RURAL NEW-YORKER 
425 
Choosing Our Car 
Most men, it seems to me. choose a 
car about as they would a wife, chieily 
for looks, but I have never believed that 
iiny ordinary man can see far enough 
beneath a coat of paint to make this 
method safe in either case. 8o, know¬ 
ing that the day- would inevitably come 
when I shouhl cast all the thrifty 
maxims of Ken Fi-ankliu, and the warnings 
of my true friends, aside, and invest 
the hard-saved earnings of a lifetime in 
a rattle, a streak and a repair bill. I de¬ 
termined to go about it scientilically. I 
determined to master the true inward- 
iiess of a car and to make myself pro¬ 
ficient in the use of such terms as 
chassis, dilf«'rential, irreversible and 
helical—the latter not being profanity 
but just descriptive of what in saw mill 
language is calh'd a cog whetd. Whim a 
in.'in gets so that he can use these words 
in ordinary conversation without ap¬ 
pearing self-conscious he ipialities as an 
maneutly by just buying a car of him— 
if you pay for it when you buy it, I 
mean. 
■ The catalogues are certainly a great 
help in buying a car. I have a stack 
of them under my desk that must have 
cost a lot of money. They are the pret- 
tie.st things and the language almost 
makes you drool, l^hakespeare had noth¬ 
ing on the writer of an automobile <ata- 
logue. Looking at an automobile cata¬ 
logue puts you into a kind of traiu'e. 
You lie back in your Morris chair while 
the drowsy hum itf the almost noiseless 
(see catalogue) motor lulLs you to 
sleep. Green lields glide by and the 
magic of gasoline wafts you over the 
hills, through village streets and ticross 
the flowering lea (see oitalogueL You 
iire billowed in the lap of long coiled 
springs, scientificiilly adjusted to your 
weight (refer to catalogue) and you 
rest on real curled hair (of veger.able 
This Picture Shows Five Generations Sitting in the Family Car. There are Mrs. M. J. Clark and Her 
Father, Mr. Lucius Purdy. With Them is the Granduncle, Martin Purdy. Sitting Beside Mrs. Clark is her 
Son Harvey and in Front of the Wheel is her Grandson, Noble Clark. This is a remarkable family group 
Mr. Martin Purdy can no doubt Well Remember When an Ox Team Provided the Motor Power for all 
the Public Roads, and He Must Have Strange Thoughts Sometimes When Whirling Through the Same 
Territory in his Car. 
Flour 
Facts 
No one, anywhere, can buy 
better Pillsbury’s Best flour than 
you can buy. 
expert, luid an expert i.s what I set out 
to be. 
I knew, of cour.si', (hat iii choosing a 
car a man can always depend upon hi.s 
friends to point out the deplorable 
Munders he would make if left to his 
own judgment. Let him but mentiou 
(hat he i.s seriously considering the juir- 
ehase of a eertnin ear and a look of 
mingled eommiseration and pity spr‘“ads 
over (he face of each man within hear¬ 
ing. That ear; why. that’s a piece, of 
till junk! It’s so weak in the mid-rih 
that the brakes can’t be apidied without 
buckling the frame, and tlie makers de- 
jieiid upon the last coat of varnish to 
iiold it together until it leaves the shop. 
You know tlie ear I ri'fer to ; it’s the one 
you had intended to buy before you in¬ 
cautiously mentioned it to some of your 
friends. You may ask advice about the 
purchase of your first car, but your sec¬ 
ond will be cho.sen in .secret and brought 
home in (lie night. 
A mail’s wife is of little help in 
.selecting a car. Mine always assumed a 
puzzled look whim I talked about high 
tension magneto ignition, and she could 
never see how a rear axle (“ould float; 
they were made of iron, weren’t they? 
To a woman, anything that isn’t made 
fif cloth or wood i.s made of iron. It's 
no ii.se to talk to them about double 
heat treated chrome nickel steel; they 
don’t understand such things. And, be¬ 
sides, they lay too much stress upon 
mere appearance. My wife has always 
said that when we got a car it should 
be painted gray and have red wheels. 
Never! I have no use for rod wheels. 
They are all right on the ehildren’.s 
(’hristmas toys and such things, but they 
have no place on a vehicle with a 
serious purpo.se in life. And I object to 
gray because of its low visibility; low 
visibility has always been the outstand¬ 
ing fault of my ear. No, I had long ago 
determined that our ear should he a 
light cobalt blui* with yellow running 
gear; that’s my kind of car. 
