New-York tribune., 1908-04-05
An AUTO CARNIVAL.
TO Celebrate the Tenth AnniUersary
of Motoring an Gotham.

New York will be all a-honk this week for
the carnival of the automobile. 1t is to cele-
brate the tenth anniversary of the chug-chug
In metropolis, assuming that the years be-
fore the ten applied to immature period
that does not count. The motor did nothing
but screeCh and break down in those early, un-
weaned days. 1t could not digest its gasolene
its noise and had not learned how to warn
foot passengers with the inspiring notes of the
walhalla theme from G0tterddmmerung. The
American people were debating the prOnunCia-
ton of chauffeur. Our native writer's had not
srasped the possibilities of the spark plug in
fiction. The friction clutch msunder
stood by the great mass of the public and con-
fused with the half Nelson in wrestling. Every
thing was in exceedingly backward state.
knowledge advances. A decade ago the coun-
try contained only about fifty wheezy apologies
for motor cars. owned by rash enthusiasts
who deserved to break their necks. This weeks
carnival will show a goodly number of New
York's twenty-five thousand air splitters,
which are valued at $44,00O,000. Past and pres
ent will be contrasted in n ''monstrous spectacu-
lar night parade" wherein the past, or speci-
of it, Will likely have to be drawn by
land tenderly carried aboard trucks. Already
the past is being stored in museums with relics
of the eohippus, at the Smithsonian Insti
sution. Washington, and people gaze and muir
muir respectfully, 80 tHlS Is NndI we rOQe III
twelve years ago.
1t gives one a feverish feeling 10 survey the
statistics of the industry. Anybody can see
that there are lots of machines in the land. 1t
Is estimated that there are altogether one hun
dred and fifty thousand automobiles Of all
types representing in value S210Nmt0ob. In
the five years between 1880 and 1909 the
Der of car factories more than doubled. the
capital invested jumped 256 per cent. the value
# products 4G1 per cent What's the use?
The trade and the product are always the
lump. 1t is more stirring to think that YOU
can't buy five cents worth of delicatessen from
a department store without having it delivered
by motor that there are motor huStling
from New York to Paris; that the "bookics'
may be pcrforce laying odds on automobiles
Instead Of horses this summer; that the great
drivers have been post-SraIuated to aerial
travel and that the doctor comes to YOU in
runabout while the undertaken takes you away
In a limousine perhaps. Also. here are military
cars, political soaIboX cars sightseeing cars.
police wagon ears and motor successors of the
Deadwood Dick stage coach in the West.
Within the memory of the young automO-
bile that made fifteen miles an hour and went
to Philadelphia in a day wonder.
Now a speed of eighty miles an hour is re
garded a comfortable jog, and average
Of siXty-siX miles an hour for twcnty-four con-
tinuous hours in English motordromc is felt
to be mild recreation and offset to the
strain Of civilization Some day thc therapeut"
benefits of speeding viii bc rightly o@nzed Il
Is predicted and patients in sanatoriums viii
be whirled Thousand miles 4 day until they
recover get worse. ii takes speed to
speed, say the hompopathi~ts
''We Will be able to propel carriages With in
credible speed without the assistance or any
animal declared the philosopher Roger Bacon
ibout seven centuries ago. one Johann Haus-
Zach, Of Nuremberg, tried to fullil the prophecy
around 1900 by clockWork chariot gorgeous
with gilt and dragons and snaky tongues. \
coiled spring the motor Johann. il is need
less to say, never broke the speed laws About
this time a Dutch inventor made wind auto
mobile ship wheels Two large. square
sails drove the long chassis hun of the ship
the level plains OF Holland gait quite
fast enough for Dutch taste 1t may be seen
how modern Knickerbockers have improved on
their ancestors. Then there Sir Isaac New
ton, who paused long enough in the revision of
anecdotes concerning his dog and his apple as
aids to the discovery of graVtation to
uruct a motor after the invention Of Hero