So, now, having turned to the manufacturer’s books of instructions and pondered over the warnings here given, the reader may safely pass on to the chapters dealing with the beast he is called upon to tame.
CHAPTER II
SOME THINGS TO AVOID
When a certain character of history, long touted as “the wisest guy ever,” uttered his famous “Wisdom crieth aloud in the street,” and along with it, “Fools hate knowledge,” he must have had a vision of the present day, when there is so much and so little known about the chief mode of transportation, the automobile; so much by those who really have studied its mechanical principles, and so little by those who are running them about the highways. Yet in this day of automobile schools and service stations there is no need of a single individual being ignorant, nor of his coming under the condemnation of the same wise one: “The careless ease of fools shall destroy them.”
Give me an individual of average intelligence in overalls and jumper and a mind devoid of the “I know it” error and 99.99 per cent. of such can be taught to “make the auto auto as it really ought to auto.” The chief obstacle is the half knowledge—half error—which some possess.
Josh Billings once said: “I’d rather not know so much than know a lot that is not so.” The reader will get the idea.
One of the hardest things for the average man to learn is not to do useless things. Over and over folks will do things contrary to all rules and instructions and make extra work for themselves. In a school it is a good thing, perhaps, for it enables the instructor to point out the futility of going at the thing wrong end first. There was one class at the West Side Y.M.C.A. school particularly stupid in this respect. They were set to locating engine troubles, forgot all about the rules and took turns cranking the engine, expecting in that way to find out why the engine would not run. The instructor, looking into the classroom, found how things were going. All but one student were intent upon turning over the engine; that one man stood in one corner grinning, apparently having a good time with himself. The instructor in feigned amazement called out to him:
“Here, why are you not cranking the engine, too?”
With a grin perfectly idiotic the fellow drawled out:
“What’s the use of cranking if she ain’t goin’ to run?”
The reader can figure out for himself the relative degrees of idiocy or stupidity in that class. The instructor quickly set them to work by rule and they all knew in a few minutes that troubles are not located by cranking alone. The reader who will give careful attention to the instructions herein contained, and who will follow closely the rules, will not be cranking the engine when he should be cleaning a spark plug, or adjusting the carburetor, or mending a broken wire. He will learn that there is a sequence in every little job about the auto which tends to lessen the labor and to produce the best result, just as there is in keeping a set of books, or in running a farm.