Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1899-09-28
THE AUTOMOBILES LIMITS.

]. b. Mccormick, an automobile
man, writes the Boston Traveller as
follows: According to the reports
which come from Newport, Nara
gansett Pier, Saratoga and other fash
ionable resorts, society has gone
automobile mad" The advocates
and the admirers of the horseless We
hicle seem to think that the days OF the
horse as tractive power for vehicles Is
fast passing away, and the prediction
has been made that in ten years
horses would be as scarce in all our
large towns in the United States as
COWS and pigs are today. This is n
contamination devoutly to be wished,
for more than three-fourths of all the
dirt and litter which makes our street
cleaning department so costly is due to
the use of horses, and whenever means
is found to effectively Danish them
from municipalities not only will the
cost of street cleaning be diminished
Is per cent, but the death and sick
ness rate will also be materially de-
creased, for the offal of equnes is
largely conducive to the dssemina-
ton of many diseases, but the horse
will not be banished until some means
has been devised by which automobiles
| can be perfectly operated in slippery
wintry weather.
Last year | was the active manager
of an automobile company in Phila-
delphia. | had three of the finest
automobiles ever constructed. One
was phaeton, one brougham and
one a large delivery wagon. The
| motive power Of the three was cleo
tricity used under the storage battery
| plan. AS long as the weather was at
all good these vehicles gave perfect
satisfaction For the benefit of those
who have never ridden in an automo-
| bile let me say that there is no riding
| equal in smoothness and satisfaction
| to seat in an automobile hanson
| which is propelled over smooth as
| phalted street. You have no horse in
| front of you to obstruct your view OF
20 shy or bolt at piece OF paper or
any other of the thousand things
which frighten horses so frequently
You have all the delights Of bicycling
| without having any pedalins to do. In
| fact, you seem to skim over the earth
! like a bird. But there are spccks on
the sun and thorns to every rose
| When The streets become frozen and
slippery, as they frequently do during
bad spell Of weather, your automo-
! bile not only loses its power OF trac-
! ton, to a great extent, but also its
| power of being steered accurately, and
| it slips and slides and frequently
travels sideways like a hog going to
war" as the boys say. In Philadelphia
we tried every possible device to OBJ
viate this difficulty, but in vain.
Among other things we used were
heavy false steel tires, through which
spike points projected, each a half
inch high We surely thought that,
though they might pit the asphalt,
they would certainly give us tractive
and steering powers. They didn't. We
tried rubber tires, and we also tried
wrapping the ordinary tires with heavy
wire Not one of these devices was
more than partly satisfactory, and un-
Ill some one discovers way Of over
coming this difficulty the horse will
have to be employed as a motive
power for vehicles in our streets dur
ing slippery wintry weather. | do MOI
say this to back-cap the automobile
| am It's friend and | believe that, not
withstanding the difficulty / have al
luded to. automobiles will do 80 per
cent. OF the pleasure and business We
hicular service Of all our large cities
and towns south OF the latitude OF Bos-
ton for ten months of the year within
a decade, but do also say that north
% this latitude 1t can be only used
seven or eight months in the year. and
that in no place north OF the latitude
Of Richmond, Va, will II be possible
to dispense with horses all the year
round.