Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 118, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1912 — Automobile Chases Driver Up a Tree [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Automobile Chases Driver Up a Tree

SAN FRANCISCO, —It is scarcely becoming In an automobile to pitch Its owner into the branches of & tree and then get on its hind wheels and threaten to devour him If he dares to come down. A Texas steer or an African lion, or an orang outang might be expected to do a stunt of that kind, but not a refined motor car. And yet that Is exactly the experience that Louis Degeher, a coffee importer, had with his car the other evening. He painted a word picture of the affair in Police Judge Sullivan’s court, where he was on trial for speeding. Degener had just purchased the car. He was beginning to master the driving of it, as he thought. He Invited a friend for a trip. Everything went smoothly until they started for home about dark. But they no sooner got lsto Golden Gate park than the trouble began. “There seemed nothing to do,” said Degener to the court, “but let that machine take Its course. When I tried to hold it down R acted ftke it was going to blow up. We were going like

the wind when suddenly something happened.” Just what happened was explained by Mounted Policeman Haley, who had been pursuing Degener’s car for a half mile. When Haley got to the scene he found the car standing on its hind legs and pointing straight up on the side of a pine tree. The engines were still humming away. Degener’s friend was sprawled out on the road, but Degener was not. In sight “Where’s the felfow that was driving?” aßked Haley. “Blest If I know,” said the friend. “Here I-am, up here,” Bald a voice from the branches./ It proved to be Degener. He had been tossed into the branches six feet overhead and there remained a prisoner until rescued by the officer.