"
PART TWO
EDITORIAL
PAGES OUE TO TWELVE
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Omaha
PART TWO
SOOETY
PAGES ONE TO TWELVE
VOL. XUI-NO. 16.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 6, 1912
SINGLE ; COPY ' FIVE' CENTS.
ing Through Rural England Has Many Delights
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iHEN the Roman soldiers of the Twenti
eth, legion built a "military; road
through rural England from London -to
their fortified camp at old Chester,,
near Liverpool, some 2,000 years ago
they established easy grades for their
marching troops and paved the road:y
lest the frequent rains prevent rapid communlca- '
tions. They built the shortest route between '
camps as nearly straight as the lay of the land per
xnitted. Little did these old road builders the best
the world has ever known, Imagine how kind these ?
asy grass were, going to -be - to the- high -priced i
English automobile of today, so shy of hill climbing .
jjuwer tutu, it BuauieieBBiy mips into lniermeaiaie .
gear at the slightest excuse of a grade and into low
at the first suggestion of a hill. , The popular use
of the automobile as we know It at home is un
known abroad. Here the auto is confined to the
rich who can afford a $6,000 landaulet.or limous
ine with an expert, hig-salaried chauffeur, who is
also a skilled mechanic. Gasoline costs 50 cents
a gallon and there is a heavy tax besides based upon
the rated horse-power. It costs $30 per day for an
euto with driver and that Is why so many Ameri
cans bring .their own cars with them. Ocean
freights are low. - The thing for Americans who are
going to be here for several months to do is to1 buy
some well known American low priced car in New
.York or London and run it themselves over these
'splendid roads and that way see the charming coun
try and quaint old villages which He off the beaten
path. Road regulations are simple no law against
speeding only reckless driving prohibited. What '
with the excellent road maps and road signs' "he -who
reads may run" an automobile everywhere.
When you are ready to sail sell your car to some
established agent even at 50 cents on the dollar or '
ship It home. , : '
England Wants American Autos .
An immense business can be done ', on low and
medium priced American made cars when once they'
make up over here to the pleasure of driving, your
own car ana wnen we can demonstrate that our
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roads will yield as good results at home. The roads
here are bounded by hedge fences from four to six
feet high, and so thick that it would squeeze a
field mouse .to get through. They are from two to
four feet thick and often enclose on all four sides
these small fields of from ten to twenty acres. It
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rnnH T,n.,.rh for nnvonn tn Mm' n,,rhn.f . H mucll Pricedl laal that not only, is OC-
cars will not be subject to anywhere near the strain
they endure at home because of the easy grades and
fine roads ever here and a smaller engine will an
swer every purpose. ' j ' ;
As we skim along the narrow hedge-lined roads,
it is not only the beauty of rural England and the '
quaint old villages with their narrow, crooked and
winding streets that enchants ' us,': but as' "the
proper study of mankind is man,"1 we are interested
in the living stream of wayfarers ve meet and in,
speculations as to what all has happened on these
old highways that have been in use 2,000 yearrand
more. We try to picture the varied modes of travel
Bince the Roman marched these roads and what
manner of vehicles from the two-wheeled Roman
chariot, guiltless of springs or of comfort, to , the
luxurious pneumatic tired automobile' of today.
What evolution of society that today guarantees to
the humblest wayfarer the 'same rights on these
highways as to the mighty king himself, and what
tafeguards him as in his own home."
Secret of Good Roads Revealed ? ' '
. These country rpads,' established 'When travel
was by foot or horseback, are narrow lanes com
pared to our western roads The paved, section
of these country roads In England as well as upon
the continent averages, from twelve to twenty feet,
just room for one auto to pass another. The
roadbed Is always macadam with a thin four-Inch
binder of asphalt and tar. The secret of good roads
Is keeping them constantly repaired.! A pile of
broken stone every fifty yards along the roadside
enables the walking inspector with his shovel to
fill a small worn spot before it can become a rut..
Every five miles or so you meet.a steam roller with
a road gang relaying a worn section of road. They
have a complete road-making outfit. Including the
large kettles for heating asphalt and tar, and they
are at it every day In the year. I am convinced
(hat with the same repair service these macadam
cupled by these hedges but Is wasted by the shade '
they cast. Then again every few rods In this hedge .
along the road especially some great old oak, elm,
beech, walnut or linn tree, survivors of the old for-
est that formerly covered the land, is left standing
to further tax the land with the shade of its great
y. branches. ' To replace these hedges with woven wire
- fence would rob the landscape of much of its beauty,
but I believe our farmers at home, who are cutting
down their picturesque osage hedges, are Justified
by the additional farm land they acqulrev Our coun
try roads at home in summer are the finest in the
world, for nothing equals a well-packed dirt road-
r bed., But here,. where in a dry season it rains every
other day and In a wet season every day, an un
paved road is always impassable.
'. Reminder of Jules Lombard's Song .
. Most frequently of all we meet on these roads Is
the two-wheeled cart from "Maggie's Low-Backed
, Car" that Jules Lombard loved to sing-about, the
market cart of infinite variety,, to the smart trap
i with its bob-tailed cob that meets the suburbanite
at the station. It is evidently a survival of the pre
historic two-wheeled ox cart, surely not a survival '.
of the fittest, for although, adapted to the narrow
roads and still more narrow village streets, each one
of them is a back-breaking contrivance, awkward
to get into and dangerous when a horse stumbles;
but the English have always used them and that is
reason enough, thank you.
