The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-10-24
BICYCLES FOR BUSINESS.
A Club of Newark Men Who Use the
Wheel Not for Pleasure Alone.


There is probably no city of its size in
the United States where the bicycle is
used as much around town for practical
business purposes as in Newark. The
city Is not SO big and crowded as Brook
Ign or New York, and it is quite con-
venient for merchant drummers, law
clerks, brokers and other folks who have
to cover a deal of pavements in the
course of days business to stride their
steel and rubber horses and roll swiftly
from Office to Office or from end to end
of town at no expense of cab or car fare,
and with much saving of time and effort.
On any of the business streets there doZ-
ems of business men can be seen any day
speeding by on low safety wheels. The
highways leading to Roseville and the
Oranges are much f1equented by BIZ
cyclers, many of whom do not wear the
flannel shirts and knickerbockers of the
rider for pleasure, and carry small sam
pie cases strapped to their machines or
slung from their shoulders.
Newark's city ordinances governing
the use of bicycles in the streets were
until lately quite as liberal as those of
other large New Jersey towns The met
ropolitan character of Newark naturally
made the use of the bicycle proportion
ately greater than elsewhere under the
same laws, and the same reasons made
the bicycle more of nuisance In the
streets. That is why the police of New
ark have been very active recently in
keeping bicycles strictly within the let
ter of the law, and from this has arisen
a novel association of bicyclers in that
town, the first of the kind in the coun-
try. 1t isn't club, it has no club house
and its members wear no badge or uni
form. 1t is purely business organiza-
ton, chiefly of business men, and its
chief object is to look out for the interest
of all bicyclers in Newark, to keep the
city authorities stirred up in the matter
of maintaining the streets and roads in
good repair and to influence city legisla-
ton in the interest of bicyclers.
The association calls itself the Bust
ness Mems Cycle club and accepts any
reputable bicycler or tricycler as men,
Der, but is particularly anxious to enroll
business men. The idea is to collect q
great lot Of names of men Of business.
prominence and influence, so that when
the club asks the city lawmakers to
grant some new privilege to wheelers, or
abolish some ordinance restricting bicy-
clers, or to mend some bad piece of
pavement, or to open new street, or to
grade a road, the request will have the
backing of lot of men whose names
will carry weight with the city govern
ment. Business men who use bicycles
there are joining the movement in con-
siderable numbers, and the members
have already begun a campaign upon
all the business men Of their acquaint-
ance, dilating upon the health and
pleasure to be had in bicycling, and urg-
ing them to buy wheels and learn to
ride, and then to join the association.
The club proposes to wage a heavy war
upon bad roads for radius of ten miles
around Newark.-New York Sun.
Where Inventors Come From.
One of the men in the division of issue
in the patent Office has told Washing
ton newspaper correspondent something
about the distribution of patents through
out the country. "Tho Yankee states"
he said, "have lost the lead in inventions.
They were at the head of the list for
many years, but now they are about one
third of the way down, although large
number of patents are each week issued
to them. Ohio now leads the Union in
patents. She runs from fifty-fve to
ninety each week. But New England
may have something to do with that
You see, Ohio was largely settled by peo-
pie from New England. 1t may be that
the western descendant of the Yankee is
but taking the lead in invention which
for SO many years belonged to his fore
fathers.
Next to Ohio is Illinois. Then comes
New York, but she buys most of the in
ventions for which she receives patents
from other states. The northwest is
picking up, for Michigan follows New
York. The territories are also doing
good deal in the patent line. To the
southern states very few patents are is
sued. Louisiana heads the list, with
Georgia as second. 1t is very rarely that
a patent is issued to either Virginia, Ala
bama or the two Carolinas. Kentucky
gets fairly good number of them. The
character of the patents issued for the
several states conforms in the main to the
character of the industries of the states.