Motorman

“ The motor stopped before a little shabby hotel in a neighboring cross-street, and the footman, in livery beside the driver, got down at a direction of the girl and went up the steps. In a few moments a man came out and descended to the motor standing by the curb. He was about middle age. He looked as though Nature had intended him, in the beginning, for a person of some distinction, but he had the dissipated face of one at middle age who had devoted his years to a life of pleasure. ”

“ They had been turned over to the care of a coachman, with the result that, though the poor fellow did his best, the vehicles began to be regarded as a mere nuisance. One would not dream of putting a coachman in charge of a printing machine, a steam launch, or a cathedral organ; yet each of these exquisite pieces of mechanism is as little associated with a stable and a coachman as a motor-car. Coachmen can be taught to drive motor-cars, but there is a great difference between mere driving and a mechanical comprehension of the machinery. ”

“ The hotter the sun the more agreeable the fanning of the air through which we pass, and the cold of winter, guarded against in proper fashion, carries with it its own exhilaration. To my mind the greatest pleasures and the greatest advantages derivable from the motor-car are the power of traversing large areas of the beautiful country in which it is our happiness to live. The use of motors in town is increasing and, doubtless, will greatly increase. ”

“ In our days, by means of its organs which have become automatic, the mechanism controls the mechanism. A chauffeur is no more than a pilot; once going, his machine keeps up its own energy; once awake, it will only fall asleep again at the word of command. In short, as Lerne bade me note, the modern motor-car enjoys properties that a spinal cord might confer; it enjoys instinct and reflex actions. Spontaneous movements take place in it along with the voluntary movements caused by the intelligence of the driver, who becomes as it were the brain of the vehicle. ”

“ The motor-cycle of to-day is fast taking the place of the ordinary bicycle, and the automobile, or auto, as it is commonly called, is taking the place of our horses. This being so, it has occurred to the writer to prepare a line of stories, telling of the doings of a number of lively, up-to-date lads who at first own motor-cycles and later on become the proud possessors of a touring car.
This tale before you, “The Motor Boys,” is the first volume of the series, telling of the doings of Ned, Bob, Jerry and their chums in and around their home town. ”

“ But even to those living in towns, the country contributes most to the pleasure of possessing a motor. At one of the dinners of the Automobile Club, when it was suggested that motors had a future in bringing agricultural produce to the large towns, the audience agreed with the observation that, if it was. desirable that the motor should bring cabbages to the workman, it was still more desirable for the motor to take the workman to the cabbages. For myself, after a long day in Court, I often feel that I am a workman who wants to be taken to the cabbages. ”

“ I couldn’t get a rise out of him.”
“Now you see what a pocket is,” said Jerry as he joined his chums. “If you get into one do your best to ride out, or you’ll lose the race, providing the others stick together and have made up their mind to let one of their number win.”
The practice continued for some time. A little before noon there was a stir at the track entrance and a motor cycle, painted a bright red on every available space shot on the track. The loudness of the explosions told that it was a machine of high power, and it attracted considerable attention. ”

“ In its way the motor cycle may claim to be one of the most marvellous products of human mechanical skill. Weight has been reduced until a power equal to that of three horses can be harnessed to a vehicle which, when stored with sufficient petrol and electricity to carry it and rider 150 miles, scales about a hundredweight. It will pursue its even course up and down hill at an average of twenty or more miles an hour, the only attention it requires being an occasional charge of oil squirted into the air-tight case in which the crank and fly-wheels revolve. ”

“ Never again vith the Muggleton Motor! Vhy, it vorse than a hortomatic vheelbarrow, ain't it, Mr. Pickwick?"
"Ah, Sammy," assented Mr. Weller, Senior, hugging his whip, affectionately. "Vorse even than vidders, Sammy, the red-nosed shepherd, or the Mulberry One hisself!"
A bear in a motor-car attracted much attention in the City last week. It had four legs this time.
The Motor Car declares, on high medical authority, that motoring is a cure for insanity. We would therefore recommend several motorists we know to persevere.
[Pg 139]
Gentle Satire—"I say, Bill, look 'ere! ”

“ No invention of modern civilization has done so much for developing a man’s power of resource and judgment as the motor. To meet and overcome a sudden emergency is the best of human training, and if a man is his own driver and mechanician on a fairly long journey he can hardly fail to have some experience of it.
I well remember in the early days of motoring going up to Birmingham to take delivery of my new twelve horse-power Wolseley. ”

“ By mounting a 5-hp. motorcycle engine on a frame built of 2 by 4-in. stuff, and rigging the outfit on running gear made of gas-pipe axles, old buggy springs, and motorcycle wheels, I made the light roadster shown in the photograph, at small cost. It develops 30 miles an hour easily, carrying only the driver, and has carried five persons. The frame is suspended from the springs, with an underslung effect, on the front axle. The power is transmitted by a friction drive, consisting of a fiber contact pulley, obtained from an old commercial car, and a disk used as a cutter on a plow. ”

“ For station work in the country I would rather recommend—and I am supposing myself writing for those who have now a stable of some half a dozen horses—a covered as well as an open motor, or perhaps a motor which can have a top fitted on to it when the weather is bad. Ladies do not like arriving at tea-time with their fringes out of curl, or the feathers in their hats drooping or facing the wrong way ”

“ The motor, which the frenzied cupidity of manufacturers hurls like a juggernaut’s car upon the bewildered people and of which the idle and fashionable make a foolish though fatal elegance, will soon begin to perform its true function, and putting its strength at the service of the entire people, will behave like a docile, toiling monster. But in order that the motor may cease to be injurious and become beneficent we must build roads suited to its speed, roads which it cannot tear up with its ferocious tyres, and from which it will send no clouds of poisonous dust into human lungs. ”

