ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | DECEMBER 18, 1919 | THE FARMER's ADVOCATE
An automobile came tearing through the night not long ago on a much-travelled highway. The glaring headlights cast volumes of light across the road, but blinded the vision of a pilgrim who happened to be travelling in a horse-drawn vehicle. For an instant the man hesitated; the horse was paralyzed with fright, but the suspense did not last for long. Crash! The car, without hesitating, went on into the night leaving only some fragmentary pieces of glass to indicate a minor damage to itself, but at the roadside there was piled a lifeless horse, a shattered buggy and a badly-injured man.
Anyone can sit up nights and with loaded gun guard his person or his property against harm, but on the King’s highway one is at the mercy of daring, reckless, and sometimes brainless drivers of automobiles, who often care little for the rights of others and less for property and life. When horses were the sole means of transportation the instinct of the brute often prevented accidents which his master would not have avoided, but the automobile is cold mechanism, without mentality in any form and will run headlong into a man or a stone wall at fifty miles per hour if the driver so dictates. Against such combinations as we often find in automobiles and their drivers, the pedestrian, or traveller in a horse-drawn vehicle, has little chance on the road. There is altogether too much daring, careless and fool-hardy driving of automobiles for the safety of those using the King’s highway. There are laws, of course, but no statute or litigation can restore the life of one sacrificed through a disregard of those laws. Motor leagues have done much to make motor travel sae and to secure the rights of all who may care to use the public highway. Motorists, too, as a rule are cautious, courteous and observant of other’s rights, but there are always a few who by their recklessness endanger the lives and property of all. It is these few who should be summarily dealt with by those authorized to act, and there should be no opportunity afforded for a second offence.