The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-05-05
TUE WORLD ON WHEELS.

AZ the time OF the Spanish War the automo-
bile was d curiosity. Even in New York, the
occasional two-seated runabout that whisked
noisily mp Firth Avenue in front of a stream of
gasoline smoke caused the throngs on the side
walks 10 stop aud turn wonderingly to stare
The first taxieabs We're giraffe and unccr-
tain of reaching their destinations as the first
sailing vessels that started transatlantic pas
sage We do not know the date of the first
automobile in Richmond, but may still be
very young and Brtf TCmembrr me distraction
OF that moment
To-day, there are over seven hundred auto
mobiles in use in tfafs community afons TREY
range in type from the ten thousand dollar lim-
ous.Se, the eighty horsepower touring car. to
the dimnutipe run-a- bout, the dainty electric.
They are used for pleasure and for business.
Great trucks pull loads up heavy grades with
-e~r tir;tt=i:t:iut- mules and many horses would
formerly have failed to transport The auto
mobile is a business and a commercial, as wei
as social factor in The lite of every American
tCity.
This development Of novel invention from
the state of the toy to that of the necessity is
natural il wonderful 1t is in the manner of
every great idea which Is given to The world.
There is vision, principle practice There is
improvement Development. adaptability. Tn
der all lies economy, which is wealth and pro-
gTess: economy Of dollars, 81 Tine, 0f produc-
ton, Every business man who has TO move
about charges up his automobile expense to the
rpkeep Of his business His own time is dou-
ted and trebed in value, because with the mo-
torcar he can make his time work for him over
time. The professional man, as the doctor,
finds his power of accomplishment his circle of
usefulness wonderfully enlarged by the age of
gasoline The manufacturer. the shopkeeper,
every man who must deliver goods or transport
them, every business that must figure on the
load, looks to the motor TO solve the twin prob
l~s,ia gf erououty of operettea a#d speed OF &c
eomplishment. From a plaything of the rich.
the automobile has within the decade advanced
to the position OF irst-aid to the ambitious and
most willing servant Of the Industrious Its
factories dot the country. lis markets are
Worldwide In scope The army of its me-
chanics, its statesmen. it's designers, and ex-
perts, and inventors has come TO mean one Of
the most p5werful and useful 81 Industrial fac
tors. In a wonderfully short time, the horse
has taken second place as beast of burden; the
time is not far distant when even the farms
viii use him but scantily. when the fad of the
late nineties will be the almost universal ne
cessity and when the reliance of man through
the ages will hold scarcely more than poetic
llaee in life as an old-fashioned luxury.
So moves the world. Steamboat and steam
engine; telegraph. and cable, and telephone;
electric light, talking machine. moving pic
ture~ wireless and flying machines, all these
things were the interesting freaks of ingenu-
Ivy that came 10 rVolutonze the world At
present humanity is being motored about its
work: presently IT may be flying to 1t; after
while, ii may learn TO move by taking the deep
thought OF motion Practical and necessary
an the automobile has become to daily ife"the
eAl ersalty OF its use in the infancy Of its his
tory excuses almost any sort OF a speculation as
60 what may happen next.