The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-01-23
OnaT 0n0
Highway

Packard III the Rocky Mountains. He
met them at Colorado Springs, but
his attempt to pursuade them 70 give
up the last leg Of their 10000 mile
trip was not successful,
Touring through Europe the Orient,
the Philippines and Japan brought
no such vlC!saitu6es as were encoun-
tered by Mrs, Hail and her son in
crossing the United States, by way Of
the southern route, Sncw storms
and zero weather. out Of season, up
set their schedule,
Mrs. Hall sets forth wildly in a
letter to Mr.. Hall the conditions they
have faced.
I'VE have had about the most
strenuous times Of our lives in this
part Of the trip" she writes from
Albuquerque, New Mexico. 1t IS
only a few weeks, yet it seems CEN
turtles since we left San Diego and
entered this climate that has with
cred and frozen Us with zero weather
and billiards.
lit IL enough uf an undertaking
at any time to cross the continent,
but only mad folk like ourselves
would attempt it at this season. Not
that ! would give it up now, or would
have in the beginning. But 10 start
off in the morning with no shelter
from Billiards, facing the prospect
of walking from twenty-five to a hun
dred miles through the drifts for
help. is fearful wear and tear on
ones nerves.
The isolation OF the country is APP
paliing. and with every machine but
our own crippled. with broken a5elcs,
broken fly wheels, driving shafts,
broken radiators, and abandoned in
the deserts, you can imagine whether
it needed courage to start out into
the face Of it all. / have lain awake
nights thinking Of it. when l have
been shivering in some barren little
room, with all my fGrs and clothing
piled on 10 keep out the biting cold,
I'm the Orient we had plenty Of
what we thought was hardship-but
il was always warm and there was
no actual terror of being left out
overnight But this---if you love your
way. you can only go on and on for
hours. without meeting anyone or
coming to n habitation, You get out
of water. cut OF gasoline. even out
OF food. From SprinGerville to Alhu-
Querque, ii Is over one hundred miles
without a sign OF life. and most Of
the way over such roads as would
wreck nine cars out of ten.
In spite of diagrams, maps. and
everp safeguard possible, we lost our
way anu lCNnU Ourselves at t44EtAt @'~
ing deeper and deeper into a canyon.
We discovered the camp fire of some
Mexicans whose Spanish and English
we understood enough To know that
we were twenty-five miles from Al
al. -.as-s4 i.4sa
led on and on to some mines.
The wonderful Packard struggled
back again. through snow f0rds
rocky boulders, and arroyoes. Never
vet has she gone back on us. We
had been FIVE hours going eighteen
miles in a snow storm, when a squaw
wife refused us shelter. Fortytwo
miles ahead of us lay road over a
pass, the worst stretch in the c0un-
try, and blocked with snow. | was
frantic No amount of pleading af-
fected the Indian woman. Finally
went to q hut nearly and found the
TO tntercede. To stay out in that
storm meant only one thing.
Finally we were given two rooms,
and there we remained two days dur
ing the blizzard. We lived on our
timed supplies. soups. crackers, sar-
dimes and meat paste, I was afraid
they would turn us out Of we asked
for anything. I did all the work and
then. paid theTEs f.x4s G3GAtars VIII es sgrs
laft the rect. ttsey had so gT5Fdfsl sas}y
given us, I had q miserable awaken
ing toward the spirit one meets out
here. 1t Is not pleasant for an Amer
lean to think about after the cour-
tesy and desire to please that one
encounters evervwhere In the Orient "