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Show THE LEIII SUN, LEIII. UTAH ' " Recall Story of 'Windwagon' Thomas Who Built the Queerest Vehicle That Ever Traveled the Santa Fe Trail By ELMO SCOTT WATSON (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) THINK of the Santa Fe Trail and you think of II ... n ft r o creaking up long prairie slopes; wagons rolling down hills; wagons grinding through heavy sand, sucking through sticky mud, swishing , through tall grass; wagons with locked wheels plunging down steep river-banks; wagons wag-ons snaked through clinging quicksands, or jiggling over ribbed sandbars rough as cobblestones; wagons hauled yard by painful yard up the forbidding rocks of the Raton Pass, two slow miles a day; wagons corraled against the attack of treacherous redskins; red-skins; wagons broken down, abandoned, stranded by the loss of animals stolen by raid ing savages; wagons burned in prairie fires; wagons warped and shrunken by the heat and drouth. Wagons crammed with rich furs, Mexican silver, gold bullion." Thus writes Stanley Vestal in , his book, "The Old Santa Fe Trail," published recently by the Houghton Mifflin company of Bos ton, and the first chapter in that volume of interesting yams is de voted to the story of what was probably the queerest vehicles that ever traveled over that trail. The scene of this true story is laid in Westport, Mo., the eastern terminus of the trail, and is described de-scribed by Mr. -Vestal thus: "One spring day in 1853, the citizens of that frontier town were amazed to see a light vehicle steering down the street, driven by the wind which filled its white sail.- Horses reared and ran away, women and children fled into their houses, dogs scuttled for safety, and the men of West-port West-port stood with open mouths, watching that strange craft come sailing in. "Its pilot lowered the sail, locked his brakes, and rolled to a stop before the entrance to the Yoakum Tavern. He disembarked, disem-barked, and the startled citizens gathered to inspect his bark and question him. Navigator of the Prairie. "They learned that his name was Thomas, 'that he had come from somewhere east, and that his sole cargo consisted of a compass, com-pass, a water butt and a carpetbag. carpet-bag. He walked like a seafaring man, and they suspected that he was tattooed under his faded monkey jacket. Was he a whaler, .u lie ever struck a fish? They ;vuiU "Ul ior xnomas wasted woras in telling of himself. .r T, . inai ne na- come TJ "Sa f the Prairies, and invited them to join with hirrl f 1 c a comPany to engage m the Santa Fe trade! whi rj ttIe.wlt him, far w. i a mera b exPiain' build -ZCTC m PrPosed to of latr? heir backmga fleet 5r Clippers t0 carry S? adva "?6 CUSSed SpaiardZ rat;nT 7 uo' accoraing to the SmSJT'- SPeed.econo! bS&ZTJ expense of draft an- , e lroubIe of feeding er (sinra , '"aiisas 1UV- the rk 7arei ana sail on Wport 'aes compass, for aifl as, opting place ifbeXToh st; " built flfprf71? the wagons edof3 Would ., . tu w me stramro rrcf j were ttm.u ? Ana An WtherA accordmg to Mr. m, eatcn somewhr. i A 'CLIPPER OF THE PRAIRIE' Almost as strange as the "windwagon" described In this article was the vehicle conceived bv the im.H,.. L- popular nickel novels of 50 rears jrn Shmtm k, i sturdier hniit ond v,.,; ,- r thel.C0Jf,r ?LNo" 87 of Vo1- W of the Frank Reade Library which requiring from four to eight 5n?i VaerFSnk ?eade ,r''s CliPP f e Prairie; or, Fighting horses to pull it-quickly resulted Apaches in the Far Southwest" Thi " ' 6 : .B in th Mnmi . ..,LIe U may seem slranSe that u- t 6 uumas WOUld think of applying some of the technique of ocean navigation to travel across the broad plains of me west, it is not really so un wuc. tVit U3 iVirt vestal ex plains in this same chapter "In oia aays. travelers nn tv.nc plains spoke habitually of 'making 'mak-ing port,' urged Congress to enact navigation laws for the 'prairie ut-ean.