The Indian's travois and the ox~ drawn covered wagon that used to stir up the dust when—Michigan boulevard was a trail to Fort Dear. bon were trundled. along- the world's greatest automobile way in a parade commemorative of the development of American tranportation.
All the modes of travel previous to the electric car were assembled for the pageant, which was the first on the programme of the American Electric Railway Associction's convention.
Hesded by the elevated railways band, the oddly assorted procession moved out of Grant: park at Jackson boulevard and creaked its many-gaited way towards the municipal pier, where the convention sessions open to-morrow.
Marshaling the parade was a nice job because of the' various. speeds of its principal parts. The oxen drawing the covered prairie schooner made three miles an hour; the Indian trailed his travois at four; the bike rider was good for five and the overland stage seven.
It was comparison of these rates with the speed of the electric car that made the pageant more than an entertainment spectacle.
Among the vehicles of other days was the high-wheeled bike ridden from Indianapolis by William Meehan. He completed his 240-mile spin without. aid of motor truck or ambulance. Except that he lost 23 pounds in weight, fell four tames from his 57-inch seat, walked 2 miles thru' fresh gravel and caused several horses to try to climb trees, the trip was without incident.
"Uncle Ezra'? Meeker, now 92 years old, whacked the team of oxen as- vigorously as he wielded the gad on three trips to Oregon way back in 49. The schooner was furnished by the Aurora -and Elgin road, and the oxen were obtained at the stockyards. The equipage was driven into Chicago from Elgin by Sam Swan, an ox-driver himself in former years and nay an employee of the electric me.
The old stage coach, "Ben Halliday," that carried Brigham Young's wives from Salt Lake City to Sacramento and was held up 70 times by Black Bart," was another relic dusted off for the show, Nearly 5,000 delegates, from every part of the United States and possessions and from Canada, are attending the convention. They represent 42,000 miles of electric lines that carry more than 15,000,000,000 passengers year.—Boston "Transcript."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.