The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-09-11
Is HIGH FLYER
Fourier, Great Auto ChauF-
feur Is interviewed.
is CRAZY ON SUBJECT
Claims Automobile Is Great
est Invention of Times.


clothes. tanned shoes, blue necktie. He
had a detached. Indifferent ar.
Strangers whispered. This is Fourier"
and pointed to HIM. Friends tapped him
on the back. called him afectionately
Henry greeted him with good wishes
and handshakes. He smiled. he replied
5oyfuily TO every one.
Motor pacing bicyelists whirled, the
crowd cheered. st an here to race on a
bicycle said Fourier, "and I have not
been on a track for two years. A curious
thing a track is. It is limit and it takes
you into the unlimited.
You fly, you have wings, while you
crawl on it. No, do not like that better
than TO drive in an automobile. Auto
mobile, what a word Invent an English
equivelant for the French 'Teuf-teuf,' win
you?
1.-THE children here say, Chu-chu'
instead Of steam cars. Why not use 'chu-
chu% It is initiative and not a badly
formed word, as automobile is. You OBJ
Ject TO the sound? 1t is musical to
chauneur. He counts the repetitions of
it as a physician counts a pulse in
fever"
Fournier's eyes are blue and dreamy.
They are eyes of a poet. His mustache,
brushed UP at the corners Of his mouth
in the style of Henry of Navarro, gives
an air of intrepidity to his face. His
great calmness certifles TO the can5or of
that air.
What is your sensation in driving
seventy miles an hour?" he was asked.
1.-The sensation of falling down a height,
imagine" he replied. 1T cuts your
breath. It is delicious, especially when
ascending a bridge. At the apex Of it the
wagon continues in a straight line.
1T is in the air. Emptiness is above and
below it. The situation lasts an age ap-
perently. You say to yourself, When am
ever to touch the earth againT You roll
again. The intermission lasted not min
ute in reality.
1T is a good experience to have now, the
experience Of flying that is to come to
man soon. He has to train himself for
It. Think of the trouble he would have
If he prepared for it not gradually. Per
haps the railways came too soon.
'"They were an accident in human pro
gress. I will ten you. The United States
has bad wagon roads because it has good
railways. France has god wagon roads
because It has bad railways.
France, having bad railways and good
wagon roads, had to prevent the automo-
bile and make 1t excellent. The automo-
bile is in the logical line of evolution. Lis
ten to the serial form of the argumet.
Man fought to get out of the forest.
There he had to crawl like the apes IN
der branches and foliage. He could not
walk erect, he could not walk fast. He
made roads through the mass of trees
and shrubs.
My ancestors in Gaul thought that they
were safe in the forests from invasions
OF the Romans. Ny ancestors said. The
Romans viii never find US in the forest.
They viii lose their way. Even If they
do not lose their way, they will never
reach US"
ICY ancestors of Gaul awoke one day to
find that they were not in an inextricable
forest. There were roads, and, in these
roads, Rome itself with its palaces and
its moving walls Of soldiers.
Railways are not roads. Railways are
only paths, and they are only accessible
to steam cars. Blessed be the Romans
that made roads. They gave US a lesson
that we might have needed better long.
long ago.
The automobile let's you halt at beau
tiful site, the automobile lets you stop
where you wish. Have you ever read the
page in the Jean Jacques Rousseau's
books that tells the folly Of travelling in
a stage coach?
when one could walk, why would one
enslave himself TO the implacable itinerary
OF a stage line? OF course, we do not
wish to walk through the roads Of New
York to Washington. This is another
age. The automobile IS the ideal walk
ing engine of the twentieth century.
1T preambulates, it rambles il one wish.
But IL flies. 1 have been an automobile
driver for five years. have studied care
fully all the details OF the machinery.
know it well. I have Gene here 10 try
10 make the automobile American.
IN France the roads created the auto
mobile, here the automobile ought 10 Gre i
ate the roads. Machinery here is better
than IN France. You break or lose a
par OF your machinery; you telegraph !
its number 10 the manufacturer and get /
the broken or lost piece.
Il have many patents that expect % 4
utilize. I hope that soon America wiH be +
in the Lead as the land Of the automobile. (
Il is the best implement Of civilization 1
that one can think or Can you conceive {
Of anybody pre1erring 70 make guns ard +
torpedoes?
BY the way 7 heard a grave phiioso- :
pher say. in Berlin. that the command 81 /
torpedo boats should be given 70 men o. +
science. They should have the pleasure 4
Of analyzinE in advance the sensation o. (
blowing up with them.
'.Havn't you. in your sensation q flying 4
IN an automobile. the fear or The Thought +
Of running over children. old men and 4
other Innocent passersby7' F'ouruier vas 4
asked.
TIE replied. "HSo. have no fear. Per
ha0s Il 7 reasoned : would fear Bat it is
a great foBr to depend O. reason. one
must depend On instinct Instinct asver
induces che into the errors II reason IN
ste adas ts.rg h-1Ion.e.hf 7s{-7sf IL
stluct IS a sure guide.
Then. the exartian q driving an auto
noble * seventy niles an hour Is -9t
oniy physical. i Is acuts,F mental Tou
calculate with frighiful rapis-ty- To1
know G: q distance q - ranis shat
chance the raszersr has q avoid sea-
.You know also shat y1G must % %
srold him. Il IS you. or. how sensitive
K IS you nay never Enow nlrl Eoa be-
oanae an enthusiastic ehau1eszr yoarse,f
You live quicker. yea act euicze-
.-staI accidents haprcn.~ Fuurul.r vas
told