The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-03-11

but this is the life for me-" Driving
an automobile is a sort of contagion.
1t flies about like the kissing bug or
the Influenza and when it once reaches
a neighborhood it is terribly catching
Motoring has taken a strong hold on
the farmers of Kenosha county, There
| was time when the name of farmer
implied man with high top boots who
went to work at three o'clock in the
morning and finished up his daily toll
about the time the lights were lit for
the evening, but that sort of farmer
has disappeared from Kenosha county
Bumper crops and good roads have
brought new type. The farmer of
Kenosha county today is the man who
is happy in the enjoyment of life. He is
lfhe man who is buying the automobiles
and putting them into use to make
farming more profitable. The high top
boots and the old straw hat have been
relegated to the attic of the farm
house and in their place have come the
automobile goggles and the nifty
gloves worn by the man who holds a
| steering wheel. The farmer may be
| up just as early as he used to be, but
he is out to his most distant field in
the morning with his automobile and
the time saved in getting about his
farms with the automobile has cut a
couple of hours off the number of hours
/ which go to make up days work.
There was time when the farmers of
Kenosha county looked upon the auto
mobile as thing to be dreaded
/ peril to his children and the ASSASSIN
of his chickens and small animals. He
fled into the house and gathered his
1children about him when he heard the
! '.chug, chug" far down the road but now
tere is a 'chug, chug" in nearly every
farm yard, the only difference being
that the noise is subdued by patented
muffIer.
The farmer has come to regard the
automobile not as his enemy but as his
ally in the improvement of rural com
munities. When the automobile first
| came it was regarded as a usurper on
| the roads, but now it is road build
err. Whatever opposition there was to
the automobile among people in rural
communities is disappearing. The rea-
| son for all this is that the automobile
has become a fixture in the rural com
| munity "Old Dobbin' who used to
pull the family carriage has lost his
| job and he is now working just like
/ the other horses pulling the pillow and
the family carriage has been trans
formed itno six cylinder gasoline wa
gon which takes the family of the
farmer to church and to town quicker
than "Old Dobbin" could be CURED
and hitched to the carriage in the old
days.
The automobile has done a lot to
bring the rural communities into closer
relations with the city of Kenosha.
The picture shows in Kenosha are
finding out that they have their regular
customers from the rural communities
and the successful manager of the the
atre must notify people even twenty
miles from Kenosha of the good shows
he has coming. In fact, 1t is getting
to be so easy for people on the farm
to come to the city that the people on
the farm have all the benefits of the
city without it's drawbacks. Farmers
used to object to the building of roads
on account Of the fact that the auto
mobiles from the city would use them.
Now they insist on the roads being
/ built so that the automobiles from the
county will have better routes to the
city ard to the various communities in
their own towns This big progressive
movement among the farmers has been
developed lot by the automobile. The
motor car has opened many new activi-
ties to the men and women on the farm
by bringing quick, cheap and easy
transportation for products and by saw
ing lot of time. 1t used to take
a farmer and his wife all day to come
from the western part Of kenosha
county into the city to do their trad
ing. Now they make the trip and get
their supplies and are back at the
farm in time for dinner without rush
ing a bit There may be no excuse for
the city man mortgaging his house to
buy an automobile, as to him it could
be counted as a luxury, but to the
farmer the automobile is becoming al
most as much of a necessity as his
reaper and his mower.
The automobile has done lot to de
velope the social life in rural commune
| ties in Kenosha county and it is doing
more than any other agency to make
the country life more attractive. The
question of ''How to Keep the Boys on
the Farm" like lot of other problems
is being solved by the red gasoline
/ cans.