The newspaper., 1908-12-04

long, wide, low affair, with two
cylinder engine and u roomy back
porch, called a tonneau-thOughn not
one owner in hundred knows why
tonneau. In this machine it was
possible to carry a driver, me-
chanic and three guests. Instantly
automobiling entered its rightful do
main as a pleasure and n privilege.
Improvement followed Improvement
with great rapidity.
The two cylinders became four.
They were removed from their clever
place of concealment under the car
and placed in front under a large
hood where they could be reached
without profanity and tailor bills.
They were then perfected so that
they need not be reached at all. The
car became larger and redder. They
achieved fatter tires. They did not
cough any more; they purred in
stead. The springs were perfected
until distractions as large as a small
COW could be passed over safely and
with comparative comfort-not to
the COW, but to the passengers.
Thus the automobile arrived by
rapid stages to its present perfection.
1t now has six cylinders. 1t is SO
quiet that the occupants of the ton
neau have to talk in whispers to
keep the chauffeur from hearing. 1t
is larger and more arrogant in its
actions, and is SO long that dog
can run back and forth under 1t
twice before the hind wheels catch
him. 1t uses the same amount Of
gasoline as the old car, but spends
more of it in power and not SO much
i'm noise and smell. 1t has room for
seven people, n whist table, half a
ton of lunch, a cord of golf sticks. n
barrel of gasoline, half n peck OF
small bills for fine money. and kit
of embalming tools in case Of emer-
gency. 1t can go so silently I'm the
country that the constable can not
hear it, and can make so much noise
in front of n theatre that every one
turns to>@Ook at the occupants. 1t
can go so slowly that every one can
read the crest on the tonnenu door,
and so swiftly that the number on
the rear axle is invisible, and the red
barns on either side OF the road look
like red streaks on the horizon. The
automobile Is no longer an expert
ment or mere disturbance. Ii Is
the acme of comfort. the emolument
of prosperity, and the largest manu-
facturer of envy in existence.
Not only has the development Of
the automobile itself been marvel
Gus, but the growth of everything
connected with II has been phenome-
nal. The cost OF the auto has In
creased so rapidly. for instance. that
the man who had within 500 OF
enough to buy n good machine five
years ago may have saved indus
triously ever since and yet may now
lack 81 900 OF having enough to buy
a first-class machine. From N hum
BILE beginning. the automobile vocab-
ulary has grown until now only one
word I'm three Of the enthusiasts
conversation IL understood by the
mere layman, and automobile stories
I'm the magazines are as mysterious
to read as a Scotch dialect. The au-
tomobile itself IL not only used for
pleasure. but as an omnibus. n deliy-
cry wagon. an ambulance. n fire.
engine. hay-wagon I'm the country,
and n lunch-wagon I'm the city.
There are automobile street-sweep-
ers, pie wagons and moviDg-vans;
there are automobile ampitheatres,
called 'rubberneck wagons" and
automobile taxi-cabs, in which the
customer may sit and watch the in-
dicator chew up forty cents a mile at