- meir covered wagons -r fiunaieijr uuooea prairie atnooners, were in fact water tight boats mounted on wheelsl jusmg nign at prow and stern. iney moucnt ol tne nam in terms of seafaring, and felt the glamour of them as a magic of uie sea. xney named the jump-mg-ofT place in Missouri, West-port West-port 1" The "prairie schooners" of San ta ie trail and Oregon trail fame were modifications of the original "covered wagon," an eastern vehicle which was developed devel-oped in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Penn-sylvania. This was the Cones. toga wagon, which antedated the western "prairie schooner" by at ieasi a century. Although the first of these ve hicles were modified Enelish cov. ered farm waeons. which cam into use in New England and oth er places on the Atlantic seaboard sea-board early in the colonial days, local conditions in Pennsylvania notably the greater distances between the producer and his market, which made it essential that the Pennsylvania farm wagon wag-on hold twice as much as the New England farm wagon, where distances were shorter, hence the y gum. thT, navy.' wt.aav eomg to ra weirs in such prop;nweirsuisucl Proved It Would Sail. .to Prove Saf,fkeptlcism. Just sail announced US CtlPfr prac- that he Grove .iri M craft aa 9on 150 miles awav wagon! Yords about his 01 clouR ,.he. left towS V38oss tho tT'- -na Iumbe riethatXr- red they were Came the day when "Windwag on was ready to demonstrate his" land leviathan. It required two yoke of oxen to haul it out on the open prairie. Then the directors of the company who, according to Mr. Vestal, had "fortified themselves at Yoakum's bar" went aboard. That is, all of them did except Dr. Parker. Evidently he decided that his professional pro-fessional services might be need ed before the "voyage" was over and he wanted to be able to supply sup-ply them. So he mounted his favorite fa-vorite mount, a mule, and prepared pre-pared " to follow the bold navigator, naviga-tor, Cap'n Thomas, who mounted the deck, hoisted his sail and reached for the tiller. A strong wind was blowing and as it began to belly the huge sail, the wagon-ship got under way. Gradually it picked up speed and Dr. Parker had to "put the gad" to- his mule to keep up with it. Cap'n Thomas' passengers were delighted when the windwagon started, thus justifying their faith in its navigability and reassuring them that they hadn't invested in something that would prove to be a failure. But as its momentum increased they began to be a little alarmed and as it went careening over hill and dale they became frightened. It was going so fast that they didn t dare jump eut. as they wished to do. So they began to yell to the skipper to slow his craft down. "Windwagon," however, was figuratively, if not literally, "on the crest of the wave," due partly to the stimulation of the cargo he had taken on at Yoakum's bar and partly to the heady wine of success, instead oi needing tneir frightened cries and shortening sail, he began to demonstrate his seamanship. Watch me run 'er against the windl" he shouted as he put over the helm. That was a mistake. as he soon learned. For as the heavy ship-wagon came around, something went wrong. Evidently Evident-ly the wrind caught her sail the wrong way for suddenly .she went into reverse. The quick-footed mule on which Dr. Parker was riding jumped aside just in time, otherwise both it and its rider would have been run down. Then the steering-gear seemed to have locked and before Cap'n Thomas knew what was happening happen-ing his ship was going around and around in ever-widening cir cles, cy now nis passengers were terror-stricken. High as they were from the ground and risky as a jump was, they decided that i ha h.... -! v ?mnwest." This "prairie clipper" seems to . visa ueiwccn a moaern war tank and a trailer. The living quarters had an observation platform on the roof and a rood-SLS rood-SLS ?0UStCd " Was PropeUed by steam en Whwi?". ?DAZZ m-like projection from the bIonhdtnal rCPid R"d - I proof that he had actually been mere. The former skeptics were now convinced that he knew what he was talking about and they agreea to nnance the construction construc-tion of a super-windwagon. They organized tne "Overland Navigation Naviga-tion Company" and the stockhold. ers included some of the most prominent citizens of Westport ut. j. w. Parker, the leading physician; Attorney J. J. Mas- tin; Benjamin Newson, the