The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-09-03
AN INTERESTING
MOTOR TRIP AND
BIG CITY LIFE
EDITOR TELLS OF ROUTE TO
CHICAGO BY MOTOR AND HIS
IMPRESSIONS OF THE CITY
Chicago, H., Aug. 26, 1919
Dear Readers of the Banner-News:


Dear Readers of the Banner-News:
There
has been many of our local people
who have made the trip from our
little city to this big, over grown
place, some come by boat, some come
by rail and Of late years a few have
come by automobile. We have never
read an account of anyone of the
motor trips here and while there Is
nothing exceptional about the trip
other than that it is seldom made
we are going to tell of the route
which we took coming over here, the
condition of the roads and our i'm
pressions of Chicago, since we arriv-
ed here. We have been here many
times before, but owing to the fact
that we have been seeing the city
from Ford we can safely say that
we have taken in a greater part of
it than ever.
After getting out last weeks paper
we went home and got a couple Of
hours of sleep. At 2:30, Thursday
morning we woke up and perpared
ourselves for the long all-day ride.
A short time afterward we were on
our way to the Ford Garage-Cobb
& Donovan's of course, to get the
proper amount of air in our tires
before starting. A little more Cos
oline in the tank and we bid Fay
Hoppcugh, the night service man,
goodbye. We passed Charles Jenson,
Belongs faithful and efficient night
watch at four o'clock. Charles was on
his job all right and after we bid him
goodbye and told him to look after
the city with extra vigilance during
our absence, we headed west.
Threatening clouds soon began to
send down few drops of rain and a
little ways out of Cooks Corners it
began to rain quite hard. Just west
of Bostwick lake we ran through a
very heavy rain storm and it being
very severe, we stopped in the road
until it was over. Grand Rapids
people were just getting up when we
passed through that place and when
we got to Holland, we began to meet
teams and autos on the road. 1t also
stopped raining about this time.
From Holland we went to Sauga-
tuck and from there to South Haven.
The roads so far were like a floor.
Between Saugatuck and South Haven
we had to detour for short distance.
From South Haven we went to Covert
and then to Watervliet. Here w@ were
greatly inconvenienced through many
detours made necessary by street
improvements new bridge and
some paving. 1t could not have been
worse had the inhabitants Of Water
cliet tried to make it so--in fact it
seems they were trying to make cen
ditions just as hard for tourists pass
ing through the town as possible.
They had no "Road closedv signs up
and this let the tourists or person
passing through the town into all
sorts of evil places and trouble be-
fore he became aware of the fact that
he could go no further and was not
supposed to have gone as far as he
had. For this error on his part, he
invariably. got a good bowling out"
from some of the men in charge of
the improvement work. After many
attempts to get out of Watervilet,
We finally cut across a back yard
and got to the road which we wanted
From Watervliet we went to Col
oma and from there to Benton Harbor
Here we stopped to look over our
route guide and we noticed "a man
standing there booking at US. We
knew him at once, but he could not
place us, although he knew US. He
was Frank Williams former Belding
resident and we had a good visit
with him. He is married now and
has four children. He has been fir
ing a locomotive for the past four
years but is going on a farm now.
Frank Connell also lives in Benton
Harbor but we did not get to see
him, but will on our way back.
At Benton Harbor we saw many
members of the House Of David sect
acting as motormen and conductors
! on street cars. They never shave or
have their Aair cut-consequently
they do not care how high the barbers
shove their prices up. We saw many
young men of 20, 25 and 80 years
with boards and mustaches. Some
had only little fuzzy while other
had real creditable, long grcwths.
Regardless, of what we have heard
of these people, those whom we saw
we're orderly, splendid people and
we are glad to look at them in this
light.
The man who tends the bridge
which crosses the river between Ben.
ton Harbor and St. Joseph had bad
luck just before we got on the bridge
when he went to swing the bridge it
refused to go only about a~foot and
it stuck. We formed enc of a VOL
unteer crew to assist in fixing the
bridge. AS we worked just exactly
midway on the bridge, we do not know
whether we should send our bill for
labor to the city of Benton Harbcr
or the city of st. Joe. At the latter
place we looked over the st. Joseph
church property. Rev. FIR. John M.
Zindler, formerly Catholic priest in
Belding is located at st. Joseph and
he has about as good a congregation
as one can find in the state. He, how
ever. was not at home and we must
see him on our way home.
From st. Joseph we went to Three
Oaks, then to Michigan City, Ind,
ano. We had all good roads with the
exception Of very few miles up to
this time. We had little trouble at
Three Oaks with the supporting rod