Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-09-28
THE AUTOMOBILES LIMITS.

J. 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 a
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 equines is
largely conducive to the dissemina-
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 I was the active manager
Of an automobile company in Phila-
delphia. l had three of the finest
automobiles ever constructed One
was a phaeton, one a brougham and
one a large delivery wagon. The
motive power of the three was cleo
tEicity 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 a seat in an automobile hansOm
which is propelled over a smooth as
phaIted street. You have no horse in
front Of you to obstruct your view or
TO shy or bolt at piece of paper or
any other of the thousand things
which brighten horses so frequently.
You have all the delights of bicycling
without having any pedaling to do. In
fact, you seem to skim over the earth
like bird. But there are specks on
the sun and thorns to every rose.
When the streets become frozen and
slippery, as they frequently do during
a bad spell Of weather, your automo-
h &c IF troo
ton, to a great extent, but also it's
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 IN
til some one discovers a way of over.
coming this difficulty the horse viii
have to be employed as a motive
power for vehicles in our streets dur.
ing slippery wintry weather. l do no
say this to back-cap the automobile
| am it's friend and l believe that, not
withstanding the difficulty have al
luded to, automobiles will do 80 pc
cent of the pleasure and business We
| hicular service Of all our large cite
and towns south Of the latitude Of Bos
ton for ten months of the year within
a decade, but I do also say that nortl
of this latitude it can be only use
seven or eight months in the year, an
that in no place north of the latitud
of Richmond, Va, will it be possibl
to dispense with horses all the yea
round.