The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 11, 1902, Page 4

THE SUND 7 CALL © be of the truly top crust of so- ciety one must have an automo- bile, for the craze fon them is spreading in San Francisco. The bills have, metaphorically speak- ing, faded sway before them and the park is always dotted with them. There are now a hundred and seventeen of the horseless carriages of all styles owned by some of the best-known people in the city. Besides these and the livery ™M 1SS BETHE SAm™MmiLTors BERREIEY E W STynxs ones there are a number of others owned in the suburbs that may quite often be seen taking a run through the city. Less than six years ago there was only one horseless vehicle in the city. It was & gasoline automobile owned by Charles L. Fair. It started the enthusiasm of Mr. Fair for the autos, and he now has a fine raeing machine, a Panhard-Le Vassor, bullt in Paris at a cost of $5000. Mr. Fair CARIRI W e AV TOMOBIL cruUuwB ¢ & HYDE orp caey 1s also accounted to be very swagger in having his own chauffeur, an excitable Frenchman right from- Paris. Mr. Fair also has an electric automobile. Now is the day of the Automobile Club of Cali- fornia with a large membership. And (hose who do not have their own chauffeurs find much pleasure in running their own machines. In fact, the owners of auto- mobiles take great pride in the skill with which they drive, them. It is the smart thing now to call oneself en “autoncer,” and it seems to be quite the most ble and convenient word that has yet been found to designate the person driving an automobile. The term is In fashionable snd popular usage in the Eastern centers, where the horseless carriage is firmly rooted as a pleasure- giving vehicle. Moontight runs are in high favor with the club now, and they somectimes extend out the open country. A favorite trip is through the south drive in the park. out on the Golden Gate road to In- gleside and back. Twenty miles an hour is the usual spced, dut some~ m chines make from thirty to fifty or sixty miles an hour out in the country. They climb grades and plow through mud in a way that makes the horse envious, and etill experts will tell you that the auto- mobile is a long way from being per- fected. Already they are not so expensive as they were a_ couple Oor more years e2go, when they were in the experimental stage. Then a man paid fifteen and eighteen hundred dollars for a machine that must renew its motive power every twenty miles; now he can vuy for from cight to thirteen hundred dollars a ma- chine that will run three times the dis- tance without putting him to the incon- venience of stopping for a renewal of mo- tive force. The fight for the privilege of the park was a particularly difficult one—more dif- ficult by far than the crusade waged by the cyclers for the same privilege some into some years ago. Bicy- cles in one form or anoth- or had been familiar objects about the city for years, but the auto was an absolutely unknown quantity. Horse-owners and pedestrians alike op- posed it on general principies, but the “autoneers” persisted and demanded a license from the Park Commissioners. The Commissioners in their turn had no standard on which to base their judgment of the efficiency of the applicants and so a series of experiments, which, however, proved an excellent school of ifistruction to all parties concerned, was finally re- sorted to. Even now the license applies to only certain parts of the park. The south drive in the park is mow. given up almost entirely to the use of automobiles, where cnce it was a mooted question if they should be admitted. But the autonecrs must each one pass a thor- ough examination before the' park engi- neer before they are considered compe- tent to be left alone in the park with their puffing steed. They must show the confi- dence they have in themselves, which is reaily the biggest part of learning how to drive an automobile: they must make their iron steed cut circles, wiggle through a winding path and turn, cut the figure eight on the road, come at full speed down the drive and-just miss run- ning over the dummy figure of an in- fant thrown at them from an unknown =pot in the shrubbery by the examiner. Then they are marked down and graded like any other’ winning class, good, fair, very good, excellent, Al. With the in- crease in the demand for automobiles comes a corresponding increase in the eir- cus performances in the park. For it is not always the men who show the stead- iest and nerviest hand in these examina- tions. Indeed, one man through his nerv- ousness, went at the dummy figure with such a rush that his machine stood poised for a few moments on |jts hind wheels, and then he jumped out, while the machine went over on its side. But he escaped touching the helpless child by about an inch. But so far the best park examina- tlon has been passed by a young woman, and a beginner at that. L So popular has the automobile become that there is