Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-03
CHAUFFELRS
TAKE RISKS
RUN PRIVATE CARS ON STRANGE
TRIPS
LEAVE OWNER SLEEPING AT HIS
HOME
But the Inevitable Happens and the
Automobile Driver Gets a
Discharge After Ac-
cident

"Little do people realize where their
automobiles are at night" remarked
one chauffeur recently.
This driver of the untamed gasoline
puffed away on a cigar and continued;
"There are any number of people in
Los Angeles-careful, elderly folks OIL
good, respectable name and high stand
ing in the communicative would IN
deed be surprised If their huge touring
car would but develop phonograpn
attachment and tell them little bio
graphical sketch.
IT know of one in particular. There
was an old man who owned hne ma
chine, and had an expert to run 1t, TOO
Yes, that chauffeur was good one,
certainly. Indeed, he felt above his
job. He was anxious to speed up all
the time. And the owner, who was as
staid as a hickory limb, would have
nothing of the kind. He took every
law literally, and then added 20 per
cent to the stringency.
'Well, night after night-tor the
owner never went out after p. M,
preferring gentle jaunts in the after
toon-that chauffeur took his machine
out on spins.
Knew How to Run 1t
"And they were spins, too. He had a
good machine. He knew how TO run IL
And his employer was sound asleep
when he would quietly run out of the
big grounds about 8 p. m. OF course
the other servants were in cahoots with
him. But mum was the word. And he
would take his little crowds out 10
Arcadia and back, in the dim gray
dawn of the morning after ana nave
the machine in the garage before the
owner was awake again. Extra money
came that chauffeur's way for those
trips, of course, and he would also nave
the excitement of some fast runs.
'"There was a wide, wide difterence
between the quiet old man he would
take out on a slow jaunt in the after
noon and the roistering, rollicking gang
who would hold on to that air-spllttlng
machine about a. m. 1t was a touring
car in the afternoon and ver1table
red devil at night.
"Then came the inevitable. one
night the crowd staid out later. There
was suggestion of dawn IN the easI
before they ever thought of returning
to Los Angeles. And my friend the
chauff had had a drink or two.
Meet with Accident
"But he thought he could make 1t,
Just as he'd often done before. SO they
came whooping into n, with the
crowd singing whatever they could re-
member.
1.-THE unexpected always happens,
believe that French scrapper said. Any
way, it did that night. The car lungeo
to one side for some unknown reason,
and they brought up all standing, mug
ging a telegraph pole with their tank
and with their machinery knocked out
of shape entirely.
"It was up to him. The rest of the
int nd
another automobile to come out ana
bring them in They had only about
an hour to wait. But he, poor brute!
HE walked back. He went into the
dining room and interviewed his old
man at the breakfast table. The lat
ter gave him what was comlng-a dls-
charge-and bought a new automobile.
He also bought two other things. A
new garage lock with but one key,
which he kept under his pillow every
night; and a quiet, domestic chauffeur
from the Quaker settlement of Whit
tier.
Rent Cars Out
"But that's not the only one. Only
the others don't get caught so soon,
maybe. oh, they will eventually
'But oftentimes a chauffeur gets an
opportunity of selling rides-renting
the machine out, in other words-Whlle
waiting for an afternoon reception TO
close at which madame is passing away
the weary hours.
MANY a time I have been asked by
girls passing if 1 would not take them
to such and such an address l knew
they'd pay me well. But l guessed
not I didn't want to lose any job.
zone thing. You hear people com
planning about the children skating in
the streets or bicycling there. Why,
they aren't half the trouble that the
men and women are who weave to and
fro and don't know where they be-
long. Those older folks are just as apt
as not to step right in front of your
machine. But ,ae kids, never! They
keep right on. Seem to have implicit
faith in the law protecting them, and
do not bulge. Let the automobile take
care of itself, they seem to think. l
stand for the superior mental knowl-
edge of the kids every time"