EDITORIAL. 
547 
vast prairies of the unpeopled western deserts, their hearts 
failed them and they wisely abandoned the Quixotic project at 
Cleveland, Ohio. The inspirator of the farce, however, did not 
have sufficient courtesy or courage to announce the discontinu¬ 
ance of the scheme, and the public were left in ignorance of the 
fate of the martyrs. To many, no doubt, the announcement 
here made will be their first knowledge of the outcome of the 
attempt. 
And what has become of the auto-truck syndicate that would 
“ in a very short time have three hundred in active operation in 
the streets of New York”? Where are all the truckmen whose 
business this syndicate bought up, in order that the poor horse¬ 
men might not be left out in the cold altogether ? Where are 
the various companies incorporated with capitals ranging from 
$10,000,000 to $100,000,000, whose factories were already estab¬ 
lished and who could not turn out the orders fast enough ? If 
tliev are turning out automobiles so rapidy where are the ma¬ 
chines going ? The only place that we can see is that they are 
going out of use. For every six that bumped along through the 
streets of Gotham a year or even six months ago, there is not 
one now. And the fashionable set who were said to have seized 
upon the fad at Newport last summer are sitting behind their 
gayly caparisoned equines, the only stylish turnout that there 
is. What’s the matter with the automobile? Has its power 
given out altogether, as is so frequently the case with the indi¬ 
vidual machine? And what of the Herald? Not a word for 
the automobile, and only praise for the horse. Did it think 
that it had flopped to the wrong side of the fence, and is it en¬ 
deavoring to flop back again ? 
Do the horsemen of America appreciate the fact that the 
Herald is not their friend, and are they willing to throw their dol¬ 
lars into the pockets of its Parisian publisher, who will use them 
to kite automobile stock when the times are more propitious? 
No; the automobile has seen all the popularity it will ever 
enjoy, unless inventive genius shall produce something entirely 
different from anything which has yet appeared. 
