The Automobile Girls Along the Hudson

1910, undated 1920s Henry Altemus edition
Laura Dent Crane
Illustrated by unknown
The Automobile Girls Along the Hudson, or Fighting Fire in Sleepy Hollow
Original price probably $1.00, purchase price $4.50
Hardcover with broken spine and worn corners 
C+

This is definitely a period piece, from its title to its characters, ranging from Gypsies to a Civil War major.  Crane hits every stereotype about Gypsies, including their dislike of bathing and school, and their fondness for fortune-telling and theft.  To her credit, most of these stereotypes are voiced by cranky Aunt Sallie, and to some degree disproved.  However, one of the Gypsies tries to kill his half-brother, and there are Spanish stereotypes there.  As for the major, by my math he'd have to be about 70, although he comes across as younger.


This story was third in a series of six, and includes plugs for the first two stories on p. 9 and for the fourth on the last page.  The most interesting thing about the book is the advertising of series, including this one, in the back.  Some of the series are about school but others are about young people fighting "the Huns" in the recent Great War.  In the case of Grace Harlowe, you can follow her from her plebe (freshman) year of high school to college, and then overseas to "aid the American fighting forces," before finally "returning from service in France" to work as an Overland Rider in state parks.  There's also a what-if "Conquest of the United States" series, At the Defense of Pittsburgh being one title. 

Besides all the pro-war propaganda, there's some pro-business propaganda.  "Do you know, for instance, that from $10,000 to $12,000 a year is very common pay for the foremen of the great wheat ranches in Kansas?"  The blurb for "The Boys of Steel" series tells us that "The steel industry today offers a splendid field for the efforts of really bright American youths."  And Automobile Girls Along the Hudson shows how insane and violent anarchists are.


Suffragettes come off  better, the subject of harmless jokes.  This series, and other series from this publisher, do feature intelligent, brave, independent girls, like Bab (short for Barbara), the unofficial heroine of this book.  I have to admit that I can't figure out the point of the character Grace.  Maybe she's featured more in other adventures, but I could barely distinguish her from Bab's sister Mollie.  Yes, half a century after An Old-Fashioned Girl, names that end with "ie" are still popular.  There's even a boy named "Jimmie."


Besides the boys' and girls' series, Altemus offers "wee books for wee folks."  Many of these have laugh-out-loud titles, among my favorites:  Grunty Grunts and Smiley Smile--Indoors; Grunty Grunts and Smiley Smile--Outdoors; I Don't Want to Wear Coats and Things; The Mud Wumps of the Sunshine and Shadow Forest; Peter Rabbit, Jack-the-Jumper and the Tinybits; and the entire "Little Bunnie Bunniekin" series, whose titles are all along those lines, like Little Squirrelie Squirreliekin, until you get to Old Red Reynard the Fox.

Due to condition, I won't be keeping this book, but the text is online.  And so is Little Bunnie Bunniekin.