AUTOMOBILE NOTES 



321 



shop has come to have a pretty bad name, 

 and its chances of going down in history 

 in the same group with the Spanish Inquisi- 

 tion and other worthy institutions seems ex- 

 cellent. . One automobilist described a gar- 

 age r ither cleverly when he called it "an es- 

 tablishment operated by relatives of Ananias 

 and Beelzebub." 



SELECT A GOOD GARAGE. 

 There is no doubt that there are many 

 unscrupulous and incompetent repair men 

 who cheerfully offer to complete all kinds of 

 automobile repair work in record time, but, 

 on the other hand, there are a great many re- 

 liable and trustworthy garages where high- 

 class work is done at reasonable prices, and 

 there is no doubt that much of the complaint 

 which automobile owners make is entirely 

 their own fault. They don't give the garage 

 people any time to make repairs, and it never 

 seems to occur to them to ask for bids on 

 the work so that when they get their bill 

 they set up a howl of "Robber," and another 

 black mark is put down against the much- 

 abused automobile repair man. 



and inconvenience of running it on a different 

 day from the Gordon Bennett, and although 

 a mighty interesting race is thus lost, the 

 Gordon Bennett will continue to take pre- 

 cedence over all other automobile events, in- 

 ternational or otherwise. At one time it 

 looked as if the Grand Prix would diminish 

 the importance of the Gordon Bennett, but an 

 almost universal protest from the various 

 automobile clubs caused the French club to 

 relinquish their original proposition to hold 

 both races on the same day and at the same 

 time. To my mind the attitude of the French 

 club has been excellent throughout. The 

 same cannot be said of the automobile clubs 

 of England and Germany, who set up a 

 veritable howl when the project was first 

 made known, or at least some time after it 

 was made known. No one seemed to pay 

 much attention to the proposition when it was 

 first made, but when the agitation was finally 

 put under way, there was no end of trouble 

 and complaining. 



Three cars will represent America in the 

 Gordon Bennett race. Two Pope-Toledos 

 and a Locomobile. The elimination trials 

 will be held at Ormond Beach next month. 



A PACEMAKERS HIGHWAY. 



In every city of size there are good es- 

 tablishments, and the big manufacturers make 

 it a point to see that they are properly rep- 

 resented wherever possible, and that not 

 only the sale of their cars but the repairs on 

 the same are in the hands of intelligent and 

 honest representatives. 



NO GRAND PRIX. 



It has finally been decided that there will 

 be no Grand Prix in France this year. The 

 Gordon Bennett race will be run alone in 

 all its glory. 



Undoubtedly the important cause of the 

 abandonment of the new race was the cost 



TOO MUCH DUST. 



The general concensus of opinion seems to 

 be that the great body of automobilists drive 

 their machines conservatively and sanely ; 

 do not break the laws wantonly ; and are 

 good members of society, even though they 

 do happen to own automobiles. Further than 

 this, that the actions of a very few reckless 

 automobolists are responsible for the feeling 

 adverse to the sport which manifests itself 

 in fool automobile bills. 



This doesn't seem to me to be the case 

 at all. Last summer was a big touring car 

 year. At least there was more touring done 

 than ever before, and the cars were larger, 

 more powerful, and greater in number. 



