Evening star., 1902-08-23
NEW YORK GOSSIP
What the Gothamites Men
tion Among Themselves.
A SELF-MADE CAREER
PLENTY OPPORTUNITIES IF THE
RIGHT FELLOW Is LOOKING.
Prudence on the Part of the L Guard
Leaves the Brooklyn Smokers
in Peace.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star

NEW YORK, August %, 1902.
Manufacturers and agents of automobiles
| in New York are in a state of profound de-
preston over the severe blow which has
been dealt to the motor car business by the
Fair tragedy In France. No greater disaster
to a booming trade could possibly have oc-
| Cured Auto accidents, of course. even
fatal ones, have been common enough ever
! since automobilists began to develop that
| affection known speed madness" but
the accident to the Fair couple was sim
| gularly dreadful and mystifying. and the
| victims were so we'll known on two con-
tinents that the calamity has well nigh
| brought the auto business to a standstil,
for the present at least, in New York. Per-
sons contemplating buying machines have,
! literally by the hundreds. ceased negotia-
tions with the dealers, the stunning effect
| of the Fair accident deterring them from
taking up sport or pastime franght
with Sorrowful possibilities.
! 1t was extraordinary to observe how sud-
denly the scorching of the most reckless
and headiong autoists in and about New
| York ceased when the story of the Fair aC-
cident was published The mad. illegal
| whizzing along the bou!evards by the own
| ers of huge, sinister-looking racing ma
chimes came to an abrupt halt. Not only
did the speed manacs, of whom there are
| very many in New York, cease their devil
may-care whirling through the thorough
| fares of Manhattan, but even on the Coun-
try roads, over on Long Island and up in
| Westchester, they exhibited a thoroughly
chastened, if not indeed. an alarmed spirit
On Sunday last the actually sedate pace at
| which automobilists who the very pre-
| vfous Sunday had driven their machines at
| such rate that their color could barely be
| discerned by pedestrians. fooled their
| motor cars along on the suburban roads
was something gratifying to note More
over. perhaps only one-half as many auto
| mobiles of the huge. speed-marvel type
! have been seen in and around New York
since the Fair accident, and some of the
newspapers contain long strings of adver
| tisements by persons willing to part with
| their high-poWer racers at bargain prices
The writer observed that the hgh-power
| autos that logged along the boulevards on
| Sunday last had very few women as occu-
| pants, whereas before the Fair tragedy
most of the seat space of these big ma
| chimes taken up with jolly. fashionably
| dressed women
The dealers do not hesitate to say that il
is the women who are thoroughly fright
ened over the horrifying fate of Mrs. Fair
In France. A woman seated alongside the
goggled driver Of machine racing along
| with the speed Of the wind on crowded
roads has always impressed conservative
persons as being rather dangerously placed,
| nor nave women thus situated ever seemed
to be extracting any very great amount of
real enjoyment from their situation. Auto
| mobile racing is distinctly not a feminine
become firmly convinced of that fact since
| the death of the Fairs. They took consid-
erable alarm few months ago when on
SUNDAY Snaa @ afternoon couple of wealthy
pretty actresses in a high-speed machine
up In Westchester county. lost control Of
their auto and ran over an embankment
The faces of both of the pretty women were
disfigured for life. being literally torn away
! by their cruel impact with a pebbled path
Ihey were not killed. however, and so the
! women with automobiling friends soon for
| got that incident. Manifestly, however
they are not going to soon forget the acci-
| dent in France, and it will take a long
| time, as the dealers gloomilv apprehend
beiore the confidence of the women folks
IN the horseless carriages is restored Inas-
much as most of the very expensive ma
! chimes have been bought by wealthy men
Tor the fun of touring at licketty-split speed
with their women friends, the full force of
! the Fair calamity upon the automobile
trade is easily understood. 1t is thought
that the makers of the more inexpensive
Io"-pressure machines, designed for family
use and to travel along at a decent rate of
speed, approXimating that of a road horse
will profit by the affair in France
| lod Sloanes $ private secretary. an intelli-
gent young chap named Kane, who used to
be jockey himself. came over here from
Paris on an errand for his employer a few
days ago. He was told of the accident to
the Fairs when he left the steamer
I'm not a little bit surprised" he sail
| We been waiting for some horror like that
| to happen for the past couple of years ever
| since Frenchnen and Americans in France
| began TO go mad on the speed question
| The chances that some of them take are
| simply beyond belief I've seen young
| Willie Vanderbilt do some stunts In the
environs of Paris with his machine thai
would make a man turn away his head
but he won't listen to his friends, some of
whom, indeed, are racing-mad automobl-
lists themselves. when they try TO warn him
| against his recklesSness. Tod" referring
| to the famous eX-jockey, his employer is
| as crazy on the speed question as any of
| them He's IN partnership with Fourier
| again, and rapidly getting very rich at the
| automobile manufacturing business, but ]
| never figure 1t cinch that he'll be alive
| from one day to another. the way he drives
| his machines. A couple of months ago ne
enticed me alongside of him on one of the
| highest-poWer machines in the world which
| he owns himself. and he suddenly let the
| thing out and shot it along at something
| like fifty-fve-seconds-to-t he-mile clip 4
| held on tight and didn't say ANYTHING un.;i
| he pulled up. Then / stepped out and told
| him that if he ever did that again to me il
would be case of his giving my jon to
somebody else. l was a jockey on these
American tracks for years, and have taken
| as many chances the rest of therl in
top heavy fields Of rank acting thorough
breds, on muddy and icy fields, in com,any
with jockeys notorious for their reckless
rough riding but the experience / had as
a jockey was nothing compared with this
idiotic business of careering along In \
devil wagon at a speed of mile in a good
deal less than a minute. Tod says that he
will never be satisfied until he develops a
machine capable of going about a hundred
miles in about fifty minutes. Before he
does that and makes a trial trip in ie
thing, I'm roofing that he'll make his viii
and remember me by making me a neat 1T
tie beQuest for services rendered"
His Last !Pape"
One afternoon, about ten days ago, a
squat. fresh-faced. merry-eyed broth of a
lad, about eighteen years Old roughly but
comfortably dressed, stepped off one of the
city boats at the foot of 2Stn street, East
river.
Well he said to the cop who was
standing at the gangway, 1--WE sold me last
pape. This is me last day on me route.
I've sold out, an it's all off,
There was good deal of story of nerve
and hard work and faithfuiness and pluck
and some other things behind that boys
casual remark.
Ten years ago, when he was eight years
old-he had already been selling newspapers