The newspaper., 1908-12-04
THE AUTOMOBILE
Swift Sketch Of the Machines Development in Speed, Ex
pense and Deadliness from its Mlk-Teeth Days to
100 Miles an Hour and 81 900 Minute Pedes-
TRANS Growing Nuisance.
By GEORGE FITCH.

SaSOllne lnuO 6petu, luAuiy, SASioe
ment, and obituaries. 1t consists OF
a handsome leather upholstered car
riage mounted on fat rubber-tired
wheels, and containing a gizzard full
of machinery suffering from various
ailments. 1t is the speediest and
most stylish form Of transportation
known. 1t has run one hundred
miles an hour and cost 81, 900 min
ute. 1t can transport seven people
from front porch to the police sta
ton, the bankruptcy court, or the
golden gates in less time than any
other contrivance. 1t has become a
social craze, and the man who can
sit IN an automobile with bored
and millionaireish expression is ac-
counted more refined than the man
who can tell the fifty-seven varieties
of forks correctly.
The automobile is one OF the sud
denest things that ever happened to
the world. 1t is an illustration OF
the rapidity with which yesterday
slides back into the dark ages and
the impossible tomorrow becomes
this afternoon. Almost in a night
the automobile has become one OF
the most familiar sights, sounds and
smells on our thoroughfares. When
we consider that ten years ago the
novel-writers had to lug their char
acters around in hanson cabs. and
that there was nothing more excit-
ing than bicycles to dodge in all
America, it is easy to realize the
marvellous development of the gaso-
line guzzler. The fourth and highest
speed with which it has Travelled
into the hearts and, in some in
stances, into the thoraxes OF the
people.
So young is the automobile that
even very young man can look
back to the days OF its infancy-its
milk-teeth days. That must have
been the kind of teeth the first auto
mobile had in it's gear case from the
rapidity with which they wore out.
Ten years ago the automobile was n
curiosity. To-day 1t is n necessity.
Ten years ago the great question
concerning every automobile was:
"Wfl it go?" To-day every police
man is asking: "How can l stop it,"
Ten years ago IL was deemed a great
feat for a man to take an automo-
bile ten miles and back without the
aid OF a horse. Now the chief en-
deavor il to drive one twenty miles
in ten minutes without the aid OF a
hearse. Ten years ago the automo-
mobile was only machine shop on
wheels. To-day 1t Is the comfort OF
the rich, the boast Of the ambitious,
the wings OF the restless, the dissi-
patton OF the extravagant, and the
official fool-killer for the reckless.
Experimental automobiles were
built I'm this country as far back as
the early nineties OF the last century.
They were not as successful as they
were interesting. Most of them
started out with about ten horse
power and invariably came back
with one horsepower and some
times an old, broken. down horse at
that. About ten years ago the first
real automobile was put on the mar
ket in this country. 1t was huge,
misshapen buggy with big hustle
behind. In this hustle was stored IA
one-cylinder gasoline engine as big
as a small cannon. The engine was
connected in sketchy and uncer-
tain manner with the hind wheels
of the buggy, the great trick being
to get the engine and the transmits
sion to work at the same time. The
engine was started by means OF n
crank in the side of the buggy, and
when it was in motion vast clouds
of smoke poured out of the transom
of the hustle, thus warning horses
and messenger boys from running
into the machine from behind. There
was no horn. The engine attended
to the noise department. The noise
OF the automobile was the first thing
to be perfected. The old masters
have never been equaled in this par
ticular.
This type Of machine and Others
which quickly followed were oper-
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