270 



RECREATION 



sumably one-half of the visitors to the auto- 

 mobile shows this year were persons who are 

 not possessed of the means to purchase a 

 motor car, and may not ever acquire a com- 

 petence that shall make them owners, but 

 for all that they knew so much about cars 

 that they surprised the manufacturers and 

 their assistants, and Colonel Pope, speaking 

 of the future of the automobile, remarked, 

 "We have nothing to fear so long as the 

 general public takes to the motor car in this 

 manner." 



Nor did all the visitors come from New 

 York by any means. One western man, who 

 is an agent for motor cars in Cleveland, said 

 that not less than one hundred citizens in 

 that thriving manufacturing centre, had ar- 

 ranged their winter leisure so as to be in 

 New York during automobile week, in order 

 that they might see the latest models and 

 profit by the latest inventions. 



Other motor car enthusiasts were present 

 from Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Balti- 

 more, Boston, Pittsburg, in fact almost every 

 city of importance throughout the United 

 States. Therefore, the automobile show 

 must pay. Whatever is attraction enough to 

 induce humanity to travel 2,000 miles to see 

 it cannot be written a failure even in these 

 days of large exhibitive enterprises. The 

 manufacturer must have learned that there is 

 profit to be gained by being represented at 

 the show, or he would quickly withdraw and 

 omit the expense to which he is put by pub- 

 licly putting his wares before the public of a 

 nation for critical examination in immediate 

 comparison with others. 



No radical departures in models or con- 

 struction were shown in either the Garden 

 or the Armory. More and more the Ameri- 

 can manufacturers are conforming to the de- 

 signs of the foreign machines in style, and 

 not a few of them have quite equalled their 

 strongest competitors in the symmetry of 

 their cars and the grade of their outlines. 



The general tendency this season is fo 

 lengthen the bases and here and there Ameri- 

 can ingenuity in mechanics has improved on 

 the devices which have to do directly with 

 the operation of the cars. It was particularly 

 noticeable that all machines equipped with the 

 direct starter — eliminating the crank — at- 

 tracted earnest attention. The avoidance of 

 cranking appeals to every motorist who real- 

 izes its awkwardness. Furthermore, the 

 crank has had its disadvantages in the past 

 owing to the "kick back" in which many a 

 staid machine has indulged to the unex- 

 pected annoyance of the owner. It seems 

 only a question of time before the crank will 

 have become a thing of the past, and the car 

 will be in complete control of the driver from 

 the seat of the machine. 



Take the exhibits of the shows as a whole 

 this season and it may be said truthfully that 

 they established a standard for evolution in 

 higher finish and general luxury. The suc- 



cessful operation of motor cars is now a 

 settled fact. That being conceded, builders 

 have devoted their energies to improving 

 them with a hundred and one accessories 

 which add to their general convenience. 



As an instance, the Decauville people but 

 recently shipped to a wealthy fruit grower in 

 the West a car built to suit his necessities in 

 traveling from one portion of his large es- 

 tate to another. The interior is equipped 

 with a desk, a press for clothing, and a half 

 dozen other traveling necessities which al- 

 most render it a hotel on wheels. It needed 

 but a small grill to make the owner inde- 

 pendent of weather and distance. 



Cars were shown at the New York shows 

 which were provided with the little things 

 for personal comfort in which femininity de- 

 lights, and over these the women visitors 

 lingered with longing eyes. There is nothing 

 which the gentler sex better likes in traveling 

 than to have immediately at hand those little 

 adjuncts which permit women to look ever 

 at their best, no matter how tedious or how 

 fatiguing a journey may have been, and when 

 a woman feels that she can step from her 

 car with the traces of travel quite obliterated, 

 fortunate the builder who has provided for 

 her comfort, for he has won a most faithful 

 ally. 



A general estimate placed the number of 

 visitors at the shows in New York at 175,- 

 000. These paid admissions. There were 

 hundreds of others whose claims from a 

 business standpoint eliminated the necessity 

 of admission. But they were a part of the 

 displays nevertheless. 



A careful and conservative estimate, made 

 by a man who is competent to form such a 

 conclusion, is that at least $5,000,000 worth 

 of cars were contracted for during the week 

 of the shows in New York. Of this amount 

 perhaps three-fourths was for cars which 

 were sold in the Garden. The foreign agents 

 in that show were particularly happy at the 

 outcome of their week's transactions. 



Twenty of the exhibitors in the Garden, 

 and fully half as many in the Armory, dis- 

 posed of their entire outputs for 1906 to deal- 

 ers and agents. This, of course, is in excess 

 of the presumable actual cash sales which 

 were noted above. What more striking ar- 

 gument could be adduced for the success of 

 the automobile show, which has grown to 

 such a wonderful trade market for the dis- 

 posal of goods? 



It is true that the present immediate de- 

 mand for cars is strong because their util- 

 ity has been demonstrated and their con- 

 venience has impressed itself upon the 

 wealthier classes of the public which can af- 

 ford to purchase them. But that it is strong 

 to the verge of creating an unnatural de- 

 mand is a question which is not to be ans- 

 wered in a hurry. 



There are some manufacturers who try to 

 apply the lesson of the bicycle to the auto- 



