The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-03-03
A BICYCLE THIEF.

uuu tucy uuuou tuht wan al cxpoft
thief. and. for a time at least, had
mcceeded in banning the most praise
worthy attempts Of the police Of two
towrs to capture me.
While this statement Ia naturally hat-
tering to me IL is nevertheless q libel,
and. in fact, IL ! cared to use strong
language might 90 so far as TO take
the last syllable away from the word
"libel."
The whole trouble srose through
Switzerland not having q proper Ian
guage Of its own, that billy country pre-
ferring to express what few thoughts It
has In q mixture of French, German and
Italian, depending ON what particular
canton you happen to be in. They say
that the Swiss are natural linguists.
Unfortunately they are. Any combina-
tion Of sounds you may make means
something to any Swiss to whom You
happen to be talking, for he knows so
many languages that You are sure to hit
one Of them, and 30 you convey ideas to
him that you had no thought Of express
ing.
October weather Is lovely In Switzer-
land. Most Of the visitors have then
gone, prices come down one-half, and
the air Is sweet and cool, with usually
. cloudless SKY.
Under these circumstances ! Thought
it would be q nice thing, as the roads
were good and the scenery picturesque,
to take bicycle tour right around Lake
Tbun, beginning at the town which
gives the lake its name, going around
the north side Of the lake to Interlaken
and returning by the south shore.
The hotel keeper told me that II !
went mp the street, turned to the right,
went under an arcade until came to
tunnel, penetrated that and emerged on
another street, turned to the left and
kept on I would come to the shop Of
man who would let me have a bicycle
on hire by the day or the hour. fol-
lowed the directions as closely az posi-
BILE and thought recognized the shop
because a bicycle was leaning against
the wall. Tho owner was leaning
against the doorway, looking at the BIZ
cycle outside. The following converse
tion in many languages took place be-
tween Us:
"Haben sic IN bicyclette louer?" !
opened on him with the above impartial
mixture of German and French. 1t
seems be understood me to ask IL that
was his bicycle, whereupon he replied
in four languages:
"Yaw, yaw. oui, yes. Sc"
Then, throwing in bit Of italian, I
led of with:
"Quanta costa Ia machine . ia hoor,
oder per tag?"
Now, submit that to any educated
person, or even to q university man,
this sentence said a. plainly as print,
"How much do You want for this ma
chine by the hour or the day?" tried
afterward to get the magistrate to see
this, but he, not knowing Italian, SHE'D
at the very beginning Of the phrase.
The owner Of the bicycle on oath de-
clares that he thought I asked how
much the bicycle had cost him. He says
that he answered he paid 500 francs for
that brute Of q machine, made in
France, while understood him to agree
to let me have il for francs day,
which was cheap. I was in a hurry 10
be of and was afraid he might repent
his offer. 80 said II was all right, and
/ would take It, whereupon, without
further parley. wheeled the bicycle
into the middle of the road, sprang on
| its back and was of, leaving the aston
ished man standing by his door, too
thunderstruck, IL seems, to make any
outcry until I had passed beyond his
sight at the first turning Of the road.
Ipedaled serenely on, little realizing
what commotion I had left behind
me, and the one funny thing about this
| most regrettable episode Is that spent
an exceedingly quiet, peaceful and en-
| joyable day, not knowing ] was pursued.
| making no attempt to elude anybody
and yet eluding them In what appeared
| afterward to be by subtle and crafty
lodges. The magistrate could not be
| persuaded that my sitting on the We
randa of a restaurant In the main street
| Of Interlaken, with the bicycle In plain
| view Of everybody, was not the brazen
act of hardened criminal, who knew
| the police would be searching for him
II
In the back strecta
When the man standing against the
doorway had recovered partly from his
amazement at my sudden fight ON his
machine, he rushed to the police station
and told the authorities there a plausi-
BILE foreigner had engaged him In polite
| Ollendorfian conversation, and, while
his mind was distracted in trying to fol
low his remarks, had seized the oppcr.
tunity and also the machine and was al
that moment making his way to the
north road toward lnterlaken.
Now, capture under these circum'
stances seemed to be deliciously easy.
There were no branching of roads. The
mountains were ON one side and the lake
ON the other, ON neither side of which
was bicycling practicable. Therefore al
the two policemen had 10 do. when they
mounted their machines, was to ride
faster than I did. and SO overtake me.
A had no idea that q race was ON.
plunged along In Ieisureiy mannel
and would undoubtedly have been taker
near Interlaken IL 10 had not been fol
the. fact that some years ago company
built funicular railway from the mar
gin Of the lake a mile or so mp to St
Beatenbure. ] had lived in ST. Beaten
burg once, and I remembered that the
road from there Ia Inierlaken was {
good one. so I thought that perhaps q
would not be bad plan to 60 up on tb'
railway ond coast down 20 Interlaken
knew q man who had done II once
can we'll believe now that no ono evel