The sun., 1902-12-27
Good Novel About q Devil wagon.

We are glad to welcome a novel about
the automobile. We have the news instinct
and we like timely things The devil wagon
Is full Of moods and whims. In the matter
of its behavior it is capable of sudden and
high contrasts. The velvet Of its conduct
may turn instantly to distressing prickles.
Only a day or two ago We saw lady court
ing caresses from her beloved dog, cocker
spaniel. To the dog II seemed as though
the psychology Of the moment called for
repose rather than demonstrative affection.
The selfish and stupid animal growled in
response TO each priceless blandishment.
II acted like a contrary devil wagon and
provoked the same quick and natural re-
sentiment. Kiss your mother, Bang
this represents the highly contrasted and
startling sequence Of feeling and act on the
part Of the lady, exasperated by the ami
mails unwilingness. As often a. she in
vited him end he growled in surly protest
she boxed his ears. Inasmuch as he per-
sisted, she possessed herself Of billet Of
wood. with which at each expression Of
recalcitrance she struck him sharply upon
the nose
We have thought Of this lady and her
Kiss your mother Bang! in reading The
Lightning Conductor by c. n. and A. NJ.
Williamson. Henry Holt & Coz Some
thing happened to the car on the average
every hour Chains snapped or came of;
II the belts didn't break they were too short
or too long, mysterious squeaks made
themselves heard; the crank head got hot
twhat head wouldn't'l and we had to wait
until it thought fit to cool For
a faxx, v,,{lo l. 4
and no mishaps; but half way up long.
long hill the mystic power" vanished once
more, and there we were. stranded nearly
opposite io-ge. from which strollcd three
huge tlack-faced men adorned With pity
ing smiles. Hire them To pust.' said
dsspairingly'
This was in France. and more things
happened in Spain and Italy, where Miss
Mollie Randolph of New York went ex-
ploring in her devil wagon with an aunt,
who was not in sympathy with the machine,
and chauffeur. who was a more exalted
parsonage than he purported to be- They
were nobbed In France, where they ran
down peasant. hurting him not seriously.
The crowd and the injured peasant wanted
to hold them up and blackmail them. The
bogus chauffeur tells how they got out Of
the scrape. Il knew" he records, that
a union which held the exhaust pipe in
place on the silencer had been working
loose. ! grabbed spanner out of the tool
box and elbowing my way along the side
Of the car again, with two turns of the
spanner loosened the union, pushed forward
the throttle lever in the steering post and
gave the motor all it's gas"
We who have seen something of the devil
wagons can imagine the result. THE
thing was done" We read. -in a quarter
the time it's taken me to write of it. and YOU
can guess the effect. Bang! bang! came a
succession of explosions quick and pitiless
a. a Maxim gun. Those peasants gave way
like wheat before the scythe. / don't
doubt they thought they were shot and on
the way to kingdom come; and before
they'd time to find out their mistake l was
up on the step. had seized the steering
wheel and started the car. We were on a
slight decline. and the good steed bounded
forward at the rate Of fifteen miles an hour.
An instant later l slipped in the fourth,
and we were going forty-fve."
We have seen devil wagons going at what
the drivers call forty-fve miles an hour.
We have never doubted that the real rate
was one hundred and forty-fiye. The
futility Of any proceedings on the part of
the peasants will be obvious to those who
know anything about such matters We
read: when the enemy cav how they'd
been tricked, which they did in about six
seconds. they were after us with a howl"
Fancy anybody chasing devil wagon
which has had six seconds the start The
machine must have been an agitated speck
in the distance. A shower of stones fell
harmlessly on the road behind us" OF
course it did. Think of Ajax blowing putty
balls at the lightning. The devil wagon
drowned the mob in a humiliating noise.
Angry yells were drowned in the hideous
noise OF the exhaust" The peasants had
no magic saddles or seven-league boots.
"We could afford to laugh at the thought
OF pursuit.
Fancy Miss Randolph writing to her
father: My wingless angel, am alone
in a hotel-with Brown" Brown was the
bogus chauffeur. Bogus or not. he could
drive a devil wagon. We have just seen
him whisking of to an accompaniment Of
unearthly noises at the rate OF forty-fve
miles an hour. The story il made up Of
letters from Mollie Randolph to her father,
and from Brown to his friend Lord Lane.
We have no means Of knowing exactly what
the parental Randolph thought when his
daughter wrote: Dad, dear, Brown Ia
splendid. He has revealed Naples to me-
We should have gone the ordinary round
II it hadn't been for him. We shouldn't
have known any better than to stop in some
big, obvious sort Of hotel instead OF coming
here to Parkers, where the air is pure and
some Of the most beautiful things In the
world in sight without turning our heads
1t Is such homelike hotel, and instead of
sending to England for narmalate made OF
Sicilian oranges, the way a II the other hotels
seem to do, they make II themselves out
OF their own oranges; and it's a poem, We've
been up vesuvius, not in the daytime, like
the humdrum tourists. but by torchlght,
and we saw the moon rise. But In Pom
peii--oh, can't tell you what felt there
didn't feel as II any one else had
ever been there since IL was dug up, ex-
cept Brown and me-and Of course Aunt
Mary At the end OF the book we find
telegram from Brown to his friend Lord
Lane. II IL revelatory. It reads: .Con-
Rratulate me. It's all right
Tho devil wagon passed hotly and pre-