The Okfuskee County News (Okemah, Okla.), Vol. 15, No. 17, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 1918 Page: 3 of 8
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THE OKFUSKEE COUNTY NEWS
Somewhere in France— Trials and
Tribulations of the F liver Driver
(By Robert A Drake in Motor Age)
This article was written by a young
American who drove an ambulance in
France from Feb 22 to Sept 1 of last
year '
“A dollar a gallon — and I just lost
half a quart on the ground!" I
squirmed out from under my ambu-
lance dragging after me a canvas
bucket filled with gasoline ‘‘But the
flivvers must be fed in Mobile — and
there isn’t any move gas in the Sec-
tion” It was the morning before a convoy
and 'every ambulance driver in camp
was tuning up his car greasing oiling
and rattling the levers to loosen up the
gearshift The right side of my am-
bulance was covered with oil that had
been thrown up from the wheel and
my grimy hands and greasy overalls
were the result of long hours work
removing the wheel and adjusting the
felt washers around the rear axle
The Usual Chant
By 4 o’clock in the afternoon we had
begun the usual chant of complaints
about the loads in our cars The fifty
odd spare tires of the Section the
large tents and the office furniture
were but part of the material that had
to be piled in the cars when the whble
camp moved a long distance
“Ducky I can’t possibly carry all
these extra stretchers!" Petey said
“My right spring is weak now and it
will break before I get out of the yard
if I pile in all that junk!"
“Who wished this ‘coffin off on to
me?” Jonesey stood pointing at the
huge bass viol that belonged to the
division band
“Oh well you should worry That’s
light!” Rip answered “Come on quit
your crabbing and get in on this pool!”
He was going around collecting a
quarter from each man and giving in
exchange a slip of paper with A num-
ber written on it
“That’s the number of Ignatz Rags-
dale’s car” he said as Bill drew a slip
THE WORLD’S GREATEST
MOTOR CAR VALUE!
FIVE PASSENGER
ELECTRIC LIGHTS
AND STARTER
NEW
Here is a 1918 Model that gives you everything you need
or want in a motor car at a price well below other cars of
similar size and quality These cars have established a
splendid reputation for themselves All over the United
States they are giving Wonderful service The 1918
Model 30 Birch at only $76500 is a car that any man can
be proud of at a price almost any man can afford to pay
High powered light weight fully equipped big enough
for the whole family easy to buy easy to run easy on the -pocketbook
The Automobile is an absolute necessity on
the farm Over 80 per cent of all Birch Motors are
owned by Farmers Place ycur order now
£
of paper “If Ignatz’s car is the first
to break down tomorrow you win this
hateful money”
“Oh come on get in on this Ford
pool!” Circus joined the crowd with a
new bunch of numbered slips “Every-
body bets on his own car and if you
think you can catch up with the con-
voy again drop out any old time and
win the money!”
Early the next morning I had or-
ders to start ahead of the convoy to
carry the office furniture but this
commission coveted because it was
dustless and dustless because the car
did not have to follow twenty others
immediately ahead of it failed to ma-
terialize at the last minute
By 6 o’clock Chief Michael had giv-
en all of us a half loaf of bread and a
piece of cheese to tide us over until
dinner time and the convoy was just
getting ready to start when the sun
broke out from behind the morning
clouds and spread a golden glow over
the wheat fields There was a gleam of
frost on the ground and a patch of
snow here and there The atmosphere
was so chilly that we found consider-
able difficulty starting our cold en-
gines The night before Ducky had
made each man drain the water from
his engine so that the water would
not freeze and break the metal so now
a bucket brigade formed to refill the
radiators
When I had filled my car I began
the complicated procedure of trying to
persuade forty-eight cold motionless
horses to come to warm powerful life!
