Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1909-03-19
RIGHTS and Courte sizes of the Road.
BY FRANK S. BILLINGS, NJ. D.


GConcluded from last week
If not more than ten per cent. of horse
users are really competent to drive
horses, can more be claimed for those
using automobiles? Competence means
observation-disclosures in emergency. Such
persons are scarce in all callings of life
liable to be so complicated. In point of
fact far more competency is demanded
of the horseuser in an emergency on
account of the material he has to do
with, than should be necessary in auto
mobilists if the machines are as control
able as claimed.
The chauffeur seems to be product
illustrating the saying that anything
will do in an emergency" Certainly
they belong to the geological species
"innomonata." He is far behind the
professional coachman in manners, in
telligence, pride and neatness, where he
can be neat. Did any one ever see
professional coachman huddled up in a
heap on his box, chewing tobacco and
squirting juice in every directions, or
smoking, while waiting for his people?
Such things are so common with chauf-
feurs that the exception is an agreeable
sight
To quote again the lines we began with,
keep to the right with God and His
might
For such is the law of the road"
Automobiles certainly do seem to be-
long to the unchurched, for they appar-
emily have no fear of either "God or His
might" from the way they defy the law.
The people, sef-evidently, cannot be
children of God for they lack His
might" to maintain their right to an
equal, free and safe use of the roads.
AS merchant ships were once driven off
many parts of the seas by pirates, so are
the people forced off the roads by auto
mobiists. The law gives the people the
same right to the roads as it does auto
mobilists, but if the people cannot use
the roads with equal freedom and safety
have they not been forced out of their
constitutional rights? The city press is
replete in tho evils worked by horse
users on automobilists, while suburban,
rural and agricultural editors, like hedge
hogs, have gone into their holes for fear
of storm.
AS said gentleman is one SO consid-
crate Of the rights of others as not to
wilfully excite disregard" of his own
nj hut Tho hr,tt &c
only proves the law. In all my driving
on the roads, which now exceeds that OF
most men, the roaddriver having been
consigned to innocuous desuetude. oil
speedways, by automobilists, memory
recalls but very few perfect gentlemen
in automobiles. I've been run into
driven into cutters, myself, ladies anC
horses covered with mud by passing
automobilists. I've seen them laugh il
derision when their speed and meannes
caused horses to shy to a dangerous de
gree, and if one turns out for safety t
an undue degree, which any one of sens
would take to mean caution, the average
automobilst keeps to the middle of
OU-IOOl ROAD anu sldCkenS up not DIT
One thing the advent of the automobile
has taught observant people is that tn
manners of the drawing-room seldom
find place in an automobile on the road
Gentlemen of the road of today are ia
below the higbwaymen of romance
Claude du Val would be ashamed of sucl
companions.
WHERE THE TROUBLE IS.
On the question of rights the troubl
always is where the weakness is. Whe
the weakness is where the might" lie
dormant, then develops the greatest tyI
amy from minority or a class. Th
automobilists break the law and defy tn
people because of the apathetic indffel
ence of the people to their own rights
While the power lies in the people the
have 80 degenerated as to be ignorant {
their might. We are undeserving of tn
birthright our fathers sanctified in the
blood. We are no longer a free and il