Apr. 1, 1912 



The first thing that we had to decide, after 

 we concluded to buy a machine was what 

 size and what make we would get. I have 

 a large family; and as we wanted a car for 

 pleasure-riding more than any thing else, 

 we decided we would get a five-passenger 

 touring car so that we could take as many 

 as seven persons at a time if some of them 

 were children. We knew that we would 

 have to have plenty of room, so we began 

 to look for a machine having a long wheel- 

 base and one with a roomy body. We knew 

 such a car would cost us between $1600 and 

 $2000 — a lot of money to put into a thing 

 just to ride in; but we had the fever pretty 

 bad, and we wanted to cure it, even if it did 

 take $2000. 



I had a son in Indianapolis who had gone 

 to the Indiana Automobile College, and 

 who was driving a machine in the city at 

 that time. I thought his judgment would 

 be worth considering, so I went to see him 

 to look for a car that would suit us, and al- 

 so to get his advice as to what make was the 

 best and cheapest for the money. Indian- 

 apolis is a great distributing center for auto- 

 mobiles. One can find any thing in this 

 line from $350 to $6000. (I thought one 

 costing less than $6000 would do for us.) At 

 first we looked at some second-hand cars, as 

 I thought we might find one that would 

 suit us that we could buy cheap, and that 

 would be good enough for a poor man and 

 his family. I found that we were mistaken 

 in this, however, so we turned our attention 

 to the new machines. It would take too 



199 



much time to tell all the kinds and makes 

 we looked at. I will only say that when we 

 investigated the Cadillac we thought we had 

 found just the car we had been looking for 

 —one that was built right, was strong and 

 very roomy — one that I would not be asham- 

 ed to drive any place in any city. I finally 

 bought the machine, and the agent drove it 

 home for me, as I had never had hold of a 

 steering-wheel in my life. 



The distance from Indianapolis to my 

 home is 71 miles, and we made the trip in 

 three hours and five minutes. That was 

 not very fast, to be sure; but it was fast 

 enough. I don't like fast driving. It is 

 dangerous, and one can not see the country. 

 The Cadillac weighs, when empty, 3100 lbs.; 

 but for comfort and easy riding, a rather 

 heavy car, and one having a long wheel 

 base, is the best, for it will not bounce along 

 and bump like a western bronco, which a 

 short machine often does. Of course the 

 real reason why I bought a Cadillac was be- 

 cause I liked it best. It just suited me so 

 far as size was concerned, and I think it is 

 the best car that is made and sold at the 

 price — better, in fact, than many that sell 

 for several hundred dollars more. 



The Cadillac has three forward speeds, and 

 I have never yet found a hill that I could 

 not pull on the intermediate or second speed, 

 even with a full load of five passengers. Be- 

 sides, there are a great many other good 

 features that I will merely mention. For 

 instance, the metal trimmings are all nickel 

 instead of brass. The nickel looks much 



Chase motor truck, used by James Peterson, of Corning-, Cal., for hauling bees. 



