The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-01-22
WHOLE NUMBER SIG.

of I60 yards in length, out of six
Experienced amateurs who started
only two arrived at the winning post.
The prizes given at the foregoing
contests have been usually gold and
silver medals and silver cups; now
and then, however, money prizes of
500 francs are awarded. Several
efforts have been made to induce the
fair sex to compete at these races,
but hitherto without success, although
they are ready enough to engage in
a contest with any casual cavalier
whom they may encounter on his We
locipede in the Bois de BoulOgne.
THE LAST PHASE OF THE MACHINE
AS if to show what may be done
whea the human mind is all ablaze
upon one subject, that what is bene-
fetal in one part of the world by
slight alteration may be made of
equal service in another, another
phase of the velocipede mania is
opened up. 1t is this: 1t is stated
that Dane has changed the rim of
the wheel and has given it the form
OF skates iron or runner, so that q
very high rate of speed may be OBJ
tanned on the ice. a box behind the
riders seat enables him to carry
good load with him. This phase of
the velocipede is said to be growing
III favor i'll north Europe.
CONCLUSION.
TIE above are the outlines and
phases of an eXeltement-nay,a q ma
nia-which is not only agitating this
country, but is sweeping like wild
fire over the whole civilized world.
There must be something in this
matter, or it would not have strug-
gled so long for success to at last
attain it. There is no doubt
q principle in all this hubbub, and q
great want yet remains to be satisfied
in the world. We have horse and
steam cars, and steam boats, but there
is still vacuum, and horse flesh can
not supply it. There is travel to be
done where cars do not run, and
where horse-locomotion would be
Is not the velocipede
Just the thing desired ? Whether
Tor business or pleasure, whether
from necessity or exercise, does it
not seem TO fill that vacant chair
which vain chimeras have attempted
10 sit in for ages? May it not be
revolution And revolutions once
can never go backward.
If the thing is possible, if veloci-
pede, having the powers attributable
to the machines at present IN vogue,
Is within the range Of human inge-
nulty, is not this the age of all others
in which it could be best tested p
This is the age of invention-the era
Of mechanics. The professions
stand with cap in hand, while the
builders add workers take all the
honor and profit 1t is the ags OF
iron. If this velocipede is bubble,
it will soon be pricked, and its emp
tiness shown. Ii there is the atom
of principle in it, brains will scheme
and hands will work until it is fully
developed. If it is success in any
one of it's numerous forms, it will be
in whether on land or in the sea,
with one wheel or SIX.
Once a success, its merits firmly
and the velocipede would
become a national institution. The
broad prairies of the West are just
he places to afford 1t ample scope,
md we would see repeated here the
that occur in Paris.
Races would be the order of the day,
md We would fairly live out of doors.
And another grand benefit that
would result froea these machines
would be the outdoor exercise it
would give the ladies aud children.
The working of their yelociledes
vnnfd 20 cultivate the mnsctas9aad-
xpand the chest that consumption
nd dyspepsia would, in few years,
&c hardly known among u.s. A
Durney of ten or twenty miles or so
n q velocipede would be a trifie,
ven in the most remote and out of
he-way districts, and would cost only
he effort of mounting the ikea steed,
md then no hostler to feed 1T, Nc
room to rub 1t down, no harness to
old it, no halter to try it. no halter
D lie 1t, no stable to shelter it, no
discs to frighten it, no SPAWN, no
'slng wind, no shoeiDg, no limping,
o stopping to drink. Its nerves
ever wear out. You do not need to
xamine its teeth when you buy it,
on needn't care who sired it; wheth-
r its blood be Morgan or plebeian,
r both. You needn't ask if it be
entle, if it will shy, or whether it
Ollows the carriage, or only goes
nder the saddle.
IL is y dumb thing; but of inesti-
lable service. Once brought into
eneral use, and the price for We
,cipede would range 80 low that it
Ould be within the means of all TO
urchase one. The beggar might
hen own his immortal horse, and the
Iippled soldier, as he moved swiftly
round, could laugh at the way in
Ihich he was cheating his erutches-
md, perhaps, for the idea has been
brown out, our soldiers might hunt
he Indians on the plains with the
elocipede Think OF it A veloc
pede regiment making charge on
he Utes and Cheyennes, and ''paling
he Intellectual fires of Balaklava;
= vcl0cipede battery rushing right
p to tie breach which itself had
lade, and using 400 pound guns as
&c now use pistols. Well, time will
ell. t eHf
Blue Laws.