ROMANCE OF THE MOTOR

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1851, 28 August 1907, Page 62

ROMANCE OF THE MOTOR

(By Douglas Leechman, author of "The Autocar Handbook/' etc.). Romance ? Romance, forsooth, in connection with a machine, a collection of cut and dried parts, composed of steel, brass, wood, leather and india-rubber? Yes, my Lord Tomnoddy, and my Lady Clara Vere de Vere, Romance—with a capital R— and it may add to your enthusiasm (not to mention your education), when speeding along in your elegant motor car, to reflect a little upon the romance, the toil, the perils by land and. by sea, the - thousand" darings and dangers that have gone to make up that same beautiful locomotive. “Work, work your thoughts, . and therein see" the dense bush of Central and Southern America, with dusky negroes tapping the rubber trees, or picking the cotton, for your tyres, working ail day in the tropical heat, bitten by swarms of subtle stinging insects and reptiles unknown in temperate England, patiently toiling for—to our seeming—a very scanty allowance of uninviting and monotonous food, and a hut to sleep in, in order that the white man may take his pleasure in luxury. ••hollow, follow, grapple your minds" to the thousands wno toil in the depths of the earth, in peril of horrible and sudden—or worse still maybe, lingering —death, to furnisn you with the various metals used in tne manufacture of your car. NATURE'S BEST. Think, too, of the oxen which, after plodding , patiently at the ox-ploughs of Southern Europe during life, give you their hides after death, to guard you from the muddy road, and the rain of heaven; the mountain sheep and goats grazing on dizzy heights in safety, but dying at last to provide that gorgeous crimson upholstery, which forms such a resplendent background to my lady’s smart motor costume. Nature in almost every land is called upon to give of her best for your car; and what of Man? Human nature also, all the world over, is Working, thinking, devising, ay, and suffering for you! It is a stupendous conception, and one too often receiving the scantiest attention. In these days of rush and bustle, thought, meditation on all quietly noble subjects is sacrificed to “piish," to “keeping up with the procession," to outside show and keeping up appearances.

Let us then put in a plea for the romance, and not only the speed-produc-ing, price-lowering capacity of our automobiles; a plea for the nobility of the mental and physical strain and stress on the part of man, and the offerings of geherous Mother Earth, without which not even the simplest and least expensive of motor cars could be brought to perfection. Does someone object to the word perfectioh? Perhaps the motor car as it is to-day has not reached ultimate and absolute perfection—we are ready ourselves to admit that it has not. But those who have seen the birth of the automobile, and who have watched and are watching its evolution with such intense interest, noting the sure development, the steady gathering up of the ideas of clever brains in all parts of the world, know that at last there will be evolved the perfect locomotive, swift, silent, secure, the servant of all mankind. Some folk there are who would have our motor car, or any other means of locomotion, faultless from the first, grown up from birth.. These are people who expect to find old heads on young shoulders, and seek, in the character and conduct of a child of tender years, that perfection which these good folk themselves have, of course, attained. But Rome was not built in a day, and it is just possible that there may have been a little dust-raising and noise during the progress of that glorious undertaking. A WIDE FIELD OF USEFULNESS.

And, admitting that automobile construction has not yet reached its highest, has it not already played its part nobly in the scheme of the world's progress. Is it nothing that in cases of mortal suffering one should have been able to travel eighteen miles in twenty minutes to fetch a doctor, who himself stated that a delay of only five minutes m his coming would have cost the life of the patient, which, thanks to the speedy motor, was saved? Is it nothing thai a kindly heart in our own north countree was recently able to bring sunshine and swift movement into the lives of scores of cripple children who but for him- would have been doomed to "loom and inactivity through many hapless years? This philanthropic genius used his own car, and prevailed upon others to lend theirs for this good pursue hears of the curse of war, and curse it undoubtedly is in most of its nsnects, but, in the present state of civilisation, ’inevitable. This being so, is it nothing but automobiles have enabled us to carry despatches swiftly and secretly, to convey nurses and medicines to the sick and wounded in less than half the time possible by any other means; to drag heavy canon, saving men and horses untold agonies of labour; to enable the officers to dart from line to fine, to pass swiftly from point, to point of their regiments, encouraging, restraining, and controlling the men m a way never possible before? And to touch again our keynote of romance, what can be more romantic than an elopement by means of an electric motor car? Swift and stealthy humming and vibrating only just enough bo let Edwin and Angelina feel as if it is in sympathy with them, as does not a tried and trusted car feel to its fond master? Do not its heart beats throb responsive to his own—slower somewhat muffled when he is sad and jaded; thronging on one another's heels, ringmg out gay music when he—exhilarated by the fresh air and free movement—turns homeward—a giant refreshed? • THE NECESSITY OF TO-MORROW THE LUXURY OF TO-DAY. And although the possession of a motor car at present may appear to be the

