The record-union., 1896-03-05
CYCLE TOPICS
Hamilton Cuts Down the Worlds Mile
Record at Coronado.
Manager Shafer Has Something to Say
About McCrea- General Cycle
Notes. Etc.

You remember how Kitty one morning
With pitcher Of milk, from the fair of
Coleraine,
And how Kitty stumbled, the pitcher it
And all the sweet buttermilk watered
the plain?
And you can't have forgotten the poets
How he kissed her and poet-like)
kissed her again,
with result that when rumor had pub
m, nshed his humor,
raine?
Well. thinking Of this. you'n be grieved
plain;
For the passion for wheeling o'er Erin is
And cycling is now the sole thought of
Coleraine.
And alack! lack j. an the girls are forsaking
New womens pneumatics are turning
their brain
And, careless of Knockers tbev,u don
knickerbockers.
All oevll skirt will be whole in Cole
D. ). Shafer, who has charge of the
bicycle racing team that has been
training at Coronado, writes as follows
70 the Record Union" under date of
February 29th:
Ny attention has been called to an
article in the Sacramento Record
Union OF the 26th of February, ema-
mating from McCrea, which reads as
IcuoWs; 'Shafer has treated me very
queerly in this matter, and positively
refused to give US any particulars re-
garding the new rules. He received a
message from r. NJ Welch for the team,
but the only intimation we had of it
was when it appeared in the daily
papers
McCrea Furthermore states that re-
FUSED to pay him his salary because he
refused to become a professional Now,
there are two sides to every story, and
as this outraged young amateur (?)
has had his say, I would like to say a
lew words with reference to this mat
ter
When l first employed McCrea it was
with the distinct understanding that he
was to act as pacemaker, and to do
everything possible to forward the in
terests of the firm that employed him
For while everything went nicely, the
pacemakers were riding well, and we
were cracking records every day, when
Hamilton received a message calling
him to the bedside of his sick wife in
4'C41N Cl- Ills lSLL IlE Without a record
breaker, and I Immediately took Nc
Crea and Wells off the quad and trained
McCrea for the standing mile. On Feb
Iuary ID the best time McCrea could
make was 1:56, but kept at him until
finally, on the 18th, he made the mile
in i :49 2-5, breaking ,the worlds rec
ord. Then the trouble commenced, for
upon the return of Hamilton, who can
ride rings around McCrea, I put him
back upon the pacing machine.
'McCrea, whose head had swollen till
he imagined himself the peer of Zim-
norman, was decidedly disgruntled at
this, and very slyly, as he thought,
started to try and work upon the minds
of the boys and did everything in his
power to cause the disruption of the
team. 1t was not long before dropped
on to his tactics, but gave him plenty OF
rope, by which he finally came to the
end, and one day l fired him
HE is now trying to enlist the sym
pathies of the cycling fraternity through
the newspapers, and takes his stand
upon amateurism. Upon the abolition
of class 3 he Immediately expressed his
determination of turning professional,
asserting that he was out for the stuff
which statement he also made to my
press agent for publication, and which
may be found in any of the late cycling
journals. / gave every man in my
team the option of remaining an anna
teur or going into the professional
ranks. With the exception of McCrea,
they unanimously decided to stand by
me until / had secured the records.
Now this is not an unsupported
statement, but one that can prove by
c S. Wells and Honest Bob Terrill, two
of California's s most popular riders, who
will testify to the truth Of every state
ment that I have made
At Coronado on Monday four worlds
records were captured by speedy men
there. The first record-smashing was
by W. w Hamilton, the Denver crack,
who tried for a mile flying start He
clipped two-fifths of a second off the
worlds record. making the mile in
l. 80 1-5
Hamilton was far from exhausted by
his feat. In fact, he became more en-
thusiastic than ever. and after short
rub down he tried for the two-thirds of
a mile. flying start, paced by the quad.
He made this in the astonishing time
of IS So seconds, beating the worlds
record by s 20 seconds. With hardly
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