New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-17
THE AUTO" HOLDS SWAY
CROWDS At THE GARDEN.
Cars Sell Themselves, So Keen Are
Bugers to Place Orders.


Square Garden and the Goth Regiment Armory
yesterday, where the two big automobile shows
are being held, one week will be all too short to
accommodate those who are interested in the
hOrseless vehicle. As q rule, visit is not
enough and the prospective buyers come back
to talk and talk and look and look before being
able to make UP their minds. It seems surpris-
ing that 1t is possible to make a selection,
with so many different makes to choose from.
but the old adage, 1T takes all kinds to make
a world" holds true. and the man who buys a
Fiat is convinced that he has purchased the
best machine on the market. as is the one who
decides in favor of L1ozier. White a Column
bia a Martini, an Aster or any other of the
various makes
At Madison Square Garden yesterday there
was the same big I'd. the interest and
incidentally more orders than for the
space of time last year At previous shows a
buyer had to be shown good salesman was a
necessity and demonstrat tons were demanded as
to the capabilities of q machine. This year the
cars fairly sell themselves. The manufacturers
themselves are surprised to see how many per-
sons are buying without demonstrations Of any
sort. In most cases it seems as if there is q
tendency to buy reputation Nevertheless,
there are more than one hundred demonstrating
cars outside of the Garden prepared to take a
prospective buyer through Central Park and up
the steep hills throughout the city.
In the Garden there are 143 different models
displayed, of which eighty-three are of gaso-
lene power. There are nineteen electric CONNER
cial cars and twenty-seven electric pleasure We
hicles. OF the 143 cars shown, ia of them have
pressed steel frames, while nine have structural
iron frames. and twenty are made with armored
wood. One machine has a frame made entirely
Of wood. Semi-elliptic springs seem to run In
favor and Hanged front exles, at least 20 per
cent OF the cars being equipped OF the gaso-
lene cars eighty-fve are of the water cooled
type.
That the four-cyIinder vertical motor is In
popular favor is clearly shown. Two manu-
tactureTS also show cars of six cylinders, Jump
spark tgniters are used by 20 per cent of the
cars, the others using the make and break Mag
netoeS are used twenty-three, while twenty
one cars have batteries and magnetoes
Self-starting devices in a great variety are
appearing, and it is not improbable that another
year Will see the abolition Of the starting crank,
although some experts are inclined to disagree
on this point.
It is a fact that in the cars at the Garden
there has been reduction in price and in
many cases the figures asked show that there
has been something of advance The argu-
ment is offered that more is offered for the
money now than at any previous show
Mark Twain was visitor at the show yester-
DAY. He came as the guest Of r. D. Chaplin,
OF the Oldsmobile Company. After making a
tour of the Garden and expressing surprise at
the remarkable development of the automobile
he remarked that if he were not something Ike
a thousand years old he would drive q machine
himself. He also said:
Il dictate each day about four thousand words
and find 1t hard days work. If I could talk as
your salesman talks, talk would be worth money
to me-
Colonel George Pope chairman of the exhibt
ton committee, in an interview yesterday said
think every who has visited the Garden
VIII agree that the automobile show in prog
ress there is without exception the greatest that
mas ever been held in America The artistic
design, the harmony Of the decorations and thn
general settings for the automobiles, along with
the unique illuminations, and last but not least
the hlgh grade cars on view. all tend to make
1t the greatest automobile show that has ever
been held in this country. When you add to
THIS the excellent management and the record
attendance (and that, too, without the use of
trade tickets formerly, think we can safely
say that the show is in class by itself We
may not have big building as they have in
Paris and London, but aside from that even
our foreign visitors admit that the show is the
equal Of anything that has been held on the
other side.
Among those who present yesterday
William K. Vanderbilt, tr; Mrs Frederic
Bronson. accompanied by Lloyd Griscom, Min
lister to japan and Mrs. Griscom; Egerton L.
Winthrop, Mrs, Luther Kountze. Miss Annie
Kountze, Mrs. Alfred Chaplin, Miss Grace Cha
PIN Mr. and Mrs. George Henry Warren, Rob-
ert Goelet, Count Karoli, Of Austria; the
Marquis de Toro Hermoso. who was accom-
panied by ". Gould Brokaw, the Comte de
Castiglione. Lady Finley and DR.. G. l. Finley
Captain George Lane of the Coldstream
Guards; Don Giovanni del Drago, of Rome: Mrs
Hermann Oelrichs Hermann Oelrichs, jr; F.
Eeerton Webb. Major G. Creighton Webb H
H. Vreeland. Mr. and Mrs Frank s. Witherbee,
Herman B. Duryea Mr. and Mrs. Richard Car
man, Mr.. and Mrs. Ernest Lorillard. Miss Ise-
lin. Miss Blanche Oelrichs. Charles Lanier and
w. Seward Webb.