Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-11-15
THE BICYCLE AND THE sucYcLlsrs.

THE BICYCLE AND THE BlcYcLIsrs.
The present visit to this country of Messrs
Cam, Keen, Terront, and Stanton-the Anglo
Franco team, as their manager, Mr.. H TRY
EtheringtOn, calls them-will un4ueSuoaa5ly
mark an era In the annals of American bicy-
cling. Two Of their number. Terront AMI Caaa,
have given preliminary four days exhibition
OF their prowess during the past week In Boston
in match where they easily secured the two
highest prizes; presently the entire quartet viii
ing been arranged, and Messrs Keen und Stan
ton having reached America by steamer on
Friday. Here, as In Boston, it Will be necessary
to heavily handicap them in order to find COM
petitorS.
Yet the historian of bicycling must not assign
too much importance to the advent Of these
foreign experts There are already tW 3aty-tNo
regular clubs in existence in this cOuutry-four
in Boston, the head centre OF American bicy
clism, namely, the Massachusetts, Suffolk, Bos-
side Of the capital, namely, the Fitchburg,
Salem, Worcester, Harvard and Brockton; two
In Philadelphia, and one each In the cities OF
Buffalo, Newark, Brooklyn, Detroit, Cleveland,
Chicago and Providence. Besides these clubs,
there are individual bicyciists in many cities
We have some of them in New York, where the
bicycle is ruled out of Central Park, although
Brooklyn bcyclistS are allowed the fo0tpaths OF
Prospect Park at all hours, the only restrictions
being put on the use Of the carriage drives
The clubs have their cOlors and badges, their
uniform helmets, jackets, breeches, and stock
ings, their regular runs and matches. The
clubs Of eastern Massachusetts had a two days
Journey on october 24-and Is; the Brooklyn club
recently took a run up to the outskirts of Peek
skill; at the fourth annual meeting of the Ma
tional Amateur Athletic Association, at Mot
Haven, bicyclism was given place among the
contests In race for the twO-mile amateur
championship OF America, won by johnson, OF
Newark; Providence had its club tournament in
New Jersey State Fair recognized the bicycle
boom by an amateur and professional race, wit
Messed by 5000 people score OF Ike Incl;
enthusiasm with which this athletic mania has
already been taken up.
There is an American bicycling Journal pub
llshed fortn1ghtly In Boston, exclusively devoted
to blcyclism-even in its puns and its poetry be-
ing all on this theme. There are at least two bicy-
ele riding schools in the same city, with pro-
perilOus steed. There are manufacturers of
bicycles there. as well as importers, and among
the roadsters and racers offered to the bIcyclist
taur, Coventry, Columbia, Champion, Empress,
Duplex, Excelsior, Stanley, Premier, Norwood
Harvard, Hallamshire, and Tension. A lexicon
Of hnov tTms explaining ban bearing
like phrases, would be required to initiate the
general reader into the differences between
tnese vehicles. There is also a large list of
trappings connected with bicyclng-alarm bells,
saddle bags, cyclometers, stockings, stands,
lamps, leggings, and road maps. In the bicycle
stables owners can hire stalls for their steeds,
snow season, and can have the adjoining
school tracks for exercising, so as to keep
both the racers and themselves from growing
rusty.
When we turn to England we find bicycling on
a far more extensive scale. There the clubs are
numbered by hundreds. and the regular riders
by tens Of thousands. There the new motor is
not only an instrument of exercise and amuse-
ment, but of daily business use, being employed
by carriers, messengers of many sorts, phySi-
clans. and by many mercantile people who have
discovered, in this machine, the way to live in
the country and labor in the city without the
loss OF time and expenditure Of money that had
before made that course impossible. We find In
England many amateurs who can make a mile
under favorable circumstances, in a little over
three minutes, and many professionals who can
make 1t in less than three minutes. There is in
London whole literature OF Bicycling not only
the Bicycling Times, Of which Mr.. Harry Ether
ington is editor but the Bicycli,tg Ne,1s and the
Bicycle Journal for weekly papers, and the
Bicycle and Bicycle Annual for yearly gift books
While new weekly paper, the Cyc'iSt is an
nounced, to still further till the field These
journals treat the modern sport not only from
the point OF news, but from that OF history, SEN
timent and philosophy. With all the fervor OF
new cause, its advocates boldly attack long
established rivals; thus, for example, we find
leading editorial article in the bicycling Tines
With the emphasis Of prolonged italics, paying
1t requires no worm Wr1thing in its death
agonies to tempt an equally unprotected fish to
It's tOrtuOus death or mutilatfOn, no fear-struck
fox or hare to succumb after every fibre of nerve
and muscle gives way to exhaustion under its
frantic efforts to preserve the life given it, no
pigeons Quivering frame to attest the marks
mans Skill by the cruel wounds administered.
not even dumb animal ridden beyond its
strength; no, its influences are as eleVating to
the mind as they are invigorating to the body
and as such may 1T receive the encouragement
OF all right thinkers.
so far as concerns enthusiasm, the American
blcycl1stS, though fewer in numbers, are not a
whit behind their British brethren. The con-
tributors to the American journal break into
We find the favorite vehicle personified and
throned as ''the pedalian king" under the
playful spelling BiSakel:
To Bisakel we sing to- day.
n n9s ma sttee 6ys beams sis with fancy Play
Aurora's face is less divine.
Sing him, and to the sliding throne
OF sparkles which he goes upon.
In Pseans let us sing,
No physic! Bisakel is king.
Again, we find the bicycle called s'the Light of
the stud and yet once more. the Sun Of his
Bicycles the sun of our stable:
His beams the spokes SO fine;
We, planets that SO are able
With him to roll and shine.
Let clrcllng mirth abound;
Well all grow bright
With borrowed light
And shine as he goes round.
Even Emerson is boldly brought In, by slight
emendat1ons, to serve the cause of blcyclism:
Bicycle knights often spy
On horse uncarnate riding by;
Nlmby they scale his vaulty back,
And spin along the travelled track.
On pedalian pinions 1eeting,
See them twirl the witching wheel,