The Newtown bee., 1904-10-07
CIRCULATION
Ten Pages
TOWN TOPICS. THE BRILLIANT PEN DRAGON MAKES SOME INTERESTING SUGGE ES
 TONS.

To the Editor of THE BEE: In a
 recent issue of your paper l notice a
 short article headlined. ''ShOoting
 Automobilists, " in which it was said,
 '"The fact is that just now the great
 bulk of the people are getting sick of
 having the highways made unsafe by
 the laW-breaking autOmObiliStS," the
 general trend of said article being to
 lead the reader to infer that autoists
 are the only individuals who make the
 highways unsafe. Now, I am pedes-
 trian. l have never owned a horse,
 and, owing to the manner in which
 fate keeps continually shaping things,
 to own one, and shall, therefore, ne yer
 have the pleasure of joining the ranks
 Of the ariStocratic horse owners. As
 for my ever owning an "auto" you
 might as we'll talk of prying the earth | off it's axis with a three foot crOwbar.
 It was preordained from the beginning that l should go afOot. I am doomed | to be pedestrian. What l want to
 say is my right to passage on the high
 ways (if pedestrian has any right,
 which is exceedingly doubtfully) has
 never been interfered with a whit
 more by drivers of autos" than by drivers of fast horses and the owners
 
 much. An autoist will toot his horn and let me know he is coming, but the tborse driver never warns anybody of nS. approach. The pedestrian must get into the ditch out of the drivers
 way or be run down. And after he gets into the ditch the horses go prancing and stamping by and spatter mud all over him without any regard whatever. Every pedestrian has had this hateful experience. Some persons may say the pedestrian had no busi- ness to be in the ditch. Such persons should remember that highways are built for vehicles and horses and not for pedestrians. Their rights, if they have any, are not consulted or consid- | cred at all when selectmen are con- structing highways. Highways are "turnpiked" and there are no side walks, and the fOotman, if he goes abroad at all, is crowded into the waterways and ditches. In fact the | Commonwealth seems to consider the | waterways and ditches plenty good | enough for him. |
 The article further says, "Automo- bilists scare horses" This may very we'll be, but they are not the only things on earth that scare horses. Horses are notoriously senseless, any way, and show no judgement in any matter, and there are thousand harmless things at which they will be- come frightened. Such an insignifi- cant thing as piece of white paper by the road side, in hundreds of in- stances, has frightened horses. I once knew one to be so unreasonable as to become so frightened at a harmless tin whistle that it flung, out the driv- CT, ran two miles, and smashed the buggy into slivers. I'm not bit more afraid of runaway "auto" than am of runaway horse. In fact not so much so, for I've never yet seen a runaway "auto." The article referred to also further says, "Unless automo- bilists mend their ways some of them will get hurt by the law and by the sheriff and it will be more than by line. The American people have rights upon the highways and the them.' Just substitute drivers of horses" for "automobilists' and the statement in regard to getting hurt will be more to the point and then say, Pedestrians have rights for ought to have) on the highways and the horse owners must respect them" and the nail will be hit fairly, squarely and exactly on the head. Finally, in view of the foregoing facts as set forth and known to all, it seems to me if anybody is going to be shot it ought to be the drivers of horses. I cheerfully admit that they have been in evidence, as 1t were, and have overrun the high ways longer, many years longer, than the autOiSt, but that is no excuse and has no bearing on the case. The real culprit, the horse driver, caught red handed fiagrante delcto is the one who should be punished:-[P. D., New Preston, Conn.,, September 26, 1904.