The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1918-07-06
PELLEY FAMILY
WHISTLES WITH
MUD IN KANSAS
TranscOntinental Automobile
Trip Has Some Experience.
JUST MISSED CYCLONE
So Much Mud on Car Storm Couldn't
Have Moved Machine Anyhow,
William Writes.

ioi hCl iSoiuShl VI bCfblubtOH NHusC
present home is St Johnsbury, Is
making a trip across the continent by
automobile with the expectation of
sailing from San FRANCISCO for Japan
the latter part OF the month. He Is
accompanied by Mrs Pelley and HI.
tie daughter Adelaide, Mrs. Grace
Pelley, Mrs. Hattie HoIbrook and his
stenographer, Miss Ruth Godfrey, OF
this village. The party's progress is
wildly depicted In the letter:
Somewhere in Kansas, June 2S.
Dear Folks
Somewhere in Kansas Is right!
II your imagination Is working
good. get this: A narrow ox.cart road
running north and south half way up
mountain dt would be just plain
hill back in Vermontl, Ion the west
side Of the road grazing land that
runs to the mountain top, to the east
side moving and alfalfa that runs
down 10 the floor of the valley below.
Inside the wall that separates this
moving from this oy-cart road is O
Hudson automobile in fair state OF
preservation and attached to il is an
automobile-tent pegged down into the
tall grass. In the south door of this
tent with his back against suitcase,
pipe between his store teeth and a
typewriter between his knees, sits q
lamb-eyed product of misplaced CON
fidence in the species, writing to the
folks back home This is Kansas in
all its glory!
Four hundred miles to the east Ito
the east, remember, not the wesO
flows the mighty Mississippi with the
/ American eagle shaking its tail-feath.
ers over the bluffs on either side;
two thousand and twenty-five hundred
miles still further east lies Vermont
whose chief bid for fame is the fact
that most OF her population is out
here in this land of prairie and sky
I And in between Vermont and the hill.
top where this wall-eyed guy sits
writing lies fair-to-middlin' section
Of the United States consisting OF
sandy roads running eternally west
ward with scenery on either bank
We have made half of our journey
and not a single member of our party
hut who knows more about these
United States than he or she did be
fore they started-think of it, Leav
ing Vermont on the seventh day OF
June full of hope, gasolene and clean
clothes, we poked the nose of the old
Super-six continually westward
through York state and into Ohio
York state was much the same as
when we saw II last 50 We simply
watched the speedometer and in the
natural course of events, Syracuse
came in sight where we made our first
stop. Repeating the process, wC
made successfully Buffalo; Erie, Pa.
Geneva. Ohio; Bryan, Ohio; LaPorte
Indiana. and Chicago. ILL., We spent
three days in the Windy City ant
then turned southwark down through
Illinois The country to Illinois looked
Just like the country throughou
New England excepting that tn,
roads we're a little worse We reached
Kankakee chiefly for the ex
tensiye use of its name in vaudeville
iokes-and then things commenced
to happen that were not at all vaude
vile jokes, that drove all thoughts o
letter-writing back home entirely on
of mind for days and filled the spac,
with cuss.words. great big mans
sized cuss-words, few Of them fumi
gated and most of them weighing
eight to the pound We struck mud
1t Is easy enough TO write it-"W,
struck mud'-and half as easy agail
to strike il. But when 1t comes I,
| steering an auto through 1t and com
ing out whole on the further side. be
lieve me, that is far from easy. Yol
folks back east don't know mud unit
you have tried Illinois mud and hay
: ing once used Illinois mud, you vii
always use some other kind. Illinoi
has absolutely no roads to star
with. and never did have, and neve
will have. She has no gravel or ston
with which. to ballast them-on
black loam.muck-the kind good I
4 grow cor,l I'm. Roads in Illinois there
fore, are merely long stralgh
stretches of plowed land hammere
down hard by the passing Of trani
, over them in fair weather and han
, mered down soft by the passing {
traffic over them in wet You con
steer an automobile in them mea
y when they are wet--even with q
4 four wheels amply protected wit
y chains-and all four wheels In the IT
. made by the car in front, you can
A steer In them You simply slip. slithC
4 and slide and trust TO luck that yo
4 don't go off into the ditch Eve
d the horses fall down walking alon
d unintoxcated and minding their bus
Y ness The roads are very wide
n which is fortunate or we'd he bac
there in Illinois yet--but they al
d crowned.-that is,-higher in h
1t middle and sloping off slightly to Il
ditch on either side. You make son
n progress if YOU are fortunate enoup
g TO straddle the top. But II you slit
n off the top-good night I saw
- fCnntiuuad ON PAGE Fourl