“ The man who drives the motor must always have the best possible view of the road, just as on the footplate of a locomotive every driver knows that in times of mist or rain the difficulty of seeing through the windows of the cab is immensely increased, and careful drivers prefer to have their heads round the edge. ”

“ Think of the English roads and lanes, of the pretty girls and decent men one meets on horseback or in smart dogcarts, the dowagers in victorias, the crowds of cyclists, the occasional fine motor-car, knickerbockered men walking for the pleasure of exercise! Here, though one knows there are more motors than at home, one rarely comes across them out of towns; and as for ladies and gentlemen, or, indeed, any sort of people out solely for enjoyment, they're as rare as black opals. ”

“ I have my own ideas about the motor of the future, and I am working them out down here. My old caravan is heavy, perhaps, but I want a heavy car. It's most useful for testing tyres, and that is one of the special points engaging my attention. Besides, in this car I am not tempted to get into trouble with the police. Twelve miles an hour is quite fast enough for all my purposes. ”

“ There is not one jarring note—until the 'honk, honk' of a motor is followed by the breathless, panting whirr of the engine, and a big car flashes down the road and past, travelling at the topmost of its top speed. ”

“ On the other hand, the use of the motor vehicle was extended in the first instance mainly as a sport, and as a new occupation for well-to-do individuals of a mechanical turn of mind. There is an attraction about speed in all forms, and consequently, it was on this point that attention was for many years concentrated. ”

“ It is reported that on the same branch, an engine-driver, on reaching the station more than usually behind his time, declared that he had never known “herself”—meaning the engine—to be so sluggish before. She needed a deal of rousing before he could get any work whatever out of her, he said; and she had pulled up at the platform without a hand being put to the brake. ”

“ If, however, it were possible for the householder to engage a light motor-car for himself and his wife and eldest daughter, a motor-brake for the children and servants, and a light steam-van for the luggage, bicycles, buckets and spades, and perambulators, which would load up, not against time, but quietly at the front and back doors, and unload at the hotel or lodgings, what a vast deal of fuss and worry would be saved! ”

“ A boulder now and then or rough ledge cropping across the road would tilt the old lady at an uncomfortable angle. Heights and climbs over dangerous switchbacks had become commonplaces of travel by now, and we had gained confidence from learning the tremendous flexibility of which a motor car is capable. We were willing, without taking credit for extraordinary courage, to undertake almost any road wide enough for our tracks. People who confine their driving to perfect boulevards and city roads have no idea of the exhilarating game motoring really is. ”

“ Such tests prove the endurance of the motor cycle, and pave the way to its use in more profitable employments. Volunteer cycling corps often include a motor or two, which in active service would be most valuable for scouting purposes, especially if powerful enough to tow a light machine-gun. ”

“ The man in charge of the beast naturally leads the horse on his right-hand side. A motor-car comes in sight. The animal grows more restive than usual, and the unfortunate man is most likely to find himself in the disagreeable position of being jammed between the road fence and the horse. ”

“ But invariably at the foot of every slope, or at the dip between two hills, there was a stretch of excruciating "agony" that would reduce the most defiant motor-cyclist to submission.
Thus it was for eighty or ninety miles. The truth began to dawn on me that a fellow has to be a "tough guy" to motor in these parts. Sometimes I would stop and rest awhile to let an occasional car get by. It was funny to see how they all went! The big heavy touring car would roll along as if to devour all that came its way. ”

“ Motoring has already entered, and will in the future enter yet more largely, into our social life, though we may still be far from the time when the horse-drawn vehicle will be a rarity upon country roads and London has begun to save fifty thousand pounds a year now spent in road scavengering.
The utility of the motor is endless. At whatever distance you may live from your station in the country, the motor is bound to shorten the time occupied on the journey to and fro, and houses six miles from a railway become as accessible as houses three miles distant are to-day with horses. ”

“ In fact, after years of touring, I have in a vague, ragged sort of way tried to hold to what might be called a motor philosophy. Anyway, I have found it a splendid idea when things go very uncomfortably to remember—if I can—what a very charming diplomat, who was also a great traveler, once told me: that in motoring, as in life, since trouble gives character, obstacles and misadventures are really necessary to give the trip character! ”

“ It's guaranteed to run the car under electric power for nearly a mile, without the motor being operated. All we'll have to do will be to set the starter going—that turns the fly wheel, you know. Then we can put in low gear, slip in the clutch, just as if the motor was in operation, and get the car to the top of the hill. ”

“ For ten years or so everybody who could afford a motor of some sort has had one. We've all had one. Not to have a motor has been simply ridiculous, if not disreputable. So [Pg 172] everybody has ridden about all day in the fresh air, never had any exercise, and got an enormous appetite. ”

“ There are notable Masters in the Shires who already employ motor-cars to take them to their more distant meets, and as I write I have the names of several gentlemen in my head who would be recognised throughout the hunting world to be as good sportsmen and as straight riders as any in England. The use of a motor for every kind of social appointment is bound to increase, and I am afraid some of the Midland farmers are more like Mrs. ”

“ Her four little cylinders, gaily murmuring as the engine joyfully sprang into life, seemed to hide a world of romance as if they were whispering to each other of the days that were to come, the adventures and experiences they were to encounter, and the strange lands they were to see. The purr of her exhaust, healthy though muffled, smooth and even in its rhythm, was music in my ears. A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, and to those who know the call of the open road and who love to feel the rush of the wind and the glamour of speed, such was this machine. ”