Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-09-19

Washington, D. c., Sept. 16.-To any
one who has travelled the trans-contin-
entail highways from time to time in the
past few years, the most astonishing
phenomenon Of the west is the grow
ing procession Of motor cars equipped for
long journeys that follows them.
No one seems to have gathered any
figures on the number Of persons in
this country who take to the gypsy life
every summer, but the number must be
enormous and it il certainly growing
A. few years ago the automobile laden
with camp equipment was novelty.
Now the coast-to-coast highways are
an almost unbroken string of them.
Every little town along these routes
has q 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-gypsying
may be gagged, too, from the develop
ment which equipment for such a life
has undergone. You can buy complete
living furniture for your car almost as
easily as you can buy it for your flat,
and the degree of comfort which you
can achieve is limited only by your
means.
This return to the camp life has
been noted painfully by innkeepers
along the road. They have for some
time been used to the spectacle of the
middle western farmer who has sold
out and is going farther west in his
jitney, looking for new location. He
has always camped beside his jitney,
,ck en-
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 complete sleeping
compartments, as comfortable as those
in Pullman cars, and others have con-
trivances that mysteriously unfurl from
the side of the car. evolving into nice
beds with roofs over them. Cooking
equipment is equally complete. A third
type is the car which has house
built on the chassis. One man had
such house, which he had built himself,
that contained two hunks and a table
and chair, and was of such light and
strong material that flivver had sue
cessfully carried it over the trans
continental divide.
An American IonQenCy.
It is doubtful if any other country
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 fam
lies. 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 hankering to wander
is in most of us, and in the last few
years it has found an alluring express
sion in this cross country wandering.
People who never camped before in
their lives have suddenly found that it
is possible to be comfortable in tent,
and have felt the ancient charm Of
rowing life.
The transcontinental roads have have in
fact become, for the warm months at
least. a sort of complete wandering
community, with all the classes repre-
sented. The roads have their idle rich,
their middle class. their woemanry,
their Migrants and their criminals.
Here is q high-powered car with
trailer containing every camp com
fort. In it a. rich man and his wife