Chit-Chat Over Coffee Swirls (26)

Topic: The Automobile Craze Has Finally Come To New York

As long as man has been around, he has always found a way to transport himself and the things that he needs, from one location to another. Transportation is essential to trade and travel, whether we live in big Cities or small town, U.S.A. We entrust our livelihood, food supply and social lives to it. The wheeled vehicle, was one of man's most important technological developments. We are heavily dependent on it to go from one destination to the other. New York's interstate, major roadways and bridges are jam-packed with cars, trucks, motorcycles and buses inching their way through bumper-to-bumper traffic. Millions of motorists dread this daily commute, while some may be resigned to accept growing gridlock as a way of life. One can definitely say that the amount of time that angry and frustrated motorists spends in traffic congestion has tripled or quadrupled over the years. So let's pause and take a backward glance at where it all began..........

There is no doubt that at one time the bicycle was considered a plaything or a luxury, and reserved to the elite who paid an exorbitant price for it, but gradually as the automobile began to make its presence known, the bicycle became an indispensable means of transportation to millions of the working class who employed them.

Men in America, France, Germany and England began to experiment with the motorization of the bicycle. Carl Benz in Germany produced a benzine-powered tricycle in 1885, L.D. Copeland of Philadelphia invented a steam-driven tricycle in 1885, De Dion and Bouton's gasoline tricycle was entered in the Paris-Marseilles-Paris race for automobile vehicles in 1897, Andrew Riker, of Brooklyn, N.Y. introduced his Electric motor cycle and Louis S. Clarke contributed his gasoline tricycle in 1897. Then came Henry Ford's first Car "The Quadricycle" so named because it ran on four bicycle tires. Henry Ford was one of the several automotive pioneers who helped this country become a nation of motorists.

The automobile began to make it's appearance in the streets in the late nineties, and were being turned out by the thousands. Where once the bicycle shops were in abundance, we find their places taken by many more garages and showrooms for the sale and repair of the automobile.

A reporter from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle comments on the automobile craze that has affected the residents of Brooklyn, New York in his article "Brooklyn Has Automobile craze in its Most Virgulent Form." dated September 22, 1901.

"Manufacturers of and dealers in automobiles are more surprised than any one else over the growing popularity of those vehicles. Factories everywhere are working over time in a futile effort to keep up with orders. At first the public did not take very kindly to automobiles. They were regarded as hard to manage, rather dangerous and a trifle expensive. Gradually, however, as the novelty wore off, the public became more interested. Today, with the precincts of Greater New York alone, there are more than 3,000 automobiles of every shape, make and description, owned by private individuals, not counting those known as hacks, owned by transportation companies. Brooklyn, particularly, has the automobile craze in its most virulent form. Those who follow the industry assert that in another year there will be more than double the present number in Greater New York. So enormous is the demand for automobiles at present that on August 1 last the price was raised $100 on all styles. Such vehicles as Vanderbilt's White Ghost and the Red Rover cost in the neighborhood of $6,000 each. Automobiles seem to be more popular in Flatbush than in any other part of Brooklyn, or perhaps any other part of Greater New York. People who own automobiles are mostly people of means and the majority of them own their own homes. "

By 1921 Henry Ford was building a million cars a year. "Ford and his two chief rivals, General Motors and the Chrysler Corporation produced four-fifths of all automobiles in this country." The auto manufacturers in their attempt to make their vehicles more affordable would offer the consumer a time-payment plan, which encouraged and enabled the consumer to buy the cars which otherwise would have been out of reach for the average wage earner. As a result of the availability and expansion of consumer credit, sales of goods and services increased. Over a period of time there were 23 million cars on the highways. The automobile revolutionized the use of leisure time. Families were able to leave the surroundings of their homes and partake of sports, beaches, parks, flock to theaters, and visit amusement areas. The automobile offered families opportunities for travel all over the country........

Did somebody say "Leisure Time? " Goodness gracious...its not the 1920s but 2008. This scenario is not only limited to the workday schedule but is also seen throughout the summer months, when people seek out the beaches, parks and other forms of recreational activities as a way to relax from the hurry-scurry of the week, yet there isn't a relaxed face in a carload. Here and there along the highways, one can see stranded motorists standing in the sweltering, dizzying heat, beside their car that either had a flat tire, broke down, overheated, or ran out of gas thus worsening the weekend congestion of pleasure seekers.

Once the road is cleared desperate motorists speed away frantically searching for a gas station only to find themselves once again trapped in an enormous queue of fifty to maybe a 100 cars inching their way to the pumps, hoping that the gas would not run out. Not to mention the long lines at the station's beyond nasty unsanitary bathrooms leaving the motorists in a state of bewilderment on which of the two they should tackle first. Mother nature or get gas?

Manhattan, is where the greatest passenger traffic movement originates, develops and is distributed to the neighboring boroughs. This is where the overwhelming congestion of vehicles and passengers are moving everywhere and at the same time nowhere within the narrow and confined limits of the island, thus creating transportation problems that is becoming much more difficult to solve. Oh dear! The automobile....what will we do without it!