to be in the hear future an Automobile and Sportsman’s Show at Mechanics’ Pavilion, e In Chicago and New York the auto- mobile show has been dividing honors with the annual horse show as a so- clety function. Indged, it has all the pomp and circumstance, the gilt _and glitter, the fine livery and smart trap- pings—in short, all the opportunity for the brave display that made the horse show o popular, minus only the tan bark and the noble equine itself. Long trips with automobiles are no longer unusual. Miles T. Baird last year made a trip into the Yosemite with his locomobile, and Judge W. Spinks of Brit- ish Columbia was one of the first ones to make a long trip and also one of the ear- liest automobile drivers in San Francisco. He made the trip to Los Angeles and re- turn with his fachine soon after purchas- ing it. A. Wettauer is an enthusiastic autoneer and has made the trip to Los Angeles in his handsome White carriage in six days. R. C. Lennie made a notable trip with Dr. Bangs from San Jose to the top of Mount Hamilton. They made the trip of twenty- eight miles in two hours and fourteen minutes, riding against a rise of 4400 feet in the twenty-eight miles. E. Courtney Ford is young and popular and can afford to have all the horseless carriages he wants. He was one of the first to believe in the vehicles, and had one of the nattiest that could be bought. He has made a number of trips to Del Monte and the other resorts as an auto- neer, and he Is In love with the sport. Accordingly he has ordered a touring cart, an up-to-date machine seating four, which will cost, when completed, $3000. Mr. Ford looks forward to some great trips with this, There are not so far a great many women in San Francisco who have the confidence to act as their own autoneer of chauffeur. And it does take confidence to guide a machine successfully fn and out of the maze of vehicles on some of the business streets. It is not a difficult matter to learn how to run an automo- bile. That can be done In & quarter of an hour, but the thing is to ruh it. That can be done by some in fifteen days. Others may not accomplish it in three times that length of time. But there are Just four or five women in the city who run thefr own machines, and run them fearlessly and well. They seem to have caught the idea from the very beginning and make the auto- neers of the sterner sex look to thelr laurels. The first of them is Miss Sarah G. Drum, who is one of the cleverest au- toneers in the city, and hendles her handsome automobile with & confl- dence and dash superiof to that of many men chauffeurs. Her automobile is an unusually handsome vehicle {3 its lines and appomt- ments, and rich in its col- orings of black and red. The same coloring Is carrfed out in a plush robe. Orum says that to act as one’s own autoneer s the most fascinating pursuit possible. That may be one of the reasons why she passed as one of the best i her park examination. Another absolutely fearless autoneer is Miss Ethel Hager, who recently passed a park examina- tlon, excelling any who have so far taken the examination. The test of the dummy-throwing was ®met by her, with & steady hand, and each time the automobile stopped perilously near the sham infant, but just on the line where no damags was done. Though practically a beginner in the art, Miss Hager drives about unattended, and has grown fond of threading the crowded thoroughfares with her machine. Mrs. J. A. Marsh may be often seen leaving her pleasant home on Fell street for & spin in her locomobile. She also is fearless and speeds along with the wind. Her husband is a proficient autoneer, and together they have made many pleasant trips, and had somse exhilarating experiences. Mrs. Geofge P. Moore had the distinc- tion of being the first woman to pass the park examination. Over a year ago she made her first trip in the park, and since then has spent a great many pleasant hours in her locomobile. Mrs. Miles T. Baird also is fond of running an automobile, and is said to do it well. Sterling Postley, a wealthy young New Yorker, who is spending some time in San Francisco, is an enthusiast auto- mobilist. He and his wife may be seen almost any pleasant afterncon speeding along the south drive in their stylish automobile. P F. A. Hyde, president of the Automobile Club of California, is always to be seen in line at the outing runs of the club. He has a locomobile and is an accomplished chauffeur. He is often accompanied on his trips by his son-in-law, Captain L N. Hibberd. Just now Mr. Hyde is much in- terested in the proposed automobile ex- hibition that may be held here in June. Mayor Schmitz, though he does not run an automobile, is fond of riding in one, and enjoys tlaking a run through the park in the afterncon with his wife and a competent chauffeur. Both Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Talbot thor- oughly enjoy automobiling, and their stylish machine is a familiar one on Van Ness