The Portland daily press., 1896-06-20

Whisky and lager, Z, Guy, ooo
Thea4ars 2 000, coo
Total, Sll2, oUu."
In all the wonder story of commerce
and money dealings from the days OF the
Phoenicians there is no chapter SO as
founding as that which tells Of the BIZ
Cycle.
A toy, it has overturned the trade of
nations within the compass of five heet'
ing years. Serious people laughed at 1t
and called the folk who rode it feather
brains"
Today those same serious people have
recalled their capital from worldwide en-
ter prises and started 1t anew in the hi
cycle business to save themselves from
commercial shipwreck.
The whirring of these cobweb wheels
has been like the SPIDERS spinnlng-si-
lent, wonderful. Fortunes have been
made IS if by magic. Men who five
wears ago had not the price OF mass for
their souls sake, nor any apparent means
of getting it, count their riches now In
seven figures Every Injuries this world
knows is theirs for the wishing.
There have been South Sea bubbles and
feyers of gold and coal aud oil. But all
this history of money manias shows no
parallel to the bicyols fever. 1t has set
civilization by the ears. Trade is today
a hodge-podge, and no man, II all msn
are to be believed, is making money ex-
copt the mai who is making the bicycle
Moreover, no man can tell where it will
end.
The facts and figures are appalling
Commerce, for all its keen vision, can
not read them Alright. Five years ago, IN
this whole wide country. not 10000 BIZ
CYCLES were made or sold, and the SOLID,
stolid business men made mock OF the
'playthings."
Mark the change. In this year OF
grace and pneumatic tires, four-fifths OIL
q million of wheels will be marketed IN
the United States alone.
The leaders in the bicycle trade say
that an average price for these machlnes
is $50. Multiply. There will have oeen
$3.50, 600, 900 spent this year in the unlVeo
States alone for bicycles. The world is
bicycle mad.
EFFECTS OF THE CRAZE.
Here is 500, 600, 600 DETECTED from the
ordinary channels of trade and into the
bicycle pocket. Man, woman. and child
the population of Christendom-is a
wheel. Cuisines hours" are only the
intervals, now, that must elapse between
trims upon the wheel. Honest debts have
no claim on attention. The bicycle Is
preferred creditor to every man, rich and
noor. The butcher, the baker, and tbs
candlestisk maker may whistle for theil
nav SO long as the bicycle yender is vel
reckoned with.
Firms which tor a century have
weathered financial gales have stopped
dead, in a twinkling, now. The money
which used to flow into thar Golfers has
gone for bicycles.
The church? 1T is forgotten. The Sab
hath? A cycling day. The theater
Old-fashioned fun. The horse? Ioker
and COMPANION of gentlemanhood, g
hack. browsing on the highway. Jew
els? Watches? Clothing? The men wht
carried on those industries have turned
their machinery to the making OF rubber
tries and bali bearings.
Tobacco has been forsaken. Wine is {
mocl,er Knocked at. Wheels and ginge
non That is the order of the day. Rail
road dividends are decimated. Politic
has become merely catering to th'
wheelmen's wishes.
There was talk. once, OF railroad
lobby in Legislatures. Where Is II now
Read the history of the Armstrong bill
ut Albany. The bicycle had force Uher
which made the railroad lobby LOOK nk'
n pulling infant.
And more remarkable than the rae
that it all has been done in i've shor
years is this. that the bicycle, in addition
to def1scting money from all the legiti
mate channels of trade. has kept peopl
from spending money which they WIZ
able to spend, would have spent, in 9th
or ways of luxury. That is the marve
of the sport That is its keynote
TRADE IN LUXURIES SUFFERS.
The Sunday journal has during tb
last week canvassed the trndes-tbe old
fashioned trades which people used f,
spend their money on before the bicycl
came to overwh5lm Verything else ept
SGT the worlds market at stsndstill
1t has learned Of the millions upon mil
lions of money which ara invested in tn
manufacture Of wheel . the incredibl
profits which are reaped from their sale