Photo Credit: New York Public Library Digital Image 836589 "Sunday Morning on 5th Ave.

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A Little Taste Of History (40)

Topic: The North American Indian Pre: 1900 #6

War

As in the tribal stage warfare is the chronic condition, so to the Indian war was the chief glory, scorn of death the highest virtue, and cowardice the greatest crime. Among extreme Northern tribes the principal weapons were the knife, club, and lance. To these were added farther south the bow and arrow, and the hatchet or tomahawk.

The bow and arrow were practically universal, but the lance and shield as a rule were used only by the equestrian tribes of the open plains and the desert Southwest, the timber people finding them a hindrance to active movement aside from the shield, defensive armor was not commonly used, excepting among tribes of the Alaskan coast, who had protective cuirasses of ivory plates, wooden slats, or of a very tough hide.

The bow was selected wood, frequently reinforced with sinew along its entire length, and strung with a sinew cord. The Gulf tribes had also blowguns of cane for hunting. The club was of stone or wood, in the latter case being sometimes supplemented with a piercing blade of flint or iron. The shield of the plains warrior was of the toughest buffalo-hide, cut and decorated according to the spirit dream of the maker, and given to the recipient under the most solemn vows of lifelong tabus and sacred obligations.

In some tribes the direction of all that pertained to war belonged by hereditary right to certain clans or towns. Thus among the Creeks the privilege belonged to the people of the so-called "red towns" while on the other hand the "white towns" had sole direction of peace negotiations. The prairie warriors had military orders with different degrees, the member being advanced from one to another by gradual steps. Thus the Kiowa had six orders, beginning with the "Rabbits" or boys in training, and ending with a select body of ten tried and veteran warriors.

Service in any particular expedition was entirely a matter of individual choice, and the authority of the leader rested solely upon the voluntary obedience of his followers. On the plains the invitation was usually given by sending around a war-pipe, which every volunteer was expected to smoke. The going and the home-coming were attended with numerous ceremonies, and a successful campaign was celebrated with the scalp-dance, in which the women carried the captured scalps and sang the praises of the victors.

Indiscriminate massacre was the ordinary rule; but prisoners were frequently taken, either for torture, slavery, or adoption into the tribe. In the East the decision of the prisoner's fate was usually left to the women. If adopted, he was taken into a family and became thenceforth a full member of the tribe. If condemned to death, he met his fate with all the courage of his Indian training. On the plains captives were seldom tortured, but were more often taken into the tribe, being rarely, however, so completely admitted to membership as in the East. Along the Pacific Coast from Alaska to California regular slavery existed. The practice of scalping the slain enemy was probably universal north of Mexico, excepting among certain tribes of California, the scalp being kept as a trophy or offered in sacrifice to some tribal medicine. It was not, however, the only or even the chief evidence of the warrior's courage. His standing depended upon the number of his coups or brave deeds against the enemy, of which careful record was kept in the tribe. A man was entitled to "count coup" (French, a stroke) not only for killing or scalping an enemy, but also for being the first to touch an enemy in the charge, for rescuing a disabled comrade, or for stealing a horse from a hostile camp. Thus three warriors might count coup upon a single slain enemy, viz. the one who killed him, the one who first touched the body with his coup-stick or weapon, and the one who secured the scalp. In many tribes it was customary to feast upon the flesh of one of the slain enemy after a notable victory. (14)

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A Little Taste Of History (39)

Topic: The North American Indian Pre: 1900 #5

Religion and Mythology

To the Indian every animal, plant, and object of nature was animated by a spirit, beneficent or otherwise, according as it was propitiated or offended. Certain of these were regarded as especially powerful or active, as the sun, fire, and water among the elemental gods, the buffalo, eagle, and rattle-snake among the animals, and the cedar, cotton-wood, corn, tobacco, and peyote among plants.

The number four was peculiarly sacred, as having reference to the cardinal points. Colors had symbolic meanings, and sometimes also sex and local abiding-places. Thus with the Cherokee the red gods of victory lived in the Sunland or east, while the blue spirits of disaster dwelt in the north.

Spirits were propitiated and implored with prayer, sacrifice, vigil, and fasting, and the purificatory sweat bath usually preceded every important ceremony. There was no overruling "Great Spirit," excepting as certain gods were of more frequent importance than others. Among the plains Indians the spirit buffalo was all-important, while with the agricultural tribes the rain-gods took precedence. The sun and its earthly representative, fire, were everywhere venerated. Certain tribes had tribal "medicine" or palladiums, with which the nation's prosperity was supposed to be bound up and around which centered their most elaborate ceremonial. Thus the Kiowa had their Taime image of stone, the Cheyenne their sacred arrows the Omaha their great shell. Each man had also his own secret personal medicine.

