The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-07-31
The Horse And the Bicycle.
From the Ne1U York Sun.

erage and even the better quality are
lower than ever before in the history
of the market. The business of horse
raising has ceased to be profitable,
unless it is confined to varieties of the
breed for which there is fashionable
demand or which are distinguished for
their speed. At the same time there
| is falling off in the demand for car
riagcs. With very good reason, the
horse dealers attribute this decline in
great part to the present passion for
bicycle riding and the use Of electricity
and cables, for horse traction on the
street railways throughout the Union
has, of'course, very much to do with
it. The horse has been displaced, to
large extent, by these new agencies
both as beast of burden and an an
imal used for pleasure. The dealers,
however, profess, and perhaps feel,
confident that the competition OF the
bicycle is due to merely passing
fancy or hobby. They say that the
passion for bicycle riding is too violent
to last, and that in the course Of one
or two years the horse will resume his
place in the interest and affections of
men and women, and the machine will
be laid away as toy Of which people
have grown weary. The diminution
of the demand for draught horses be-
cause of the substitution of electricity
for horse power, they admit, will con-
tinue indefinitely and steadily become
greater. Here in New York, for in
| stance, the time is near at hand when
it will displace horses entirely from
the street railways, and the same will
be the case with the cities and towns
of the Union generally. The expert
ments with carriages run by electricity
| or petroleum, which have been made
recently in France, suggest that the
horse will have new competitor not
merely in the cities, but along country
roads and in agricultural operations.
As it is, very fair horse can be bought
for about the price Of cow. The
rare and incontestably superior beast
may fetch about as much as ever, but
the ordinary horse of ordinary and even
good breeding is very cheap.
The use of the bicycle has increased
at rapid rate during the last year.
It would be safe to say that there are
three times as many wheelers as there
were last summer, though then the
number was great. Probably there
are five times as many. The level
roads in the neighborhood Of New
York are crowded with bicycle riders
on Saturday afternoon more especially,
and on all days they are numerous,
and much more numerous than the
people who drive horses for pleasure.
Men who were once accustomed to take
a drive for recreation when they reach
ed the country from town, now to a
large and increasing extent prefer BIZ
cycles. Consequently the driving has
undergone very perceptible diminu-
tion. Neither are they generally young
fellows of sporting proclivities. Very
many of them are gray haired men, who
declare that they find in wheeling a
needed recreation which driving does
not furnish. Very many Of them also
are women, old and young. A great
part of the country girls themselves
are now expert wheelers, and the fem
mime visitors from town swell the
numbers largely. Doubt as to the
propriety Of riding bicycle has pass
ed away, for fashion has set its stamp
of approval on the practice and sup
piled conspicuous examples Of it which
have released the feminine mind from
fear of offending conventionality by
mounting a bicycle. Accordingly,
man and wife, father and daughters,
are frequently seen wheeling along the
roads together in high state of en-
joyment.
The ambition to acquire the art OF
managing the machine, thus stimulat-
ed, is rapidly extending among men
and women both, and as it is easily
gratiGed now that numerous schools
for the preliminary instruction have
been established, the practice Of bicycle
riding is increasing faster than at any
previous time since the machine was
introduced and brought to perfection.
If people cannot afford to buy bicycles
they hire them. Meantime the use of
the bicycle simply as means of
transportation and for business pur-
noses is extending correspondingly.
It is in general employment in the
country by messengers, mechanics,
professional men, merchants, school
teachers, and all persons who have
long or considerable distances to 60 in
the pursuit of their business. Chill
dren ride it to school. Clergymen
use it even in making their pastoral
visits, doctors in going their rounds.
Its first cost paid, itrequires no further
expenditure except for occasional re-
pairs. 1t does not have to be fed like
a horse, and no one needs to be hired
to take care Of it. 1t extends greatly
the region over which carpenters, ma
sons, plumbers, or gardeners can make
their work profitable, and to such it
has become indispensable. They have
all the advantages and none of the dis
advantages involved in keeping a horse.
They can make better time than the
millionaire in his costly equipage.
Accordingly, the assumption Of horse
dealers that bicycle riding is mere
fad, an ephemeral hobby, does not
seem to be justified. Evidently the
machine has come to stay. 1t may be
that its use simply for sport and rec
reation will diminish hereafter, some
thing else coming up to replace it in
the popular fancy, but before that de-
cline sets in, if it does occur, the pas
sion for bicycle riding will doubtless
increase and extend greatly. Multi
tudes Of people yet remain to be at
fected by it; but as machine for
various use as means of necessary
transportation it must continue to be
employed permanently by greater and
greater numbers of people. Very
many of them, it is true, have never
been horse buyers, but the machine
will enable thousands of people in all
parts of the Union who have depended
on horses to get along without them
wholly or in part. Only five more
years remain Of this century, but they
are likely to be accompanied by some
of the most important changes in civ