Evening star., 1937-01-25
BY J. n. DARLING.
FOPEWORD.


The immediate excuse for taking
such a journey was, with us, twofold:
First, a case Of chronic bronchitis,
which wasn't going to be helped ma
terially by the next three months of
coal, smoke, ice, sleet and aspirin tab
lets; second, a somewhat fantastic
idea that If the whole pattern Of
American life was to be completely
altered by this new device Of peram-
bulating pent houses, it was up to
us to acquire some advance informa-
ton about il.
Most trailer trips, We conjecture,
begin with a family argument long
before either party to the controversy
knows anything about trailer or has
ever stepped inside of one. Ours did.
Probably this trip would never have
been taken (the above-stated reasons
Notwithstanding If a chance remark
of mine had not been rudely pounced
upon one morning when the coffee
was bad and castigated as a crazy
idea, wholly impractical and char
acteristic of my childish old age.
had, by the way, merely ventured the
suggestion-in an effort to brighten
what seemed to be gloomy day
that these modern trailers seemed to
be heavens answer to my prayers,
or, at least, an attractive substitute.
I had always dreamed Of having
enough money to own young yacht
and go sailing about over the Seven
Seas unincumbered by care. "A
trailer" said 1, would not, of course.
take us to strange ports where odd
sea craft with orange-colored sails
are mirrored in an amethyst sea, but
it could take us anywhere We wanted
to go on land without benefit of rail-
road tickets, hotels or timetables. 1t
must be something like having a pri-
vate car and pass on all the rail-
roads"
yes" she said, "a private Pullman
with me as Pullman car porter, dining
car steward. cook and dishwasher. be-
sides helping out as engineer and con-
ductor," If had any idea she was
going to 60 gypsying around in one
Of those things, camping on vacant
lots adjoining the city dump. with a
teakettle of hot water and the kitchen
sink for bath, and no privacy what
ever, was mistaken, that was all.
Course Confirmed by Ridicule.
Nothing so convinces you that your
idea is sound as to have some one
equally ignorant of the subject ridi-
cule it with a few well chosen blasts
of sarcasm. Such an assault, no mat
ter how trivial the original thought
may have been. Immediately makes 1t
indelible and raises it to the estate Of
q major issue, which must be defended
at all costs. However, this did not
seem to be the morning to settle the
matter. 1t Is sufficient to note that
the seed of controversy over the trailer
had been sown, and from that day
forth the arguments pro and con
grew and grew.
We stumbled over its roots in the
most unexpected places, and its spread
ing branches cast deepening shadows
over our whole family existence. I,
representing the affirmative, produced
testimonials, ground-floor plans of
various types Of trailers, maps of ex-
cursion possibilities and even trailer
cook book, and pretty generally con-
tended that the trailer was the an
swer to all the complications of civili-
zation. The negative was equally re-
sourceful and clipped from the daily
press stories of mass hold-ups of trail
ers along the highway: Murder in
Trailer Camp" Three Killed as Trail
er Leaves Road and Crashes Over
Cliff" and so on. Selections from
Pat O'Brien's elastic on Folding
Bedouins" were read aloud, with bois-
ferrous outlaws accompanying the
clinching arguments against life in a
trailer.
It Is quite remarkable how much
truth there turned out to be in most
of the arguments both for and against
the project. Yet we probably would
not have had a trailer at all and the
controversy would have worn itself
out or been succeeded by another
equally unimportant had it not been
for case of the "du" which brought
home one clammy, mushy Winter day.
The flu was followed by return en-
gagement Of chronic bronchitis, which
is always lurking in the offing TO
assault me whenever it can catch me
Of guard. Plaintive appeals Of an
invalid" are always difacult to re-
sist for the same reason that cripples
make . good living selling worthless
lead pencils. It waS . mean advan-