The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-09-23

permitting. be on it for several days to
come. As a continuous sporting propc-
sition it is, length considered, the class
lest thing of its kind in the country
AS such it ranks well above the Cobbs
Creek golf course, and it is many
times as deadly. As an instance, day
in and day out the year around many
persons wager life and limb on the
proposition that they can descend this
mountain, ene way or the other, in
them were killed while doing it. Sixty
three were crippled and many others
injured. That's the record for one
mountain; and this particular noun
tain may not be the titleholder.
To those imbued with the specu-
lative instinct the National pike is a.
gift from the gods. In the course OF
a day one can win or lose thousands
of dollars on the proposition that he
can make the impending grade in
third speed. 1 drove up the mountain
to Summit tonight $36 to the good on
the days speculations. 1t is true IL
was not all clear gain carried and
poured SIP worth OF water into a
boiling radiator, but 1 drove into the
garage tonight on velvet" and that
is all any good sport asks or expects,
At one time this afternoon l was $500
winner. But it is not of my gaming
that 1 wish particularly to speak
What I would do is register my joy
in another and eXtraneous matter l
have finally had a real laugh at the
expense of the Henry car. I have
simulated laughter at the expense or
the Henry many times, but 1 am
frank to admit a good deal of the hi
larity was forced. Todays cachin-
nation was entirely spontaneous. The
mountain reaches of the National
pike comprise a stretch of going on
which a Henry car cannot pass an
automobile. A long study of Henry
cars and their drivers has convinced
me that the dearest ambition of the
latter is to pass an automobile. One
tooling his car along the thorough
fares hears a tremendous clatter be-
hind. 1t is as if some one had pushed
a hogshead partially filled with nails
and broken glass down a mountain
side. He knows instinctively what is
going to happen. He knows that
presently Henry car will come
alongside, squirt ahead. and that it
Immediately will revert to type and
cucumber the road for the remainder
of the drive. But all a Henry car
can do is to splutter painfully up
these grades. 1t couldn't pass a land
terrapin. Today 1 drove by a dozen
gentlemen who were arduously en-
gagged at the task of coaXing Henrys
uphill. And I had my little laugh
every time 1 did it.
HI TIE ddyS WAtIl was IHe pun
licity representative of a well-known
proprietary remedy, / visited many
small towns and stayed at many
small-town hotels. They were all
alike, or nearly so. A soft-coaI stove
in the middle of the office a writing
desk displaying an advertising insert
in which was emblazoned the name of
every firm that had gone out of bust
ness in the town in the preceding
ten years. A long, rangy dining room
Uttered with golden-oak furniture of
the Chester A. Arthur period. A
travelling mans table, distinguished
from the others by a glass dish con-
tanning two oranges and three ba-
nanas. That is mostly changed Good
hotels dot the small towns. We ate
luncheon at one today in the little
town of Cumberland. 1t was as
splendidly conceived and as tastefully
decorated and furnished as any city
hostelry.