The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-02
AUTOMOBILE NOTES.

| Motor coats for both men and women
! this winter, to be ultra fashionable,
carry buttons of exaggerated size. On
| some of the more costly fur garments
| they are nearly as large as the silver
| dollars which they exceed in value
| Holyoke, Mass, boasts of a sixteen
year-old chauffeuse, Miss Elizabeth
Skinner. who passed the theoretical
| tests at the state capital with credit
| and readily proved her ability to dodge
teams to the satisfaction of the exam
| liner.
Paris auto makers are exceedingly
wrathy because the American govern
| ment refused to waive duty on machines
imported for the New York Automobile
| Salon. The duties on the firms exhibit
amounted to $1,000.
A motor truck with a capacity of four
pianos and with sides which fold out,
making room for persons who wish to
examine the instruments, is being
driven about the Middle West by a
piano dealer who is seeking orders
from farmers.
H. Lecherpy, who has just been elect
ed to the French chamber of deputies,
after a whirlwind seventy-f1ve-day
campaign, during which he visited
personally 5000 constituents, won one
vote by assisting citizen to replace a
wheel on an automobile.
Four Detroit motorists on their way
| to Dallas, Tex, in steam car, ran into
too deep water while crossing the Lit
tie Missouri river, near Arkadelphis,
| Ark. Their boiler exploded and wreck
ed the car while the men We're forced
to swim ashore.
The United States consul at Lucerne,
Switzerland, estimates that American
| mot orists spent $24,000,0O0 in Europe
during the touring season just ended.
He figures that there were 1900 touring
| parties, averaging five persons each,
| spending $40 a day for two months.
| An ingenious motorist of Brooklyn,
| N V, is building an underground gar
age in the courtyard of his home. The
| elevator which hoists his car to the
surface of the ground at the same time
lifts the roof of the garage, which forms
| a portion of the pavement OF the yard.
| For a long time the Prince and Prin-
cess of Wales desired to visit the
smaller industrial towns OF Wales put
hesitated owing to the difficulty of rail-
| road transportation. The auto, how
ever. has now solved their problem,
and they shortly will set out on the
| journey.
A newly invented war automobile.
| carving a Hotchkiss gun, has been
shipped to Morocco from France, for
use in the campaign against the Arabs.
! The captain and chauffeur are station
| ed in the front of the car with two ar
| tillerymen in the rear. The gun may
| be pointed in any direction.
| Although Massachusetts motorists
were forced to pay license fee of So
| in August under a new law, they will
| be obliged to pay another of the same
amount January 1. By the reregistra-
| ton the state highway commission ex-
poets to collect 100000, to add to the
se3, S75 already received this year.
| On the Brookland track, England, the
scene of S. F. Edges wonderful twenty
| four-hour drive, Clifford carp recently
covered 80 miles in SO minutes, 10 sec
/ onds and $50 miles in 1 hour, So min
utes, "a seconds. He also made a new
one-hour record of rs miles, 453 yards.
| and new two-hour record of Isl miles,
| las yards
What with the presence of S. F. Edge,
who smashed world records by whole
| sale on the Rrooklands track, in Eng
land. and with that of Baron de Caters,
who has figured in many international
/ contests, the speed carnival at Ormond
Beach. Fla, next March, gives promise
of exceeding any similar event yet held
| in America