New-York tribune., 1907-09-02
AND AUTOMOBILES.

<an+ucket ia determined not to have any
automobiles disturb its peaceful, out-of-the-
world existence Being an island. 1t is not on
the road TO anywhere, and so the flying tourist
bent on making record between New York or
Ros,on and somewhere does not ill its atmos
pbere with dust and the stencil of gasolene An
automobile 10 reach it must be taken TO sea for
miles in a boat. and once there IL can only
make the little run from one to the other end of
tho island Therefore the islanders believe that
as by doing SO they would not break In on any
of the glorious business Of record making they
have the right to enforce rules OF their own
against automobling Other communities can
not take this selfish view They lie upon high
WAYS between some place and another where
perhaps records have not yet been made, or If
made may vet be broken, If the chauffeur lives
to reach his journeys end, and II is their part
to endure the dust and the stencil. Not so with
an island and therefore the selectmen of
Nantucket have posted up notices excluding
automobiles from the roads, and when sum
mer resident from this city defied the ordi-
nances the Nantucketers arrested him. SO
now the case Is being tried out in the Massa-
chusetts courts to see il Nantucket in the pride
of its insularity can do what no other part of
the commonwealth can
We are not concerned with the legal aspect
of the case The law is often too severely and
inhumanly logical in its operation 1t has not
a sufficiently elastic regard for exceptional cir
cumstances Our sympathies are concerned
with an effort to keep small patch of earth
big enough for an automobile to turn around on
| free from such vehicles. We have a high re-
gard for automobiles in their place, and their
place seems to be practically everywhere on
earth: but why not leave one spot. on the road
| TO nowhere. where a man may live and neither
hear the honk. be blinded and suffocated by the
dust nor smell the stencil? IT is not necessary
| to scorch across Nantucket in getting from
anywhere to anywhere. otherwise we should
| bow to the inevitable and render unto speed
| its tribute As 1t is, however, sympathize
with Robert r. Coffin-good old Nantucket
name when he said at the town meeting: eff
1--WE have TO pay taxes for a road to be used
'by automobiles 1t is time Nantucket sunk"
At the same gathering Mrs. Harry r. Bray
ton said that the owner Of the motor
| Iv ran down her mother-"and he never
| raised his eyes," In that remark we catch a
| glimpse Of how far out of the world Nantucket
| is. Here In such contingency should re-
mark 1t as extraordinary IL the motorist did
| raise his eyes. In Nantucket they still think
| that when you nearly kill man you should
sion and apologize. They do not know how
precious is time compared to life, and they still
fancy the latter is worth as much as 1t was be-
| fore the automobile was inrented. They are a
primitive people in Nantucket, and slow; they
| know nothing OF the glories of speed sung by
the latest carburetter school Of poetry. Still
they are entitled to keep their old-fashoned
notions of the value sOf life compared to speed,
for as we have said. they live on the road TO
nowhere. They may even be permitted to re-
| tain their old-fashioned prejudice in favor of
air unmixed with dust and unperfumed with
pasolepe The rest of the countryside regards
| the odor of gasolene as perfectly normal feat
ure of country life and would feel i'll at ease
without il. no more noticing ii than the in-
habitant of Newfoundland fishing village
notices the ripe oder Of drying fish exposed 10