The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-03
SEE AUTOS ON OFF DAY.
THOSE IN TIE TRADE EXAMINE
MACHINES IN GARDEN.
Some Of tho Foreigners Careful Not % ne.
veal the Secrets or Their Cars Genera
Cleaning and POlishing for Public
View To-day philosophers Busy.

Cleaning and POlishing for Public
View TO-dsy-Photographers Busy.
Though the big front doors Of the Grand
Central Palace were closed yesterday and
the public was not permitted to 60 In and
look at the exhibits that make up the seventh
annual show Of the Automobile Club OF
America, there was a constant stream OF
men entering the building at the Forty
third street doors. They were statesmen
connected with the different exhibits, MEM
bers OF the Automobile Club OF America
who wished to examine some machine at
their leisure, agents who we're able to blum
their way by the caretskers. In all about a
thousand men found their way into the
show building during the day.
Practically all Of the exhibits received
some attention at the hands Of those in
charge. Cars were rearranged, brass, cop
per and aluminium fittings were polished
until they could be used as mirrors, var
ished surfaces were carefully gone over TO
prevent the slightest accumulation OF dust
and other matters attended to in order that
the exhibits might be spick and span when
the show opens again this morning at 10
o'clock for it's week long run.
Factory men"-designers, superintend-
ents, draughtsmen and the lke-were
very numerous yesterday and. as was to be
expected, the majority Of them vinced
more interest in the exhibits of other fac
tories than those OF their own establish
ments. When different groups of these
men met in an aisle yesterday a good ma
tured discussion over some method Of
construction would frequently ensue, which
very often resulted in some enthusiastic
xponent Of a certain idea partly disman-
Ting an engine to prove his contention and
explain how ridiculously easy 1t was to
attain a certain result by his own particu-
lar method Of design n construction
To mahy Of these men from factories in the
West the principal objects Of interest were
the different foreign cars-those which have
been sent over here from establishments
in England, France, Germany, Italy and
Switzerland. In some few cases they were
able to crafty this curiosity by an examina-
ton of the power plants oftbe big imported
machines, but at some Of the exhibits they
were met by stand attendants, who APP
parently could not talk English and who
would not allow the bonnets to be raised
| from complete cars or the s~hrouding
cloths to be removed from GLASSES. But
even il they were denied access to the
working parts OF a few Of the foreign ma
chimes, these factory experts found plenty
to look at and many OF them spent prac-
tically all day in the building.
One of the principal topics OF con versa
ton among those who were in the building
Yesterday was the christening episode OF the
previous night, which occurred a few min
utes before the show ended for the evening.
One Of the several cars that are making
their first public bows to the world OF auto
MODELLING THE D~ragon-was the machine
in question. This particular car has a body
built of polished brass, which has a golden
hue In the electric light, and the car has
been called the Golden Dragon, perhaps
TO distinguish IL from the Green Dragon
Of racing fame in which Barney Oldtield
has done SO much spectacular racing on
tracks throughout the country. The car
had been informally christeued by one of
its ~exploiters on Friday afternoon when it
arrived in town, but as this task had been
performed by a mere man the ceremony was
not deemed sufficient to properly launch 1t
on q successful career. So Miss Louise
Dresser OF the Lew Fields forces was called
upon to officially give to the car the name
picked for it. After a bugler had blown a
few notes for attention Miss Dresser faced
the car with a determined air and a bottle
of champagne in one hand. Il will name
thee anything but Dennis" said she. i now
christen thee Golden Dragon Then she
threw the bottle of wine at the radiator
front and the ceremony was at an end.
except for the cheering OF those in the
immediate vicinity.
One OF those who looked over the cars
at his leisure yesterday to more fully satisfy
the curiosity that had been but whetted
during his visit on Saturday night was
Percy F.. Megargel. Megargel has driven
more han 10000 miles in the last three
years, but said yesterday that he had not
driven a machine since last May, when he
finished his double cross continent trip in
the REQ Mountaineer with Dave Fassett.
During the three wears that he was an
active automobiles Megargel had many
adventures. perhaps more han would fall
to the lot of an average automobiles in a
lifetime. He first became kno wn az a
driver when he drove the famous Elmore
Pathfinder TO st. Louis and back from this
city to lay out a route for the annual tour
of the American Automobile Association in
1904. Il was on his last big tour, the one
l A-aan this oity 70 Portland, Ore; down 70