I cranked a minute before I remem-
bered to turn on the gasoline Then it
occurred to me to pump up the gaso-
line pressure and to tickle the car-
bureter but still the engine did not
start The electric starter made a rat-
tling noise like an American egg beat-
er but it did not turn the engine over
fast enough to start the explosions
When Priming Failed
“Prime it with gasoline” Wally sug
1918 BIRCH
MODEL 30
J MUSGROVE
Local Agent and Distributor
gested “There’s a bottle lying on
Bill’s running board”
So I poured some of the clear liquid
into each of the cylinders Fifteen
more long minutes passed and at the
end of that time I was wet through
with perspiration and filled with ho
peculiar anger that man can feel
towards the hopeless apathy of a stub-
born engine
“Ducky this cussed car won’t start!”
I finally made an appeal to the leader
“What’s wrong here?” Ducky an-
swered as he climbed into the seat and
then climbed to readjust the mechan-
isms “Switch on? Gas up? Carbu:
reter choked?”
“Yes yes yes!”
“Crank her up!”
Splut-t-t-t-t-er! A few wheezy ex-
plosions came from the engine — then
it stopped again
“She sounds as if she was full of
water!” Ducky said “Did you prime
it?” “Yes with Bill’s gasoline!”
“My gasoline? That bottle you’ve
got there is nothing but water!” Bill
had just walked up “No wonder you
couldn’t start your engine!”
But in another moment Ducky had
the engine running sWeetly and as the
leader flicking a few specks of dirt
from hi3 coat walked away Bill re-
marked “That’s Ducky all over I
spend hours cranking my car and then
give it up as a bad job But just as
soon a3 I call Ducky he starts the en-
gine on the first crank! That hasn’t
happened only once but hundreds of
times He’s got a regular reputation
for doing the trick!”-
Meanwhile several of the Ford
drivers also were having trouble start-
ing their engines The sudden roar of
an engine and a shout “Whoa Maud!”
made me turn around Petey’s Ford
was running away The engine had
started unexpectedly and Petey now
was bracing himself against the radi-
ator trying vainly to hold back the ob-
streperous vehicle
Could Not Be Coaxed
Jonesey’s Ford refused all ordinary
coaxing and as the time for departure
was near Ducky tied a tow rope from
the small car to a larger ambulance
and ran up and down the street until
LIGHT WEIGHT
VERY ECONOMICAL
FULLY EQUIPPED
i
the engine began to splutter
Pfs-s-st! Ducky’s sharp whistle
broke up the chatting groups of men
Everyone ran to the side of his ambu-
lance and held up his right arm to
show that his engine was running
Then the cavalcade started up but the
whole convoy stopped again just out-
side the limits of the town so that the
leader could make sure that all the
cars were in line
The first day of the convoy was cold
and disagreeable The cars slipped
and skidded on the greasy road as the
wheels spun madly around trying to
get traction but the long overhang of
the Ford bodies made them slide into
the ditch continually
“We’re going like a bat out of h — 1!”
Wally remarked after a few minutes
on the road “The fellow who is lead-
ing the convoy is going too fast for
our big car — to say nothing of the
poor Fords Ah I thought so!”
The convoy rolled by four Fords
drawn up beside the road each one
with its engine thumping loudly
“Bearings burned out or else the
connecting rods gdne!” I yelled
“Ducky is going to be sore I wonder
where he is?"
By this time the snow and sleet had
begun to drive straight into our faces
as the cars had no windshields that
extended more than a foot above the
dashboards Neither Wally nor I had
any goggles to protect our eyes so
driving was more by instinct than by
sight '
“I’m going to get some goggles the
first chunoe I have that’s all!” Wally
said and when the convoy stopped for
a few minutes in a small country
town both he and I bought some
glasses
“Heard the news?” Pap Marcel
asked as he wandered up to the car
“No”
“Ducky is lost and the motor truck
kitchen is broken down 10 miles back
We’ve lost the road ourselves and if
we get to Palais by midnight we’ll be
lucky!”
