No Radar Gun Here!

The date of this story makes it interesting. When did they change from "autoist" to "motorist"?



Boston Daily Globe October 5, 1908

Many Caught In Auto Trap

Police Keep Watch on Arborway Course.

Threaten With Arrest Persons Who Warned Autoists.

Fourteen to Face Court on Speeding Charges.

The automobile trap in the Arborway at Forest Hills was in excellent working order yesterday, and during its operation by Sergts Gilman and hennessey of division 13, Jamaica Plain, assisted by patrolmen Forbes and Egan, 14 alleged violators of the speed rules in parks were gathered in.

The one-eighth mile trap is located in a particularly dangerous part of the parkway. It is down grade across South St, dips under the bridge of the NY,NH & H railroad, and then the autoist is compelled to cross the tracks of the elevated railroad in Washington St under the elevated structure.

The trap was set at 9:30 and was worked until 11:15. For a time the officers had no difficulty in catching violators. A crowd of spectators took positions of vantage to watch the officers.
After a while the police noticed that, although there were just as many autos on the Arborway, the operators had a wise look in their eyes and all of them were moving at a speed less than 10 miles an hour.

Sergt Hennessey sent for the police auto and with patrolman Fred Brauer as chauffeur rode through the Arborway to Centre St, where he discovered a crowd of young fellows who were warning autoists of the trap.

It took Sergt Hennessey and patrolman Brauer but a short time to break up the crowd of informers, with the threat that if they caught them doing the same thing again they would arrest them.

Later Sergt Gilman got into the police auto and by a roundabout route reached the arborway near Centre St. On his way through the parkway road a man came out of the bushes, waved his hand to Sergt Gilman, who was in citizen's dress, and warned him "Look out, the police are working a trap at the top of the hill."

The informer was told to go on his way or he would be arrested for interfering with the duty of a police officer. He ran as fast as he could till out of sight. But those autoists who had been caught in the Arborway trap had many of them gone back over the parkway roads and informed other autoists of the operating of the trap, and business was soon after suspended for the day by the officers.

The autoists who were held up will probably appear in the municipal court at Jamaica Plain some time this week. All were residents of the state, so no arrests were made.