ment at the Massapequa turn on Long Island at
the rate of sixty miles an hour. The car turned over twice, but finally
stopped right side up. Robertson received a cut on one arm in the
fracas, but neither he nor the car was so badly injured but what they
could get back to New York, a distance of twenty-five miles, under
their own power. There the steering wheel was repaired at a cost of $5,
the radiator at a cost of $3, and Robertson's arm at $2.

But the prize-winner was the Fiat racing machine which threw a tire
while going fifty-five miles an hour on the Brighton Beach track. The
flying racer, now utterly uncontrollable, dashed through two fences,
one of them pretty substantial, cut down a tree eight inches in
diameter, and finally came to a stop right side up. E.H. Parker, the
driver, and his mechanician, were somewhat surprised, but otherwise
undamaged. They put on a new tire and in twenty minutes were back in
the race again.

What the automobile can do in the way of cheapness was shown by the
cost tests, sanctioned and confirmed by the American Automobile
Association, between a Maxwell runabout and a horse and buggy. In seven
days, in all kinds of weather and over city and country roads, the
horse and buggy traveled 197 miles at a cost per passenger mile of
2-1/2 cents. The runabout made 457 miles in the same time, and the cost
per passenger mile was 1.8 cents. This covered operation, maintenance,
and depreciation, and, incidentally, all speed laws were observed.

The Winton Company, which conducts a sort of private Automobile Humane
Society, offers prizes for chauffeurs who can show the greatest mileage
on the lowest charge for upkeep. The first prize winner in the contest
for the eight months ending June 30, 1909, drove his car 17,003 miles
with no expense whatever for up-keep. The second prize winner drove
11,000 miles at an outlay of thirty cents, while the third man drove
10,595 miles without any expense. This makes a total of 38,598 miles by
three cars at a cost of thirty cents for repairs. And all the cars were
two years old when the contest began.

The moral for those who really want to see what an automobile can do is
obvious.

ISAAC F. MARCOSSON

Every automobile that you see is a link in a chain of steel and power
which, if stretched out, would reach from New York to St. Louis. What
was considered a freak fifteen years ago, and a costly toy within the
present decade, is now a necessity in busine