The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-31
SUNDAY

Never again 1Or one reporter WIN
covered the sunrise-sunset automobile
run over the New Santa Fe trail. There
are too many thrills and missing heart
throbs on such a trip for a news writer
who was reared in the country and
whose early training convinced MN
that a trip to the county seat in a
lumber wagon or hay rack was just
about the proper rate of speed
After arriving in Kansas City, Gov
ernor Hodges said he enjoyed the trip.
The reporter slipped up the street and
hunted a refreshment booth, where he
tried to forget his days experiences.
That is probably just an ordinary diff
ference in temperaments. Yet, If you
never made one of those flying speed
scoots in a motor car behind a driver
whose lone ambition is to make a
record and have the consequences en-
graVed on his headstOne, then you are
not a competent juror and could not
qualify as an expert witness in the
case on trial.
Lunging straight ahead toward the
rising sun, the press car on the New
Santa Fe trail run left Hutchinson at
sunrise. Harry Taylor, one of the best
drivers in the state, was at the wheel
for the newspaper men who went
along to chronicle the days casualties
and miShapS. Pete Newton, an EN-
poria daredevil, drove the official car
and was entrusted with the life of
Governor Hodges and some other i'm
portant citizens. Both men took good
care of their wards on that jump to
Emporia in the morning and the pass
ing thrills which the passengers eX-
perienced should not be charged
against the records of the drivers.
Taylor Was InsuIted.
Yet. right on the start, Taylor was
inSulted and didn't hesitate to admit
it. Tearing along the sandy Reno
county road at 40-mile clip, Taylor
began to warm up his car. Just as the
driver was beginning to feel care free
and to warm up to his passengers, he
was insulted. The insult was that one
of those irresponsible motorcycle
Mikes shot by Taylor's car with a Nell
Brinkley image hanging to the oil tank
like mistletOe to a tree. Taylor didn't
appreciate such conduct and he began
to speed up a bit. For ten miles the
speed indicator hung languidIy over
the so mark. At the Harvey county
road, Taylor was signalled to give the
lead to the official car. But Taylor
hung just back of the cloud of dust
from the big Buick machine.
The reporters were just settling back
in their seats in anticipation of an en-
joyable day, when the official car
waved a danger signal. Taylor was
just preparing to jump his big Chal-
mers entirely over a cross roads. He
mad time to look up and see a run
away team lunging straight across the
path in front of him. There isn't
much time to outline a tour when you
see runaway team so feet ahead of
you. But Taylor never lesSened his
speed his car leapeQ across the ROAD
inches in front of the runaways, miss
ed tall hedge fence by less than
three feet and before the gaSping re-
porters had time to put words on their
lips, Taylor was preparing for a swing
around sharpe curve two miles fur
ther east.
From Halstead to Newton, the roads
were wet from the rains of the pre-
Vious night. Taylor's car skidded and
skated from one side of the road to
other HUT
neither stopped for mud chains nor
slackened speed. Fifteen minutes later
he stopped his car on Newton's main
street-5S minutes ahead of schedule.
Ate breakfast on Run.
Five minutes later the cars were
spinning down the road toward Pea
body. Eight minutes were clipped off
the Newton-Peabody jump. Nit Will
hite stopped the cars in front of a
hotel. A man distributed sandwiches
to the tourists while Governor Hodges
said few nice words about good
roads. As soon as each man and Mrs
kelley-the only woman on the trip
had grabbed a sandwich, the cars were
going again and the party was eating
breakfast while the drivers were ruin
Ing express time for the climb over the
Usage county hills.
Drivers of those cars probably never
learned that there was a low gear on
their machines. At least they never
uSeQ II SITalSnC into Florence the
cars flew. The engines never stopped
purring as Governor Hodges, Nit Will
hite and Ralph Faxon talked Then
there was a leaping sensation as the
cars tore off down the road and left
the few hundred gaping citizens won
der1ng as to what had happened.
Up hill, down hill, over shaky
bridges and dangerous looking Gull |
verts, through green valleys and wood !
lands, those speed maniacs drove the
machines in their race to Cottonwood |
Falls. If Paul Revere had carried his |
message last Monday, he would have
been spoken of in the same breath with |
Pete Newton and Harry Taylor. The
Flint hill doomed straight ahead, but |
the cars never slowed up one bit. They
swung around a sharp curve at the
base of the rough, rugged hill in a
manner that made the passengers dir
w. At the roadside stood a half doz-
en- wondering children and a stupefied
father and mother. Taylor's car hit
that curve at awful speed. Just as it |
rlghted itself, the riders saw less than
three feet from the roadside, a little
oabe standing in a clump of weeds
That child's parents will never know
by the number of inches their babe
missed trip to Eternity that bright
sunny morning On up the hillside
those purring engines jerked the cars.