Indian agent; Henry Saser: Thomas W. Adams; and, of course, the in ventor, "Windwagon" Thomas A Huge Wagon-Ship. Under his direction there was built a huge prairie schooner, 25 ieet long and with a seven-foot beam, mounted on four big wneeis, each 12 feet in diameter. The sides of the wagon, which formed the "cabin" of this ship of the plains, rose to the ton of tne wheels and above it was the deck.". Toward the front was a tall mast which carried only mainsail, but instead of the front being the prow, as it is on a sea going vessel, the tail-gate of the wagon was the prow and the tongue of the wagon was brought up and over the stern to serve as a tiller, in the development of a distinc tive type of wagon for this region. Gradually the excellence of the wagons made by the wheelwrights wheel-wrights of the Conestoga valley of Lancaster county caused them to become famous throughout the country and "Conestoga wagon" became a sort of trademark for this type of freight carrier. They differed from the English wagons from which they sprang in that the bed was longer and deeper and had considerable sag in the middle, both lengthwise and crosswise. There was a very good reason for this. If, while the wagon was pursuing its way over some rough trail or down a steep 60 S it was high time to heed the urge mountainside, the load would to "abandon shio " Whil thpiV shift, settle toward th Deiuddied skipper roared out or- ucrs m nautical terms which WWWWyi neither thev nnr nrnhoM,. V, r5-' "SVJiW r could understand, they leaped overboard. By some miracle of good fortune no one was killed and the worst anyone could charge up against the experience was a few bruises and a thoroughly thor-oughly agitated mind. -' As for Cap'n Thomas, true to the traditions of the sea, he stuck by his ship, evidently determined to go down with flying colors and perish with it if need be. But there was no such dramatic end to his career as a dryland sailor. For within a few minutes his craft ended up with a bump against a stake-and-rider fence on the bank of Turkey creek and stopped suddenly, albeit so suddenly sud-denly that he was jolted off and landed in a heap on the ground. wiui tnis inglorious end to his first voyage, his dream of a fleet of prairie ships vanished. "Noth ing Windwagon could sav would induce the Company to build the rest of the fleet," writes Mr. Vestal. Ves-tal. "The lubbers had no heart for prairie seafaring. They went back to their shops and their of- fices, put the venture down to profit and loss, and thanked heaven heav-en that they were still alive and sound. What else could be ex pected of men who halted on the edge of the sea of grass? Windwagon' Vanishes. 'But Windwagon remained un daunted. He embarked once more in the smalL light craft in which he had come to Westport. made sail, and vanished as swiftly swift-ly and mysteriously as he had come. History has no more to tell of him. Maybe he sailed away to shoot buffalo from the after-deck, or harpoon redskins daring enough to run afoul of him on their cruising cruis-ing ponies. Perhaps he ran hard aground in some deep valley or ravine, where no wind came to fill his sail, and no bull-whacker blundered in to haul him out upon the sandy plain. Perhaps the cussed Injuns found him thus becalmed, be-calmed, and hung his hair upon some pony s Dndle. "There are legends among the Indians of a vehicle seen on the prairie, a wagon that was bigger than any wagon, which moved without horses or oxen to draw it and carried a white 'flag' as tall as a tipi. What became ef the Navigator of the Plains will never be known. "But, in two respects, his story is significant, showing us how men of those days thought of the Plains, with all the beauty and mystery of the sea, and also illustrating the dauntless character of the men who crossed them, made them their home." According to Mr. Vestal's notes in the appendix to his volume, an account of this incident appeared in the Kansas City Star for August 6, 1903. and recent files of the Southwest South-west Review gives a version of tbe Indian legend referred to. A Conestoga Wagon at Williamsburg, Va. not throw its bulk against the end-gates. end-gates. Unlike