“D— n this life anyway — hey Look
— it!” Wally gazed intently down the
street Two little French girls were
standing on the street corner casting
coquettish glances toward the Amer-
icans “Let’s go over — ” To-o-o-t! The
starting whistle interrupted Wally’s
new formed plan and he had to turn
his back to the petites demoiselles to
run back to the ambulance
“ ‘If sympathy is akin to love I’m
nearer to you than your own
mother!’ ” I quoted from the seat of
the car “Crank her up old woman
hater! C’est le guerre!”
Again the convoy started up but
for some reason stopped so quickly
again that two of the Fords telescoped
the cars ahead of them smashing the
glass in the headlights and puncturing
the radiators
“See?” Wally said “Every time we
start out on a convoy after a long rest
half the men have forgotten how to
d’-ive and we have these smash ups If
vc were just coming down from the
front instead of going up we wouldn’t
have any trouble at all”
“I’d rather drive through the worst
sort of traffic at the front than tail
along in convoy!” Wally said “We’re
d-iving through mud but just wait till
tomorrow! I’ll bet you we’ll have same
dust!”
And sure enough the next day
when nil the lost members of the Sec-
tion had been found two inches of dust
as fine as white flour covered the road
After half an hour’s run the dust ac-
cumulated on our faces hud made our
skin a ghastly white
Then plop! One of my rear tires
blew out und I stopped my car on the
right side of the road to let the rest of
the ambulunces pass The two me-
chanics from the repair shop helped us
make a quick change and ten minutes
after the puncture I left the truck be-
hind to speed after the vanished con-
voy I caught up with the other cars
after a fast drive of 8 miles and
slipped into the gap of the line that
Rover Center had left
Troubles in a Row
The next day I had carbureter trou-
ble for 7 miles at the beginning of the
convoy but a quick readjustment of
the choker at thefirst stop put ’09 on
her feet again The ambulance with
its heavy load of trunks and stretch
ers climbed the 2-mile hill outside of
Chateau Thierry on high gear just to
show her worth The dust was now
so thick that we looked like animated
stone statues f
“Take a look at this engine!” Wally
had lifted up the hood of the engine
he had polished and wiped only a few
hours before The oil that had spat-
tered all aver the cylinders during the
trip had caught all the dsut to make
a thick cheesy mixture about the
color of a hornet’s nest
“This is a gerat life” I remarked
wearily — “If you don’t weaken! Prob-
ably we’ll have an inspection tomorrow
morning and have to clean this en-
gine all up again!”
“WellJ they say we only get a call
once in three days here so we’ll have
time enough” Wally answered “I ’
wonder if I’ll ever get any ‘pep’ to
wash up?”
“No time to wash now!” Ducky
walked up to the boys “You’re one of
six cars to leave at once for Vailly
Crank her up!”
It was 7 o’clock when six large am-
bulances started out but only an hour
later they returned to camp again
“Mix-up in orders — head doctor
made a mistake” I explained briefly
to the expectant crowd “It’s the first
time this has happened since I’ve been
in the Section though — and that
speaks pretty well for the efficiency
of the French army And it was a
lucky trip for me too Look!” And I
pulled a limp scrawny fowl from the’
sent “Chicken dinner tonight bovs!
I ran over this critter a mile up the
road and got the remains for only a
dollar If I’d bought a regular hen it
would have cost me two bucks! Ger-
man efficiency I oall it!”
The next day loe Wilson tried to dis-
cover whether his Ford ambulance was
tougher than an enormous truck but
the camion won the duel It only had
a scratch on its body compared to the
bent front axle broken lights and
warped wishbone rod of the Ford And
the same afternoon Jonesey copied Joe
Wilson he ran into a 10-ton meat
truck
“Let’s change lamps with that old
(Continued on Page Four)
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The Okfuskee County News (Okemah, Okla.), Vol. 15, No. 17, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 1918, newspaper, January 31, 1918; Okemah, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1713048/m1/3/?q=music: accessed June 20, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.