The carriage work is hopelessly bad.  The building of carriages is a long-established industry, employing hundreds of thousands of hands and millions of capital, and yet in the entire United States there are scarcely a dozen builders of really fine, substantial, and durable vehicles.  Yet every cross-road maker of automobiles thinks that if he can only get his motor to go, the carpenter next door can do his woodwork.  The result is cheap stock springs, clips, irons, bodies, cushions, tops, etc., are bought and put over the motor.  The use of aluminum bodies and more metal work generally is helping things somewhat; not that aluminum and metal work are necessarily better than wood, but it prevents the unnatural union of the light wood bodies, designed for cheap horse-vehicles, with a motor.  The best French makers do not build their bodies, but leave that part to skilled carriage builders.

CHAPTER SEVEN BUFFALO TO CANANDAIGUA BEWARE OF THE COUNTRY MECHANIC

The five hundred and sixty-odd miles to Buffalo had been covered with no trouble that delayed us for more than an hour, but our troubles were about to begin.

The Professor had still a few days to waste frivolously, so he said he would ride a little farther, possibly as far as Albany.  However, it was not our intention to hurry, but rather take it easily, stopping by the way, as the mood—­or our friends—­seized us.

It rained all the afternoon of Tuesday, about all night, and was raining steadily when we turned off Main Street into Genesee with Batavia thirty-eight miles straight away.  We fully expected to reach there in time for luncheon; in fact, word had been sent ahead that we would “come in,” like a circus, about twelve, and friends were on the lookout,—­it was four o’clock when we reached town.

The road is good, gravel nearly every rod, but the steady rain had softened the surface to the depth of about two inches, and the water, sand, and gravel were splashed in showers and sheets by the wheels into and through every exposed part of the mechanism.  Soon the explosions became irregular, and we found the cams operating the sparker literally plastered over with mud, so that the parts that should slide and work with great smoothness and rapidity would not operate at all.  This happened about every four or five miles.  This mechanism on this particular machine was so constructed and situated as to catch and hold mud, and the fine grit worked in, causing irregularities in the action.  This trouble we could count upon as long as the road was wet; after noon, when the sun came out and the road began to dry, we had less trouble.