The various incidents which have been related prove that it is not wise to take anything for granted. It seems like a simple rule, but only those who have tried to follow it will find out how hard it is. It is also important to bear in mind that it is not wise to use too much logic in hunting trouble, for the solution is often far from logical. It is well to reason as carefully as possible, but if the solution is still to be found it often happens that it is obtained by some illogical act. Follow the general-trouble rule in an orderly way, therefore, and do not take anything for granted.
CHAPTER XLV
BLOWING YOUR OWN HORN
Of course it is your horn and you have a right to do anything you want to do with it—except make a nuisance of yourself to others—and you can toot it to your heart’s content when off in some wilderness; but if you desire to live in peace and harmony with your neighbors and with your fellow travelers in this vale of tears, you will have a care when and where you toot your toots.
In olden days it was compulsory to have bells on the horse when drawing a sleigh, which was supposed to be noiseless. The bells were to give warning of the sleigh’s approach around a curve or over the hill. This was the only vehicle to have a warning tone, except the fishman or the junk cart, and their noise was inviting—ostensibly—rather than warning, though often it ought to have been the latter.
Soon after the coming of the bicycle it became apparent that some means of signalling its approach must be had. Now singularly enough in the light of present-day understanding, the bicycle bell or horn was not to warn people to get out of the way. It was to warn folks that you were looking out for them and that, unless they stepped suddenly in your path, they might feel assured that you would not run into them. Everybody understood that the pedestrian had first right to the road. Bicycle riders practiced strenuously the ways to avoid the man afoot—most of them.
With the coming of the automobile the use of horns was continued, early electrics and some others using a bell. They were the continuance of the bicycle warning, and when the automobile was popularizing itself it was understood that the bell or horn was merely to prevent others from walking into danger. The autoist saw to it, so far as he could, that the man, woman, or child went safe.
Came another generation and the universal use of the automobile for pleasure, business, and transportation uses, and all of a sudden people began to talk about the rights of the autoist, and the horn began to peremptorily order folks to get out of the way or get run over. There is not the slightest doubt in the mind of the writer that the present attitude of autoists in general is due to the mistaken notion that they have rights in the roadway part of the street and the pedestrian’s rights are confined to the sidewalks and crossing walks; nor that this notion was bred by the police regulations of traffic which sought to protect the pedestrian by herding him off the road to the side walks and permitting him at intervals to cross the road. It is noticeable, however, that not one arrest for refusing to keep off the roadway has ever been made—or at least sustained by court. The policeman may frown at the man who tries to go contrary to the traffic rule, but that is all.
Out of this misunderstanding there has come such a constant use of horns as to make it a continual nuisance on thickly traveled streets and even on much traveled highways in the country. And the nuisance is not from the necessary signaling to other cars or vehicles, but the unnecessary tooting the driver does because he wants everybody to know that he is coming and to understand that they must get out of the way for him.
Now a certain amount of signaling is needed in driving, but it is possible to drive through the thick traffic of New York City from the Battery to Harlem without tooting the horn half a dozen times—that is if one is a careful and well-instructed driver.
Watch other drivers and pedestrians and do not blow the horn after they have seen you, or if their direction and speed of travel is such that they will be out of your way before you get to them. If not seen, sound the horn once and be ready to stop. As a matter of fact the foot should instinctively go to the brake pedal each time the hand goes to the horn. But if you are seen by the other person why blow the horn at all?