The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-02-22
LONDON'S DEMON DOG.
Cherished a Great Antmosity TOWARD
Fashionable Bicycle Riders.

Fashionable Bicycle Riders.
Jerome X. jerome has been playing
the lester again In recent issue OF
his weekly he thus tells OF a demon
dog which for some time was factor
of importance TO those who spent the
morning hours wheeling in Hyde Park
His story is as follows:
Hyde Park bicyclists are nervous
riders, and a small dog is their
chief terror. I have been watching
with some interest during the last few
days the career-now happily ended
of one of the most active. one OF the
most daring and one of the most un
scrupulous wire-haired terriers that
has ever dominated the passes of Rot
ten row. At nine O'Clock TO the minute
every morning this dog entered the ride
by the passage that opens into the park
alongside Knightsbridge barracks.
DemureIy and sedately he would sit
upon his launches al the edge of the
rurb and cast his eyes east and west
There was something about that eye
which fascinated every bicyclist within
half mile. Ladies in Hyde Park cor.
De- would catch sight of him in the far
distance. They would attempt to ride
on with careless and Indifferent air,
but that dogs eye would draw them,
and by the time they reached Albert
gate they were mere webbing bags of
indecisiOn.
Strong men would screw up their
courage and endeavor to ride by it. A:
a hundred yards distance or so their
courage would ooze out. They COM
nenced TO describe the involuntary
circles. Looking up and down tie row
one could see a whole line of bicyclists
gradually becoming utterly democrat
iZed. The dog never moved, but jus:
looked. Men would get off and pretend
that something had gone wrong with
their chain. Ladies would dash into the
rurb, and giggle Historically at people
they did not know. At the exact
psychological moment when there was
rot sufficient nerve among the whole
Crowd to face a black beetle, that de
mon dog would give one fieDdish yelp
and dash into the middle of the road.
The collapse would lie complete, and
the police and park keepers would be
engaged for the next half hour picking
UP cyclists and sorting them on their
respective machines.
THE dog became notorious. His
fame went abroad throughout Bicycling
land. Expert riders arrived upon the
Ecene, expressing a determination to
ride over him and kill him. But the
DOG had studied bicycling and knew his
work, and the experts rode over many
things and injured many things, but
they never touched the dog. Then
Scotland Yard was communicated with
and the police came down in force TO
capture him. Two young oOnstables.
full of pride, in their inexperieneo
thought they could manage it by them
selves-with disastrous results. Each
constable came provided with piece
Of rope, and when the dog rushed into
the road they both rushed after it.
The few bicycles that the dog did not
upset the policemen upset. y muddy
P,d disreputable looking crowd, that
had once been we'll dressed and happy
cursed the policemen and everything
else that was round about. The con-
stables crept away to a quiet corner
10 scrape each other. The dog, remem-
bering an appointment, trotted off to-
ward the Marble arch.
But the resources of civilization were
not exhausted. An intelligent con-
stable was found-where and how
am not prepared to say. He was a man
of resource, and may be in his happy
youth he had been a cowboy. He came
provided with lasso, weighted with
a bit of lead. 1t was d mean trick, and
the dog was not prepared for it. Amid
cheers he -oped in the dog, together !
with respectable old gentleman VINO
had come down to ride in the row for |
the first time, having beer told that i: J
was just the place for beginner. Tbs |
struggle was desperate, but the police |
man was REINFORCED and the last sa'7
of that dog he was being led away by |
i've policemen. I shall regret his ab !
EeDce. and so, think, when they come /
to reflect upon the matter, will the /
Hyde Park bicyclists Pedaling with
grim seriousness up and down along
a straight bit of muddy road must be
work. That dog gave them
to think about. He leaves
a blank behind him.. Y. Mail and
Express.