The San Francisco call., 1909-09-26
hN LU r {
the New York Herald Company. All rights reserved.
BY EZRA KNOX

sooner later, and then, if you have the money!
1 you will buy one, and eventually you will land in
court and pay fine for speeding, chuckling while
you pay it the number of hens and dogs you have
killed. If you have not got the money you will
either buy just the same or become an anarchist
You know the kind of who buy automobiles
when more fitting expenditure for their money
would be the purchase of low speed. nonskidding
wheelbarrow and they should never have a
snowy vehicle than ball bearing baby carriage
When they buy gasoline they have to eeonomize on
food and you and every one else charge them with
being foolishly extravagant and at times hate them
for being so fooshly happy. They don't pay their
rent. but they talk you into nervous headache
with their comprehensive knowledge of magnetos
double ignition selective sliding gear transmission
and all those other technical terms.
These persons are no more blame than is
person who catches the mumps. You stand
around and say is all foolishness having ones jaws
all swollen up with mumps but sooner later you
will contract the disease unless you have had it, and
then you immune. The lure of the automobile
works the same way You may not have had it yet,
and there many persons who have not had the
mumps, but wait
The first symptom of the lure is a bitter, uncom-
promising hatred toward all automobiles and the
larger and more expensive the machine the greater
the hatred Nothing pleases you more than news
paper item the effect that automobile hasbeen
organize ynching party. You full of sym
pathy for the horse and bemoan the fact that it is
being crowded from the face of the earth after hav-
ing served mankind faithfully and we'll for all the
centuries.
The virus has commenced to work and it is now
only question of time On your day off you get
seat where you can see the automobiles pass and
them individually and collectively. You live
in hope that tire will burst cylinder blow out or
some other accident happen right in front of you so
you can goat You talk to your neighbors about the
reckessness of automobiles and predict that unless
something is done vigilance committees will be
organized.
A favorite spot for those persons who are in the
first stages along the drive of Golden Gate park
Go there any pleasant Sunday and you will feel the
hatred toward automobiles and their in the
very air They not anarchists, but they are ord-
nary persons with fair incomes, and they don't know
that this feeling is just the beginning of the lure
You may be the president of of those auto
mobile haters' clubs which hold their meetings in
of the drives in Golden Gate park and you may
lead in the denuncation of those machines and
the responsible for the gasoline laden atnos-
phere. And then who owns an auto
mobile will ask you to take ride, and that puts
you in the second stage of the lure.
THE FIRST RIDE
That ride is not going make any difference in
your attitude you to yourself but it may enable
you to obtain arguments against auto
mobiles. you accept the invitation You hate to
acknowledge il, but there is very pleasant
tion and by the time you have arrived at the place
where your club holds its meeting your aspect
toward automobiles has changed
Ahl My good people, fear we have been mis-
TAKEN, you feel like saying TO your old comrades !.
among the Haters. Believe me- this riding in auto
mobiles is bad. OF course, it is rich mans
toy but it has the merit of keeping the owners in
the fresh air, and if used in proper way can
no harm in it
and magazine advertisements read with the great
est interest, and you become familiar with range
of speed toy tonneau wheel base, demountable
tires, spark plugs, carbureor and fuel economizers
You know all the advantages the manufacturers
claim for each machine, and you know the prices
and the qualities of all styles.
For long time you do not say anything about
this habit of reading automobile advertisements and
finally you take in your confidence. You ,
begin to visit the salesrooms and start collection of
catalogues. You have not reached the stage yet
where you ask for demonstration. for you know
that you can not afford machine and you too
honest TO graft ride.
You continue to spend your holidays where you
procession of automobiles go by, but you
not wishing them any harm. You are filed with
envy, and this is where the lure may do little good
1t may spur you TO greater endeavor and increase
your earning capacity with the incentive that some
day you will have automobile of your own
As you watch the automobiles go by you learn to
pick out the many different makes, and you can not
only tell the foreign but distinguish the Z
many different makes of this country You pick
this sweet running and another as "a
good hill climber" and you watch the good points
and the bad points of all kinds This age may last
six months and may continue for two years 1t is
perhaps the agreeable OF ALL for there
none of the hatred that warped your soul when you
set against automobiles and there is none of
the worry that you viii have later when you sue
cumb
You have been talking this automobile question
with your wife and while at first She did not