The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-21
How 1t Feels to 'GO Sure
Nough' in an Auto.
"Amateur Chauffeur" Tells of His Sen.
salons On The Front Seat Of Real
Automobile Doing a Fifty
Mile An Hour "Stunt."
(By the Amateur Chauffeur.)


a phaeton with bad lungs and greasy
cough-but one of the hot things on
tic pike-a Decauville, if you please
straight from, France, twin engines on
steel bed, shiny steel levers and
wheels and things like the locomotive
of the express that goes from Here to
There so fast that the two towns have
to be hyphenated when one travels :?
A glittering monster, with a volcano
for stomach, and the cushions and
upholstering of a parlor car for seats,
with easy room for seven people, a
horn that one can hear a mile and a
shower" al princely salary in the
driving box, waiting the word to con-
vert the world into a microscopic
, view?
II you are one of those who has the
twenty thousand plunks sent across
the ocean for this beauty and the addi-
tional two or three thousand for the
customs house to get it in and the
other hundreds to have it delivered at
your home and the ready cash to pay
your shower two hundred per month
to tell you that you need to spend a
thousand in addition for repairs to the
carboreators-Wh Why drop it, this is an
old tale!
But-and you are the more numeT-
Gus yous-if you happen to be one OF
that class which got out of the active
going when the negroes appropriated
the bicycle or even of that village
class of nabobs able to afford the fat
phaeton or the plank buck board
listen to one who in fear and trem-
bling has seen. been on and survived
the real thing!
Our host. sitting beside his shower.
rolled up to the hotel at the clip of
perhaps fifteen miles an hour and ap
parently forgot our expectant exist
ence AS he whisked by the front door
we gasped and a moment later gasped
again as the great machine, turning
tail in the street. wheeled on it's axis
in q graceful curve, and stopped dead
at our feet This maneuver was to
bring the host seated on the left side
of the machine next to the curb He
alighted, a trim figure in blue serge
tan shoes and visor cap, the shower"
a silent figure i'm white duck There
was q ten minutes delay in the annex
of the hotel and we filed out in fol
low my leader" style tryin to look un-
concerned. Before us stood the De-
cauville, breathing softly to itself, but
emitting no smoke and coughing not at
ALL 1t was a dignified looking beast
that Decauville-and we thought
triflle contemptuous of its load. As TO
the Shower" this was not surnlise
but an actuality.
~ sit behind" said our host, zone
of you in front
And in an evil moment. while the
polite denials of the honor were going
the round of the guests the writer
seized upon too much persuasion and
took the coveted seat. The tunneau
door closed with a soft snap behind,
the host gave a low word of command,
the shower cast a glance of infinite
loathing at the partner of his seat and
suddenly, without a tremor, the build
ings commenced to roll behind and
the great car to glide softly through
the streets. Street cars and trucks
barred our path for a while and
policemen raised warning fingers as
we writhed around like a snake amid
the traffic. Indecisive pedestrians
stood palpitating in fear i'm mid-cross-
ing and got a greater fright as the
shower" twisting his amchine at the
proper moment shaved their coat tails
with several thousand pounds of living
steel and wood, murmuring back into
their pallid faces the one English
word he could pronounce correctly
"Scoot!"
At the first of these encounters,
there was great excitement on the car,
atwhich the showers nose went up
Gradually the city petered out behind
and the suburbs came. And gradually
our speed increased. From time to
time, the shower" would give bar of
steel a twitch, there would be an in
stants jump and then again the
smooth rolling, gliding sensa-
ton, as the heavy tires Fpurn-
cd the pavements from beneath.
All this time our host had talk
oh nf MT
and we had learned to forget the 81
lent shower" and the soft slough!
shoughr of the engines and the softer
ripple of the bed of the machine.
But now the suburbs were behind
A white road fringed with telephone
poles stretched out for miles before
"All right, try her!" said the host,
and there was a heave, a jump and i
report as though the bowels of the car
were coming out. Diz2ily | turned to
lump at the smash, but no smash
came. / looked at the chauffeur. He
had his goggles on. The machine
heaved and jumped, rocking from side
to side. | heard my fellow guests ex-
claim from behind and then | looked
at the road ahead. The ground was
doing curious things A hundred yards
of white road ahead would rise up IN
an instant, clear and distinct ten-teet
apparently ABOVE the car. II was eto
though it would inevitably slap up
down and crush u.s. 1t moved with m
conceivable rapidity; it lowered men
acinglv and it's power was as that Of
outraged nature. To the eye the
great car was standing on its head,
ouiverine before a somersaulti But
ever we scorned it, ate it up, put II
under our foot Past our ears the wind
went hurting by with a peculiar shrlll
suueal. particles of dirt and grit stung
the face like needles. the landscape
heayed and danced and beloved up
and down as it sailed rearward, the
poles along the roadside bent over
almost double towards us as we
checked them off by hundreds For a
minute perhaps the disordered mind
failed to find itself. Then it became
apparent that we were moving instead
of going to instant wreck. The car
warmed to it's work and steadied.
going the faster event for the change;
the shower twitched his lever, there
was another jump. and we were going
faster yeti
"Fifty's enough" murmured our
host and we agreed with him.
Suddenly. far down the white rib
bon of the road. appeared a black
sneck. In ten seconds we knew It for 4