| Sunday, June 27, 2004 |
18:55 - The way of the world
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In Automobile Magazine this month, there's a fascinating biography of Charles Jasper Glidden, one of those globetrotting privileged aristocrats from the turn of the 20th century who made history in 1906-07 by driving a 16-horsepower Napier all around the world, in England, France, Germany, from India to Egypt, from Japan to New Zealand and through the gates of Jerusalem, meeting adoring and scandalized onlookers every step of the way. I can't find the article online; more's the pity, although here is a brief bio of the guy. Google no doubt can unearth more.
There were lots of interesting observations about the state of the motoring world in those days; for example, France was the only country in Europe that had passable roads, and America was still connected from coast to coast primarily by rutted dirt tracks, the subject of much derision from European wags. Streets in Java were mostly flooded. But, interestingly, the best roads in the world, the article says, were to be found in India, where "the British put Indians to work laying macadam surfaces as a way to pay off their famine relief".
The article concludes as follows:
What would it take to repeat Glidden's journey? Probably no amount of money could get you through Israel and into Syria today or over the Khyber Pass and into Afghanistan. Glidden's worries focused on logistics, securing gasoline and oil, contingencies for breakdowns. Today's road warrior must deal with politics, terrorism, poverty, and hate, tougher by far than worrying about when the needed valves would arrive or where you'd find your next can of gasoline.
In other words, it was a more peaceful, safer, richer, happier world a century ago, wasn't it?
If true (which it isn't), that's because there were empires back then.
Ain't it great how far we've come?
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Brian Tiemann