avenue and in the park. Though Mrs. Talbot does not operate the carriage herself, she is fortunate in having a coachman who is an expert ehauffegr. With his handsome livery, the Talbot automobile makes an elegant turnout. An excluslve way of entertaining is to glve an automobile party, and few en- tertainments could give mord healthful enjoyment, to say nothing of the fash- ionable swie of it. Mrs. ‘G. W. Reed and her daughter, Miss Violet Jacobs, whose rooms at fhe Occidental have been the center for much hospitality, gave a swell automobile party last November, the first and most successful function of the kind yet given In San Franclsco. The following ladles were guests of Mrs. Reed and Miss Jacobs for the run and also at an ‘“‘auto” luncheon served at the Occi- dental afterward: Misses Catherine and Pauline Ivancevitch, Gertrudd Sullivan, Bernadette Robinson, Louise and Jose- phine Tillmann and Ethel McCormic! Beveral society girls who do not yet profess to be autoneers are still extreme- 1y fond of the automobile as a raeans of Miss * With the City’s “<One Bundred and Seventeen™ and Their SkillFul “Qutoneers” pleasure driving. Among them is Miss Marie Wells, who has once or twice en- tertained her friends with an automobile run through the park. Among her guests have been Mrs. George Carr, Miss Polly Dunn, Miss Jessie Fillmore, Miss Sar borm, Dr. Collins and a number of other well known society people. Ameng the youns men of society automobile is fast superseding the hoi in “popular John D. Spreckels owns and runs of the ha electric .autos in city. It has an F of high {de battery cap Edward Tobin often takes a breath space from the Hibernia Bank and en joys a trip In his new automobile. It fs very tasteful and smart in style, from the scarlet and black paint to the monogram on the side panels. A. B. Costigan looks more swell than usual when he gets into his new machine, and he manages it with much skill. He goes down to Burlingame sometimes with the machine, as do many other autorho- bilists. He is sometimes accompanied by his friend, H. B. Langiure. Charles H. Crocker has one of the handsomest machines In town and looks the ideal autoneer in his natty cap and reefer of French kid. He does not have his automobile for show, and is a con- stant frequenter of the park and other roads. Another enthusiastic chauffeur of much experience is J. Dalzell Erown, vice pres- ident of the California Safe Deposit Com- pany. Mr. Brown hes made many long trips in his locomobile, and is always ready for another jaunt. Ellls Parrish of the Gorham Rubber Company is an- other automobilist who gets much pleas- ure from his carriage. Dr. B. H. MacMon- agle drives & stylish machine, with & col- ored chauffeur, and the machine is val- uable to him both for business and pleas- ure. He has had an accident lately, but will probably not forego automobiling em that account, as properly managed auto- mobiles are less liable to accident than horses. Miss Beth Hamilton, a well-known young woman of Berkeley, runs her le- comobile with skill, and takes many trips in the surrounding country. In Oakland, J. Winfleld Pearson stands pre-eminent as a chauffeur. He can drive his fine machine anywhers, and the roughest trip, that showed him what an automobile can do when it really steams up to it, was one in which he plowed through the deepest mud on & road with an § per cent grade. He climbed this suo- cessfully, between Boulder Creek and Santa Crus. Dr. H. L. Tevis owns an up-to-date au- tomobile, and is an expert in running it and he confesses to enjoying the sport. Though & busy man, he finds time to take & run almost every day. When it comes to doing real fancy stunts in driving an automobile and do- ing them in the genlial way that makes him a favorite both as a pacemaker and an apt instructor for those who may be nervous about their park examinations, R. C. Lennle is the man. He thinks nothing of going up and down a flight of steps in an automobile, and the very idea of an accident is unknown te him. He trips here and there and everywhers, and is looking forward to the longest trip of the California record. Among other well- known automobllists are ¢. A. Hawkins, G. H. Whitney and C. M. Gardner Another enthusiastic woman chauffeur who wgs among the crusaders for the park lcense and ‘who first called the at- tention of her sex to the need of a suit able costume for automobiling is Mrs. Arthur C. Barker. She can handle her handsome little runabout with a skill and daring truly startling, but, as she point out, the woman who undertakes to r heér own machine cannot afford to tak any chance of being distracted by inse- cure millinery. It requires both hands and both feet an most autos to control them, so the hat that won't stay on straight in the sirong wind created by a swift-flying vehicle quickly proves a nui- sance. v There is a pointer for Dame Fashion— invent an auto hat for women the* ~" *- both practical and begoming.