The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-21


clumsy and roundabout arrangement cam
not be improved upon in America.
The more one looks into il the surer he
becomes that the next fad in America is
going to be the hOrseless carriage. One
Of the objections to as well as the pleas
ing feature of the bicycle is the work it
takes. Plenty of people will say that the
sole excuse for bicycling is the exercise
that one can get out of it. but the fact
remains that up at the New York Athletic
club lots of enthusiasts have given up rid
ing, because, as one of them tersely put
II, It's altogether too much like work"
This may seem as paradoxical and as in
consistent as the experience all athletic
clubs have encountered, that the most
enthusiastic athletes are the most certain
to insist on having an elevator to the
gymnasium. There can be no doubt about
it, the average human being likes, when
he is not actually intent upon hard work
In the way of exercise, as easy a time Of
IL as can be devised for him, and there
are few exercises more popular than driv-
ing. The main difficulty with driving IS
that it costs too much. There is just the
right amount of exercise about a good car
riage ride for he average human being.
You sit there in a comfortable wagon or
carriage, and the horse does the rest. Now,
horses are expensive animals. and require
knowledge and care to make them give
reasonable amount of pleasure in return
for the capital invested.
The pleasure of driving have long been
lauded and the happiness of the gentle
exercise of long outings in country lanes
in open air with only enough eXertion and
mind effort required to keep the thing
from becoming monotOnous have been
praised in the highest terms. but now
comes an exercise fully as beneficial as
the ordinary driving and having many of
the advantages over it that the bicycle
has over human legs. One of these is
the ability to travel long distances. Ev-
erybody knows that one objection to walk
ing is the fact that when one has gone
far enough to begin to get anywhere he
is tired out, to say nothing Of the journey
home again. The thing is tiresOme AMI
monotonous, because 1t is impossible to
have change of scene without too mucn
fatigue. With horse II is much the
same OF course, one can go much further
afeld with horse than if he were afoot,
but to go a really long journey, as things
are now, when trip of half a dozen miles
out In the country hardly means more
than a change of city streets, horses are
of little use. With a horseless carriage
one may go, not only half a dozen miles.
but half a dozen score Of miles and re-
turn in time for dinner unfatigued, with
no fears of a famed pet or a vets" bill
The time is not far off when a man will
take his family over to Philadelphia and
return, before it is late enough for hin,
to be accused of keeping bad hours, IN
the evening.
The horseless carriage craze has already
set In firmly in Paris, a city that is
generally conservative enough. Paris got
a little behind in the bicycle rage; nov
she is taking up the horseless carriage
idea with fervUr- eHougfl-to make UP for
her hardness in the other matter. 1t
was queer how Paris acted with a BIZ
10 3 a. L.. Al
together low and common to ride BIZ
cycle. 1t was considered as only another
instance of the perfidy and vulgarity Of
the English. No good Frenchman would
ride bicycle any more than he would
resort to the English methods of settling
his quarrels and then having done with
it, instead of going into the Bots and hav-
ing a scratch with a sword. But some
how one or two Frenchmen took to BIZ
cycling, and almost before one knew it
the rage was all over Paris. To tell the
truth, the Frenchwomen took to bicycling
in a manner that shocked their English
sisters. The bicycle, 1t was soon seen.
served as a far better excuse than the
worst of mud-puddles. The horseless car
riage has been seen in Paris for some
years. Perhaps one reason for this is
the exceptional pavements the gay city
enjoys.
II would be difficult to convey to an
American a fair idea of how popular BIZ
cycling is in Paris. Every city, every race
has its peculiarities and to tell an Ameri-
can or an Englishman how enthusiastic
the French are over bicycling is almost as
thankless a task as telling him that in
Paris one never sees a drunken man. Paris
is city made for bicycling, as 1t is for
horseless carriages. There are miles of
faultless pavements there. One can ride
almost all over Paris on asphalt or wood
pavements that are smoother than roads
in Central park. In fact the only fault the
writer ever heard a Frenchman make
about the pavements in Paris is that they
are too smooth. Every now and then one
gets a bad fall on the Partisan pavements,
because they are too well watered, and as
smooth as so much glass. Then there are
such rides A map of the pleasant rides
for bicyclists in Paris means simply map
of the city and its environs.
The place most frequented by the horse
less carriage owners of Paris is in the
neighborhood of the Hotel Continental. one
may see the tasteful vehicles sweep about
the corners of the Rue de Rivoli at all
hours, and either run up the Place Ven
dome or take a spin toward the Place de la
Concorde, thence up the Avenue des
Stamps Elysees and out to the glorious
Boies de Boulogne. On the Champs cyl
sees il is little bad for both bicycles and
crowds of carriages, but above or out be-
yond the Arc de Triomphe 1t is simply per-
feet for both. In Paris there are no res
trictions on bicycling. 1t seems as If the
place was made for a huge pleasure resort.
out about the Bots there is no Sunday law
as to the sale of refreshments and every
keeper of cafe or cabaret" makes special
provision for the riders Of wheels And at
every village for miles around the Sunday
trade of the cafes in furnishing refresh
ment to visitors from Paris seems to be
the principal reliance of the inhabitants.
At Maisons- Laftte one of the stations of
the popular road coaches, there are cafes
that make a speciality of catering to pa
irons that come from Paris. The Bois it.
self is a big pleasure garden for pleasure
seekers, from the dainty Chinois, as the
cafe at the entrance is called, to the Cas-
cades at the other extremity from which
one can overlook the great racecourse OF
Longchamps, where the Grand pix de
Paris is run every summer.
There are two big companies In Paris
already that have all they can do to sup