Popular Science Monthly 



173 



T' 



How the Porto Rican Does a 

 Pushing Business 

 ^HE colored merchant of Porto Rico 

 shown in this photograph may 

 htcrally l)o said to do a "pushing 

 business," for his stock in trade as well 

 as his store itself is on wheels and is 

 pushed about by the owner. Rent 

 troubles this man not at all. If com- 

 petition becomes too great in one 

 spot he can readily seek a * new 

 location to solicit trade and he can 

 go to his customers instead of his 

 customers being obliged to come to 

 him. 



These (juaint and curious stores on 

 wheels are everywhere to be met with 

 in Porto Rico. One sees them about 

 the streets of San Juan and Ponce, in 

 the suburbs of Sanlurce and Miraniar 

 they are legion, and one meets them along 

 all the splendid automobile roads that 

 stretch across the mountains and plains 

 of the island. Even in the smallest and 

 most remote villages anfl mountain 

 towns the natives carry on their "|)ush- 

 ing business" methods. The odd custom 

 has much to recommend it aside Irom 

 its picturescjue and unusual aspects. 

 The goods within — usually confections, 

 cakes or other edibles — are carefully 

 protected from flies, insects and dust. 

 In a tropical climate this is of vast 

 importance and in a country where 

 sanitation is as strictly enforced as in 

 Porto Rico it is entirely in keeping with 

 the spirit of the people. 



Many of the stores on wheels are very 

 elaborate and ornamental, others show 

 great ingenuity in their con 

 struction while still others 

 are marvelous in their 

 (juaint architecture 

 and gaudy c(jlors. 

 Some, like the one il- 

 lustrated, are in the 

 form of mini a t u re 

 buildings, others an 

 in the shapeof steam 

 ships or war vessels; 

 others are fashioned 

 like little trolley 

 cars while .some re- 

 semble nothing on 

 the earth, in the 

 heavens above or the 

 waters beneath. 



An Air-Propelled Automobile 

 for Three Dollars 

 T an expense of three dollars 

 Meredith Coates of Kansas City, 

 Missouri, built an air-propelled automo- 

 bile which ran at a speed of twenty-two 

 miles an hour along a smooth road. The 



A^ 



While his vvili; is whcLliiit; llic baby the 

 Porto Rican is wheeling his business 



This machine can go as fast on ice as on 

 land. The only thing it can't do is fly 



engine is a five-horsepower motor-cycle 

 engine and it was bought for one dollar. 

 The propeller was made from wood at a 

 cost of another dollar and the last dollar 

 was spent in making the gas-tank, box- 

 ngs, steering-wheel, frame, 

 shafts, pulleys and belt. 

 The apparatus 

 was originally tried 

 out on a canoe and 

 then shifted to a 

 sled. The sled run- 

 ners may be seen 

 attached to the frame 

 in the accompanying 

 illustration. When 

 the ice was gone the 

 propeller mechanism 

 was transferred to 

 the cart frame. The 

 machine has all the 

 appearance of a rac- 

 ing automobile. 



