Araminta and the Automobile

In Short

These three comedic short stories chronicle the advent of the automobile at the turn of the twentieth century, capturing suburban skepticism and mechanical mishaps. In the title piece, a confident husband wrecks his property during an erratic first drive with his wife. Another tale follows a clever husband who tricks his motor-phobic wife into an automobile ride by disguising it behind a mechanical wooden horse. The final story strands a methodical author in a runaway electric vehicle on Christmas night while rushing to confess his love before a holiday departure.

The Story

The collection opens with a suburban husband who purchases an electric automobile to escape the monotony of his daily train commute. Refusing professional instruction out of supreme self-confidence, he immediately reverses through his hen-yard-adjacent barn, smashes across his front piazza, and eventually coaxes his plucky wife, Araminta, into joining him for a highway excursion. Their turbulent journey leaves a trail of demolished property, including a local doctor's buggy, before the uncontrollable machine terminates its erratic run by crashing into a neighbor's rare orchid greenhouse.

The second narrative introduces Martha Tucker, whose deep-seated fear of motor carriages matches her traditional reliance on horses. When accidental ivy-poisoning temporarily impairs her vision and forces her to wear smoked glasses, her resourceful husband John seizes the opportunity. He purchases an automobile controlled from behind and pairs it with a mechanical, horse-skinned decoy. Believing she is riding in a fine new horse-drawn rig, Martha praises the smooth motion as they achieve thrilling speeds. When a runaway collision forces the chauffeur to abandon ship, the contraption crashes into a frog pond, sending Martha flying into the water. Despite the unexpected soak, her experience softens her rigid prejudices against motor travel.

The final story centers on Orville Thornton, a methodical author who receives word that the woman he loves, Annette Badeau, is unexpectedly sailing for Paris after Christmas. Determined to declare his feelings, Orville prepares for Mrs. Marten’s holiday dinner, but a painful ankle sprain from a fall on orange peel forces him to hire an electric automobile for transportation. Disaster strikes when the driver calmly announces that the vehicle cannot be stopped due to a mechanical failure. Trapped in a continuous loop around the city blocks, Orville passes the dinner party repeatedly, to the confusion of the guests. A guest named Joe Burton bravely boards the moving vehicle with a pail of soup, and eventually Annette herself climbs aboard with a dish of sweetbreads. Amidst the swirling traffic and humorous interruptions, Orville successfully proposes a bridal trip to Paris. The vehicle finally halts, allowing the exhausted romantic to join the dinner party just in time.

How It Unfolds

The purchase and the promise Suburban residents and professional men decide to embrace the modern convenience of electric automobiles despite neighborhood skepticism and deep attachments to traditional horses, viewing motor travel as an ideal escape from monotonous daily train commutes. Confident husbands make independent plans to acquire these machines, greeting potential mechanical dangers with unshakeable optimism. They proudly consider themselves public benefactors who provide lucrative work for local mechanics and carpenters through their frequent accidents.

The domestic demolition Untrained operators immediately take the wheel without outside instruction, resulting in immediate household catastrophes like scattered hen-yards, splintered front piazza storm doors, and demolished physician buggies on open rural highways. These initial chaotic excursions prove through flying clapboards and smashed greenhouse glass that operating an electric carriage is far simpler than managing its destructive termination. It is never the running of an automobile that proves expensive, but rather the stopping of it.

The ingenious disguise To bypass a devoted wife's rigid prejudice against motor cars, an inventive husband combines a rear-steered electric automobile with a custom-built mechanical wooden horse covered in genuine horsehair and skin. Because temporary painful ivy-poisoning forces the unsuspecting spouse to wear smoked glasses, she happily mistakes the high-speed motorized journey for an exceptionally smooth animal-drawn equipage. She praises the poetry of motion while remaining entirely unaware that she is piloting a horseless carriage.

