388 
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The country dweller does not need a chauffeur; he may run his own car 
senger runabout. Someone has said there is as much reason 
to use a fifty or sixty horse-power motor car to carry two 
passengers as there is to use a ten-ton hammer to drive a 
tack. It might seem that this were too obvious a matter to 
refer to, nevertheless so many mistakes are made in the 
choice of motor cars that a word here apropos of the sub- 
ject may not come amiss. 
Let us suppose that a family of moderate size plans to in- 
vest in an automobile of some sort. It is presupposed, of 
course, that the members of the family whose part it shall 
be to run the car are blessed with sufficient patience to learn 
the preliminary steps in the knowledge of motoring, and 
that being prepared to invest from $500 and upward in an 
automobile, the conclusion should not be jumped at that this 
will be the only expense entailed in connection with motoring 
thereafter; one must plan for the up-keep of an automobile 
as he would plan for the up-keep of a horse and carriage. 
Before the country dweller decides upon a car, it is sup- 
posed that in all probability he will have visited various auto- 
mobile shows and the selling ofhces along the motor car 
row of his nearest town, and that he will have supplied him- 
self with the catalogues and literature issued by the various 
makers of such vehicles. Friends will probably have been 
solicitous and have confused the prospective purchaser with 
a variety of conflicting suggestions, and one may imagine 
that many evenings will have been spent studying intricate 
diagrams, learning the meaning of technical terms, and 
otherwise trying to gain a preliminary working knowledge 
of automobile mysteries, inasmuch as the enthusiasm of the 
motorist-in-embryo grows apace with every hour he spends 
contemplating the happy day to come when the car he wants 
will have become his. 
A car which would answer every one of the demands 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
November, 1911 
made upon it by the average country dweller might, per- 
haps, be found in a two-passenger, single-cylinder runabout 
of possibly twenty to twenty-four horse-power. ‘This is the 
sort of car which can be operated by the women of the 
family easily. Being designed for light use and moderate 
speed, it could hardly be expected to carry a very great load, 
but a car of this sort can be depended upon to carry two or 
three people at a speed of thirty to forty miles an hour 
without taxing its mechanism unduly, which is a rate of speed 
that should be equal to almost any of the demands that even 
rouga roads or hill-climbing might make upon it. Usually 
the mechanism of a small car is less complicated than that 
of a larger one, and therefore presents fewer difficulties in 
the beginning to the amateur country automobilist, who is 
apt, on coming into possession of an automobile, to be some- 
what puzzled and dazed at the prospect of obstacles to be 
overcome, of which he has read and has been told, but 
which, fortunately, are, at least the most of them, wholly 
imaginary, ordinary intelligence and carefulness being the 
prime requisite to running one’s own motor car successfully. 
If a somewhat larger automobile is required by the coun- 
try dweller, one would suggest a twenty-four or thirty horse- 
power touring car. One of this sort will accommodate four 
or more passengers, and its engines will be found a suf- 
ficient power to drive the car at a speed of from forty to 
sixty miles an hour, equal to hill-climbing and the rougher 
roads apt to be met with anywhere and any ground short of 
mountain and swamp. However, it must be remembered 
that the heavier the car the greater the expense of its main- 
tenance, the wear on the tires being much heavier, and 
more power, whether electric or otherwise, is required to 
drive the machine forward. This is a matter for considera- 
tion with the country dweller of moderate means. 
Every runabout or touring car should, of course, be pro- 
vided with accessories as ample as one’s circumstances will 
permit, and particularly with adjustable top covers if open 
cars are the ones that have been selected, the cover saving 
many a scorching or drenching from excess of summer heat 
or sudden shower. If all the motor. car accessories one 
would wish to have cannot be purchased in the beginning, 
the country dweller who buys a car will find himself taking 
a certain pleasure in adding to his automobile equipment 
from time to time. Indeed, the advent of the automobile 
has helped to solve many of the ‘‘what-to-give-for-Christ- 
mas” problems that so often confront the family before 
the arrival of the festive day. 
In selecting an automobile, the prospective owner should 
examine the workings of both electric and gasoline cars. 
Both motor cars have their warm supporters, and both their 
merits. When once the country dweller has made a pre- 
liminary study of the problem, he can then decide more in- 
telligently the sort of automobile that will be best suited to 
his specific purposes. 
As to the matter of tires, this is one which has puzzled 
automobilists from the beginning and may baflle ingenuity 
for some time to come, as no one has yet invented a pneu- 
matic tire that can be said to be absolutely puncture proof. 
An automobile tire is made of numerous layers of rubber, 
canvas, and other materials welded and cemented together 
with wonderful skill, the idea being to produce a tire which 
shall be flexible enough to absorb the shocks caused by the 
motion of the car, and yet of sufficient power reasonably to 
be secure against puncture. There must be considerable 
space within the tire for the air which is forced into it by 
pumping, and as the tire itself is necessarily of considerable 
thickness, the wheel is apt to present the somewhat bulky or 
clumsy appearance to which so many have objected on purely 
aesthetic grounds. If one cannot obtain a tire that is abso- 
lutely puncture proof, at least a tire may be selected which 
is best adapted to the roads over which it is to travel, and it 