the bows, which held the white cover of the English Eng-lish wagon, which were vertical, the bows of the Conestoga fol lowed the line of the ends of the body and slanted -outward, thus keeping out rain and dust. The whole appearance of the Cones toga was that of a boat and, as John Omwake, author of "The Conestoga Six-Horse Bell Teams of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1758- 1850," says, "It is easy to see why this wagon should have been called the Ship of Inland Com- merce, as it cruised with its great white top between the green Pennsylvania hills." ine conesioga wagon came into existence just in time to have a part in making American his tory. As early as 1745 Benjamin Franklin was issuing a broadside urging wagoners to enlist with their wagons and teams in the king's service against the French and Indians. Ten years later when General Braddock set out upon his ill-fated expedition it was very necessary that he have adequate transport for his pro visions during his march into the wilderness. Securing this was only one f the many difficulties of that harassed leader and it was not until Benjamin Franklin came to his aid and persuaded the Pennsylvania wagoners to enlist en-list that the expedition was able to make any progress westward. The Conestoga wagons played their part, too, in the struggle for liberty. It was these vehicles which carried supplies to the American army during that terrible ter-rible winter at Valley Forge and in the spring of 1778 a sturdy Conestoga wagon, drawn by four horses and with a full company of Continental soldiers as a guard, brought $600,000 in silver, the loan of the French government from Portsmouth, N. H., to the government treasury at York, Pa., (where the Continental congress con-gress was then meeting). But it was in the period after the Revolution Revo-lution that the Conestoga rose tp its full glory as the carrier of freight back and forth to the West and as the vehicle of the emigrants emi-grants into the Kentucky and Ohio country. It also served once more as a weapon of war during the War of 1912 when Conestoga wagons carried powder from the Brandywine mills to Lake Erie, there to be used in Perry's bril bant victory at Put-in-Bay. 0 ADVENTURERS' CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSEIFI "I Ride With the Reaver9 WELL-one way to have an adventure is to go on an auto- Jeannette's driving would thrill you. It micht even paralyze you. Like the old patent medicine ads used to say, it invig orates me neaitny, cures the lame and the halt, and brings the dying back to life. Jeannette started out on her adventure without anv auto mobile at all. As a matter of fact, she wasn't even properly equipped for walking. She didn't have any shoes on. It was a stifling August day in 1930. Even Rockaway Beach was without the slightest sien of a breeze. Jeannette was lvinc down in her room when suddenly the hot. muccv air was torn by the most piercing, agonizing scream she had ever heard. And from then on, things happened thick and fast. Jeannette jumped out of bed and ran to the door. In front of her house was a crowd of people. In the midst of them was Mrs. Levin a summer visitor holding a tiny infant in her arms. "My baby! He's dead! " she was crying. And as Jeannette Jean-nette sprang down the steps she heard the frantic, white- faced mother explaining that while she had left the child alone for a minute min-ute It had picked up a bottle of camphorated oil nd drank It. Jeannette Starts Trip to Hospital. The baby lay In the woman's armi moUonless tilT. His little eyes bulged and his lips were blue. Without word Jeannette grabbed him and started running running toward the doctor's office, two blocks away. She was still barefooted. The burnlnB sun made her head throb. Perspiration drenched her body. But she sprinted the whole way and burst Into the doctor's office, her heart pounding madly. Tbe doctor waa In bit back office, operating oa a man's foot. Blood soaked cotton was strewn over the operating table and more blood was dripping Into a pall tbat bung beneath the patient. "I can't stop," he said. "This man has i hemorrhage. What's the trouble?" , At that point