Putnams Monthly The Critic PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ...a rush. Observing the men at the wheels of the different machines in any big event, one is struck by the predomin less of consequences, have left their marks on those lean, strong, weatherbeaten faces waiting at the line forthe starter's signal. Not reckless, but absolutely fearless, every man is ready to offer up his life to the spirit of speed. A driver who was seriously injured while practising for the Briarcliff race said as soon as he recovered consciousness: "This makes nineteen times in nine years that I have had broken bones, but I 'm going to keep right on racing." George Robertson's narrow escapes from death on the track would fill a volume. Speed contests and endurance runs certainly weed out the weaklings; no man who is a coward can hope to drive a racing-car to victory, and several drivers now in the public eye have proved themselves to he possessed of courage, endurance and heroism equal to any ever displayed on the battle-fields of history. I. B. Ryall won the hill-climb up Giant's Despair at Wilkesbarre, in May, 1907, driving with a sprained wrist and taking twelve seconds off the world's record for such a feat. Later on, in the twenty--four-hour endurance race at Brighton Beach, the same man drove with a broken leg in a plaster cast strapped to the car. He clung to the wheel all night in this condition, and for one hundred miles of the distance he travelled between dark and daylight, averaging one minute and two seconds to the mile. After driving sixteen out of eighteen hours, he called upon Charles Rifen him off out of pure humanity. Any one who saw his face in the ghastly glare of the arc-lights, drawn and distorted with agony and streaming with sweat, will not soon forget it. Another striking instance...