Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 128, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1911 — GREAT AUTO EVENT WAS VICTORY FOR MARMON CAR [ARTICLE]

GREAT AUTO EVENT WAS VICTORY FOR MARMON CAR

Indianapolis Speedway Race on Decoration Day Resoled In Death of One and Injury to Seven. < The 500-mile auto race over the Indianapolis speedway on Decoration Day drew the largest crowd to Indianapolis that ever visited that city on a single day. There were from 80,000 to 100,000 at the race. Only one death resulted from the mad contest but seven others were more or less injured and many of the fine cars were wrecked and the wonder was thkt there were nqt several other deaths.

The race was won by Ray Harroun, who drove a Marmon “Wasp” and completed the 500 miles in 6 hours, .41 minutes and 8 seconds. He was only 5 minutes and 38 seconds ahead of Ralph Mulford in a Lozier car, and less than 5 minutes later a Fiat car driven by David Bruce-Brown came under the wire. ,

The excitement was intense during the race and when the accident occurred that threatened to result in the death of someone the big crowd would rise and shriek with sympathetic anguish. Some of the Rensselaer people who went to -see the races say they never again care to witness a similar sight. The prize money amounted to $25,000. Of this amount Harroun gets SIO,OOO, Mulford gets $5,000, BruceBrown $3,000 and others as follows, according to their position in the race:

Spencer Wishart, Mercedes, $2,000. Ralph De Palma, Simplex, $1,500. Charley Merz, National, SI,OOO. W. H. Turner, Amplex, SBOO. Harry Cobe, Jackson, S7OO. Fred Belcher, Knox, S6OO. Hughie Hughes, Mercer, SSOO. Total, $25,100. - “ In addition to this sum in gold, the leading ten drivers shared in a distribution of side prizes given by accessory makers amounting to nearly $15,000. The entrants of the ten leading cars will be given bronze plaques by the speedway management. Asked to make a formal statement, Harroun, the victor in the first 500mile race ever run on a speedway, said:

All credit is due my car for the brilliant victory. At no time was the throttle wide open and I relied solely upon the consistent high speed to win for me over occasional bursts in the back stretch. The weather was noticeably warm, although I did not suffer in any way from the heat. “The last hundred miles was by far the easiest of the entire run and the car was less difficult to handle on the turns. At first there was a tendency to slip which increased toward the 200-miie mark, but from that time I had little trouble in holding the car to its tmurse!' “In my estimation the limit is reached at 500 miles and is entirely too long for the endurance of the driver. I was from the J7ftth to the 250th mile and the rest of the drive was extremely refreshing.’’

The estate of Chris Arnold, who was accidentally killed in a runaway accident near Omaja, Cuba, almost two years ago, has not been settled and it is possible that his brothers, Charles and Ell, will be required to make another trip there to look after it. Chris bad purchased the land for cash and was given a contract calling for a good deed, but It seems that the deed has some defects and these matters hav so far remained unadjusted. The estate is valued at about $6,000 or $7,000. Chris had been buried about three weeks before his Jasper county relatives learned of his death and Charley and Eli were surprised when they went there to find that he had been buried in a Cuban graveyard, where the boddies are buried in a grave with others and it is thought probable that six. or eight are burled in the same grave with him. They wanted to remove the body while there and place it in an American burial ground, only about 16 miles away, but found that a body burled there can not be disinterred short of two years. They expect if they return there next December to have the body taken up and either plaved in the Amric&n cemetery in Cuba or brought back to the states. Another peculiar thing connected with the burial* there is that an annual tax is placed upon a corpse buried and if this is not met promptly by relatives or friends the bodies are dug up and buried in a potter’s field. A Cuban lawyer is looking after their interests and they believe is giving R honest attention.

Our screen doors are the beet; bang right, wear longest and the price is right. J. C. Gwin Lumber Co.