prerogative of only the rich f@w, yet &r# not these few doing pioneer 'work ? Aro they not bearing the brunt of that abuse which is always poured by tho multitude upon any new departure which; makes for a big step in the world's progress? What was ever more cried down than the ad vent, of railway trains, what considered more awful and soul-destroy-ing than the appearance of the first few lady bicyclists ? And yet trains are not devoid of usefulness, and how many thousands of shop-girls, poor governesses, impecunious maiden aunts, and all the women who held up their hands in modesty and horror awhile ago, now bless those “few, those happy few," who dared to- inaugurate cycling for their sisters. And just so will it inevitably be with automobiles. They are becoming more popular, cheaper, better comprehended and appreciated every day. Ere long they will offer possibilities of travel—and travel spells education and mind broadening—to multitudes into whose grey lives travel has never come; to whom at present swift movement 'twixt miles of green hedgerows, by country scenes, and lake and sea, is but as a golden dream, almost beyond their ken. Silent speeding and acres of sunshine in lives which now do but shuffle througu a fog. Glorious possibility indeed! “May I be there to see."

We all of us enjoy speed as speed, wo ever try for the fastest trains, the fastest boats, the fastest horses; most of us cherish a secret longing for wings, but no speed yet has equalled that of tho motor. Who has yet travelled as fast as he who drove his Darracq on Daytona Beach—two miles inside a minute, over 120 miles an hour; and what was his speed yesterday may be ours tomorrow.

THE UTILITARIAN POINT OF VIEW.

Splendid as this is for its own sake, think what it means from the utilitarian point of view. Taking the question which occupies so much attention just now—the overcrowding of our great towns. For how many thousands will it shortly be possible to live in the country, real country, not suburbs, and yet to get to and from their daily occupations with no greater expenditure of time than it at present takes to rush from the breakfast table to train or tram? Not only will our express trains seem slow, but. the new locomotive will pick us up at home, and deposit us at the house or office of our friend, and not merely at some more ro less distant point in the town where he is located. , ~ It is not only on land that the power of the motor advances, sea and sky claim our attention, also. Comparatively little is known to the public of the motor boat, and the rapid iw is making, and still less of the motor eflying machine. The little boat that flits about so gaily on our lakes and rivers, the larger electric launches, replete with every comfort, and the workmanlike craft recently taken over by the Admiralty—all point to the advance of petrol. One can picture the well muffled scout, with no trace of steam to betray it, ferretting about amongst an enemy’s fleet at dead of night, noting* where the attack cf cannon or torpedo may best be delivered, or swiftly runing the gaunlet of a close blockade with officers and messages. THE .MYSTERY OF FLIGHT. And if one hankers after romance, what could be more romantic than the daring airship? Though the aeroplane has not yet reached perfection, or even been put to any really useful end, its possibilities are limitless. No doubt m a few years time the North and South Poles will no longer be wrop pmystery" but will have become old familiar friends. Then we shall, maybe, discover the secret of a bird s flight, and the still deeper secret of bow it holds ite own against a strong wind, poised on open wing, a miracle of grace and power, a mystery elusive and unfathomed as y6 ln a few years time, perhaps, how trite how stale, and how unworthy m«y appe’ar these reflections upon romance as connected with motors. The mysteries may be patent to all, the possibilities of speed and annihilation of distance, only hinted at here, will probably be realised and surpassed beyond all present belief, but for now—jam satis.