Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1909 — INDIANA MECCA OF MOTOR FOLK [ARTICLE]

INDIANA MECCA OF MOTOR FOLK

Trial Spin at Crown Point In 21 Minutes Flat MAKING READY FOR RACES Busy Scenes Along the Course With Every Train Bringing Persons Interested In the "Western Vanderbilt” Events—Agitation Over the Proposition of "Policing” the Parkway With Illinois Troops Frothsomely Commented Upon In Editorial Printed In Chicago Paper.

Crown Point, Ind., June 15.—Every train is bringing fresh delegations to attend the “Western Vanderbilt” automobile races, June 18-19, over the Crown Point-Lowell parkway. Grimy machinists work ceaselessly grooming the cars as if the machines were thoroughbred horses. The course of twenty-three miles has eleven short corners to turn. Eight of these occur in the five miles between Crown Point and Cedar Lake. The west leg is straightaway for 5.7 miles, the south for 3 miles and the east for 8.5 miles. It is on this east leg that the rough road occurs. On this subject, General Executive Trego, who is in charge of the races, said: “Drivers have been criticising this stretch despite the fact that work on it has not been finished. The approaches to the bridges also are being repaired, very little work being required.” The best time in the day’s practice was made by Poole and Knipper in a “Blue Bird,” both making the round in 27 minutes flat. In connection with the plan to guard the course with Illinois militia, a Chicago paper prints the following: “We understand that strict orders have been issued to the men of the First to abstain from all pillage and looting. The regiment probably will not have to live off the country, so that northern Indiana’s herds of cattle and flocks of sheep should escape being run off across the Illinois border. Nor, according to the present plans of Colonel Sanborn and Governor Deneen, will any effort be made tc lay waste the state by applying the torch to its farms and villages. “We are not so sure about the course to be adopted by the Illinois navy. It is possible that the Nashville and the Dorothea may shell a few unimportant ports on the Indiana coast, but we can almost certainly predict that there will be no organized bombardment of the larger shore cities. “The First is starting out for Crown Point, and it is going to get there if it takes all summer. Indiana for her own sake would best bow peacefully to the inevitable.”