the child's mother, who had followed closelv behind Jeannette, came bursting Into the office. "My baby I " She walled. "He's dead! He's deadl" The doctor dropped the needle be was holding, snatched the child from Jeannette's arms and ran into the bathroom. Without a word Jeannette grabbed him and started running. Opening the hot water faucet In the bathtub he held the baby under it minute passed. There was no sign of life. "Jeannette." he whis pered. "He's gone. Look he's foaming at the mouth. Rush him to the hospital. Take my car-it's outside. The key is in the Ignition. My patient will bleed to death If I leave him." Jeannette picked up the child again. She dashed out into the hall and stumbled over the prostrate body of Mrs. Levin, who bad fainted. She couldn't even hold the child while Jeannette drove to the hospital. How could she manage alone? She rushed to the street lost a few precious seconds trying to get the baby's stiff, outstretched arms through the narrow door. With tbe child oa her lap she lost more valuable time trying to find the starter. She found the starter at last The motor roared. The car started. She was off turning the corner and putting on speed racing down the boulevard toward the hospital, at Beach Eighty-fourth street, Just over me tracits or the Long Island railroad. There was traffic on the streets, but Jeannette made good time. She did, that is, until she came to the railroad crossing near Hammel station. sta-tion. As she was about to cross, the gateman blew his whistle and held up his hand. The crossing gate began to lower. Jeannette screamed. "Wait! Let me through!" But the gates kept right on falling. Jeannette gripped the steering wheel and stepped on the gas. The car shot forward. It bumped onto the crossover Just under the gates got Into the middle of the tracks and stalled! The gateman cursed. Jeannette jammed" her foot viciously down on the starter but the car didn't start Then, for the first time, Jeannette Jean-nette lost her head. They made cars then, with two kinds of gear shifts, and suddenly she bad forgotten which type this was. She sat fumbling with the gear lever while, down the tracks, a train was rapidly narrowing narrow-ing the distance between it and the car. Agony of the Moment Lives With Jane. The gateman yelled ."Get the h off these tracks." Jean- nette paid no attention. Be ran over and screamed is her car. A crowd was gathering. Frantically, Jeannette kept trying to start the car. Her teeth were chattering and she says she'll never lorget tne agony or that moment. The gateman had raised tbe gates half-way. Tbe crowd was screaming to her to get out of tbe car and run. Then, suddenly, the motor caught. Jeannette Jerked the shift lever Into what she thonght was first speed. It wasn't It was reverse. Tbe car shot backward with a force that made the baby's head strike the steering wheeL It bit with a resounding thud and It looked like a catastrophe, but it was just what the doctor ordered. The car shot back off the track, and at the same time, something happened to the child. I guess the doctor would have called it regurgitation regurgi-tation or some other swell sounding word, but In plain English well the baby Just chucked up. An avalanche of half digested string beans and potatoes landed In Jeannette's lap. And along with It came the CAMPHORATED CAM-PHORATED OH A few minutes later in the hospital, Jeannette lay on the floor and cried hysterically while doctors worked over the babv with a atomach pump. If the doctors even noticed Jeannette, they didn't give any sign of it The baby was the important one. Jeannette was only the one who saved his life. (Re lea ied by Western Newspaper Union.) Youthful Tailored Two-Piece Frock CEASON in and season out, the whole year round, you need a two-piece tailored suit-frock like 1875-B. Ifa ideal for business, classroom wear and general spectator spec-tator sports. The collarless neckline neck-line is very smart. The skirt is full and circular, and of course you can wear it with your lingerie blouses, too. The jacket-blouse ha3 unusually in jjl ' ' attractive bodice detailing, with stitched seams emphasized by two little flat pockets, placed