The circular rescue A budding Christmas romance faces sudden disaster when an injured author with a sprained ankle boards a rental automobile that promptly loses its braking power and refuses to stop. Supportive friends and the beloved prospective bride literally chase down and jump aboard the looping vehicle to share warm food, exchange cheerful holiday banter, and accept romantic marriage proposals. The joyous chaos finally resolves when the stubborn machine naturally runs down, allowing everyone to reach the holiday dinner table.

The People

Araminta shares a suburban life with her fearless, self-assured husband, who narrates their chaotic first automobile ride. She wants to experience the new motor carriage safely, but her husband's refusal to accept instruction or braking limits places her in constant peril, though she remains plucky and good-humored throughout the property destruction.

John Tucker wants to enjoy an automobile despite his wife Martha's staunch aversion to motor vehicles. His obstacle is Martha's stubborn traditionalism, which he circumvents through an elaborate deception involving smoked glasses and a mechanical wooden horse. Ultimately, his elaborate ruse collapses during a runaway crash, though Martha emerges with a softened perspective on horseless travel.

Martha Tucker values traditional horse-drawn carriages and fiercely opposes automobiles until a bout of ivy-poisoning temporarily impairs her sight. Wearing smoked glasses, she is tricked into riding behind a mechanical wooden horse, praising the vehicle's speed before being launched into a frog pond during a runaway collision.

Orville Thornton is a methodical, punctual author who wants to confess his love to Annette Badeau before she sails for Paris. His primary obstacles are an inopportune sprained ankle from slipping on orange peel and a runaway rental automobile that refuses to stop. With the help of friends like Joe Burton who board the moving vehicle, Orville overcomes these logistical nightmares and secures Annette's hand in marriage.

Annette Badeau is a bright, warm visitor from the West who cares deeply for Orville. Threatened by an unexpected departure for Paris, her obstacle is Orville's hesitation and the runaway car trapping him. She resolves this by bravely jumping onto the moving vehicle with sweetbreads to accept his proposal.

In Its Own Voice

Refusing professional instruction before his maiden voyage, the confident narrator dismisses the delivery man with absolute self-assurance.

"Young man, experience teaches more in half an hour than books or precepts do in a year."

Reflecting on his wife Martha's stubborn resistance to modern motor carriages and her deep-rooted family traditions, John Tucker explains his quiet determination.

"Horses were good enough for my father, and I guess that horses will do for me as long as I live and John is able to keep them."

Faced with an electric rental vehicle that continuously loops around city blocks and refuses to halt for his important Christmas dinner appointment, Orville Thornton laments his bizarre predicament.

"Say, driver, isn’t there any way of stopping this cursed thing?"

What It's Really About

These humorous tales explore the friction between traditional nineteenth-century caution and the unstoppable momentum of technological modernity. Loomis closely examines human stubbornness, illustrating how husbands mask their technical ignorance behind elaborate rationalizations while creating widespread chaos for neighbors, local mechanics, and devoted spouses. Beneath the slapstick property damage, smashed greenhouses, and runaway carriages lies a gentle satire of masculine pride and domestic negotiation. The stories question whether modern innovations like electric automobiles genuinely improve human existence or merely accelerate our rush toward absurd predicaments, ultimately suggesting that love, patience, and shared humor provide the only reliable brakes against runaway progress.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate vintage turn-of-the-century humor, lighthearted farce, and early automotive history will find immense charm in these pages. Reading Loomis feels akin to sitting on a shaded suburban porch listening to an amusing neighbor recount his most disastrous blunders with unfaltering cheerfulness. The prose moves at a brisk, witty pace, driven by eccentric characters whose unwavering optimism survives every shattered greenhouse and frog-pond dunking.

Modern readers should approach the book with an awareness of its historical context, noting period social dynamics, suburban commuting rituals, and turn-of-the-century middle-class domestic roles. While some contemporary audiences might find the plots slight or formulaic compared to modern comedic standards, the genuine warmth of the narration prevents the stories from feeling dated or cynical. What stays with you long after finishing is the delightful absurdity of characters proposing marriage from the seats of runaway electric carriages and the comforting assurance that even the most out-of-control machinery eventually runs down.