AMERICA 1900-1910 -- 'THE MOTORCAR' (Part 1)

SEIFERT

Posted By: David (email)
Date: 3/7/2004 at 20:40:41

'AMERICA 1900-1910'

'The Motorcar'

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THE AUTOMOBILING FAD

A man who would now win the parvenu's bow must belong to the automobility.

-- Life, 190l

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In 1900, America had only 8,000 cars. yet almost everyone was fascinated by the frail, costly, balky contraptions that, as one owner described them, "shook and trembled and clattered, spat oil, fire, smoke, and smell." People with fat wallets and a taste for adventure -- especially nice, safe adventure -- began buying these new machines, running all over the place in them and setting new standards of glamorous consumership. A whole automotive culture was being born, and with it, a brand-new vocabulary.

At the time it was not yet certain that the word "automobile" would triumph as a replacement for that awkward old phrase, "horseless carriage." A prize of $500 had recently been offered for a new generic name, and many people preferred the winner -- "motocycle." Less favored coinages included "petrocar" and "viomote" and "mocle." The suggestion of "mobe" - pronounced "mo-bee" - prompted one newspaper to parody Shakespear: "To mobe or not to mobe, that is the question." Another periodical suggested brightly, "Why not call it a 'goalone' and then let-it-alone?"

And what did one call the pilot and passenger of said vehicle? In the test of common usage, "Automobilist" lost out to "motorist," and "chauffeur" (French for "stoker") gave way to "driver." Women, who took the wheel in increasing numbers, were tentatively called "chauffeuses."
Almost at once, men decided that female drivers by any name were distinctly the deadlier of the species. This ungallant view inspired countless snappy jokes. For example:

"Papa, why is Mamma like a woman driver?"
"Because she's always running somebody down."

To control the driver of either sex, local traffic laws bloomed in baffling profusion. In 1902, the State of Vermont, apparently imitating an old English ordinance restricting steam carriages, required every auto to be preceded by a mature individual waving a red flag. In Tennessee, motorists had to post a week's notice before they could legally start out on a trip. But even the soundest of the new laws were broken, sometimes in ignorance, sometimes in flagrant disregard, and automotive bad manners came to be as commonplace as flat tires. Offenders were lectured sternly in a book called Everyday Etiquette, published in 1905. The book cautioned the well-bred motorist: "Do not stare at another's car, nor, if at a standstill, examine the mechanism. This is the height of rudeness." A second warning was: "When passing an auto of inferior horsepower, do not choose that momet to exhibit your own greater speed." And another to the would-be marathon driver: "Do not boast of th!
e phonomenal runs you have made. You are not a record-holder. And when you become one, the newspapers will gladly exploit the fact without any viva voce testimony from you."

Well-meant if ineffectual edicts from the guardians of public manners and safety were the least of the obstacles faced by the pioneer motorist. When he dared to venture beyond the city limits, he had to cope with the roads, only a small number of which were paved. He soon found himself in an uncharted wilderness of dirt roads and meandering country lanes. In these alien byways lurked perils great and small. If thick mud did not bespatter and ensnare the driver, clouds of dust choked and blinded him, concealing deep ruts and potholes that could easily throw a car out of control. If accident or breakdown occurred -- and both frequently did -- the motorist was left to act as his own mechanic in a world that had yet to see its first rural gas station.

The doughty drivers of the decade pooh-poohed the fears of doctors that these hazards would cause "acute mental suffering, nervous excitement, and circulatory disturbances." As for the physical demands of motoring, both male motorists and their allegedly delicate female companions showd themselves willing and able to wrestle with the worst of the dangers that either the road or the vehicle had to offer.

As things turned out, adversity only stimulated the craze for the automobile and everything that was connected with it. Americans turned out in great numbers to applaud a ludicrous melodrama, "The Great Automobile Mystery." They made popular songs of "The Automobile Honeymoon," "Toot Your Horn, Kid, You're in a Fog," and, of course, "In My Merry Oldsmobile". Above all, they bought more and better cars -- some 460,000 of them during the decade -- and then drove off to enjoy a new and exciting life on wheels.

To Be Continued. . .'A Fad Becomes Fancy'

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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
March 5, 2004