Bloomington (Monroe County, Indiana) Daily Telephone, October 12, 1925, p. 1. TAKES TRIP TO FLORIDA AND IS NOW BACK AT OLD WORK This is the Tale of "Cap" Hays, of His Bus Line Here, His Quest For the Golden Opportunity, His Battles With the Mosquitos And the the [sic] Mirage He Saw and Followed Back to Bloomington. Bloomington people generally have noticed in the last few days that the city bus line which hauls passengers over a regular route inside the city limits was again in service after an absence from the streets of many weeks. This bus line is operated by the genial "Cap" Hays, who is one of the original bus men in this part of the state. The disappearance and the re-appearance of "Cap" Hays and the city bus line is an interesting story-with a moral attached. The city bus line suddenly dropped out of sight from Bloomington a few months ago. One day local people were riding the bus line, and the next day the bus line had disappeared from the streets. It became known that "Cap" had taken his bus business down to Florida to seek his fortune among the millionaires and would-be millionaires. Then a few days ago the same bus line was unexpectedly announced in operation again, running the same old route with "Cap" directing operations. To his friends Cap Hays relates the story of his quest for fortune in the south and his return north. The reason for Cap's return north is short and convincing: "I couldn't find a better town for the bus business," he asserts. Hays and his wife drove to Florida in a big passenger bus. Hays sought a location for a bus line and had no other thought but what he would find many waiting with golden opportunities. He thought it might be hard to make a choice from among so many so good. In his bus he visited Miami and various other boom towns, little and big, and he found things far different from Indiana, and not so good for the bus business. There was a great amount of auto traffic both in and out of Florida, but Cap couldn't find a place where a bus line would fit in. At Louderedale [sic] he was invited by the Mayor and Chamber of Commerce to start in business but Cap couldn't see a great amount of bus traffic in sight. About the only place the folks seemed to go was down to the beach in their bathing suits and then home again. At other places much the same situation appeared to exist. A great number of northerners in Fords were always on hand but they rode in their own cars and hoarded the nickels. They were not bus riding but busy looking for a place to live or seeking jobs or ice or drinking water-and fighting mosquitoes. About as many people appeared to be going out of the state as came in and it was no uncommon sight to see the homeward bound creeping north without any tires on their cars. While he sought a location Cap also fought the lusty native mosquito-which is the common fate in Florida of man, woman and child. At Miami the mosquitoes were not so bad, but at all the smaller places the mosquito battle raged constantly. While enroute across Florida Cap fought his greatest battles with the aggressive mosquito. In great numbers the pests invaded the big bus, and constantly flying at a level of 6 inches from the floor they sought to devour all human ankles encountered. A passenger in the bus avoided battle as much as possible by sitting with his feet under him. Cap piloting the car, had to keep his feet on the pedals. He finally met the situation by wrapping his ankles in Turkish towels. There are some things that even gold cannot replace, and one of these is the absence of mosquitoes. Cap sought his golden opportunity up and down Florida among the ever-present mosquitoes until there finally rode with him a mirage-one of those optical atmospheric illusions which lost souls encounter in the desert. The mirage of Cap's was always the same-off in the distance he could see the hard streets of Bloomington, Indiana, with people hurrying in all directors on all kinds of business and other people on each street corner waiting for a bus and not a single one of all these people in a bathing suit. It was a pleasant and inspiring mirage and caused many hard and hot hours to seem not over 120 minutes long. One evening while Cap was watching this mirage with one eye and the road with the other a high flying army of mosquitoes concentrated their efforts on his face and neck. It was too much. Cap yielded to the mirage and the next morning turned the nose of his bus north. He paused only for the necessities of life and traveled until the mirage of Bloomington turned into Bloomington itself-and the next morning the city bus line was again in operation in Bloomington. And the moral of this tale is: THERE MAY BE A BETTER TOWN THAN BLOOMINGTON BUT BLOOMINGTON IS SATISFACTORY. Constance T. Shotts, Ed.D., CG(SM) CG and Certified Genealogist are Service Marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board certificants after periodic evaluations by the Board and the board name is a trademark registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office.