The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-26
MEN,WOMEN ANDWHEELS
TIE RECENT GhOWTz OF TIE
BICYCLE HABIT.
Nearly Half Million Riders The
Question Of Road Improvement
What Women Riders wear-A
Family Party on Wheels.

SOoobLOh Vi AOho Improvement
What Women Riders Wear-A
Family Party on Wheels.
(CopHriqht1
| ORANGE, N. J., April 25.-A few We ars
ago there came time when cycling seemed
to have reached its limit. One would have
said that 1t was likely to remain stationary,
or even to decline in public favor.
Since that time few things have hap
pened, however, which have changed the
appearance Of things wonderfully. The per-
lection Of the safety wheel has made it pcs.
sible to ride without the constant fear of q
broken nose. The invention of the ladies'
| bicycle has relieved the weaker sex of the
| burden of third wheel and set women all
over the country to cycling. The pneu-
matio tire has placed the bicycle racer
abreast of the trotting horse for short dis
| tances and away ahead of it for long ones.
| The prices of machines" have dropped as
| their quality improved. The Improvement
of the common roads has been due largely
to the persistent clamor Of eye lists and re-
| acts to increase their number. Here in
Union County, n. j., tor instance where
| road making has been reduced to a science.
the valuations have increased g. OO0,O in
a very short time, largely due to wheelmen
| and road makers. 1.-The Oranges are the
| paradise of bicyclists about New York
| though the city itself offers nothing like so
many advantages for them as Boston,
| Rochester, Buffalo, Washington, Chicago,
and even smaller places. The METROPOLIS
lags behind in nearly everything.
There are between $50, 900 and S00.O 900
wheels in the country, not counting the
myriads Of children's velocipedes. As some
| of the cycles are hired out and some owned
in a-gks nv.1
| carry double, there may not be so very
| mauy short Of 100000 regular and occa-
sional wheelmea in this country.
That isn't all. In the past the athletic
clubs frowned upon bicycling. They do so
no longer. The great New York athletic
club set the example in the new order of
things by combining with the Citizens
Cycling club, and using the Citizens club
house as a bicycle annex The Manhattan
| A. G., not to be outdone, set aside quarters
for wheels, organized cycling division and
will give under its auspices handicap road
races throughout the season, and the Wheel
men are looking abroad for more worlds to
| conquer. BY the time they have made the
roads of the entire country as good as those
in Orange they will be as numerous as the
Russian army.
The safety or goat" bicycle is the uni>
versal favorite nowadays with men and
women alike. The reasons are many. The
certainty of avoiding tumbles is not the
only one Safeties are all practically of
the same size, and if the owner ever gets
tired of one he has no difficulty in selling
it. II he has big wheel the difficulty of
selling is tenfold. First he has to find a
man who wants wheel of that sort, and
few do nowadays and then it's literally ten
cAances to one that the purchasers legs
won't be Of the right length. The dealers
like the safeties, too, as they are made in
one size and three styles, and there is no
necessity OF carrying unstable sizes to
suit an occasional long or short legged man.
Even in racing the safety is only ABOUT five
seconds to the mile behind the Dig wheel.
Such record as that Of c. E. Kluge-
twenty-five miles on the road in 1:26 40
show that the safety is by no means slow
when vigorously propelled. William Hey
ney, Jr., has Travelled 5000 miles in Ger
many on an American bicycle, and will
this summer conduct a bicycle party
through the Hartz mountains. Ali use
safeties. Now that an American wheel
Mr. Steveus'-has been round the world.
their merits are getting to be pretty well
known abroad.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of
the present cycling outlook is the number of
women who wheel. Here the difference of
motive in the sexes come out strong Men
wheel because they want to, women because
others do. Mr. Richards, the manager of
the New York house Of the great Columbia
Company, says that it makes an immense
difference whether bicycling starts right or
wrong in town. If women of character
and social prominence happen to take to the
wheel first in place, the dealers are happy
III plenty of orders. If the sport starts
wrong, it may languish for years unless the
leaders happen to take hold of it.
The cycle makers in England and Amer
lea could efford to present the Princess of
Wales wheel in solid gold for her part in
popularizing the sport.
Robert Bonner says that the bicycle rider
will never catch up with the trotting horse
for single mile, but Mr.. Bonner is a preiu-
diced witness aud apt to be mistaken, The
mile record has been much more RAPIDLY
reduced by bicycle riders than by trotters,
and that the makers have not exhausted
the possibility of improvement is altogether
probable. The cushion tire proves to be
not much of an improvement upon the old
solid kind, but great things are expected Of
the pneumatic tire, which consists of hol~
low rubber tube blown full Of air The
great trouble with this tire so far is that it
has to be made soft and flexible and soon
wears out and bursts. 1t may be doubted
whether it will ever be much used on cheap
road machines, but for track racing it is
certainly a great invention, saving several
delphiau has devised steam bicycle which,
he says, will go fifteen miles an hour with
no more labor than that of steering. With
such huge profits to be made in the sale of
wheels, the inventors are likely to keen
improving them every year.
When men began to ride bicycles they at
once, as rule, adopted practically the cos
tune they now wear-Something resem-
bling base ball players suit, with the ad-
dition of sack coat. Minutie such as
rubber soled shoes and club caps came later.
With women the question of dress comes
first of all, and it has been practically de-
cided that while she can wear almost any
variety of dress it is better to have one de.
sign especially for the wheel The divided
skirt was at first recommended for this. but
here in Orange doubt il there are three
divided sLirts-I refer. OF course, to the
dress itself-in use. Women who belong to
the clubs wear the club caps or hats. When
not SO attached they wear a Tam O'Shanter
cap, pretty toque with birds feathers, or
anything which does not flap or catch the
wind.
The ownor of one of the nattiest cycling
costumes in the country described it to me
somewhat as follows: lit is made of dark
blue serge with Greek fret Of light blue
about the bottom of the short skirt. an
other light blue fret upon the belt and still
another. narrower, on the collar. The soft
felt hat is dark blue, with light blue cord
about it. Tailor made! Why, of course.