The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 1, 1903, Page 4

— ; . A MILE A MINUTE — ; o, 301 1 agrecd witn 1903 ken ribs thing for bBro 4 what it was work- a good resting place invested in other automo- ¢ different kinds, and I have learned s time the perfect automo- invented. I am happy at I have alers in San Francisco 1 perfect conception appeared and, oftered to. the publlc, Hach the only genuine article, all upon the public. the way of auto- ifornia and else- they have heretofore dealer other has 1 that n suct experimental state that those who Invested early became disgust- ed with their troubles, and others were about purchasing. However, there have been wonderful improvements in the T six he does not f that p and when a man is obliged to walt onths before an order can be filied knbw how he will feel at the and so does not order When the manufacturers get so far of orders that they can place ma- here on sale there will be many more sales. As to county ordinancés, T am pleased to eay that they have not so far been op- pressive, except in the county of Marin, which has an orfiinance that practically excludes automobiles. The fi ordinance that thev passed required every automo- bile to be brought to a fuli stop.within 200 feet of any person riding, driving or leading a horse or other domestic animal. One- of our members was arrested for violating this provision. His case was taken béfore the Superior Court on a writ of habeas corpus and the club took up (117 v-‘\\ W Z{ \\\‘\\\‘,I'/ / ‘ was arranged that the defendant should’ surrender himself into the custody of the Constable and be brought over to the Supreme Court, but unfortunately, the prisoner and Constable could not find each other. The prisoner came over on an early boat, and went to the Supreme Court to find the Constable, o .that he might be brought Into court in proper shape. He admitted to the clerk of the court that he was the prisoner and was looking for the Constable to take him into custody. Thereupon our seven judges filed solemnly into court. We most re- spectfully arose and saluted them, and our venerable Chief Justice announced that the purpose of a writ of habeas corpus was to release a prisoner, but as the defendant in the case seemed to be at large there was no prisoner to release, and dismissed the writ. tro . turers are learn- the matter. Our attorney suggested to the So we filed out of court and talked to mas I was. 1 nev % are lessening court that-t would be slow work for an the prisoner afterward. I told him dis- kee: “Ghle i e ght, increasing the power and effi- automobile to go past a funeral proces- tinctly and positively that !f he were © APITIT eni oy v and automobiling is becoming truly Slon, and that he must stop if he should agaln arrested and the Auto Club under-. we r;jl"]‘ ARt 1 the & sport instead of hard labe meet a little girl leading a pet lamb on took to defend him, he must be brought N N 0 3 d- in chains. Since then wé E sy p en automobiles were first introduced the road, but the learned Judge conclud- fnto court In to that ;k;'“l ol e ,.““)-hfi “onsidered wonderful that they ©d that the ordinance was reasonable and have left the Marin: County ordinance oped & Into becoming the preeinent o should go at all. Now we expect them not Proper, nevertheless. So we then carried glone. In fact, we do not think much of sition, w = S ookea netther tight only (o £o. but to go with ease, quistude the case to the Supreme Court of the Marin County, anyhow. It may do for as e 4 aot fu pataly snger d certainty, Many more machines wi State. Meanwhile our prisoner was let gome people who are satisfled with an- be ter 1 told the owner of the shop that have heen sold during the last vear.if free an bail cient methods of locomotion, but for nu& nent ri h e my mobile and he has they had been obtainable, but people usu- The Supreme Court granted a hearing tomobilists the hills are too steep an while I » & state of terror he seemed 1t yet. To be sure, he has never run it, but .ally purchase on the impulse of the mo- on the writ, and on the morning set, it the level roads too few. All we ask is L = i o + o obile race meet on d 7 et the Ingleside the greatest event d in the West. that are ex- fast time and in the races world’s cham- championship g & mile In st racing ma- K will be f its kind ev 14, ex-Bleycla and a mechanic by the t Detroft, Mich. It had pensating gear on nge epeed gears, and fter which Cooper se of his present rac- as the “Baby Bullet,” ine of forty horsepower, nd the *Bullet No, have eighty horse- at 3000 pounds. machines sent by of America to Ire- the Gordon Bennett bullt by Alexan- s expense for this howing, however, not what was ex- owing to the difficulty their large amount of machin- e.y in pre wirking order. Both Alex- ender Winton d Mr. Owen, who went to Ireland to compete in that event, re- turned to America very much discour- sged at their lack of success. Oldfield, however, has taken up thess two machines has done remarkable work on the tra He has won every race he has entered in the United States with the exception of one or two where the machines were not working satisfa torily, which was no fault of the cham- picn. Oldfield 1s no doubt the most dar- irg track racer that ever drove an auto-+" mobile in any countr: He makes the turns at better than a mile a minute while comfortably