f seventeen years did the
construction of automobiles improve and the temper of the world toward
them change. The present day may almost be called the "automobile age."
The progress by which this has come about, and the enormous development
of this new industry is here traced by two men who have followed it
most closely. The narrative of the "auto's" triumphs by Mr. C.F. Carter
appeared first in the _Outing Magazine_. The account of the industry's
growth by Mr. Isaac Marcosson appeared in _Munsey's Magazine_, of which
he was the editor. Both are given here by the permission of the
magazines.

C.F. CARTER

When the marine architects and engineers catch up with the automobile
makers they can build a ship capable of crossing the Atlantic in
twenty-three hours; or, if we forget to make allowance for the
difference in longitude, capable of making the run from Liverpool to
New York in the same apparent time in which the Twentieth Century
Limited makes the run from New York to Chicago. That is, the vessel
leaving Liverpool at three o'clock in the afternoon would arrive at New
York at nine o'clock the following morning, which, allowing for the
five hours' difference in time, would make twenty-three hours.

When the railroad engineers provide improved tracks and motive power
that will enable them to parallel the feats of the automobile men, if
they ever do, the running time for the fastest trains between New York
and Chicago will be reduced to seven hours, while San Francisco will be
but a day's run from the metropolis.

And when the airship enthusiasts are able to dart through the air at
the speed attained by the automobile, it will be time enough to think
of taking seriously the extravagant claims made in behalf of aviation.

For the automobile is the swiftest machine ever built by human hands.
It is so much swifter than its nearest competitor that those who read
these lines to-day are likely to be some years older before its speed
is even equaled, to say nothing of being surpassed, by any other kind
of vehicle.

So far as is known, but one human being ever traveled faster than
Robert Burman did in his racing auto on the beach at Daytona, Florida,
on April 23, 1911. This solitary exception was a Hindu carrier who
chanced to tumble off the brink of a chasm in the Himalayas. His name
has not been preserved, he never made any claim to the record, he was
not officially timed, and altogether the event has no official
standi