The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-02-17
AN ESSAY ON THE AUTOMOBILE.
Ten School Boy Tells Why
They Are improvement Over Horses.

Toneka. has a school boy aged 10
whose father will mot help him with
his lessons or debates. or course TINS
is cruel-so the boy thinks-but IN the
father was right. The boy is Wendell
switzer, son of Mr.. and Mrs. John r.
switzer Of ASS topeka avenue. who
attends Harrison school. The other
day he was in a debate on the mo.
mentous question:: Resolved. That'
automobiles are more useful to man
than horses His support of the al
firmative is SO original and unique
that it Is given herewith in full:
First, I will mention that automo-
biles will run longer than horses. An
automobile does not give you nearly
as much trouble as horses. very
early in the morning you have 70 ger
up, dress, and go out in the coid ana
feed YOUR horses, whichts not at all nice.
and then you have to wait a long time
till they are through eating: which
delayes you; while an automoplle you
lust have to fill with gasoline the min
ute you want to start me reed Tor
the automobile, which is gasoline, does
not cost as much as feed for the
horses, for the only feed there Is for
automobiles is gasoline, and the horse
has to have corn, wheat, oats nay,
bran and other things, which raise
higher and lower, but gasoline never
changes it's price much at all. Ana
wheat is SO valuable, and SO is timothy
hay, and you hardly ever get good
wheat and corn. You have to take
such so9Ia care et o. S 6ave to- p ns
scare crows all over to scare the crows
away You have to have GOOD soil,
too, to have good corn. ana IL you
don't have good soil, you nave to Ter
tilize it, which is a hard and dirty job,
for fertilizer has disagreeable smell,
which is very disagreeable to the one
which is handling it. And another
thing is, that a horse can have only
one horse power. while an automoblle
can have forty or fifty.
IAN automobile can go faster than
a horse, and you can enjoy your trip
in an automobile better than you can
in a buggy, for you go faster and the
breeze blows softly upon you. which is
"If you do not give your horses good
food, YOU can not sell them for good
price for they get weak ana sick
Automobiles never get sick, which
saves trouble. When horse gets sick
It is more liable to die than any other
thing You can get automobiles of all
sizes, while horses are nearly all one
size. You have to curry your horses,
brush and wash them. which takes
trouble. One of the hardest things of
all about horses is training. That is
very hard. Automobiles don't have to
be trained, which saves trouble. To
train a horse you must nearly risk your
| lie, Tor you 90 not KNOW WIldt VI WIEN
the colt is going to do. It is a very
hard job. When a colt Is first brid1ed
up it does not know what to do. 1t
jumps and rears, kicks, runs, and If
you hitch one up to new buggy, there
will be nothing left of it. for the colt
will do everything it can to get the
harness Off The young colt is not
used to having harness on. and 1T feels
very miserable to him and he wants to
get it off. The horses scare at street
cars and rear up and sometimes break
the buggy. Automobiles never get
scared like horses. You have to ho1-
low at the horse to make it go, while
you just have to turn a crank to make
an automobile go. An automo bile
tells us how far it has gone, or going,
and how much gasoline 1t is using. A
orse does not do that 1t does not
tell US how much flesh he is wearing
off or how much breath it is using and
don't tell US how far he is going, SO
we don't know when to stop and keep
on going and wearing off flesh till the
poor horse Is nothing but. skin and
bones, which we CAL skater and
make fun of the owner. Some people
do not feed their horses and drive
them so much that they drive them to
death. You can't run an automobile
| to death no matter how much you run
them, which is better.
Now I hope I have proved to you
that automobiles are more useful than
horses; I will leave It to the judges