The priest was also a doctor, medicine and religion being so inseparably connected in Indian idea that there was usually but one word to designate both. The priests were frequently organized into cult societies, and there were also brotherhoods bound together by certain secret rites. Great stress was laid upon dreams and sacrifice. Among the Pawnee, in former times, a captive girl was annually sacrificed to the goddess of fertility. The cannibalistic practices of the Eastern tribes after a victory, and the cannibal feasts of the Northwest coast, in which a slave was the usual victim, were also more or less sacrificial in motive.

With these exceptions human sacrifice was rare, such bloody rites as those of the Aztecs being unknown in the North. There were special ceremonies for girls at puberty, and for young men on first taking rank with the warriors. Among the great religious ceremonials may be noted the green-corn dance of thanksgiving for the new crops, among the Eastern tribes; the sun dance and the more recent ghost dance of the plains tribes; the salmon dance of the Columbia region, and the celebrated snake dance of the Hopi of Arizona. To these may be added the peyote cult of the Southern plains. Tribal religions were sometimes subject to revival or revolution as new prophets arose from time to time. Thus the religion of the ghost dance, which has practically superseded the old beliefs and ceremonial forms of the plains tribes, had its origin in Nevada about fifteen years ago.

Each tribe had its genesis tradition and its culture hero, usually a great trickster and frequently an anthropomorphic animal, together with giants, dwarfs, fairies, witches, and various monsters, as well as animal tribes and chiefs, concerning all of whom there was a great of myth and folk-lore. Certain stories must be told only in winter, and others only at night, in order not to offend the chief personages concerned. (14)

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A Little Taste Of History (38)

Topic: The North American Indian Pre: 1900 #4

Industries and Arts.

Aside from his food procuring occupations, the Indian had quite a number of industries and arts, both economic and aesthetic. Having only accidental knowledge of any metal but native copper, his tools were made of stone, bone, shell, or wood.

From stone he fashioned his knife, hammer, axe, spear-head, and arrow-point, as well as his pipe and gaming disk. Flint was the material commonly used for cutting tools in the East and obsidian in the West. Pipes were of great variety and sometimes of great beauty, being one of the most important adjuncts of ceremonial functions. The Navaho and Pueblos were expert in drilling turquoise for necklaces and ear-pendants. The black slate carving of the Haida and other north west coast tribes is probably not excelled by any primitive people. Pots, bowls, mortars, and pestles were also fashioned from stone. Arrowheads, knives, skin-dressers, sewing-awls, and fishing-hooks were frequently made from bone. Shells were also shaped into cutting tools, but were in more constant demand for gorgets and for the celebrated wampum beads, which were in universal use in the East for dress ornamentation and for weaving into record belts. The Eskimo and Aleut were expert carvers in walrus ivory, depicting whole hunting scenes upon a single tusk, with great beauty of execution. Mortars, Bowls, clubs, masks and sacred images for ceremonial occasions were made of wood.

The Pueblos carved wooden figurines to represent their traditional mythological characters, and distributed them to the children as dolls at their symbolic dances. Besides the immense carved totem-poles, the northwest coast tribes hewed great canoes from cedar-trunks, always painted and carved in characteristic style. The wooden dug-out canoe of the Atlantic tribes was a similar affair.

The Indian woman was a capable skin-dresser. Sinew was used for thread, and certain women were professionals in the work of cutting and fitting. Among the Pueblos and Navaho weaving had reached a high state of development, the material used having been originally a native cotton, and later wool. The art of feather-weaving was found with the Gulf tribes, while everywhere east of the Mississippi beautiful mats were woven from grass and rushes and stained in bright colors from native dyes. Basketry was found almost everywhere except upon the plains, where rawhide boses formed a substitute. The materials used were wood or cane splits, rushes, maguey fibre, and grass. The art reached its highest development in California, the Pomo baskets being unrivaled in any part of the world for closeness of weaving, intricacy of design, and beauty of shape and decoration. Akin to weaving and basketry was the art of decoration with beads and porcupine-quills the most beautiful specimens being the cradles and colored sashes, on some of which months of labor were expended. Pottery was made by all the sedentary and semi-sedentary tribes of the Eastern timber region and the Southwest, the coil process being everywhere used. In the East the vessel was usually decorated with stamped patterns. Among the Pueblos and adjacent tribes figures in various colors were painted upon the smooth exterior and afterwards fixed in the firing process. Almost without exception the potter, basket-maker, weaver, and skin-dresser was a woman. The only metal really in use north of Mexico at the time of the discovery appears to have been copper, which was obtained native in small quantities in the Southern Alleghanies and in greater quantities from mines along the shores of Lake Superior. It was not smelted, but hammered into a great variety of useful and ornamental objects which passed from tribe to tribe in regular trade. Mica was quarried in western North Carolina for use in mirrors and gorgets, and beads and other small objects hammered out from gold nuggets or meteoric iron have been found in some of the Southern mounds. In the Southwest the Navaho have learned the smelting and forging arts from the Mexicans, and have now many expert silver-workers and blacksmiths, making beads, buttons, wrist-guards, rings, and belts from silver coins which they melt and shape in forges and molds of their own construction. (14)

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