three gallons of gasoline to get it off the car. From Marshall we ran into Kansas City in about four hours running time.
 We did not leave Kansas City un- Gil the 26th, putting in the time inl driving up and down the streets and seeing the town. Visited the Electric park at night, were con- ducted through Armour's big pack ing establishment, went through Loose-Wiles candy and cracker factory and other places of interest. At Armour'S we saw them turn live cattle, sheep and hogs into various products. Some of 1t went into tin cans, sealed and labeled ready for the market while we were looking on. Their capacity per day, we were told, was i2,000 cattle, 10000 hogs and 10000 sheep, and it looked like they could do 1t, too.
 At Loose-Wiles we were handed freshly made crackers, cakes and candy till we could eat no more. At both these places visitors are treated with every courtesy, and guides are furnished to conduct you through.
 Leaving Kansas City by way of Southwest avenue, we entered Kan sas, the Sunfower state, going through Rosedale, Olathe and Ot- tawa, and stopping that night at lola, a very pretty town. Next morning we ran into Independence, by way of Chanute and Cherryyale. Here we visited some model dairy farms and an alfalfa ranch
 Monday we left Kansas at Cof- feyville and were on Oklahoma soil. We went through Nowata, Chelsea and stopped at Pryor for the night. The greater part Of this day we were in sight of dozens of oil pumps. There would be a little shanty with gas engine in it, from which radiated linked iron. rods to the pumps. and as the grass hid the rods from sight. it looked like those pumps were working just for the fun Of 1t. Frequently those rods crossed the road, and we had to run over them. Every little shanty and farm house lwhen there .r