Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1914 — The Joyrider. [ARTICLE]

The Joyrider.

Accidents naturally flourish with the additional number of- ears, for we presume that for every ten automobiles .-old ifee.e is at least one buyer who is going to show the rest <1 tne fellows how to drive like the devil. And he usually does. You can see his ilk every day in the year (wiiten tire roads are good t going through the country like a doublewinged bolt out of Hades. There is no more thought of danger in the head of such men than there i in a mushroom. He couldn’t conceive the possibility of an accident with himself at the steering wheel it the word was written in t lounUih-high letters right across the Hp ot his nose, and if he did see it he'd think it a joke of some kind. He sees a Ream ahead of him but the thought that the horse might shy and step into him as he goes tearing by doesn’t come within fifteen miles of the place where he is supposed to harbor his common sense. He sees a bunch of cattle, a colony of pigs, a society of chickens, a squad Of ducks, and he slows up— Jbu thunder. No, he goes right on, and it is only fool luck that keeps the brindle heifer from stepping in front of the) car and spilling the driver along with his gasoline. The pigs do not concern him simply because they aren't his. They couldn’t stop the machine, anyway, and if half a dozen of them were killed—he "should worry." He meets another car, but instead of slowing up he throws on more speed. It never occurs to him that the fellows in the other car might be coming home from a spree and with about as much control of the steering wheel as a four-year-old kid would have with a wheelbarrow. Again fool luck comes to the rescue and he "gets by.” When in town, such a fellow will 'urn street corners like a blind sow. A team or another car may be coming around the corner, but this possibility never succeeds in percolating through the London-like fog of his thinking apparatus—never! What to do with reckless auto drivers is a serious problem. They have a way of their own that is a menace to the public, and an ordinary mortal isn’t safe in an iron-clad barn with then! around performing their stunts. You can’t tell when they might break out, break in, or break your neck. Life with them is just one spurt after another. The spectacular auto driver is all right on the speedway, but on the public thoroughfare he is a nuisance. —Automobile Topics.