The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]) 1901-1902, 1901-08-18
PARIS AUTOMOBILE MAD.
Horseless Vehicle Craze Epidemic
in the French Capital.
The Gasolene Machine Rules the
ThOrOughfnrcs Docs Not Rec
OEoize the Pedcstrinn-How Strin-
gent Regulations Are Overcome.

| OrOusShf0rcs-Law Docs Not Rec
os"ize the Pedcstrinn-How Strin
gent Regulations Are Overcome
| PARIS, Aug. 5.-Paris is automobile
mad. Paris must always be mad ovel
something, and for the present this
craze over horseless carriages is the
fashionable insanity. 1t is the one and
almost unique sport that occupies
the Partisan mind. All other things
! have been forced to the background
and even the horse races, in other years
the most important feature of the
social year, have been shelved by the
high lights of society. The attendance
at the meets was particularly small
| this season, and it seemed as If with
malice aforethought, the automobile
ing world were trying to snub the crea-
.ture OF flesh and blood, and give potent
evidence of its preference for the crea-
| ture of steel and wheels.
Such an overt act were hardly neces-
| sary, however, for the evidence of the
| Parisian's growing fondness for the
| "teuf-teuf," is everywhere to be seen.
| There is no mistaking it. 1t is present
| to sight, smell, hearing, and, If one is
at all careless in crossing the street, to
| touch also. One has to be decidedly ac-
| tive even on the broadcast streets to
| keep from under the flying wheels. To
| be run over in Paris is doubly dan
| gerous thing, seeing that it means not
| only a possible damage to bones and
| skin, but also to pocketbook. He who
| ;chl h..
| goes Immediately under the care of a
| gendarme, before the police magistrate,
where. with a fine, he pays for his fool
| hardness in attempting to obstruct the
street. The road-all of it, crossings in
| Guided. in Paris-belongs to the
wheeled vehicles. That is the legal
| theory, and this, combined with the
| high speeds allowed by law to the au-
| tomobiles, does not. as may be imag-
| ined, conduce to the safety of those who
are obliged to cross the highways.
You can feel the automobile and you
can mark its presence everywhere.
The trail of the serpent" is over it all
for even though the sport is of but a
few years growth, the main thorough
fares of the city are stained with oil
and water dropped by the machines.
The wooden blocks, with which most
Paris streets are paved, are rendered
! exceedingly slippery, and the not too
clean-mouthed Jehus who drive the
public carriages have added several
picturesque words to their vocabulary
descriptive of the autcmobilist. though
hardly complimentary to him.
The whole atmosphere of the city
vibrates and pulsates with the sound
of rapidly exploding gasolene engines
the puff, puff lin French, ''teuf, teuf'O.
whence the popular French name for
the auto-and the whir of the machin-
cry is audible on every street, and Is
varied only by the sharp, nervous
blasts of the horns that all "chauf-
feurs' are obliged to carry to sound the
note of warning that shall get pedes-
TRANS out of the way. In the narrow
streets, with the short turns and cor
ners, this precaution is highly neces-
sary. And then-the smell Paris may
still be beautiful but it is no longer the
perfumed Paris a, t used to be called
There is oce 'nsistent odor coming to
ones nostrils as one treads the streets
and that is :i.e "dor of burnt kerosene
or gasolene. In Places much .frequented
by the chauffeurs, the CHAMPS Elysees,
for example, the ground is covered
sometimes with thin haze of the
smoke left behind by the swiftly flying
autos. which is malodorous in the ex-
IRENE.
The French automobiist seems to
have thrown his lot in with that of the
gasolene motor. On the streets of Paris
there is found hardly any other kind.
Once in a while a slow moving. buzzing
electric vehicle can be seen laboriously
climbing the slope of the Champs
Elysees the way it is passed and
distanced by the gasolene machine that
comes snorting, tearing, and exploding
past it, indicates sufficiently why the
gasoline type is so much in vogue.
Now it is not only earth automobile
ing. but sky automobiling All Paris
stands ON tip-toe, cranes its neck and
gapes with wide open mouth while with
a dirigible automobile balloon NJ San
tos Dumont voyages from Auteuil to
the Eiffel Tower and back. The story
by a popular author that usually fills
the front page of the Partisan daily, is
displaced when the reporter-editor des-
cants by the column, under great head
lines. on the era of sky automobilism,"
which has just been inaugurated.
There is to be a prize awarded to the
Sky automobilist" who maneuvres his
machine around the Eiffel Tower with
In certain circle, and it will, in all
probability, not be very long before the
demand for hydrocarbon to fill balloons
will send the market of that product
skyward with a jump. NJ. Dumont is
heralded as the hero of the great TWEEN
tieth century drama of mechanical
progress" and is the centre of the ad-
miring eyes of the whole populace.
Taking into consideration the strin-
gent laws. rules, and regulations which
are imposed upon cyclists and the
automobilist. the great vogue which
hiking and automobiling have attained
in France would strike the average
American as rather surprising. France
is a law-ridden country at best, but in
the case of cycles and horseless vehicles
the law makers seem to have set them
selves the task of interfering as much
as possible with the pedestrian.
Whether the laws made are rigidly en-
forced is quite a separate matter. 1t
seems they are not, for the oily and
stained condition of the streets would
not appear to indicate much regard for
the law which requires that all reser-
voirs and escape pipes shall be so con-