Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-09-16
PEOPLE OF THE ROAD
BY Frederic j. Haskin.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13.-To any one who
has travelled the trans-continental highways from
time to time in the past few years. the most as
t~onishing phenomena of the West is the growing
procession of motor cars equipped for long jour
neys 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 1t is certainly growing.
A few years ago the automobile laden with camp
equipment was a novelty. Now the coast-to-
coast highways are an almost unbroken string of
them. Every little town along these routes has
a freq camping ground which is nearly always
crowded. In the less settled 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 development which equip
ment for such a life has undergone. You can
buy complete living furniture for your car al
most as easily as you can buy it for your fiat, 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 inn-keepers 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 a
new location. He has always camped beside his
iitney just as his father camped beside a prairie
schooner. But of late years even the wealthy
have taken to camping. 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 contrivances 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 a
house built on the chassis. One man had such
a house, which he had built himself. that con-
tanned two hunks and a table and chair. and was
of such light and strong material that a fivver
had successfully carried 1t over the transcontl-
An American Tendency
1t is doubtful If any other country in the world
could match this army of auto campers. For
this country was peopled by nomads. Scien-
lists tell us that the nomadic impulse runs in
e lit rr.- tLN Np1aIi1 in nttlca shiloh nar-
ried most of our ancestors to this shore, ana
which sent later generations to the conquest OF
the West. The same laundering to wander is in
most of us, and intthe last few years 1t has found
an alluring expression in this cross country wan
dering. People who never camped before IN
their lives have suddenly found that it is pos
sible to be comfortable in a tent, and have felt
the ancient charm of a rowing life.
The transcontinental roads have in fact be-
come, for the warm months at least, q sort OF
complete wandering community. with all the
classes represented. The roads have their idle
rich. their middle class, their yoemanry, their
Migrants and their criminals. Here is a high
powered car with a trailer containing every camp
comfort. In it a rich man and his wife are tour
ing the West assisted by a chauffeur and a cook
who occupy the front seat. 1t is their boast that
they have never stopped at a hotel. Perhaps the
next car to pass-and it will be but a little way
behind-is that of a business man and his fam
lily. They live in st. Louis, and after many fam
lily conferences have decided to go to California
in the old family bus or bust. Everybody is
burned quite red and having a beautiful time.
Mother is learning to make biscuits in a dutch
oven, the children want to keep doing this the
rest of their lives, and father has already sam
local varieties Of hooch.
One jump behind this family party is a fivver
laboring under a heavy load, 1t contains a man
from Missouri who has sold his farm at a high
figure and is going West with his family. where
he can buy three times as much land Tor the
same money. In due course he will sell out and
move again. His father moved from Massachu-
sets to Missouri in a wagon. and his grandfather
came from Ireland in a sailing vessel. lie Is
hut carving on the family tradition.
Jitney Hoboes and Pirates
Next comes a very rusty and descriplt-looking
These may belong to any one of several classes.
There are large numbers of floating laborers
now who go from place to place along the MAN
roads looking for work. News of lucrative work
in harvest field or lumber camp may send them
a thousand miles in a few days. They always
camp, pay no rent, and their food costs them
little. They enjoy a free and interesting life and
work not more than half the time. Many OF
them are good fellows. ready to help you II you
are stuck in a mudhole. Others are thieves. al
ways ready to steal tires or any other equipment
that may be lying around loose. There is a we'll
recognized class of these jitney pirates. You
hear tales of their Expectations all along the
road. There are some armed highwaymen, too:
The favorite ruse of these is worked again and
again. The robber hides his own car and tramps
along the road, feigning the part of the foot
sore wayfarer. He halls cars that pass, prefer
ring those that contain only one man. Always
sooner or later someone compassionately picks
up. This dialogue followed in one instances:
Gould you give me a cigarette?'
Driver stops and pulls out box of cigarettes
"Match?"
Autoist gives him match.
Nov give me your ROLL"
Autoist, who was just about to start his car,
turns in surprise and finds himself looking down
the barrel of a gun, one inch from his head. He
passes over his pocketbook and watch.
NOV start your car"
He does. The bandit steps from the running
board with a polite nod and smile of thanks.
Don't stop" is his final order.
So the road is not without it's perils. But don't
shun it on that account. 1t is no more perilous
really than living at home. And the road is ro-
nance and adventure and fresh air and health.
Here the jitney of the poor man, working his
way is as welcome as the limousine of the mill
ionaire. Water, wood and scenery are free to
them all. Let no man say that he is too poor
to travel.