STEALING A RIDE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 69, 16 December 1918, Page 4

STEALING A RIDE

AN ECHO OF THE WAR,

"Lorry-jumping" is an art much practiced in art whereby . one moves from placo to place without apparent means of transport. , ■ In its simplest form it amounts to nothin" more than this: You wish to get from A to B. You take up a position on tho direct road between these places, facing A "When a motor-lorry comes along 'in the right direction you stand immediately in its path. If it.stops, you get on board and proceed to B. If it does not stop,-you lose interest in the proceedings, 'and whpu you wake'vp in hospital they take your evidence for an inquiry as to a self-inflicted injury. ■ Lorrv-j limping, however, does not or necessity entail riding in a. lorry, in fact, one only takes a lorry when nothing better is available: Royal Air Force tenders are recommended for speed. _ " I remember on one occasion I sat in a tender between an R.A.F. officer and the driver. We moved at well over 30 miles the whole way. but tins-did not satisfy the firing instincts of the Air Force. The officer continually leant over to the.driver and made some such remark as this: "For goodness sake makeher move. What are you waiting for, anyway?" , , , Staff-cars can also be resorrnnendeaVior both soced'and comfort. But a certain amount of courage is required, since it is pure speculation as to what they may contain, aiffl the contents cannot b« ascertained without stopping the car. However, mv own experience, that of :i subaltern of no importance whatever, is that in most eases you stand a fair sportingchance. Even a war lord when travelling in a motor is almost human. Once, as dusk' was falling, I stood at a cross-roads, feeble, fed up, and far from home. An hour nassed and nothing «amo al'on?. Then, with .-. hum a green limousine swung round a bend in the road. Desperate, I stopped the oar, and—discovered my own general inside. Having apologised and told mv tale. I found him most sympathetic. Not only did he give me a lift to Headnuarters, but once there he fortified me from'a phial, of the elixir of life and then sent mo on to my unit in his car. That, of course, is lorry-jump-ini* de luxe. ■ , By this method it is possible to travel over the whole area occupied by British troops and lines of communicatioli-a large' area ih these days.~"Pe(ei" the Gunner."