NOVEL RUN TO WASHINGTON.

The New York Times
July 19, 1900

Cadets with an Automobile Gun Bear a Message to Gen. Miles.

Special to The New York Times.

CHICAGO, July 18.—Cadets from the Northwestern Military Academy will start to-morrow on a trip with an automobile rapid-fire gun from Highland Park to Washington, bearing a message from Gen. "Joe" Wheeler to Gen. Nelson A. Miles. Major A. P. Davidson will go in command of the gun, and Cadet Captains F. P. Rice and John O. Ridgway and Corp. N. A. Compton will accompany him.

The automobile gun, which has been in use at the Military Academy for a year, was built in Peoria, and consists of a light gasoline tricyle on which is mounted a Colt rapid-fire rifle. The machine will carry besides the gun and ammunition four men and a quantity of provisions. The party will go from Highland Park to Chicago, thence around the bend of the lake, and eastward to Toledo and Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and Washington.

The builders say the machine can run forty miles an hour. The best possible steady running time will be kept up without bursts of speed. The party will camp out at night along the route, and will secure additional supplies of provisions in towns along the way. Cooking and all work will be done by the boys under direction of the instructor.