The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-17
Frederic Haskin's Letter
People of the Road.
tspe<kas coFrsepoadsnoA O sAs ArSzss-i

Washington. d. c.. Sept. Ito
any one who has travelled the trans
continental highways from time 10
time in the past few years, the
most astonishing phenomenon OF
the west is the growing procession
of motor cars equipped for long
journeys that follows them
No one seems to have gathered
any figures on the number of per
sons in this country who take 10
the Gypsy life every summer, but
the number must be enormous and
it is certainly growing. A few
years ago the automobile laden
with camp equipment was novel
ty. Now the coast-to- coast high
ways are an almost unbroken
string of them. Every little town
along these routes has free
camping ground which is nearly
always crowded. In the less SET
tied portions of the west, every
good spring beside the road has
become a caravanserai. There are
sections where you can see more
people living in tents than in
houses
The growth of this jitney-gypsy-
ing may be gagged. too, from the
development which equipment for
such life has undergone. You can
buy complete living furniture for
your car almost as easily as you
can buy it for your fiat, and the de-
gree of comfort which you can
achieve is limited only by your
means.
This return to the camp life has
been noted painfully by inn-keep-
ers along the road. They have for
some time been used to the spec
tacle of the middle western farmer
who has sold out and is going far
Their west in his jitney, looking for
a new location. He has always
camped beside his jitney just as his
father camped beside ! prairie
schooner But of late years even
the wealthy have taken to camp
ing. The ingenuity and amount of
the equipment which they produce
at night is astonishing. Many of
them have trailers which are com
plete sleeping compartments, as
comfortable as those in Pullman
cars, and others have contrivanees
side of the car, evolving into nice
beds with roofs over them. Cook
ing equipment is equally COM
p1ete. A third type is the car which
has a house built on the chassis
One man had such a house, which
be had built himself, that contain
ed two hunks and a table and chair,
and was of such light and strong
material that fivver had success
fully carried it over the transcon-
tinentaI divide
An American Tendency.
1t is doubtful if any other coun- |
try in the world could match this
army Of auto campers. For this
country was peopled by nomads. |
Scientists tell US that the nomadic |
impulse runs in families 1t was |
the nomadic impulse which carried |
most of our ancestors to this shore, ;
and which sent later generations |
to the conquest of the west. The !
same laundering to wander is in +.
most of US, and in the last few |
years it has found an alluring ex-
preston in this cross country wan
1ering. People who never camped /
before in their lives have sudden
y found that it is possible to be I
in a tent, and have !
felt the ancient charm of a rowing |
life. /
The transcontinentaI roads have /
n fact become, for the warm I
months at least, sort of complete |
community, with all the /
classes represented. The roads I
have their idle rich, their middle |
class, their yeomanry, their vag-
ants and their criminals. Here is
/ high-powered car with trailer