hundred pounds and running eighteen miles an hour. In the following year they could do one kilometre in one minute on a tricycle. The year 1888 is another date to be remembered. The cycling boom had reached its height in that year, races were being run on every national road, velodromes were set up all over the country (most of them since become bankrupt), and betting on cycling events was prevalent.

invention.

M. Serpollet's small-bore tubular boilers (an altogether remarkable invention) solved Serpollet's the problem of making a light yet efficient engine. This was in 1888, and M. Serpollet's invention has stood the test of time. At the 1900 salon du cycle a Serpollet carriage was exhibited, which was purchased by King Edward VII.

Automobilism is so much associated in people's minds with petroleum that an effort of memory is necessary to remember that it began with steam. Automobilism was popular in France before it was practical. The wish was father to the success. Very likely this will again be the case in aërial navigation. In 1894, the Petit Journal opened a prize contest to be run from Paris to Brest and back (750 miles).

In 1895, a new invention revolutionized the automobile industry-namely, the oil motor -for which we are indebted to Herr Daimler. The Daimler motor was immediately

The oil

motor

Popular

adopted by the motor-car building firms of Panhard & Levassor and Peugeot.

It would not be unfair to say that, after this far-reaching invention, subsequent improvements in oil vehicles have been merely improvements of detail, accumulated, however, in such number as to make a modern auto-car a very different thing from its prototype of ten or fifteen years ago.

The history of automobile racing in France is a brief but a checkered one. It covers a period of six or seven years, during which the attitude of the public has undergone several changes. These phases of opinion form convenient subdivisions for the purpose of our history. Motorists of the furious-driving school are apt to resent remarks of outsiders. But has not the man in the street the right to say he objects to being run over?

Between 1892 and 1895 motor cars were alprejudice. ready snorting along the highways of France. Motorists were received in the towns with misgivings and in the villages with positive hostility. The peasants resented the noisy, terrifying horseless carriage that ran over their 'dogs and chickens, and in the hands of inexperienced drivers, caused serious accidents. This was a period of quarrels and lawsuits between local authorities and motorists.

In the second period, from 1895 to 1898, the peasants and people of country towns were brought round. They were made to believe

Auto-car

that automobilism would bring about as great a revolution as railways had done fifty years before-that motor omnibuses would soon connect every village with the neighboring towns and that wealth would be multiplied. This was the period of racing and recordbreaking. Even the peasants grew enthusiastic. The first long-distance race of this period (Paris to Bordeaux and back, 745 miles) racing. was won by M. Levassor, on a carriage built by himself, in 48 hours 48 minutes, a feat of endurance. M. Levassor did not take a minute's sleep or rest for two days and two nights. These three years, 1895 to 1898, were a period of boom for carriage builders, and though they charged fancy prices they could not meet the demands of purchasers.

In the third period, from 1898 up till now, the weight, the speed, the power of carriages have increased every year, the peasant has been disappointed in his hopes, reckless driving has become a national nuisance, the highways are getting dangerous, and accidents are happening daily. The peasants' attitude is now one of sullen hostility. Government and local authorities issue regulations against fast driving, and an order was issued (in 1900)) which prohibits racing, except by special permission.

The Paris

The Paris-Berlin race on June 27, 28 and 29, 1901, marks a triumph and a collapse. Berlin race When the hundred and ten competitors started

The future of the automobile.

from Champigny automobilism was still what it had been from the foundation of the Automobile Club-a sport. When the winners made their triumphal entrance into Unter den Linden it was a sport no longer, but a means of transportation. This evolution would have taken place sooner or later. A long time ago M. Giffard, the editor of the Vélo, defined what automobilism should be in an epigram: “Non pas Sport, mais Transport." It was the running over the little boy at Rheims that precipitated the change.

The future of Automobilism must be shaped on different lines from the past. Possibly it was a necessity for the infant industry to come forward as a sport. To attempt to keep up this character any longer would, I think, injure instead of favoring that industry. The time is not far off when wealthy chauffeurs will be enthusiastic on something else. In the long run the best customers will be found in the easy middle class, but prices will have to be much lower than they are now. This would be impossible with present habits of excessive speed, and disregard for mechanical efficiency. It is just as well to give up the idea that auto-cars can compete with railways. Horseless carriages have been built which run faster than any express train; but electric trains can be made to outspeed either.

THE CORONATION OF ALFONSO XIII.

T

(A.D. 1902)

RICHARD HARDING DAVIS

HERE is a crown in Spain, but the King does not wear it. Unlike other monarchs, to become a king he does not have to wait until the crown is placed upon his head, but he is born a king. When, sixteen years ago, Alfonso the Thirteenth was passed around the ante-room to his mother's bed-chamber on a silver tray, robed simply in pink jeweller's cotton to be observed by the foreign ambassadors, he was then just as much of a king as when, in the Cortes, he laid his hand on the Bible and swore to observe the laws of his country.

The King't

The oath he swore is this one: "I swear to God on the Holy Gospels to observe the Con- oath stitution and the laws. If I do this may God reward me, if not, may He call me to account." At the conclusion of this brief oath, which the boy recited in a firm, clear voice, some one cried, "Viva el Rey!" and the entire gathering shouted "Viva" once. It rang like a salute of musketry.

There were a crown and sceptre on the table beside the King, but he did not touch