just where slim figures need them! It is fitted in to hug the waistline, and the shoulders are eallantlv squared, to make it look even more slender. Tweed, velveteen. flannel and wool crepe are excellent ex-cellent materials for right now; by all means repeat this later in faille or flat crepe. Barbara Bell Pattern No. 1875-B is designed for sizes 12, 14, M, 18 and 20. Corresponding bust measurements meas-urements 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38. Size 14 (32) requires 4 yards of 39-inch material. With long ?leeves, size 14 requires VA yards of 39-inch fabric. Send your order with 15 cents (in coins) to The Sewing Circle Pattern Dept., 149 New Montgomery Montgom-ery Ave., San Francisco, Calif. OUTOFSORTS? Her ia Amazing- Ref of Condition Dua to Slutsltti Bowalo JUrftlJ " Jurt fliib.U: IB It, a,, Jtr all Mgttebla laurtlra. bo nulii. Ukhdumu, refreshing luvluratlnc Da. pendaMa rtliof from tick Jmdachea, biliotu aptna, Ural iecliac arhea aaaoctazd with CDoatipatioa. Without Rick JJc bo a( NR from your TI1U10UI KISK dniMi. M.ke tha teat then if not dcllihtd. feuiro, ti bo to u. Wa Witt roiuna mv purcnaaa prlca. That'a Ot NR Tahlrt. I Peace In Understanding A man of understanding holdeth his peace. Scriptural Proverb- Rigid Air Safety Code Beneficial to U. S. Aviation One reason for the supremacy of Americas aviation ever foreign ri vals is supplied by estimates that this country's commercial air transport trans-port companies spend 500 per cent mere each year on research, main tenance and inspection than all the rest of the world's airlines. Rigid safety standards are applied to even seemingly minor Items of air equipment by aviation inspection crews. An example of their unusual un-usual requirements is found in a re port on the development of a new tjpe of plane refuelling hose now in use by major oil companies having refuelling contracts at airports from coast to coast Five years of research by icien- tists of the B. F. Goodrich laboratories labora-tories went into the perfecting of the new hose which Incorporates safeguards against two peculiar aviation avi-ation problems. A special compound com-pound of synthetic rubber was developed de-veloped for the hoe to prevent the possibility of small particles of natural rubber which has a tendency tend-ency to disintegrate to contact with gasoline from passing Into the motors. mo-tors. The new compound is said by technicians to be completely gasoline-proof. Stranded stainless steel wire was also woven Into the hose in order that static electricity which might have been generated by tho friction fric-tion of air on the plane's surfaces in flight might be conducted harmlessly harmless-ly to the ground through the wire, which Is attached to eouplinei on the field. WEARY DESPONDENT HIDI C Cry'nt P1U, Irritable UlIlLu- BrYB dua to functional waaaaaws "monthly" palmhould Omt raal "wonin'i friend" in Lydia E. Pink-nam's Pink-nam's Vagatabla Compound. Try ill LydiaLPinkharn'sKS VNU W 240 Soul of Wit Brevity is the soul of wit Shakespeare. ATdCTlllTjIi V -3CI3- of Doom Pills, after many years of worldwide world-wide dm, rarely moil accepted aa evwenca of latuttctory est And farorable public ornninft innnnH. . V. of the able physician who teat the ralue of Doan'a tinder exacting TTwm physicians, too, approre erery word of adTCTUtinj you read, the objectire of which is only to recommend Doeni pait HI dretie treatment for diwwder the kidney function and for relief oi the pain and worry it causes. if more people were aware af how the fh.ri" tanl)r remoTe waste ?nItiajrJn ''00i i'"t in-rory in-rory to health, there would be better w dcratand.ng- of why the whole body suffers wneo kidneys la, and diuretic medication medica-tion would be more often employed. iSurnmr, acanty or loo frequent tmna-omet"?e tmna-omet"?e wsm of dUtnrbed kidney Junction, ou may etiffer na?pnc back-che, back-che, persistent headache, attacks of d-r-xinesa, getting up nirhts. awelUcg. pntn-ncse pntn-ncse under the eyes feel weak, nerroua. ail played out. tse : Doan't PiUi. It b better to rely oa "edtcine that baa won world-wide acclaim ac-claim than an aomethng leas favorably mown. A Ik your neighbor! |