The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-27


self that business men here are be-
coming more and more addicted
to the bicycle Look at the
! troops Of solem D, midile-aged fathers Of
| families whom one sees riding with sober
/ elaboration DOWN town in the morning, or
/ gJi & home again at nightfall, with big
| bundles suggestive of all the do nestle
virtues. tisd on in front or benind- Be iold
the youths on racing mounts with splndle
| shanks and knic yerb cksrs; how they multi
| ply; aid the small, children even agitating
the pc lals of hlliputian wheels, emulous of
their elders. The telegraph messenger
boys, many Of them, own their machines.
1t pays them well to do so. The
| Companies pay a boy who has
machine 81 or So extra a week for
the better and quicker service he is able to
give through its aid and this mount will
buy a cycle by in'tallments, so that the
messe &c has his machine soon paid for by
his employer ID after a few months owns
outright. The post Office department has
long found the cycle useful, especially for
collecting letters, and the sigma
service not less so for carrying rel
ports around and for other pur
poses. The district government, you
know, has a number of machines for its In
spectors. 1t won't he long no Y, 1 am sure,
before soldiers in the army are mounted on
wheels for dispatch duty i'd such other
work requiring esd as well as endurance
not possessed by horses. The project is
already bel 6 agitated by the war depart
ment. Some of the newsboys of Wishing
ton have wheels of their own, | am
Informed. OF course, flying through the
str eets on them, they eau sell their papers
very much quicker than they could on
foot"
81 have sometimes wondered" suggested
the newspaper man, show all these young
store clerks whom | see cav0rti lg over the
asphalt on machines worth $40 apiece can
afford such luxuries. And have been even
more surprised at the number Of ragged
boys, both white and colored, who ride
these costly bicycles through the streets.
1.-The shop clerks are usually young men
who have nobody but the nselvei to look
out for" replied the adept, land they pur-
chase their bicycles by scraping together
$25 for payment dow and disposlng of
the balance on the instalnent plan at the
rate of $40 or SIS a month. the CO Germs
tnat sell mac Zines are very easy on sue
purchassrs-they have to be, in fact-and
payments can be delayed for many months
by adding a liberal interest. You see, not
one man out of twenty with a moderate
income ever has $40 in lump
that he can call his own; but it is easy
enough to liquidate such an amount by
driblets out of a comparatively small sal
own your BICYCLE 1t is visible evidence
of wealth. As for the ragged boys whom
you see on wheels, they are frequently
riding errands for other people; but often
they hire the machine for themselves with
m uey they have ,aved by boarding their
pennies, and by actual privation otherwise
There are lots of people like that in this
world, who will deny themselves necessa-
ries to procure Injuries"
But, being a greenhorn, l can't make
ous what makes bicycle C Nst so much"
THE patents mailly. the perfected ma
chine of to-day represents long string Of
patented improvements, each 10 of which
adds dollars to the price. Then, too, the
workmanship is of ne most costly descrip-
ton. The compe ition in bicycle make'
was never more intense than at present and
Sd far as Washington is concerned the
American and English machines are run
ming each other very close. The agents
for the imported wheel claim that the
American bicycle of the safety" type is
heavier than the Elglisa and correspond
ingly clumsier. GA the other hand, the
sellers of the domes ,ic product assert that
the machine they offer is much stronger
and better adapted in point of weight to
general work; that the brake Is much bet
ter, attached to the rear wheel, q so on.
AS for the cost of making bicycle, i'll re-
lation to the selling price, it may be useful
10 cOuSlu~r bne analogous IdcG bndC Hne @tU
sew ig machine costs just IS to produce
II don't see m my of the high bicycles
nowadays" said thu reporter, with one
big wheel and one little one."
mo, they have gone out of fashion, and
but few of them are bought. The manu-
facturers both here and abroad have
| adopted the safety style of machine,
which is mucl more comfortable and
though you might not imagine it-quite as
fast on the road. This type of construction
represents the bicycle of the future, AID
before log it will be very rare thing
to see oae of the old kind in USE 1t
may be that the cycle will reacn still fur
ther development through improvements
| yet to be devised; but think myself that
| it now repreie ITS an evoluti IN well-nigh
| perfect, and that little more can be done to
better itn