Already they have broadcasted the hypersensitive slogans, similar to the cardinal virtue of Ashima. Then they have lifted them up ostentatiously to the people at the break of this new Millennium. Then the worldly-wide dynamos, as kingly warlords, have begun to set out the ‘War of all against all’ at any price at any time and strived against destiny.
Before waging actual maneuvering they had reviewed a mass of options. At the time, they, with nail-biting, thought pensively in a deep sigh that:
“Maybe I am now gambling. Probably, I might be sailing towards a disaster.”
Then they deplored the stern reality of the world, reflecting on the tragic life story of an old American Industrial (Automotive) pioneer E-M-F as ‘L’Enfant terrible’ in Auto world.
When the 20th century was about to turn, the three enfant terrible appeared in the American wilderness. Insatiable for success, each of them thought inside that:
“Now I am youth. To me, a mint of trouble is nothing. A mint of money is everything. I have no intention to rat out for a fistful of dollars in the world.”
With this sort of adventurous mind, they got out of the home in their tenth and gathered in Detroit. There they each conceived their boyish hopes and colorful dreams even if they were penniless and less educated. In twentieth they worked as mechanic, bicycle merchant or salesman. And they took the course of apprenticeship and grew up with some reputation. Then they showed natural-born talent, professional virtuosity and superb showmanship.
The hopefuls were Byron F. Everitt, William E. Metzger and Walter E. Flanders. As a master mechanic,Everitt would make a coachwork, painted, and trimmed cars for regulars such as Oldsmobile and REO. One time, Metzgerworked for Cadillac as a salesman. Then he set up modern dealer-shops, conceived a universal Motor Show and arranged it successfully. It was the first time in history. So, he was said he could sell anything even before it had been made.
Like the two, Flanders served for Ford as a production officer in his early age. There, he developed mass production skill.
In thirties, they met and got together as if they had been blood brothers. They founded EMF with so-called American Dream. EMF was their base camp. Actually, the name was the acronym of their family name.
From the camp, the American hopefuls were to climb the summit of the mountain.Then, they could have made a fast buck. Indeed they hit the jackpot. And they began to rise to prominence. Then they decided to be a tycoon of the American wilderness as if they had been Dogs of Detroit. And then, they daringly challenged and threatened the authority of American great guns at the time. They were Ford, GM, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, REO and so on. In this point, the three American brothers, shortly named EMF, were famous for their excellent machinists to the people as if they had been great machismos in this American brass era. Below was their horseless chariot, E-M-F Model Roadster in 1912.
Not far away from the summit, they hit another jackpot. It was a series of misfortunes. Those were a car accident and the Great Depression. One after another the fatalities came upon them. After all, the successive misfortunes were the noose to hang them all. In the end, Dogs of Detroit were all gone like EMF (Eternal Missing Fire). Their reputation was all but forgotten. However, their pioneering acts were imprinted as ‘Dogs of Detroit’ or ‘American L’Enfant terrible’ in people’s memory. Later, the checkered life story of EMF has become an American Romance. Now the Americans are called EMF (Every Morning Fixed-it) and/or EMF (Every Morning Frustration).
“Chinese L’Enfant Terrible”
Here, fortuitously there was a similar case in the orient. It happened almost seventeen hundreds of years before the appearance of the Dogs of Detroit in America. Right, there was such a case in the ancient China. And the three Chinese hopefuls were young and debonair like the Americans. Reputedly they were called Liu Bei (劉備), Guan Yu (關羽) and Zhang Fei (張飛) in the Three Kingdoms’ period (220 - 280 AD).
Like the American protagonists, the Chinese had not any relationship with each other. But they got together as if they had been blood brothers. Then they made a solemn vow to each other to be a complete one until death. From then on, they sought to grasp the Imperial Crown of the Chinese world like the dogs of Detroit in American wilderness. For the goal, they gleaned the people’s popularity under the pigmented, dreamlike slogan, ‘for the people, by the people, of the people.’ Then they daringly challenged the then most powerful warlords such as Chao Chao (曹操), Sun Quan (孫權), Lü Bu (呂布), Yuan Shao (袁紹) and so on. In this point, they must have been truly Chinese L’Enfant Terrible like the Americans. (Below was the symbolic painting of the three Chinese Brothers, drawn by Sekkan Sakurai. Source: Wikipedia)
However, they could not reverse the mainstream of the ancient Chinese regime. Further they, like the three American Enfant Terrible, had to meet a series of big misfortunes. After all, their great dream became a pipe dream. Nonetheless, their tragic story became a legend in the Chinese history. And it was written as the ‘Three Kingdoms’ Romance’. (三國志演義) And it has been delivered into the present in the Far East.
Hearing of the tragic story of Dogs of Detroit and the Chinese L’Enfant Terrible, the incumbent world powers have thought aloud that:
“Hum, I surmise that the story of EMF is almost like the Chinese Romance. It was a mystery. And the three American protagonists look like the reincarnation of the old Chinese L’Enfant Terrible. Further, like the three Chinese, the American EMF was one time considered EMF (Every Morning Fixed-it) in the American brass era. So it was literarily called EMF (Every Mechanic’s Friend) as if they had been Dogs of Detroit.”
Then they were chagrined at their unlucky lives that:
“But, the Chinese the Americans failed in the end. Even now the people joke that EMF was literally EMF (Every Morning Frustration). Or, they are called EMF (Eternal Mechanical Fault). In short, the Dogs of Detroit hit the jackpot one time. Then they hit another jackpot. All covets and all loses. In this point, their story is like that of the three Chinese Brothers. Anyway, it is really the mystery. Why the Americans had to take the same steps after the Chinese brothers. Ah, alas . . . Is it their destiny already set in the pre-world like the Chinese one?”
In this way, they speculated over and over the tragic destiny of the American and the Chinese blood brothers in the past.