The Chicago Motor Show—American Taxis and Other Matters.
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From Our U.S.A. Correspondent.
The Chicago Show is held just one month after that in New York, and, as may be imagined, there is little to distinguish the one from the other. If anything, the Western Capital has a somewhat larger number of exhibits than the Eastern show, and the decoration of the former building is more—much more ornate ; otherwise we were all about the same, and if you read my notes on the Madison Square Show you will have a very good idea of that at the Chicago Coliseum. Indeed, the utility of the three shows, New York, Chicago and Boston, separated by only an interval of two weeks each, might, at first, be questioned, but it must be remembered that Chicago is just 1,000 miles west of the other two cities, and is undoubtedly the corning business centre of the North American Continent.
From the exhibitor's point of view. this arrangement is simply appalling, and the incessant answering of the same questions from the intelligent public, becomes at last no more than repetition of the worst kind, and when one finally seeks repose in the small hours of the morning it is to a sort of running accompaniment of the stump-orator type, in which the entire description of one's exhibit is reeled off backwards and forwards at fiveminute intervals, till what is left of one's brain becomes distraught.
This exhibition system, however, has one good feature : it enables one to get acquainted with one's dealers, who otherwise would be little more than a name in so large a territory ; this acquaintance is a valuable asset for the year's business. Moreover, the characteristics of the buyers may be ascertained, and be it remarked the westerner who comes to Chicago is as different from the New England manu facturer as a Dutchman is from a Greek : his habit of mind and his business methods are something to be learned before one may successfully deal with him. No, I have no fault to find with the system. Perhaps T was unreasonably prejudiced in favour of the Chicago Show, by reason of the fact that the
Coliseum is the first public buildingI have struck, in America,
where the atmosphere may be dis tinguished from that of the hot room in a Turkish bath. This at least was a relief and a contrast. to the exhibition at New York. The Chicago Show, too, is an open one, that is. it is not restricted to members of the Licensed Association, consequently some few of the vehicles exhibited were unfamiliar, but, one or two freakish cars excepted, nothing unusual appeared with the sole exception of a one ton truck exhibited by the Kinnear Manufacturing Co. This had a front-wheel drive with a worm gear, the worm and differential housing being mounted in the centre of the axle and the power being transmitted to the wheels through two extremely ingenious universal joints which were ar ranged inside the steering knuckles. The mechanism was at least novel, and the details cleverly worked out. The new five-ton Saurer, which I saw in Paris, was here, and attracted a good deal of attention with its wonderful pressed frame ; the side members are recessed inwards to accommo date the rear springs, which thus are in line with the axis of the side, without the necessity of raising the frame up over them. By this means the centre of suspension is kept low, and the chains and sprockets are brought close in to the sides of the frames. The whole design is worthy of the house from which it has sprung and is a model for American constructors to copy—if they will.
The amount of business done was astonishing to me ; apart from the very large number of inquiries re ceived, actual sales were constantly being made, and, in most cases, to the heads of big concerns who were out to do their own buying, and did it with a rapidity of decision worthy of their reputation. One of the heads of a firm of meat packers, whose name is co-extensive with the known civilized globe, was thus engaged and made his selection of a large truck in a way which would have fairly alarmed an English salesman.
Up to now, this city, which the English call " Chicargo," and the Indians " Shieawgoo," and Americans anything between the two, has been singularly slow in appreciating the advantages of motor traffic ; as yet, very few vehicles are to be seen, and on every side one heard visitors expressing unfeigned as tonishment at the magnitude of the industry and the number of types of machine which were there to select from. From the rate at which purchases were made it is certain that the old order of things will soon be revolutionized, and another year will undoubtedly show a very different state of affairs. Chicago offers every facility for
mechanical transport : the streets are all level, and not impossibly
badly paved, although, in the busi ness sections, cobble stones are the rule, and there are innumerable car tracks, and an elevated rail way, on posts, in several of the main thoroughfares. The horse drawn traffic is very heavy indeed, and the consequent congestion in many places extremely bad. Still, with a population of well over two millions, exclusively engaged in manufacturing, the amount of carrying to be done is immense, and the problem, when once the wealthy firms commence to buy in earnest, will be, not how to sell but how on earth to supply chassis fast enough, and in my judgment this state of affairs is not going to be very long postponed. By the way, Messrs. The Saurer Motor Truck Co., who, as I reported some months ago are now doing business in Chicago, are about to transfer their operations to the east, and will immediately open their new factory in New Jersey, not many miles from New York City. I understand they contemplate making the Saurer chassis from materials, and in some cases manufactured parts, supplied from the French factory at Suresne, where, as I saw for myself, during my visit to Paris, last December, every facility exists for doing this work. The Saurer Co. have recently sold an oil-tank wagon to the Standard Oil Co. and it is likely this will lead to further purchases of motor trucks by this large corporation as soon as some preliminary tests have been carried out ; naturally they are not slow to appreciate the possibilities of mechanical traction in their immense distributing system, and will undoubtedly become very large users of all types of commercial-motor vehicles before long.
