THE AUTOMOBILE 'T' HERE has recently been an 
AND THE COUNTRY J- automobile race in the West. 
Perhaps new records for speed 
were established; we did not notice. There was, however, a dif¬ 
ferent list of entrants than we remember in the automobile race 
of half a dozen years ago. Few of the familiar favorites of 
other days were there; hardly a single American car. 
That former automobile race, did the manufacturers doubt its 
value? Was a great publicity force of small avail? Perhaps 
many have a distinct recollection of those first motor races; per¬ 
haps the old prejudice that they held against the motor was gained 
that day they watched beside the race course for dawn to come. 
Along the road, searching eyes of a thousand cars blinked 
through a choking cloud of dust, casting long quivering shafts of 
white that seemed like moving strips cut in the great black back¬ 
ground of night. An astonishing sight, this stream of hurrying 
shapes ! And how they rushed ; purposeful, intent on going rather 
than the goal. It must have been noisy, but in memory the 
blended dissonances have changed into a blank of silence. We 
doubt if experiencing the sensations for the first time, anyone was 
conscious of the din. The paramount wonder was the apparently 
relentless determination of the speeding masses to hurry, hurry 
For when the forms of individuals shot into the light, instantly 
to be extinguished from sight, one saw only grim, mute faces. 
With coming daylight the crowding hordes became as strange 
as the rushing stream of cars. An odd conglomeration it was! 
The leering roisterer shouldering the richly-clad lady, the ragged, 
furtive-eyed tramp beside the fur-coated, well-fed spender. Push¬ 
ing against the fence were all order of humans, low and high, 
good and bad; the bad—as they were captured—standing out like 
highlights in the weird picture—the thief, the card sharp, the thug. 
And then the race. Out of the gray morning mist burst a fire- 
belching monster, roaring. Another, then another split the thin 
paleness and vanished instantly. Each apparition drove into the 
quivering brain like a hot spark. At last the delirium of cata¬ 
pulting forms ordered itself in one’s perception, and with the 
stronger sunlight one could make out the tearing juggernaut. 
One heard it; next instant it burst into view, two pigmy figures 
leaning tensely forward perched upon it; whoof! it was past, 
almost sucking the onlooker into the void behind it. A strange 
creature, not of this world, it was driven by a puny, staring-eyed 
goblin. 
The gallery was no longer human either. When one looked at 
the straining faces there came a haunting suggestion of the 
Roman arena. For the first time one realized how the Roman 
girl could mockingly give the signal that drove the short sword 
into the prostrate, pleading gladiator. She was there beside you, 
a New York reincarnation. 
The day grew. Someone spoke of a car plunging off the track. 
They told of two limp figures sprawled foolishly beyond the fence. 
Later, on the way home, they pointed out within a circle of 
curious gazers, a broken, twisted heap of metal against a fence. 
A little while before it had been a high-powered French machine. 
They had just removed four limp bodies. 
All the while the returning stream of automobiles rushed by, 
each driver a speeding racer. 
After this Saturnalia of speed, this orgy of glaring, whirling 
phantasms, was it a wonder that many a man had a distaste for 
the automobile? Fostered by the press, with the impressions of 
the auto race and its aftermath before him, he saw it as a thing 
which destroyed the dignity of men, killed courtesy and consid¬ 
eration. He felt that the purse-proud drove him headlong before 
their cars, and then, when he had gained the safety of the curb, 
insulted him with a blast of dust and gasoline reek. He saw the 
huge car an imminent terror on the highway, a despoiler of the 
peace of the country road, the murderer of the farmer's stock. 
But this was some time ago. The attitude is different now. We 
think that is one of the reasons for the change out at Indianapolis. 
The race did not show the sphere in which the automobile func¬ 
tioned. Quietly there has been dawning the idea of the motor’s 
real place, for the intervening years have shown that the auto¬ 
mobile has done a real service of inestimable value. 
Among all its latter-day accomplishments we hail that of mak¬ 
ing the country accessible the most worth while. It has opened 
up rural districts to the homeseeker that might never have been 
developed. These statements are but a weak way of putting a 
fact that statistics might show forcibly; figures could be given to 
demonstrate how the automobile is a factor in the national growth 
and an assistant in the vital problems of population redistribution 
and overcoming the congestion in cities. 
Elsewhere in House & Garden begins the story of a man who 
went through somewhat the change of opinion we have suggested 
above. From a disbeliever in motor cars he came to be a staunch 
advocate of them, and his experiences seem to us to state the full 
function of the automobile. 
At first, the man about whom the article is written becomes 
convinced of the working value of a motor car. It was a part of 
his home plant. He grew to know just what work he could expect 
of it, just how much rough usage it could stand, and judged it 
entirely on a utility and economic basis. His regard for it was as 
colorless as for the engine that supplied his house with water. 
He appreciated it, indeed rated it highly, but it was a soulless 
thing. Gradually, however, he found that it was the comrade 
that took him on sightseeing expeditions round the countryside, 
that explored with him, and carried him to new beauties of hill 
and vale and mountain glen. This car led him on ever-interesting 
adventures and taught him the joy of fishing in places hitherto 
inaccessible. 
And then the car became a sort of waiting helper. Its person¬ 
ality grew. Not only was it the vehicle of social intercourse, but 
its presence gave him a sense of security. The automobile could 
bring the doctor in case of sudden sickness, would rush aid in 
case of fire or accident. 
What is more, the experiences with the motor in the country — 
and they were true experiences, for the story is largely autobio¬ 
graphical— demolished a time-worn dogma concerning rural life. 
It is claimed that the suburbanite and country dweller who has 
once known the city becomes isolated and gradually separated 
from acquaintances. But as a matter of fact the automobile has 
demonstrated that the average individual has a greater circle of 
acquaintances than he had while in the city, and that he is in more 
constant touch with people. 
We feel that Mr. Claudv has written a most interesting narra¬ 
tive. It struck us when it was read, that outside of the subject 
matter he had accomplished a big thing. He has shown that the 
automobile has changed from a purposeless instrument of speed 
to a real factor in the upbuilding of country life. Many other 
motor emigrants will bear witness that the motor has guided them 
out from the cities, acted as their explorer for a home site, and 
become the genii who made it possible for them to stay. Surely 
such services are of greater value than records of unbelievable 
speed, and perhaps with the awakening interest in the country, 
manufacturers will destroy the last vestiges of the impression 
—race engendered — that the motor is a death-dealing engine, and 
replace this misconception with the knowledge of the true and 
varied service which the automobile renders. 
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