File:American homes and gardens (1911) (18131148556).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar81911newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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November, 1911 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 391
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The garage which has an architectural distinction is one of the most interesting features of a country place of any sort, and should always occupy a place in the plans of the premises when it is found possible to arrange for its being included for the automobiles of chance visitors and guests, even though he has no garage proper as yet upon the premises. Of course, many families in the country keep their motor cars in old carriage stables. Indeed, the name "garage" so often sug- gests that of "chauffeur" that many persons have not be- come interested in owning motors from imagining they would have to hire chauffeurs to run them, despite the fact that an enormous number of automobiles are operated solely by their owners or members of their families. In this con- nection it is interesting to note the increasing popularity of the "visiting chauffeur" in country localities—a man under- taking the daily examination of automobiles for a number of families in a neighborhood, carefully "grooming" the cars and getting them ready for the day's travel. As public garages and automobile repair shops are now everywhere to be found, any road mishap need not necessarily require one's own chauffeur at hand when driving, and the "visiting chauffeur" plan has therefore been found to work out with great success, and it proves an economical way of adding to the pleasure of the country dweller's owning his own car. It must not be thought that motoring is merely an idle pastime, at least not for the one driving the car. Indeed, it is one of the best forms of exercise for all-round develop- ment, calling, as it does, all the muscles of the upper part of the body, and many of the muscles of the lower limbs, con- stantly into play, and in such a manner that one becomes adept in their control. It has always been thought that driving an automobile was under no condition a woman's profession; however, this is a great mistake. Hundreds of women throughout the country drive their own cars and find great pleasure in the pastime, as well as the profit of its exercise. It is, of course, more difficult for a woman to attempt anything like the repairs on a car, but where one leaves the garage with a machine in good condition, with careful driving one is reasonably safe from the interruptions and annoyances that might otherwise present themselves. As to the matter of safety, there should be no doubt that a carefully driven car is fully as safe as riding in a carriage after a horse. Unless one is content to plod along the road after what is called a "plug," there must always be more or less danger in driving from a shying or unused horse. There is, of course, pleasure in horses that nothing else can sup- plant, and one does not pretend that an automobile presents attractions synonymous to those found in driving. Driving and motoring each have their particular fascinations, and each must be considered separately. However, the objec- tion to the motor car as being unsafe is hardly tenable. We have not, perhaps, paid enough attention to the edu- cational value of the automobile in the matter of bringing through its means to the attention of our children a better idea of historical localities. It is a pity that in the eastern countryside, almost every mile of which has some definite connection with our history, the children in the house are not taken on little home excursions to points of historical interest. This, perhaps, is because we so often overlook those things that are most near at home. Apropos of this it may not be out of place to mention here the plan whereby a man and his wife added actual profit to the pleasure of their summer's motoring. They lived near one of the his- toric towns of the Hudson River Valley, a neighborhood much frequented by summer visitors, and by mapping out an excursion route to a number of places of interest in the

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