smoking a cigar, and if anybody gets in his way he takes his mind off the machine long enough to ex- press his feelings in language as forcibls as the speed he attains. In one recent event he is reported as slackening down the machine with the idea of thrashing the man who Interfered with what he considercl his righ: of ws on the track. It occurred to him, how- ever, that it would be better to” put off this proceeding until after the race, o he let out the big machine, drove iike & mad- man, and after winning was ‘talked out of thrashing his competitor. In eddition to Oldfield. it s expected that there will be & number of other spe- cial Eastern racing men, and that he will have to do his best work if he wins against some of the Pacific Coast ama-’ teurs Frank A. Garbutt of Los Angeles is the amateur champlon, having never been defeated. He has made far and away the best record of any amateur in the world in track racing. He will not race for money as does Oldfleld, but in competing for money with Oldfield, if he should beat him he would take trophies instead of the cash prizes offered. Mr. Garbutt drives bis touring car In all his races and h made his records heretofore by stripping his machins of its tonneau, which means the two rear seats, and one of ‘the front seats, and equipping it with a wind splitting nose to reduce the resistance at high speed. He is chairman of the racing commit- tee of the Automoblle Club of Southern _By C. A. HawKins Of the Board of Governors of the Aftomobile Club of California. California, and a prominent member of the California Club of Los Angeles. He 1s the president of two oil companies and a director in & number of other large institutions in this State. He is also a large property holder and a prom- inent man socially in the southern end of the State, and in coming to San Fran- cisco to race he is doing so as the rep- ‘resentative of the Automobile Club of Southern California, which is to hold a big racing meet in Los Angeles on November' 20th and 21st. Next to’ Mr. Garbutt the most prom: nent racing man on the Pacifie Coast is Mr. Walter Grothe. Mr. Grothe and Mr. Garbutt have met in many races, and * while the latter has so far succeeded in carrying off the honors, Mr. Grothe h: . just arrived from the tlctor(h with a 1904 model touring car ich he is having stripped, not alone of the ton- neau and one front seat, but has re- moved the entire body from the chassis and is rigging a temporary seat and a wind-splitting nose, the same as those used by Mr. Garbutt. Mr. Grothe's car, which is supposed to be some faster than Mr. Garbutt's, will give him an excellent opportunity to carry off the honors in the San Francisco races. _Both Grothe's and Garbutt's cars weigh about 1600 pounds each. They are rated at ten horsepower by the mak- ers, and are expected, notwithstanding the difference in horsepower, to give Mr, Oldfield an exciling race In the various events in which the three will meet in competition, Mr. George P. Whittell of San Fran- cisco has a spectally built forty horse- power racing machine, which cost him, $12,000. Mr. Whittell is expected s,to divide the honors with Mr. Oldfield, Mr. Garbutt and Mf. Grothe In the races at Ingelside. He holds the record at present for the fastest mile made on the Pacific Coast. This was made at Del Monte, California, at the recent race meet held there, the time being 1:16. He is having his car stripped of every pound of extra welght, has had special racing gears made for it and is expected to run at much faster time than his pre- ylous records. Mr. Whittell {s belng watched very closely by the local racing talent, as he s & young man of remarkable nerve and skill in operating his machine, and he ‘would, not’ surprise the knowing ones if he led off first honors in the coming meet for California amateurs. In addition to the above thers is a thirty - five horsepower car belonging to Mr. Merritt, a prominerit man of Los Angeles, on whichr the chauf- feur has been working for some time to get it in the very best condition for the races at San Francisco and Los Angeles. This car is the same make as the machine that’ won the Gordon Bennétt cup In Ireland, and is look- ed upon as the dangerous dark horse, It is clalmed to have run seventy miles an hour on the straightaway, but what it will be able to do on the track remalns to be seen. Besides the foregoing, Mr. E. Courtney Ford of this city will enter many of the races against the blg machines with a new racer, which has just arrived in Ban Francisco. The machine is specially geared and admirably constructed with light frame and wheels, so that its walght is brought down to about 800 wounds. It has a four-cylinder engine, and as Mr. Ford is one of the wmost experienced operators on the Pacific Coast it is ex- pected that this machine will win easily in the races for light gasollne machines, and will make some of the bigger ma- chines do their best work to beat it in the open races. It has a record of a mile in 1:09, made on an Eastern racetrack. One of the most interesting races of both days is expected to be the race for California owners only, In which the president of the Automobile Club of Cali- fornia, F. A. Hyde, A. B. Hammond, W. 8. Tevis, John D. Spreckles, Leon Roos, John A. Benson, Orestes Plerce, C. H. Geldert of San Jose and H. L. Ricks of Eureka, Cal., are