The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-01-26

for pleasure there was no excuse for
prolonging the agony. AS an athletic
performance or TO prove the endur-
ance OF ones self or "a particular au-
tonobile, 1t might have been worth
while to keep on. From Danville l
shipped the car to Jacksonville. There
was no express car large enough, so
It went by freight, and doubtless, ow-
ing TO the kindly interest of the South
ern railway shipping agent, 1t was
only four days on the way.
From Jacksonville to Fort Pierce
there is some good road. including
eight and a half miles of vitriied
brick pavement nearly completed a
few miles out of Jacksonville, but in
the main the roads of Florida are
deep sand with occasional morasses
that are difficult at all times and after
heavy rains impossible by motor
power alone The tread or the auto
mobiles used in Florida is sixty inch
In the North. as far as ! know. it Is
always tifty-six inch.
Men and Horses.
Even a low powered motor of sixty
inch tread will track in the deep fur
rows and get through with little or
no difficulty where hfty-six inch
one cannot pass on its own power
however great that be. 1t is occa-
sionally a question of men or horses
to get out of the grave the revolving
wheels have dug and the greater the
horsepower the larger the grave. And
at very short intervals 1T Is necessary
TO stop to cool the engine and replen-
ish the water In the radiator
Between st. Augustine and Or
mond the best road crosses the F1ori~
da inland canal. / found the bridge
open and broken. necessitating con-
siderable detour- There are roads in
all directions, seemingly equally used
and no sign posts in existence. One
needs to follow the general compass
direction as well as the roads permit
and then guess. If he guesses wrong
he comes TO a morass or a ditch that
he cannot cross, and then he harks
back and tries different road. In
this, days run the overhanging trees
and trespassing bushes and paImettos
take all appearance of newness from
a car.
In many miles there is but one
bridge across the Tomoko CD river.
so one must find the road leading to
1t. In this days run I was stalled
once at a difficult and steep muddy
ford, but on the whole WAS lucky and
only ran four miles more than neces-
sary, doing the sixty-one miles to Day
tona in little less than nine hours,
an average of seven miles the hour.
AS there was considerable fair to good
road the average in the bad parts
must have been very low.
Bridge Across River.
one hundred and eight miles be
You'd Datona there Is now a bridge
across the San Sebastian river, where
until lately it was necessary TO ferry
From Fort Pierce to the st. Lucia
river. twenty miles, the road is fair,
except for two miles OF deep sand
and one or two bad morasses One
ferries across the st. Lucia river, and
then all trouble is over / ran the
los miles to Miami easily in three
and half hours. Wherever the road
Is new it is excellent; where it is old
er, as so often is the case in the North,
1t isn't well maintained and the sur
face is rough.
My automobile Is OF fifty horse
power. 1t was new having been out
or the garage but once before | started
South. 1t ran less than 900 miles,
but II is now an old. worn machine.
Several times the distance in Europe
would have left IL in better shape, I
have motored in the Western Balkans
and in Southern Spain, where the
roads have a very bad name, but I
nave never encountered before such
dlfpcWlt'es ~ ct,~ds,s ttyfrsa' - ~ ~ 7s's'
The hate!s a,l along the way are
PETER than | had expected. All were
clean and in most / had bath and
toilet OF my bedroom. While there
Is room for Improvement in food and
COOKING, they were seldom bad"