business of Detroit is done in the bar of the Pontchar-
train Hotel." The big men of the business resent that
yarn. And, of course, it is preposterously false.
Neither 90 per cent. nor 10 per cent. nor any appreciable
per cent. of the automobile business is done there. In-
deed, you hardly ever see a really important representa-
tive of the business in that place. Such men are not
given to hanging around bars.

I do not wish the reader to infer that I hung around
the bar myself in order to ascertain this fact. Not at
all. I had heard the story and was apprised of its un-
truth by the president of one of the large motor car
companies who was generously showing me about. As
we bowled along one of the wide streets which passes
through that open place at the center of the city called
the Campus Martius, I was struck, as any visitor must
be, by the spectacle of hundreds upon hundreds of auto-
mobiles parked, nose to the curb, tail to the street, in
solid rows.

"You could tell that this was an automobile city," I
remarked.

"Do you know why you see so many of them?" he
asked with a smile.

I said I supposed it was because there were so many
automobiles owned in Detroit.

"No," he explained. "In other cities with as many
and more cars you will not see this kind of thing. They
don't permit it. But our wide streets lend themselves
to it, and our Chief of Police, who believes in the auto-

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