Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-01-08

winter sports, let them prepare for the oc-
casion in suitable manner, and then no
bad consequences will follow. Especially
let them take care of the children.
|. VelOcfpedes In Paris.
THE velocipedists have stolen march
on the coming flying man for, while he
is busy adjusting the wings with which he
intends to navigate the clouds, they have
attached wheels to their legs, enabling
them to skim the earth with the speed of
a fast trotting horse. The resuscitation of
velocipedes-a ninety years old invention
lis due to the pet5ts cre0es and cOc0tts OF
Paris At the present moment, however,
they are mania with all classes, and
count, among their more fervent partisans,
princes, dukes, and other titled person
ages, several high functionaries, and even
one staid member of the French Academy.
Every alternate Sunday or so, velocipede
races have taken place in the environs OF
Paris-at st. Cloud, Vincennes, Enghien,
Pantin and elsewhere. Mounted, too,
upon these flying horses, amateurs dash
along the crowded thoroughfares OF the
capital, while adopts, at the risk of their
lives drive their velocipedes of two wheels
-one directly in front OF the other--alopg
the narrow stone parapet at the side of
the Seine, and down the hundred and one
steps of the Trocadero rising up in their
seats, lying down on their backs, letting
go the hands of the vehicle, and throwing
both legs over it, while performing these
daring feats Government employees, liv-i
ing in the suburbs, ride to their offices
every morning on the new iron horse.
You may see them on their return jour
ney at night, steering in between the
throng of carriages with lighted lanters
| swinging in front of them, and with other
| velocipedes, sent out by enterpris-
ing tradesmen, displaying illuminated ad-5
vertisements before and aft. The COM
positors of Galignanis Messenger, and
| other newspapers, are said to go to, and
return from work, on velocipedes; and
several of the collecting clerks of the
Bank of France have begun to use them.
Provincials stare aghast at these modern
| centaurs, dashing in and out of the whirl
of vehicles, much as the country people OF
old did at the apparition of the Thessa-
lonians mounted on the horses which
they were the first to tame; while the
cabmen exhibit their hostility by dooging
in front of the velocipedists, whenever
they get the chance, and by chatting such
| amateurs as are not sufficiently expert to
give them wide berth. Prices Of veloci-
pedes, including what Moses of the Mi
nories would, style directions tor self
measurement, are advertised on the walls,
outside the kiosques of the Boulevards,
and in all the papers, and announcements
of lessons on the art of managing them,
may be met with in almost every journal.
and posted up in all quarters of Paris.
| h. 1{o fn houo
| f3ssors to lecture ON the new method OF
Iocomotion, and to teach the youth of
France how to manage the willing steed.
Meanwhile, the Prince Imperial has been
furnished with velocipede de luxe"
mounted in rosewood and aluminium
| bronze.
Paris is in perfect state of frenzy with
respect to its new toy. The newspapers
| call upon the Government to order sup
ply of fvelocipedes to save,the over-wnrked
| legs of the rural postmen, and of the mes
sengers attached to the provincial tele-
graph bureau; and even advise limited
number of these vehicles being furnished
to infantry regiments, to enable outposts
to reconnoitre and to communicate rapid
1 ly with the main body of the army.
Some, carried away by their enthusiasm,
ask why species oflight cavalry, meunt-
ed on velocipedes, should not be insti-
tuted. It is suggested, too, that lifeboat
i crews, on thinly populated coasts, should
be provided with velocipedes, by means Of
which more rapid assembling of them in
time of need might be effected; and,
moreover, that gdrdes champetges, and
country doctors and cures, who cannot
afford the expense of horse, should
travel about on the new vehicles, which,
by the way, have already penetrated to
the provinces, for seaside loungers
mounted on them, were to be
seen at all the Norman and Breton
watering places. and on the shores
of the Mediterranean, coursing
along the coast Eccentric sportsmen, too
chase their game with velocipedes artists
use them to go ON sketching tours, and
photographers employ them on distant ex.
petitions Guests at country ehateauC or
ganize races with velocipedes among
themselves and, in the recent election
contest in the department of the Var, on
it's being discovered that the government
had hired all the public vehicles in Touler
for the day of the election, the partisans o
the opposition candidate procured sup
ply of yelocipedes, on which the liberia
!, electors dashed to the polls. Dramatist
| lutIOuutS NOlOClpCUCo lutO tuCAl plSOOo
and at several Partisan theatres they PLAY
, prominent part in some of the mor'
| striking scenes Caricaturists, however
!, have turned them most to account, fo
every week brings forth some pictoria
, skit, in which they occupy the first place
The toy dealers, too, have not been idle
: for you cannot pass along the Boulevard
, without getting your feet entangled in
: toy velocipede, mounting large red Ian
tern-at prelent a prohibited emblem il
Paris-and with the rider working hi
arms and legs up and down, like an ord
7 nary scaramouche, which some enterpris
ing hawker, the better to display its al
fractions, has set going along the asphalt
pavement.
Ordinary two-wheel velocipedes rang
IN francs, according to the ccmpletenes
of their fittings. Vflocipede8 de sure noun
e up almost to any sum. Three-wheele
: machines are priced at from one hundre
and sixty to two hundred and fifty franc
s while. smaller sizes, for children, can b
q nurchased for fiftY francs. The some