TWO THOUSAND MILES ON AN AUTOMOBILE
BEING A DESULTORY NARRATIVE OF
A TRIP THROUGH NEW ENGLAND,
NEW YORK, CANADA, AND
THE WEST
BY
"CHAUFFEUR"
1902
__________
To L. O. E.
Who for more than sixteen hundred miles
of the journey faced dangers and discomforts
with an equanimity worthy a better
cause, and whose company lightened the
burdens and enhanced the pleasure of the
"Chauffeur"
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.-----Some Preliminary Observations
II.----The Machine Used
III.---The Start
IV.----Into Ohio
V.-----On to Buffalo
VI.----Buffalo
VII.---Buffalo to Canandaigua
VIII.--The Morgan Mystery
IX.----Through Western New York
X.-----The Mohawk Valley
XI.----The Valley of Lebanon
XII.---An Incident of Travel
XIII.--Through Massachusetts
XIV.---Lexington and Concord
XV.----Rhode Island and Connecticut
XVI.---Anarchism
XVII.--New York to Buffalo
XVIII.-Through Canada Home
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FOREWORD
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To disarm criticism at the outset, the writer acknowledges a
thousand imperfections in this discursive story. In all truth, it
is a most garrulous and incoherent narrative. Like the automobile,
part of the time the narrative moves, part of the time it does
not; now it is in the road pursuing a straight course; then again
it is in the ditch, or far afield, quite beyond control and out of
reason. It is impossible to write coolly, calmly, logically, and
coherently about the automobile; it is not a cool, calm, logical,
or coherent beast, the exact reverse being true.
The critic who has never driven a machine is not qualified to
speak concerning the things contained herein, while the critic who
has will speak with the charity and chastened humility which
spring from adversity.
The charm of automobiling lies less in the sport itself than in
the unusual contact with people and things, hence any description
of a tour would be incomplete without reflections by the way; the
imagination once in will not out; it even seeks to usurp the
humbler function of observation. However, the arrangement of
chapters and headings--like finger-posts or danger signs--is such
that the wary reader may avoid the bad places and go through from
cover to cover, choosing his own route. To facilitate the finding
of what few morsels of practical value the book may contain, an
index has been prepared which will enable the casual reader to
Here's a piece of wisdom on driving or cute car quote to study:
Road sense is the offspring of courtesy and the parent of safety. ~Australian Traffic Rule, quoted in Quotations for Special Occasions by Maud van Buren
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