The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-09-16

MAXIMUM, sept. lo--iO any
one who has Travelled the trans-conti-
mental highways from time to time in
the past few years. the most astonish-
ing 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 persons in
this country who take to the Gypsy
life every summer, but the number
must be enormous and it is certainly
growing. A few years ago the auto
mobile 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 free camp
ing ground which is nearly always
crowded In the less settled portions
of the West, every good spring beside
the road has become 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 life
has undergone. You can buy COM
plete living furniture for your car al
most as easily as you can buy it for
your fat, 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 new location. He
has always camped beside his jitney
just as his father camped beside a
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. Cook
ing equipment is equally complete. A
third type is the car which has a house
built on the chassis. One man had
such house, which he had built him
self, that contained two hunks and a
! table and chair, and was of such light
and strong that a fiivver had success
| fully carried it over the transcontinent
al divide
An American Tendency.
| II is doubtful if any other country
! in the world could match this army oil
auto campers. For this country was
| peopled by nomads Scientists tell us
that the nomadic impulse runs II
families. 1t was the nomadic impulse
which carried most of our ancestors t.
/ this shore, and which sent later gener
ations to the conquest of the West
The same hankering to wander is IL
most of us, and in the last few year.
ii has found an alluring expression il
this cross country wandering Peopl,
who never camped before in thei
lives have suddenly found that it il
! possible to be comfortable in a tent
and have felt the ancient charm of
\ rowing life.
| The transcontinental roads have il
face become, for the warm months a
least, a sort of complete wanderin,
community. with all the classes repre-
sented. The roads have their idl
rich, their middle class, their yoemar
ry, their Migrants and their criminals
Here is a high-powered car with
trailer containing every camp comfort
In it rich man and his wife are tout
ing the West. assisted by a chauffeu
and cook who occupy the front sea-
1T is their boast that they have neve
stopped at a hotel. Perhaps the mex
car to pass-and it will be but a littl
Tx-a h1A IND ie- hot .f . h,,-s
and his family. They live in ST. Loui!
and after many family conference
have decided to go to California in tn
old family bus or bust. Everybody
burned quite red and having a beaut
full time. Mother is learning to max
biscuits in dutch oven, the childre
want to keep doing this the rest {
their lives, and father has alread
sampled Is different golf courses an
: 10 local varieties Of hooch.
: One jump behind this family part
is f1ivver laboring under a heav
load. 1t contains a man from Missou
. who has sold his farm at a high figur
, and is giong West with his famil
where he can buy three times as muc
= land for the same money In du
course he will sell out and NOV
again. His father moved from Mass
chusetts to Missouri in a wagon, an
his grandfather came from Ireland
a sailing vessel He is but carryin
on the family tradition.
Jitney Hoboes and Pirates.
Next comes a very rusty and d
crepit-loking machine with a couple
overalled men in it. These may b
t long to any one of several classe
: There are large numbers of foatir
: laborers now who go from place
place along the main roads lookir
: for work. News of lucrative work
: harvest field or lumber camp may ser
+, them a thousand miles in a few day
E They always camp, pay no rent, ar
' their food costs them little. They e
: joy free and interesting life and VOL
not more than half the time. Many
them are good fellows, ready to he
you if you are stuck in mudhol
lOthers are thieves. always ready