The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-05-30
Cross Country
On A Bicycle
BY c. L. Aling.

Let me see, we just finished the Mis-
souri, trip last week, didn't we? Now
for Illinois. lStarting on Monday
morning, May II, rode first to Elvas-
ton, where l found that the scout
master was out of town, and OF
course, as l had not known his name
before, and could not write him, he
didn't expect me. Carthage was next
stop, where learned that the troop
there had scattered to the four cor
ners of the earth. Some were In dill
ferent Pacific coast states. some were
far east, some in the south and others
north. But while there, the assist
ant scout mater told me of other near
by troops at Bentley and RushVille,
Illinois, both of which have been In
vited to our meet, and Rushville has
already accepted and Bentley Is yet
to be heard from.
At about two o'clock, I arrived at
LaHarpe, Illinois Here I found one
of the best organized troops in the
conference, though they have been
organized only about three months.
They have an active membership OF
twenty-five scouts and two applica-
tons, which will make their limit of
members. Every one OF
them retained on the roll is regular
attending and enthusiastic scout and
that counts lot. They were al
there Monday evening, and we had
fine meeting, practicing several first
aid games and drills and marching out
on the lawn till dark and then con-
tinuing our meeting inside the church
till 900 o'clock. Next morning at
1890 o'clock nearly all Of them were
| out for a breakfast hike. The scout
master made fire by friction and
we had good signal practice at short
and long range. We were back for
school at 100 o'clock.
Immediately after dinner, I left for
Dallas City and for about ten miles,
the roads were torn up on account OF
Igrading, and riding a bicycle looked
like walking most Of the time or when
lI would venture to ride, I wou' d
have to stick onto sharp sloping side
tof the road, and look out for skidding
into the ditch or perhaps I would find
a smooth narrow rut to follow short
distance and then all at once run
square into great pile of dust and
stop. But l finally got there, never
theless.
The scout master had been out OF
town and had not as yet arranged for
the meeting that night. So he told
one scout on the street to announce
meeting for that night and when the
appointed time came, twenty scouts
we're present, all but two of their
membership, and they lived in the
country. They expect to have the
whole bunch at our meet, and had a
lot of questions to ask about it. Next
morning, we attempted a breakfast
hike again with an attendance of ten.
but we got rained out and had to re-
turn early. --...
was forced to make the. trip to
Keokuk by rail and while waiting be-
tween trains at Ferris, Illinois, l met
a scout who informed me that Ferris
had a troop and would like informa-
ton about the meet and so another
troop wasIadded to the list in the last
moment. Then casting about over
the landscape, I detected Scout Mast
err Stone of Hamilton, also waiting
for the train, and we had a delightful
visit on the way to Hamilton. where
I got off and rode my wheel to
Keokuk.
Iowa Mud Encountered.
Monday, May 24.-Mud! Took train
to Pennington and as the mud was