expected to enter their touring cars, besides which representa- tives from San Jose, Fresno, Sacramento, Stockton and other near by cities are ex- pected to enter some of the races to up- hold the prestige of their special districts. One who has never seen an Automobile race cannot concelve of the thrilling spec- tacle of four or five long, graceful ma- chines swinging around the curves into the home stretch abreast at the rate of a mile a minute. The charfot race in “Ben Hur” and the most exciting horse race ever run are stale and flat by comparison. If the Romans had had automobiies they would have abandoned their great Coli- seum and bullt an automoblle racetrack. No sport ever before compared with it in the electrifying effect upon the spectator. Oldfleld, with his big throbbing ‘‘Bullet” making a nolse like a battery of rapid- fire guns, and his chauffeur with his “Baby Bullet” close at his side; Garbutt and Grothe, with thelr nolseless machines, making no fuss; Whittell, with his big racer, and Mr. Merritt's chauffeur with the great mogul sweeping down the home stretch, every man straining his machine to the last notch to cross the tape first in @ hair-raising finish, so close- ly contested that a blanket would cover the entire bunch; is a spectacls for the gods. Those who have weak hearts had better stay away, — Q)Y miles an hour. In Santa Clara County the limit is twenty miles an hour. For each and every ordinance that has been passed in California or elsewhere there are some few automol ts to blame. The public is not naturally opposed to auto- mobiling. At first they were well re- ceived,. but presently some of the same kind of fools and reckless persons who first created opposition to the bicycle took hold of the automobiles and acted as if they owned the whole road and everyone must out of their way. Pos- sessed of a craze for speed, utterly In ferent to the rights of or danger to other people, they have made themselves a nuisance to everyone on the road, and have brought trouble on the larger clas of self-respect! 1 mobilists. I could name almost w tainty the individual or individuals who have been the cause of every restrict ordinance around the Bay of San Fran- cisco. Our chief pleasure ground !n San Fran- cisco s the Golden Gate Park, and we are excluded from the greater part there- of. I have pleaded with the Park Com- missioners for a year for greater privi- leges, but I get the same answer “Some of your people are making us trouble by total dlsregard of our ordinance.” I sald to one Commissioner: “Why don’t you arrest them?" To which he replied: ‘““We cannot catch them. thing we can do is to keep you al 1 ‘We are suffering from the miscond of a few, but it Is human nature must be endured. In time, park leave to travel through their county te get on to the broad, level roads of So- noma County or farther north. San Francisco has & very reasonable ordinance which allows eight miles an hour speed within the fire limits,- and twelve miles outside. San Mateo and Ala- ple will get over an unreasonabl for speed in the same way as th done with the bicycle, and w! comes, the restrictive ordinances w appear, clubs will no longer be neces- sary for protection, and the automobils will assume its proper place as a vehicle for business and pleasure. meda counties lmit speed to ffteen The Winton Motor Carrlage Co. manufactured the Racer driven by Barney Oldfleld. pr— They also manufactured the Touring Oar shown here. PIONEER AUTOMOBILE COMPANY 901 to 925 Golden Gate Avenue, SAN FRANCISCO. Also selling Agents for the following standard machinest Winton Motor Carrlage Co. Baker Electric Motor Vehicle Co. The J. Stevens Arms and Tool Co. | Vehicie Equipment Co. Olds Motor Works. Gorges Richards, Parls. Locomobile Company of America. | Demmerie & Co.—Leather Clothing. ‘‘Garage’’ In the West. QOur line, the highest types produced. +s+ DISTRIBUTORS ... TOLEDO FRANKLIN Winzer of the New York-Piishurg sadur- Alz-secl ance sontest. stout {n the worll. RAMBLER 7 b p. rusadeat. : KM;’:‘ w.\}-&fi“s PEERLESS Touriag cas. naer o ow York-Boston snfurases S B HAYNES-APPERSON. S Give us a call and we will show you a full line of record-breakers. 90000000000000000000000000000000000020000000 900¢0003000000000000000000000000000000000000 MOBILE CARRIAGE CO. Garage—Sales Room N. E. Cor. Golden Gate and Van Ness Aves. DOWNTOWN omcu, PALACE HOTE o L LOBBY, Phone Larkin 3841 Phone Polk 3088 The Mobile Carriage Company having taken over the business of the ‘“Mobil Company” of America on the Coast, will ‘engage in il branches of the automobile business on an extensive scale, It will carry a large ine of the best gasoline cars on the market and control the Coast Agency for the same. The nger business will also bde extended by the'use of .uolln- and ohctr’lfi c;nh:gd A new Garage w! t. best houses in the East. sttentlon will be given to revairing and ...n..":: Fasoline machines. e o rie D McKes, prasident and 24 consulting nginser of ¢ ssoctation of Chaut- e “hicago. m. bes o :' e Carriage Company as super- one of the oldest men in Chicago, will take chargs of tht dopartmeht of the Mebe Camibps Comass Tin 15 Chlcaas, Yol ate charze ot by e g com e Moblle o pany wi'l also be the Pacific Coast r'prmrmmv- for the following well known French cars: Mors, Mercedes, Renault and Panhar AUTOMOBILE PASSENGER SERVICE A SPECIALTY.