Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-09-18
From the London Telegraph.


1t was not very long ago that young
man was descending a steep hill in the
neighborhood of London, and came to
grief before he reached the bottom.
Either he ran away with the bicycle or
the bicycle ran away with him; at all
events he lost control and rode violently
down the steep place only to find him
self pulled up at the bottom by police
man for fast and furious driving. Then
notable decision was announced. by
the Judge who had to determine the
question whether bicycle could be
called carriage or not. If it was
not carriage, then it could not be
properly proceeded against under the
statute which forbids carriages to be
driven at reckless pace. The argu-
ment of the driver was, that really you
could not call thing consisting of two
wheels only, with little bit Of sad
die, carriage; while on the other side,
it was urged that anything was car
riage that had wheels and seat, and
that was used for carrying people. A
subtle dilemma this, like the great dis
pute in ''Alice in Wonderland about
the ''Cheshire Cat'' in the tree which
was always grinning in fact, was en-
'tirely grin and nothing else. We know
that the king of Hearts waxed angry,
and ordered the executioner to behead
the cat; while the executioner replied
that he couldn't behead creature that
had no body, to which the King an
swered that anything that had head
could be beheaded, and he ''wasn't to
talk nonsense Mr.. Justice Lush soon
settled the analogous bicycle case, and
now it stands recorded in all our law
books that velocipede is carriage,
"and nothing but it, as Mr.. Weller re-
marked, and must be ridden or driven
at a reasonable pace SO as not to en-
danger the lives of her Majesty's sub
jects.
As regards the present condition Of
velocipeding in England, several new
inventions have lately come out for
making the amusement safer. Elderly
gentlemen-yes, and ladies, too, elder
ly or not-can step up into comfort
able seat, something like an armchair,
lean back, work their feet up and down
as if they were at sewing-machine,
and glide along the ground easily and
safely. This is the modern tricycle..
Nothing, however, comes up to the two
wheeled phantom, the dainty and deli
cate ''racer," on one of which Mr.. Cur
tis,. an amateur rider, has just accom-
plished the astonishing feat of ten
miles in less than thirty minutes-rath-
er faster than twenty miles an hour.
For combined ease and speed of loco
motion nothing can beat the old bicycle
with its many modern improvements,
except railway train. 1t is perfectly
easy nova young man from the mer-
ny midlands has just done ito mount
at Birmingham, ride through charming
English scenery to Dover, take steamer
and mount againt on the opposite
coast, visit all the scenes of the Franco
German war, Sedan, Metz, Strasburg,
and roll home again through Paris
arriving at his English habitat after o
fortnight's holiday of good all-round
exercise and keen enjoyment.
Bicycles have to a certain extent
taken the place of coaches; they fire.
quent all our great main roads and
gladden. the hearts of inn-keepers, who
look out for the tinkling bells which
herald the advent of ''club'' of wan
dering velocipedists just as they antici-
pated of yore the gladstone footing of
the horn that bespoke the approach of
the Enterprise, the Highfiyer, or some
other well-known conveyance of the
old coaching days.