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The Log of a Radio Hobo
297
HALF WAY POINT
The Covered Wagon on the Liberty Highway, 1,576 miles from New York and 1,563 miles from San Francisco. It was in the Middle West and West that Captain Irwin found the farmers so very much interested
in radio, but so poorly supplied with sets.
day in the exhilarating country air, and even when we succeeded in warding off friend Morpheus we feared to disturb our temporary neighbors should there be fellow tourists near us. Excellent as broadcast music may be, there is a time and place for the best things, and a tired tourist camp is certainly not that place.
THE AUTOMOBILE TOURISTS
SPEAKING of our audiences, although the weather for the last two weeks (I am writing in early September), has been very chilly, we continue to meet thousands of automobile tourists. Some are en route home, but many are still touring. Each night as we camp in a new locality, each farther west, we are surrounded by a number of tourists whose license plates indicate that they are from north, south, east, and west. Wonderful companions on the trail they are. As I remarked in another article, I find it hard to write only of radio topics. The intensely interesting personalities we meet will long be remembered. Before I began this tour, I had read in a magazine devoted to outdoor life that in 1923 the estimated number of automobile tourists numbered several hundred thousand. I remember that the actual number seemed incredibly large and I made a mental note at the time that the writer had exaggerated, but my personal experience to date indicates that 1924 will
exceed that estimate of last year. Now of the thousands we have met, we have not encountered a dozen carrying radio receivers. Even those who do possess receivers in their touring equipment do not use them often. A very large number are ardent fans and speak enthusiastically of their receptive feats at home. These tourists are very substantial citizens and the equipments are marvelous in ingenuity.
Some of the cars resemble furniture moving vans. Heads of happy smiling youngsters may often be seen protruding from an automobile load of camping equipment. Mr. Ford, if he could take such an extended trip as we now are enjoying, would have food for thought if he could but see what his efforts have led to! So far I seem to have encountered two outstanding classes of tourists. One is the substantial citizen already alluded to, the other is the itinerant worker who travels in the lowly, often ancient and dilapidated Ford, works for a period in one place, accumulates enough capital to carry on to his next objective point, and then repeats the process. Both are well informed, not on world topics perhaps, but upon American national problems.
In every tourist camp men and women foregather from every state and exchange amicable notes upon their diversified experiences. Two great inventions have brought Americans together, the automobile and radio.