Evening star., 1937-06-27
By Milton Russell.

longest ana SuTdl21lLeSJ highway,
which many of my ancestors had fol-
isiowed as westward the course of en-
2 ptra took its way. But 1t was sup
posedly also q very economical one.
eonndering the sights" listed along
the route, and y required IL days OF
hard pcdaling with no stops Of any
duration anywhere except for sleep
ing.
Thirty-six dollars was all I paid
the American Air Lines luxury liner
Just few days ago to take me over
practically the same ground, non
stop, 1t picked me up in Chicago
an hour before dinnertime, and in
four hours, with the acme of ease. set
me down in Washington a full hour
before bedtime.
1t was the pleasantest four-hour
!aunt have ever enjoyed There was
nothing to wear neither mans pants
nor patience thin. as in the first trip.
There was no back-breaking struggle
up = score of Allegheny Mountain
sleeps only to be followed by a swift
Sllthering slide down the opposite
slope, clear to the bottom-from which
one started up all over again. There
was no scarcity OF food or water in
unpopulated sections. There was no
burning sun, nor drenching thunder
storms to keep one scurrying to cover.
And when the cost of "eats and
sleeps" a new saddle to replace the
broken one, and new tires to replace
the ones cut to shreds on flint and
limestone roadbeds. was counted up,
the financial cost was about the same.
Perhaps If fresh liniment and new
shoes "a postlude) were added, the
bicycle trip cost me more.
I spent one week getting ready for
the bicycle trip. To negotiate the
distance, via indianapolis. Columbus
GAINESVILLE, Wheeling, Washington,
Brownsville, Uniontown, Cumberland,
etc. required nearly two weeks, be-
cause OF rough roads and mountain
country that forced the biker to hike.
Then spent nearly week recuperat-
ing from the effort afterwards, before
did much real work
But flying down to Washington
well the trip was decided upon one
boon. A luncheon friend suggested
the new nonstop service which the
cir line has lately featured. 1 fin
ished my routine work at pm
With a hastily packed bag I was in
the air at sos pm. At o'clock
tive blond "stewardess' And after
four hours of easy, vibrationless,
bumpless, stormless, sWeatless Jour-
ney, landed at the Nations capital,
rs clean, cool and comfortable as a
poets dream Of Utopia. 1t was al
most too good to be true. Yet that
seems to be modern aviation for YOU
and for everybody.
My 1917 trip across these five
States would doubtless have been by
taD except for the fact that l was
born and reared on this, the most
historic thoroughfare in America, the
cne material factor that did most to
bind together the new States of the
West with the older States of the
sastern seaboard My ancestors be-
fore the Revolutionary War pioneered
from Maryland's Eastern Shore with
pack mules along the Indian trails
which Colonel George Washington
and Gen. Braddock later blazed and
hroadened. They took out the first
Government patent on land in the
Great Bend Country" now known as
Fayette County, Pa. Later as Zanes
Trace opened up the overland trails
from Pittsburgh west to GAINESVILLE
and the Ohio, they pressed on into
Belmont and Guernsey Counties. As
d stripping I once rode relay BIZ
cycle across Guernsey, carrying some
billet from the Governor OF MARYLAND
10 the Governor of Indiana, while all
our world wondered at the new burst
of human speed bicycling produced.
My fathers mill beside the old cov-
cred bridge on the National Road
was the scene of my earliest business
training. Old wagoners of pioneer
times with their tales Of cracking
bull-whips, long trains of merchan-
disc, breath-taking dashes of fast
mail coaches, and a record haul" of
six tons of tobacco once carried over
"the pike into Wheeling with To-
horse team, always fascinated me.
There was romance on that road.
Morgans Raiders used it to shatter
the Union lines again and again, and
many Guernsey homesteads still
show the scars of their blasting
musketry Zanesville's famous Y
bridge-Brownsvilles landings for
Ohio freight on the Youghiogheny-
wild turkeys in great flocks near
Dearthville, where my father went
to hunt-the Colonial mansions near
Uniontown, half fortress, half home
stead, where the Robertses and the
Dearths first settled and held out
against French and Indians and
British and whatsoever else of sick
ness or sudden death attacked them
these things saw again, except the
turkeys.
had old boyhood friends scattered
all up and down that road. running
grocery stores or filling stations, with
some few in the professions of law or
medicine or ministry. And yearned
to recall the old halcyon days. The
mansions of Granville and Newark I
1onged to admire again. I wanted to
smell the fogs Of Uniontown Hill and
look once more along the desolate-
ness of Winding Ridge and Negro
Mountain.
1t was straight road, the worlds
hnest long road-but its hard-packed
stone made tough cycling, and 1
found that sentiment was edged out
By the necessity of making time.
Today the Washington nonstop
planes to Chicago follow almost the
same route, via Indianapolis, and am
told that 1t is favorite with Gov
eminent officials who have to make
u time In order to keep speaking en-
gagements. They can finish full
days work at their Office and catch
q $50 pm. Chicago plane carrying
21 passengersn Four hours later, in
Chicago, they can catch eight of ten
different plane connections for far
~ &c l~a it,