Aug. 9, 1908 (Sunday)

AUTOMOBILIST TALLIES THE COST OF HIS 7,000-MILE TRIP THROUGH EUROPE -- AND HE THOUGHT THE GAS WAS INEXPENSIVE, AT LESS THAN $1 A GALLON: Dr. A.H. Heaton of Sedalia, Mo., has returned from Europe where he made a four-month, 7,000-mile trip in a Ford runabout. (The photo above shows a 1907 Ford Runabout.)
He was happy with his trip. Here's how this new kind of travel compared to the more common rail travel:
"We saw more of Europe than the average tourist ever sees. We had no inconvenience waiting for trains, hunting up baggage, securing tickets -- no stuffy railway coaches, no sticking to circumscribed roads bound down by steel rails. We traveled on no set schedule, went as fast or as slowly as we desired, saw the country that the railroads never touch, crossed the mountains and visited the lakes, all exactly as we pleased."
He crunched the numbers and discovered he averaged less than $3.75 per day. He noted that gasoline cost 60 cents to $1 a GALLON. (Multiply that by about 20 for inflation in order to get to 2008 numbers, and the range balloons to $12 to $20 A GALLON.)
"We started out to prove that automobile touring need not be expensive. We proved it to be even less costly than we anticipated."

WRITER BEMOANS THE SORRY STATE OF ENTERTAINMENT OFFERINGS: Noted writer George Ade seems to be unhappy with the dumbing-down of entertainment offerings -- on stage and in print. According to a lengthy article in today's New York Times, he says all people want to see is a "zippy show." The article says, "It is a form of entertainment that has disqualified Ibsen and Sudermann and Maeterlinck and all those highbrows of drama."