To
Marion by Auto Car
By
The
Editor of the
Herald
A. B. Jordan
The
Dillon Herald
September 14, 1905
The
editor of The Herald was one of a party that made a trip
from here to Marion and back in an automobile last Monday.
The trip to the Court House was made in one
hour and 50 minutes including some dozen stops of form 1 to 8 minutes
to allow
frightened horses and mules to pass.
In
the car were Mr. C. F. Painter,
of Sumter, who drove the
machine, and Mr. J. F. Bennett
of Dillon.
It was a twenty-eight horse power machine with a speed of about
50 miles
an hour. The public road from here to Marion is very sandy but the
powerful
machine pouched throughout the sand beds with comparative ease. We are
now
convinced that in less than half a decade the automobile will be the
most
popular method of rural travel in this country. The
machines are easy to control, and during the trip from here
to Marion last Monday, the care frequently attained, on good stretches
of road,
a speed of 25 miles an hour.
The
return trip was made by way of Sellers, Antioch church
and Latta. The run from Marion to
Congressman Ellerbe’s plantation was made in 20 minutes, and the
entire
trip
consumed only two hours and fifteen minutes.
As it thundered through the country leaving it its trail a great
cloud
of dust the car was the object of much curiosity and admiration, while
the awe
and fear with which it seem to impress the pickaninnies who gathered at
the
road side in bunches to see it pass was very amusing.
The car was manufactured by the Buick Motor
Car Co. of
Buffalo, and is sold in this state by Mr.
J. A. James, of Sumter. It is an
excellent machine and does splendid
work on the worst of roads.