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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1916)
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1916. LA GRANDE EVENING OBSERVER PAGE NINE I.C. Hlillll!lillll!IIIIIII!lllll!IIII!ll'.llll!i!l!llll!I!lli:illtli!illll Illilililliillillilillllillill.Xllil e3 SMTH qkhker sot U The growth of the automobile in- .'4fcry i graphically ilustrated by an ntervie L. C. Smith gave the Ob- rver representative who called upon bm for the copy of his ad appearing sewhere in this issue. Said Mr. Smith: "I came to La (rande fourteen years ago from the fist where I had had technical train fig in a mechanical school and a laried experience with gasoline en fines including working in the Web ler engine factory in KajiBas City. Shortly after my arrival I was em ployed by Jay Van Buren to take ,'harge of his bicycle shop which he vas then running in the rear of his iresent store. j "There was but one automobile in La Grande at that time, a one-lunged, teven horsepower affair owned by Dr. Molitor and so far as I know it was Jie only car between Portland and Boise. Naturally the owner of an au tomobile at that time would look to the bicycle repair man for help when hia wonderful new machine stopped, wheezed jnd ran backwards of its own accord, especially when Mr. Van Buren and myself were among the very few who professed to be auto mobile doctors. However by more or less experimenting we managed to keep the thing going in a fairly satis factory manner. "The next two or three years saw a great improvement in the automo bile as well as in the repairman. Tho two-cylinder variety began ti appear with much more power and much bet ter design. As I remember W. H. Bohnenkamp wus the tirst to get one of this variety and it.? coming t town created almosr mur'i c .1'. as Ringing B.-Oa. fir.-j;,. "About tnis tin-.t I .sevci "... " ' ,ic tion with Mr. Van Luien a. id it .el a shop of ,iy vvn in U:e buiU. ng where Geor-e Cuirey now has Ws real eate office. This was he begin ning ol my present business. I had the word "garage" painted over my door and I well remember hunting through several eastern magazines to find how the word was spelled as it had not found its way to the diction ary and no one ventured a pronuncia tion of the word. However nearly every one seemed to know that it in some way had something to do with an automobile and that was sufficient for me as I had fully made up my mind to devote my life to the automo bile and I was bending every effort to learn more about them and how to keep their wheels going around. "One by one the machines came into the valley' until in 1900, I think there was something over a dozen machines then in Union county and my garage was the sole hostelry and usually the only place gasoline and oil could be found. Mr. Smith stopped and called the mascot of the garage, the big glossy black rooster, to his side and con tinued: "It was perhaps a year or two earlier than this that a traveling man for a large wholesale bicycle sundry house of Portland called on men and went into the future of the horseless carriage at great length and with great pride informed me that his holise was going to carry a line of horseless carriage sundries, in fact had placed orders throughout the cast for nearly five hundred dollars worth already and insisted that I place an order for some of these horseless carriage fixtures as there was Bure to be quite a demand in the no&r future. I waxed warm and placed an order for three dollars and sixty-eight cents worth, which I think war the first order ever placed in Union county for sundries to be car rind in stock. The same house in Portland carries more than a hundred thousand dollars worth of automobile stock today. "In 1908 I took the agency for the Ford and during the first year I sold 18 cars. It took more work to sell these 18 cars than it has to sell the 150 car which I have sold this year. Wie.i .. rst began to sell Fords my n .rest ompetitor in price for a four-cylinder car was a Model G CadP.Uv which then sold for about I? 100 K O. B. Portland, j "In trying to keep pace with th growth of the automobile indust enlarged my quarters seven dilne: times. Beginning with about :0u square feet in the Huntington build ing. I kept enlarging until I occupied the whole Huntington building. From there I moved to the Slater building which is now occupied by the Child's Feed store. Four years ago I built the main building of my present location and last year I found it necessary to double my space by put ting up the building on Fifth street. "Whether the automobile business can keep up the pace next year it did this, remains to be seen, but it ap pears there is more prospective pur chasers at the present time than ever before." SINGER ACQUIRES NEW AUTO Metropolitan Opera Star, Anna Fitziu, Buvs Her Second Mitchell Six The celebrated Motronolitnn Grand Opera Star, Anna Fitziu after own ing and driving one of the famous Mitchell models, "The Six of '16", for i-3 B over nine months, has just purchased a new Mitchell Landau-Brougham for her personal use. After an experience of nine months with that famous, easy riding "Six of '16" through the strenuous grand opera season, with nerves on edge and forced to make every minute's leis ure count in rest, in order to recupe rate, Miss Fitziu has just bought an other Mitchell, for on her early drives through the invigorating morning air and on her burry trips from theater to home, she finds the same restful comfort in her Mitchell Six as at home tucked away in the luxurious ness of her "w i divan. .tr' t'ini's, '-'.i' p.J and continual jar ! d in either soothe " in:', lurh strung f h .1 j'.in 'V. t .r.oliilc i egul-n nerve ti.. water, bee . III'!-" ted a model autom- t a j'i"-c est streets . omf Pullman the; v ,,-s i "Multitudes wh- . a Velio values for ''.iK is on . ii we could improve them f.i ' '. 