Four Vagabonds Henry Ford John Burroughs Thomas Edison Harvey Firestone David L. Lewis page4

Henry Ford clowns while Thomas Edison beams during a rest stop on a camping trip. This picture is probably the only one ever taken of Ford with a cigarette. The auto king and Edison both abhorred the use of "little white slavers," as they called cigarettes.

The Vagabonds were accompanied by newsmen and photographers who reported each man's every move and hung on his every utterance. Almost all of the newspapers in the country reported and theaters showed Ford, Edison, and Burroughs engaging in high-kicking, stair-jumping, sprinting, tree-chopping, and tree-climbing contests. On one occasion, Edison, at age 71, kicked a cigar off a mantle in a hotel lobby three straight times, Ford, 55, once, with Burroughs, 81 , unable to connect. In a stair-jumping contest, Ford bounced up 10 steps in two hops; Edison needed three steps, while Burroughs, still game, lost his balance and had to be rescued by onlookers. But Burroughs was the champion tree cutter-- felling a tree in four minutes flat, a few seconds ahead of Ford.

As the group moved along, headlines blazoned, "Henry Ford Demonstrates He's Not Afraid of Work; Repairs His Damaged Car," "Millions of Dollars worth of Brains Off on a Vacation," "Genius to Sleep Under Stars," and "Kings of Industry and Inventor Paid City Visit." Columns were filled with stories and trivia about the famous quartet. The Chicago Tribune, still smarting from its defense of the libel suit which Ford had successfully brought against it, was perhaps the only paper in the country to take issue with the United Press' news judgment in sending the following comments over the wire in 1921:

"Do you think Mr. Harding can put this disarmament program over?" Ford is said to have asked Edison. "I think it will depend upon money. If Harding can keep them from getting the money he'll succeed with his program." "The common people around the world will back him on that," interposed Mr. Ford-the man who envisioned the peace ship.

Mr. Firestone contributed his fear that Mr. Harding was going to meet subtle opposition, at which Mr. Edison said slowly, "The motives of men are unfathomable," and Mr. Ford brought the curtain down on this memorable occasion with, "Humph, you said it."

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