The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-11-22
Squirrel ON BY "a VISION.
Tho Dream Which Led = Cyclist to Join
tho i. A. w. at Once,

me Dream winch Leo p CycllSt TO join
tho L. A. w. at Once.
The admission OF one Of a party Of
cyclists that he. did not belong to the
League Of American Wheelmen' called
'orth a shower Of surprised comment.
He had no excuse to make for his
remissness save procrastination. He
believed it his duty to join, so as to-
aid in the cause of wheeling, but had
neglected to sign an application SIM
ply because there was no immediate.
hurry about it. A blank was secured
for him and he at. once took the neces-
sary steps to gain membership in the
L. A. w. t
ssThat reminds me of my expert
ence,' said one of the party. Only it
took q vision in the night to bring me
to the point of joining. Like our
friend here, I delayed about it forsno
particular reason save that it could be
attended to at n time just as we'll as
another. One evening | started for
New-EnglanI on the Fall River boat,
bent on a vacation trip. A friend and
[ had planned to take, u wheels and
had talked about riding on them part
of the, way to the resort for which we
were bound. At almost the last mo-
ment, however, we had decided not to
bring our machines, because the roads
which we would have to travel were
extremely bad. a3aa r49e
lf6atFWell, we started ON the boat and in
due time wentato our stateroom. MY
l3sleep was "a bit troubled and toward
morning T. had a dream which&was so
lifelike that it was really a vision. My
dreamgwas that I had brought my
wheel. having checked ittxthrough to
FanaRiver. On arriving there I9hand-
ED in my check and receivedfas bicycle
which somehow did not notice close
II. I mounted, but had,not ridden more
than a third of a mile when the wheel
collapsed completely. I cannot inn
agiEe a worse smashup. It was the
case Of the one-hoss shay over again;
frame, rims, spokes, pedal cranks,
h~andle-bar, saddle, everything simply
melted. apart, as if they had been
glued with mucilsge.
.It struck me that I must have some
other wheel than my beautiful '95 mod
sel, SO I bent over to see if the bicycle
really bore the number of my own.
Then I discovered that the pieces, ly-
ing on the ground were those OF a
rusty, clumsy old machine OF anti
quated make. I became indignant at
this: 'I'll 60 right to the consul Of the
l.. A. WI said to myself, and have
him go with me to the railway station
where I received that wheel. If /, a
stranger, went alone 1 might get scant
satisfaction
ttThen it struck me that Iahad never
Joined the Z L. A.eW., although I had
months ago decided to do so. So I
would have to fight my own. battle, and
perhar so it seemed to me, lost my
$500 eel simply because I had ne
elected to pay 81 tc belong to the L. A.
". I went to the baggage-room-and
there my dream ended. OF course, it
didn't, matter what happened after
that, the object OF the vision being to
convince me Of the need of my joining
the J.. A. w. speedily. On returning
to New York Ibid SO, and, Of course,
am extremely glad I did,:
Cigars had been, finished by this
time and so a start was made on the
return trip. .,,,ag t.4 g.4frsf.