Omaha daily bee., 1891-05-11


Il total number of 10, POS manuscripts
or these 2,2SO were poems; |, 7i6 stories
and II, l79 miscellaneous articles. OF
the poems 66 were accepted: of the
stories only q and OF the articles 40, of
which latter however, over 800 were
solicited articles Thus, it will be seen
that of the entire $4,000 manuscripts
only 491 were accepted, triile over
per cent Deducting from this the 800
accepted articles written at the editors
solicitation, the net percentage of unso-
liClted manuscripts accepted is brought
down to 1877, or Il little more thar per
cent. Statistics such as these show how
much utter trash is being written. and
the number of persons writing who
ought to be employing their time at
something else and better.
Be wise in time. You have too many gray
hairs for one so young looking Use Halls
Hair Remover, the best preparation out OF
cure them. Try it.
Forerunners of the Modern Bicycle.
The first rudimentary bicycle was
mounted by Baron Won Drais, IA French
man living in Germany, who. early in
this century, invented n combination of
two wheels, seat. and handles, which
he called 'cclerifere,' to aid him in
his work of over seeing large estates,
says st. Nicholas.
The old cuts OF this odd machine,
called, after the inventor, the "Drais-
inc, " show it to be in its general fea-
lures the direct forerunncr of the hobby
horse. "Draisines' were introduced
into England in ISIS, and year later
they were seen in America, on the
streets of New York.
In both countries they meet with great
favor, and one historian relates that in
New York people rode them up and
down the BOwery, and on the parks. a
favorite place for speed being the down
grade from Chatham street to City Hall
park" Clumsy machines they seem to
our eyes-two heavy wheels connected
by cross-bar to which was attached
midway the cushioned seat for the rider.
In front of the seat was raised cush-
ion upon which, handles in hand,
the rider rested his forearms, guid-
ing the machine. He propelled it by
pushing alternately with his feet on the
ground until the speed was sufficient to
maintain equilibrium, when he would
raise his feet and, in the words of Il rider
today, coast"
The rage for these "Draisines," and
pedestrian curricles," or dandy
horses" and "hobby-horses, - as the later
.'improved" machines were called, sub
sided rapidly because of the difficulty of
making them practically useful, and be-
cause of the ridicule alway excited by
the riders.
The curious sport OF riding two wheels,
joined, and running in the same pcrpen-
aicuar plane, therefore languished in
obscurity until after a lapse of more
than forty years it again attracted pub.
lie attention in a new form. 1t was in
1865 that a French mechanic, Pierre
Lallement, conceived the notion OF
attaching foot cranks to tho front wheel
of the old fashioned hobby-horse. He
made a machine embodying this idea,
learned to ride it and exhibited it at the
Paris exposition in 1867. The credit for
this invention is also claimed in England
for Edward Gilman, but be the honor
due to Frenchman or Englishman,
here, at all events, was the immediate
predecessor of the bicycle. 1t
Immediately became popular in both
England and America. a great many
improvements and changes were neces-
sary, of course, before the crude ma
chine of Lallement-the ''velocipcden
of thirty years ago-became the finished
bicycle of today; but energetic business
men in England, and later in L is
country, saw it's possibilities and began
tho manufacture Of the machines. I'm
provement has followed improvement,
until now there is little resemblance
left to the old velocipede, or bone
shaker as it was hippantly called, and
it is difficult to imagine in what way
modern bicycle may be improved.