You won't meet half a dozen four-wheeled -vehicles
in a day'B autolng. I have seen no fairer
landscapes here than our river road to Blair or over'
the Council Bluffs hills to Glenwood and for grow
ing crops none can compare with the 6,500-acre
Adams ranch near Odebolt, la., with its wheat field
of 1,000 acres without a fence to break the sweep,
of the eye. over that rippling ocean of green and
what Is there that grows over here can compare
with a green field of com in September, a standing
army of home guards . Ja military alignment with
waving plumes, carrying munition of life instead of
death? The English farmer lives in one of those
frequent villages that grew out of the necessity for
mutual protection In troubled and lawless times or
. in a pretty brick house, vine covered and set down in
-an old-fashioned posy garden, always on the edge
of the road where It will take up the least land.
Motorcycles are everywhere in evidence, traveling
often in pairs, evidently on vacation tours. Many
have two-wheeled auxiliary basket chairs alongside ,
on which you generally see my lady reclining at
ease, thoroughly disguised with goggles and motor
suit, looking, like some, deep sea drVer in summer
clothes. This is the habitat of the bicycle. Fine
. ness and haven't any. Intention of getting in front
of .your machine. Why does a hen cross the road
Is not a pertinent interrogation 1 here, because she
doesn't she stays In the yard, or sedately, as be-
. comes a law-abiding English hen, travels on the
Side of the road as did the one hen we met. The
left side is the right-of-way; in England and the
law Is strictly obeyed by every human being. You
can with Impunity take the sharpest corner at full"
: speed, knowing that there will be. no one coming
your way on your side of the road. The average
speed even through .narrow village streets Is faster
, than with us. '.The road, signs are many and use
ful. "Danger -Sharp Turn," "Danger Steep' Hill,"
gentle, frequent rains make for slow and stead,
growth and coat the trunks and large limbs with
sea-green moss. Under one of these you will always
find the wayside inn with Its invitation to tea, cocoa
and lunch, but never coffee. You get cheap appe
tizing things to eat and everything good to drink,'
but not coffee. You may get a dlshwatery tincture
of Ipecac they call coffee, but until Great Britain'
acquires a colony.where the coffee bepn grows .don't
expect to get coffee. But what you meet most fre-.
quently after all on the English road Is rain.; Eng
lish, showers are so apologetic that everyone has'
contempt for them. .They, resemble the gentle spray
of the American lawn sprinkler,- but they occur so
roads, easy grades, cool weather and the small cost "Danger School f House"t and every ; conceivable " frequently every day that there isn't a foot of lawn
of a wheel combine to make. lt popular.; A great
many middle-aged, gray-haired women wheel down
the country lanes with small shopping parcels be
sides the invariable umbrella strapped on the handle
bars. There is still a little horseback riding here
and there a hunter being exercised by his mistress.
There are still some old-time horse blocks left
standing by the roadside before some old-time Inn,
the thick stone steps almost worn through by the
countless thousands who have mounted them In the
ages of long ago. . They will soon be known to song
and story only. They are monuments to a mode of
travel dead,' thank heaven, long before our time.
Old-time coaches are still running between some
towns for tourists only. The business-like honk of
our auto is answered by the tra-la-la of the red
coated footmen as we whirl past the prancing lead
ers. We are pleased for the moment with the dash
of color and glimpse of ye olden time, but settle
back into the comfortable cushion seat of our auto"
thankful that we don't have to travel by coach. .
Cattle, Sheep, Dogs and Chickens' '
We meet droves of cattle and sheep going .to
town to be slaughtered by the local butcher. There
Is always a collie dog along and the way he drives
his charges, out of the way of the auto Is almost
human. There are few dogs and those pure-bred,
fine fellows that attend strictly to their own busi-
yarning, even to a mirror on the side of a house at
a snort turns in a village -so you. can see the reflec
tion of a coming car odd signs like "New Milk, a
Penny a Glass," signs reading "That Way" Instead
of Thls"Way." ' ' .
, . , Why English Are Great Walkers V
. But after all it-is the pedestrian you'meet most
of all on the highway. . I believe the English are
such great walkers for the following reasons: .
' 1. Because their forefathers walked and that
. alone Is reason enough for an Englishman. N . (
.2. Because tlTelr houses are so cold even In
August that they can't stay Indoors with comfort.
3. Because they would die of indigestion after
eating their dingbatty cooking if they didn't walk
It off. ..
. 4. Because daylight' lasts so long In the high
latitude of England and they don't know what else
to do with their time. , , . .
6. Because walking is good and cheap also, and
they like It. .
' - There is still a large body of travelers, very
young ones mostly, asleep In their perambulators
with pacifiers sticking out of their little red faces. .
It is too bad to teach, these young innocents so early
In life to compromise and for succor to look to the
rubber trustf ? " ; ' ;
.England Is the home pf the hardwood, ree, the
hose In all England Let our Water board turn off
the wet here at 8 or any other, old time and get'
their reward.! It would do an English shower
world of good to come to America. and. learn how tpJ
rain. - With us when it rains it rains nothing else,
doing. If the English were grateful their national
saint would be the man who invented the umbrella
instead of St.' George, who is eternally, sticking a
spear Into the open mouth of y& v perfectly tama
dragon. Then I have my doubts about dragons ever
having been such pests in England anyhow.
sTo hear the English whimper over their defeat
In the Olympic games makes one inclined to agree
with the man who said, "England would be a goofl
place to live In If it were not for the English." The
city-born Londoner is a combination of our pro
vincial New Yorker and high-browed superior Bos
tonian. Boston, you know, is a disease Incurable In
adults, virulent In women,' pneumatic like the bu
bonic plague but thank heaven not. contagious as
old complaint. The Pharisees had it and it Is Identi
fied by the biblical description "a noisome pesti
lence." A New Yorker's provincialism Is illustrated
by one of them who told a western bishop that he
was out west in 1909 as far as Buffalo. ."Why,!
said the bishop, "that was the year I went, down
east as far its Cheyenne, Wyo... My,' but, we came
near bumping Into each other,' j