Evening star., 1915-09-15
TRIP OF BOOSTERS
|SVOTED SUCCESS
Merchants Distribute Thou
sands of Circulars Adver-
tising Washington.
MAKE A RUN OF TWO DAYS
THROUGH THREE STATES
Visit Towns and Cities, Recommend
ing National Capital as Retail
Trade Center.

The Retail Merchants Association trade
boosters who left Washington early
Monday morning for two-day trip
through Maryland and the Virginias to
urge the citizens of cities and towns to
save money-buy in washington,
reached home about 10 o'clock last night.
| They finished their two-hurdred-nlile trip
with a parade through Georgetown. down
PENNSYLVANIA avenue to the Peace Monu-
ment and along 9th and + streets. With
the Merchants Band playing lively tunes
and the horns and sirens working over
time. the boosters" attracted a great deal
of attention. and were loudly cheered by
throngs of people
| The trip from Winchester to Washlng-
|ton was one which will long be remem-
bered by the boosters it is said. sew
eral extremely rough pieces OF road Were
encountered, but all of the cars came
| through without mishap While IN VIM
chester the machine of Joseph Berberlch
developed axle trouble. and 1t was neces-
sary to leave it in a garage 10 oe r.
iDaired Mr. Berberich and the other oc-
cupants of the car were furnished seats
lin other machines in the boosters line.
One Rough Piece of Road.
At Smokers Gap the going was very
rough. due to the fact that the roadway
was being repaired. 1t was only with
the greatest difficulty that the cars
made their way over the mountains AL
this noint the trip had all the aspects
Of an endurance run, for the obstacles
which were encountered put the cars
to severe test. .+ .ha
performance of the auto bus OF the Jit-
ney tvpe which carried the band OF Ten
| Jfh oh
| rough roads the bus managed 70 Keep
| in line. The musicians and thelr ieau-
er, Prof Moody, however, were tnof
i oughly shaken up. but desp1te tnns iaI,
! they were playing at 1ull sIehs' III
| when each town was entered,
| At Bluemont, Round Hill, Purceil-
| Vile. Hamilton and Leesburg stops
were made and the boosters distributed
souvenirs and in other ways aoser.iseu sai
the advantages of Washington as re
tail buying center, while the band gave
concerts. At the last place the
| boosters" had supper. and Just oe1ore
dark the start for Washington was
| made The cars did not MAINTAIN d
regular line coming in, but assembled
at the District end of Chain Bfiage
| and entered the city in parade LOT m
| fion. While the early arrivals at the
bridge were waiting Tor tne reihaitu.i
| to come along, Julius Lansburgh snow
] ed his skill as a balloonist. Six large
I nan ner balloons of the hot-air type were
sent up.
Rated as Big Success.
| That the trip was success In every
manner was the universal verdict OF
the boosters" upon their arrival nome
| last night In the two days they hao
been away from home they had dis
! tributed more than 100000 pieces OF
! advertising matter in the cities and
| towns visited, and also at lsoiatea
| houses along the route. Hundreds OF
| souvenirs, such as fans, pencils, coat
hangers, picture books for children,
watch fobs. pins. ETC.. were given
away. Having the services of severai
| commercial trucks on the trip. the
| boosters were able to carry along large
| supplies of advertising material
| one of the boosters who appeared
| to have enjoyed every minute OF the
! trip was Representative-elect jim
! McClintic of Oklahoma. guest OF Il;
| 2. Andrews, president of the Retaii
| Merchants Association. Mr.. McClintlc
| addressed the merchants while they
were at supper at IHesburg. He SAID
| he had been on many like trips, but
never had witnessed such enthusiasm
nor had he been with a more congenlal
| party Referring to the District OF
! Columbia he said he stood ready at all
| time to work for its betterment.