There are two American institutions which, I fear, are past all help, and this for the reason thatall true Americans like them and have no fault to find with them. It was said that, with the passing of Mark Twain, the old western humour came to an end ; but whoever said so must have been unacquainted with two examples of American wit which seem destined to go down the ages—I refer to the Pullman sleeping car and the modern taxicab. In vain will anyone search for two such living specimens elsewhere : and. that the author of "The Tramp Abroad " did not himself satirize them, is, no doubt, due to the reason given in the first sentence of this paragraph, he was an American. it was my good fortune to have more than a bowing acquaintance with both of them. I arrived in Chicago last week, for the motor show, and as is my custom I made he journey of 540 miles from Buffalo at night. Until one has experienced the Pullman car it is impossible to form any idea of it. You enter an innocent-looking coach which resembles, say, a London and North-Western dining saloon with the tables omitted. That is at 8 p.m. At 9.30, however, the coloured gentleman -who has charge of it proceeds to wreck the interior, seats are drawn forward, turned over and otherwise disguised, sections of the ceiling fall down and hang from chains, forming a row of upper berths, while from secret, places in the wall come panels which divide the whole length of each side into cabins. The very peg on which you hang your hat is twisted round and discloses a miniature glow lamp, and when all is finished the coach contains two rows of ten cabins each, with an upper and a lower berth and each separated from the central corridor by a rep curtain that* is hung from the roof. There is thus provided for each passenger some two cubic yards of space, and as this is disposed horizontally, one's toilet,
whether of a positive or a negative nature, is performed only with an acrobatic display which needs considerable practice to carry through.
It may be wondered how sleep is obtained tinder such circumstances —that is just the humour of the thing. Years of practice have given me the Napoleonic capacity of sleeping at will, without distinction of time or place, yet I needs must wake every 15 minutes to laugh to myself at the very absurdity of the whole thing, and to thank the gods who did not locate an elderly spinster in the berth immediately above mine —or below, if indeed that be my rare fortune. But morning brings relief, and in the breakfast car the grape fruit is on the ice, the coffee is above criticism and the dusky chef will cook an omelette which will remind you of your last visit to Paris.
The other witticism is the station taxicab. On alighting from the train at Chicago, I made my way to where a sign told me taxis were to be had. Ail official took my ordir for one, ascertained the name of my hotel and yore Me a ticket, after separating me from 5s. 6d. I knew Chicago was a large place, so paid with becoming meekness ; passing through a door I was seized by another official, who took the ticket and proceeded to cram me into an ominous looking pair-horse car
riage. I protested I had ordered a taxi, whereupon he re-examined the ticket, very naturally surprised that I should have been worth enough money to provide the mechanical luxury ; however, being satisfied, he signalled a bundle of rugs surmounted by a hairy cap, who proceeded to crank the motor with prodigious and increasing energy, until at last, after a terrific silencer shot, something started, and in a moment, quaking in every joint, its bonnet flapping and heaving, this • strange conveyance
approached me. Entering it, I speedily began to wish I had been content to take the horse equipage. The body rolled frightfully, three times did a door burst open, and, worst of all, the blizzard, which was raging in from the frozen lake, streamed through every gaping seam and filled the interior with fine snow. I was glad when, after no more than a mile or so, I reached the hotel, when I discovered there iros no taximeter? I began to be angry, but, on reflecting that this made little difference as I had paid somewhat liberally in advance, laughter came to the rescue and I realized this was joke numbee two. As Lewis Carroll would say—a taxi was only what it was called, what it really was, was the original of one of Mr. E. T. Reed's " Prehistoric Peeps."
H. K. T.