Automobile agents doubtless mean 
well but they are of no help in thi' selec¬ 
tion of a car. I have a friend who is 
an automobile agent; in fact, all auto¬ 
mobile agents are my friends. 1 often 
wonder how’ the manufacturers manage 
to lind sueli a friendly lot of men for 
agents. All (be automobile agents for 
miles around kiio\,’ me and there isn’t 
one of them from whom I should 'hesi¬ 
tate to borrow ten dollars at an.v time. 
Kut agents confuse oii(‘, after all. The.v 
arim’t saying anything to knock another 
man's car, of course. 'J'hey wouldn’t do 
that, but they saw somidhiug in a re¬ 
pair slioj) tlie other day that—well, if 
you liad seen it, you would have changed 
your mind about that ear. 
Automobile agents are persi.stent, but 
you (lou’t mind persistency in an agent 
who is ahvays willing to demonstrate 
his car for_ you and, he.sides, you can 
rid yourself of any one of them jier- 
origin). Ihuieath your air shod wheels 
(almost original) the miles melt away 
as mists break before the morning sun. 
Some w'ho have motored a good deal tell 
me that thei-e is more to it than this, 
hut there are just such kill-joys every¬ 
where. 
From what I have told you, you will 
realize that I made no mistake when I 
selected my ear. Seientitif! selection 
heats the old Darwinian method all hol¬ 
low. When my ear is paid for—what's 
that—it’ll be worn out’/—that’s just all 
you know’ about it. I am going to take 
good care of that car, 1 am. It ain’t 
going to be driven over all kinds of 
roads and througli mud, and everything. 
A good car, properly cared for, will last 
indefinitely. The trouble with most peo¬ 
ple is that they never try to find out 
how long a car will last; thej’’d rather 
l(‘t the other fellow’. Some do find out, 
accidentally of course, and I gue.ss it 
serves ’em right; there’s too much joy 
riding going on. 
. No, I am not going to tidl you the 
name of my ear. I don’t ^mind giving 
other people the benefit of my expert 
advice, but I am not going to insert free 
advertising here for people w'ho have 
already got_ about all the money that 
there w’as in circulation. They’ve got 
mine, and, if they haven’t yours, they 
.soon w’ill have. I will .say, how’ever, 
that if you hapjien to be looking out of 
the w’iiidow’ some da.v and see a gray 
ear, with red wheels, going by, that’s 
lii’obahly n.s. That’s the color of our 
M. 15. I). 
Pillsbury^s Best is always the 
same—always Pillsbury’s Best— 
everywhere — 
all the time— 
at the grandest grocery— 
or at the crossroads store. 
More people, every day, are 
finding this to be true. 
The Flour Question Settled 
‘‘Because 
Pillsbury’s Best” 
The Selfish Car Driver 
The article by W. E. Duckwall, page 
l.SS, i.s the most selfish and unrea.sonable 
I ever read. If stopping and starting 
the car is so expensive, so hard on bi'akes, 
tires, gears and tlie whole car, then sad¬ 
ly have our mechanics and inventor.s 
failed on this, the most imjiortant 
of machines, and you will not find many 
maniifaeturers who will agree with Mr. 
Duckwall. “Peojile,” thousands of peo- 
Jile, drivers themselves, do stop and ex- 
jieet others to stop. No, I for one eaii- 
not agree that just because the driver 
must finish the hill on low speed, he 
sliould not [lick up a pedestrian, and as 
to passing the disabled car, that reminds 
me of an incident that happened a few 
w’ceks ago. I was with a neiglihor, and 
w'e had a blow'-out. His wrench was 
niissing and we w’ei’o in bad shaiie. A 
big ear came uji and increased speed 
when they ,saw’ us in trouble; we lyb- 
tallied a wreiieh from a hou.se not far 
ofl, and got home to find the very ear 
th,it had passed u.s, stalled be.side my 
house. I could not resist telling those 
people, after 1 liad helped them out of 
trouble, that I hojied next time they .saw 
others in troulile they would he a' little 
more considerate. I think thi-y will, 
as.sai.’husett.s. i’au.so.vs 
Send 10c for a copy of the famous Pillsbury Cook Book. Address Dept. F2B 
Pillsbury Flour Mills Company, Minneapolis, Minn. 
At Th^Gi^andest Grocery 
It 'I 
