Touring with Raymond Spears 
Ways and Means of Earning One’s 
Expenses on an Auto-Camping Trip 
F those who desire to go auto- 
() mobile traveling, thousands— 
probably more than 75%—are 
compelled to consider as all-important, 
the cost of the trip. I am familiar 
with this condition from personal ex- 
perience. I have never yet undertaken 
a journey when I had ample funds 
with which to cover the expenses, and 
I know from certain details of my 
ventures that if a man must, he can 
earn his way. Possibly, I may qualify 
as experienced, if not expert, in the 
matter of finding odd jobs of various 
kinds through which to eke out the 
meagre resources of a never-fat 
pocketbook. 
I’ve dug potatoes, pitched 
corn and hay, driven cattle, 
sawed wood, worked on log 
drives, chuted hemlock bark 
down a mountain, split fire- 
wood, been a steamboat roust- 
about, deck hand on a Great 
Lake towbarge, manned a 
sweep on a log raft, that 1 
recollect at the moment. For 
this reason, I cannot find heart 
to be over-harsh on those who 
start forth ill-provided with 
sustenance on their travels. In 
fact, merry youth and young : 
manhood is apt to find half or 
more of the joys of journeying in the 
very necessity of making their way 
as they go. 
AIAHUTUUATUTATATUUTUVUTTUTTTU UTD TUT TU 
IVING on the country is doubtless 
inherited instinct from the old 
nomadic raids in aboriginal times. 
When I see tourists stop their car at 
some orchard, or garden, and slip over 
to steal a bit of other men’s fruit or 
vegetable products I feel sorry for 
them—they are far behind the stand- 
ard of morality. No man can be a 
thief, even a small thief, and find the 
true zest of life. But there is a great 
satisfaction in the proven conscious- 
ness that in case of need one can at 
any time, in any place, turn his hands 
to honest toil and pay his way. 
Those who are interested in the well- 
fare of our nation’s changing wild 
life conditions cannot patiently regard 
those who plan to go across country 
living on game. Ignorance on this 
possibility has caused a great and 
lamentable slaughter of breeding stock 
of wild animals which the country’s 
well-wishers and (forward - looking 
people cannot excuse nor long tolerate. 
UOONIUNLUIUIULUTUTULGLUOUOVITTTUTAUCSEOUGCT TOES ES 
The worst class of automobile tourists 
number the wretches who wantonly 
destroy game in regions where game 
is already depleted to the vanishing 
point. 
Consider, for example, the state of 
mind of youths who plan to go on 
trapping expeditions in the summer 
months, when fur is hair, and the hides 
valueless. Also, countless youngsters 
and not a few elderly men, scheme 
their lives away figuring on how they 
can make their living having fun 
shooting game, catching fish, trapping 
furs. 
The fact that a person has but little means 
need not deter him from taking a tour— 
provided he is willing to work at almost 
anything and is 
amount 
amount of courage. 
not without 
of resourcefulness 
Unquestionably, I personally know 
the urge to go, and have many a time 
given it full sway—went forth on a 
six weeks trip, for instance, and it was 
just a year before we returned. In 
some respects, my own example is ex- 
ceedingly bad. I doubt not I have neg- 
lected some fine opportunities in 
answering the nomadic instinct. I 
should not tell fairly what I have to 
say if I did not admit this. 
HE fact is, there are thousands of 
people living along the highways 
in automobiles who make their livings 
as they go. The Middle West has its 
crops harvested by men who follow the 
ripening grains northward with the 
early summer, and who follow the sea- 
son down in the autumn, finding winter 
lodgement in the oil country, where 
timber is being cut, or in cattle region 
work. There are a few trappers who 
are expert enough, and who know 
enough different varieties of furbear- 
ers, to follow the furs down the line, 
catching prime skins before the snow 
but after the blue-hide days. Market 
shooters used to follow the wild.fow]l. 
HUUSI.ACUVAVEUVUGTEUUCUUESEL EET 
a certain 
and a great 
This article contains 
some suggestions which will be of help to 
those who contemplate earning their way. 
flight from St. Paul down to the 
swamps of Louisiana, but the increas- 
ing flocks of ducks and geese tell, hap- 
pily, of the passing of that day. 
FISHERMEN migrate, but generally 
in motorboats or _ shanty-boats, 
rather than in automobiles. I have 
seen, however, a few outfits of fisher- 
men in automobiles. Certainly, great 
hordes of hook-and-liners are abroad, 
adding to their larder as they stop by 
ocean beach and mountain brooks. 
They have overfished countless streams. 
Turtling, catching of fresh water 
terrapin, and other edible vari- 
eties offers an inducement, and 
experts make considerable sums 
following this seasonal work. 
Froggers are well known, too, 
in restricted regions, often 
under supervision of laws. In 
fact, no one can undertake a 
campaign, including fishing, 
trapping, hunting, turtling, 
frogging, or other attempt to 
live off of the wild creatures 
unless the laws of each state 
to be visited, and the national 
laws on the’ subject are care- 
fully looked into. If there is 
money in it, local interests are 
apt to have the advantage, and 
trespass laws more and more restrict 
the activities of wandering wild life 
raiders. 
EVERTHELESS, it is true that a 
thousand possibilities of actually 
living on the land exist. Each possi- 
bility, however, demands a specialist. 
One must know what he seeks, where 
to find it, how to gather and dispose 
of it. Consider, for example, the 
market for herbs. Sand Diggers we 
always have with us, and they have 
digged so much, without sowing, that 
now they are generally among the 
lowest of vagabonds, above the grade 
of hoboes. But if they knew other 
medicinal or valuable herbs, they 
could gather tons, where now they find 
afew pounds. A botanist, one familiar 
with the plants and herbs of the fence 
corners, the wood lots, the yards of 
abandoned houses, the stream bottoms, 
would find a constant market for cer- 
tain leaves, stems, roots, flowers, but 
knowledge and experience are neces- 
sary both in gathering and selling. 
Probably button shells and pearls 
could bé found in countless miles of 
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