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Early Automobiles

   The first automobile I can remember was our one cylinder Cadillac which my father bought in 1903 or 1904. It was his third automotive venture; earlier he had owned a steam Locomobile   and a gasoline Northern. The Cadillac seldom strayed beyond   town limits, and we kept it in a wing of the barn known as the "Bubble House." It was green, with doors for the back seat but none for the front and had neither top nor windshield, so when       it rained you either had to wear a rubber coat or raise an um-  brella to keep dry. There were no headlights — just a pair of kerosene lamps mounted on either side of the dashboard, and a kerosene tail light.
   The engine was under the front seat. To start it you inserted        a crank through a hole in the side of the vehicle and turned the   large flywheel, which spun around steadily once the motor     caught. One day my father got Pat McAuliffe, the police chief,      to clock him on a level stretch of road, and calculations proved   that he attained the amazing speed of twenty miles an hour !

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