The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1917-02-15

ABOUT tWelNc oSS Wv ''9
horseless carriage in Minot was lit
tie snuff-box which looked, and was,
more of cheap motor cycle, on four
wheels, than an automobile.
AT that time, while maintaining a
voting residence in Kenmare, spent
considerable time in Minneapolis,
among friends who were more or less
successful financially, and who had
Just begun that long siege OF automo-
bile fever, the run of which the dag
nosticians have not yet been able to
determine.
Being bit adept in complimenting
the owners of cars for their astound-
ing skill and cleverness in avoiding
such objects as ventured in the way,
had become frequent passenger, and
thus had picked up, and em'bellished
my conversation with the new patter
and jargon of the road. Consequent
ly, when friend and brother at MI
not determined upon the purchase OF
an automobile, was called into con-
sultation, as an expert, and belng
then quite young, | came and advised:
The "snuff-box" lat five hundred
dollars, or at any other figure, second
that was the only prospect then in
Minot, what more natural than that l
90 to Minneapolis and pick up one at
bargain; As l look back at it now,
the feeling | had then, was one of
supreme confidence in what intended
to accomplish; and as l volunteered
to pay my own expenses, the PROPOSE
ton was accepted.
When my Minneapolis friends dis
covered that I was in the city, this
time for definite object, other than
merely boarding around on them,
there was quite feverish stir around
Schiek's big round table that noon
meal. l entertained, with some
haughtiness of mein, several million
suggestions as how to go about the
bargain purchase and what to look for
in real, up to the minute, one cyl
inder "boat." Yes, as early as that,
some wag had attached that rather
blase name to the latest mode OF
spending money, and | am told, even
vet novices occasionally use the term.
By dint of my own cleverness in
shaking the would-be shopping horde,
I brought up at the garage; though no
one in America then, knew how to
pronounce the word, nor do they yet.
The clerk had on display, on an old
show case, gathering of cog wheels,
more or less meshed, in a circular
iron box, and which he called the
transmission; and further he called it
the most complete and effective trans
mission that had ever been devised.
He spun it around with his fingers to
prove his assertion, and as it did not
break or anything, and appeared to
me to be quite complete and effective,
I looked at him with what intended
as a direct, keen, knowing gaze, and
nodded my head affirmatively, where
upon we passed to the next demon
stration; displaying what this same
transmission, or one exactly like it,
would accomplish when harnessed to
a powerful gasoline engine.
We moved to the back room for
this. The room was about twenty-five
feet over all, and consisted of &C.
ment floor, three brick walls, glass
wall partition dividing it from the Of
flee, and three automobiles; two per-
fectly new, and one with gasoline in
it which he called the demonstration.
He said it had been used several times
for demonstrating purposes, in this
same room, though never yet having
been exposed to public view on the
street, except once, when the boss had
driven it to the postoffice during a
street car blockade.
On the outside of this car, and to
the right, leading from the drivers
seat to some place underneath, was a
long handle, which, he explained,
when moved forward engaged the
transmission in high gear, and when
brought sharply to the rear, backed
the car up A foot lever, if pushed
forward hard enough, and maintained
in that position with the foot, and all
Ehe leg and back muscles one had,
would cause the car to travel forward
in low. This, it seemed, was all ac-
complished by this wonderful trans
mission, and which he was about to
show could not be broken, and which
means for stopping quickly and back
like cow or telephone post, before
one could be bitten.
I must have succeeded in looking
quite skeptical for, with some warmth,
I thought, he hunted up crank from
some place, showed it through hole
in the side of the car, started the en-
CINE, got up on the seat and, with the
car headed directly for the glass par
tition, was about to engage the trans
mission in it's business of showing off
when, by gesticulating wildly with all
of my arms, and legs, and lungs, I
succeeded in dissuading him, that is in
so far as the direction of effort was
commemorative man was only clerk,
no knowing on whom the boss might
lay the damage. But he seemed to be
quite mad with the determination to
forever wipe that sneering, and as l
hoped it looked, superior expression
from my face, and so, with a sort Of
aondescending compromise, he headed
for one of the brick walls; and after
wards was glad
He did accomplish, to some extent
however, what he said. First he drove
with all the ferocity of his makeup,
and some five horsepower, directly at
the wall in front of him, only to crash
in his reverse ere he was dashed to
pieces. backed rapidly toward the wall
to his rear, but just before reaching it
no iarnnoei in his low forward bring