Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-07

of these small boys coming down the pave
ment cross-legged, apparently sliding on the
base of his trousers.
The tricycle. is put to various commercial
uses as well as to those of pleasure. A num-
Der of stores make delivery of goods by
tricycle.. A big basket is fastened between
the large wheels in front of the rider. Sew
eral postmen USE it in the delivery of the
mails. I believe this was the first CONNER
cial use to which the bicycle was put in
England.
A NEW CANDY STAND.
There is a man who keeps a small candy
stand on tricycle.. He travels about the
city making sales from the saddle. Two ne
groes have built quadricycle car for pas
sengers, which can be seen on the avenue
any bright night. The two men sit behind
one another on the front OF the machine, and
propel it by vigorous leg action. They
carry four passengers the length OF the ave
nue., from the Treasury Department to the
Capitol, for fare of cents each.
l was much interested at one time In bit
of filial devotion displayed on tricycle..
Every afternoon at o'clock double tricy-
Gle, or "sociable," propelled by pretty
young girl, would come to the entrance Of
one of the departments. From the building
would come on crutches a one-legged watch
man, the father of the girl. She would help
him to mount to the vacant seat OF the ma
chine, and would strap his crutches on be-
hind. Then, taking her seat again, she
would start the machine forward, and To-
gether father and daughter would work
their wav home. have not seen the pair
tor more than a year now, and they are
probably separated by death or living in
some other part of the world.
Bicycle riding is not the only athletic
sport in which Washington is interested.
There are several boating and canoe clubs
here, which have great many members,
most OF whom take an active interest in all
out-of-door sports. The Columbia Athletic
Club is the most prosperous of these. 1t
has delightful club quarters downtown,
boathouse ON the river, and lease on big
island in the middle of the Potomac where
tennis, baseball, racing and other sports are
carried on seven days in the week.
A PROSPEROUS ORGANIZATION.
The club is building a magnificent club
house just above the State Department
building, convenient to almost all of the de-
partments, which will be completed about
February 1. John Mclean, of the Cincin-
natl Enquirer, who owned the ground on
which the clubhouse is being built, gave the
club easy terms of payment and then sub
scribed 10,000 toward the building. 1t will
be. when completed, one of the handsomest
athletic club buildings in the United States.
1t is not surprising that there should be
such taste for athletics here. The en-
ployes of the Government have plenty of
time in which to indulge in exercise out of
business hours, and during their stay in the
departments they have SO little opportunity
to Stretch" themselves that they are eager
for a chance to run and jump when freed
from the thraldom of work. Except in rare
instances, department employees leave their
desks at o'clock in the afternoon.
This gives them, in the summer, three or
four hours to devote to exercise. Some of
them go for pull on the river; others for
game of ball; some to practice with the
dumb-bells, the clubs and other athletic i'm
plements. A very large number play ten
mis-. There are tennis clubs and tennis
grounds all over the city. suspect that
the social feature of the game rather than
its advantage as a means of exercise en-
dears it to the majority OF those who play.
O'BRIEN-BAIN.