1 simply aded more values nt.i. j; . l the price low," says Chas. Mc'rij, Vclie agent in La Grande ai d con tinues: " Four more inches of body length, with a sorresponding increase in room, gives even more style and riding lux ury. You have to compare the greater "Riltwell" with cars costing from $500 to $1000 more to find bodies like our splendid 1917 body. "The substantial, rigid, oak frame work and extra heavy steel, with mir ror finish twenty operation"! deep, in sures a fine-looking body after yeara of hard use. And there is real comfort Until Dec. 1 And then the price of the famous Chandler Six greatest of all light sixes, greatest by any test and any standard 's up. Chandler production cost has ad vanced 15i percent in the past year. And so the Chandler selling price must advance. Now is your last opportunity to buy a Chandler at the present low price established nearly two years ago. Get Your Chandler Now. Seven-Passenger Touring Car $1295 Four-Passenger Roadster $1293 Seven-Passenger Convertible Sedan ...... $1895 Four-Passenger Convertible Coupe .... $1895 Limousine $2595 (All Prices F. O. B. Cleveland, Ohio) LEIGHTON'S GARAGE LA GRANDE, OREGON CHANDLER MOTOR GAR COMPANY, CLEVELAND, OHIO in its deep-tufted genuine leather and curled hair upholstery." Having participated in the most unique and unusual incident ever re corded in the annals of the automobile ; industry, the famous Maxwell non-stop j champion, known to all motordom as the International Wanderer, and which I for an alleged infraction of the Cus- i toms Laws of the Canadian govern ment was sieznd and held "in durance vile'' for nearly two months, has been i released by the Collector of Customs at Vancouver and returned to the Max- j well Motor Sales Corporation of the Pacific Coast I Pendinir the final release of the re- j nownod non-stop car, which lass than one year ae i broke the world's record j for a .ion-stop run, travelling mor than "2,000 miles without a motor irtop and lj.vering the bast previous .(or is ' 7 more than 10,00f miles, the fc-i f the entire organization of Salr--; Co; ;v rntinn were di- v i-d ' - posses! in or .. y.. : j J 'O or!d, tiic i. i i if Government and '.. ftunisrition becoming .m.iiijil to every man, d having the slightest v. ..i in to il, in gs which pertain to the modern n.otor car. Every Willys-Overland Dealer in the United States, over five thousand in all, has been invited to visit the fac tory in Toledo during the month of December. Only a small pait of the expense incident to the trip will be borne by the dealers. The balance will be taken care of by the Willys-Overland Com pany. The dealers will travel in special $1295 1 trains from all over the United States. While in Toledo they will be shown through the Overland factory, which the world. It covers 103 acres, or an I erected at Eighth and Wilshire Boule area equal to twenty-eight city blocks, vards this year instead of at Seventh The dealers will also be shown all : Streets as in former years. The change of the 1917 Overland and Willys- of iocatiml will make for better hand- ruugnt Moaeis, ana win see tne new . models put through the various tests, which are required of undergo be fore leaving the factory. Banquets will be given in honor of the visiting dealers, and the plans and policies of the company will be ex plained in detail by President Pohn N. Willys. All bran :h managers and general officers of the Willys-Overland of Cal ifornia and Overland Pacific Inc. of the northwest have accepted the invi tation nnd are arranging to secure the acceptance of every dealer on tha Pacific Coast. Cooper Al Santa Monica. :i';ita Monica, Cal., Nov. 11. (Spe- idrl.) Ear! Cooper, famous Stutz pilot ! i- th 'in-! driver to make a trip over i .li" Santa Monira road race course;, ewr which will be held on November Kith and 18th the Vanderbilt Cup and J International Grand Prize races,, in a J racing car this year. Cooper paid the 1 1 course a visit last week and was great-! J ly interested in the preparations forjl the contests. J Work started on the stretches last Monday and the erection of the bridge and grandstand commenced at the iiliiiv milt;, iiiu vvuin uiiuvi mtr roction of Commissioner of Public ' Works Carter, the man who has had charge of all previous work on the j roads. Mr. Carter is experienced in the needs and requiremtnts of road work for racing purposes and promises that the course will be faster this year than ever. He also states that all work will be done before the first practice starts on November 9th. The bridge over the course will be iintr of truffi.-. sav the men in charee. l'he new location of the bridge will allow motorists who come by way of Washington and National Boulevards a straight into the course. Cooper in his inspection trip looked over tho road very thoroughly and stated that worlds records would be broken this year. He based his predic tion on the fact that the course is ! now in much better shape than ever before and furthermore he said that as Santa Monica had held no race for two years and that racing cars im proved greatly in that time that great er speed woul be secured. The All American J i J It "If It'w Insurable, Vtf 1 if" r Jk 1IW - , GEORGE HUNTINGTON CURREY Phone Black 2002 108 Elm Street La Grande, Oregon CHICHESTER S PILLS "LK-v TnK IIIAHOND IH1AND. r A. bl-rbiw.u-r's IMamond IlrandA rillatn Red and Gold rreuil,c UiM. tied with Hlua Rihlmn. Tx lak no ether, llujr r jour v . DrvHlftt. AskforCIII-rirKH-TKirs' yem k nown as Best, Safest. Always Reiitbt SOLD BY DRUGGISTS EVERYWHERS WE KNOW of no other remedy that we can rec ommend more highly than TRADE. MARK REMEDY The burning and itching is quickly stopped and relief results by persist ently using it. Sold only by us 50c and $1.00. LEVY-VOGEL DRUG CO. La Grande Oregon. INSURANCE Agency AT All American, Old-Lino, Board Companies. FIRE, AUTO, PLATE GLASS. GRAIN, LIFE. ACCIDENT. HEALTH & BONDS. ADVERTISING Managemont Adv. Campaigns, Adv. Writ ing. Sales Plans, Distribution. Let Me Demonstrate These Sayers Collection System Guaranteed. Standard Rex Visible Typewriter $57.50 AGENT OREGON JOURNAL Call at my new office opposite the Y. M. C. A. and I will bo pleased to talk to you about any of the above lines. Currey Can Insure It
