The San Francisco call., 1896-02-23

q
horse. There will be asphaltum or btu
minous pavements between all the larger
cities and towns, and meantime some
Yankee will have applied electricity to
the wheel and a man will ride down to the
Garden City without straining his muscles
in the least inside of two hours.
bicycles have been the ruination, I
might say, of the livery business. Our
house feels the falling-off in the demands
for livery harness. A few years ago, the
young man would take his girl out of
Sunday in a neat buggy and ride to the
country behind a rapidstepping horse.
Ten years ago the stables could never sup
ply the Sunday and holiday demand for
horses and carriages. How is it now? All
the stables are overstocked with horses.
Tney have carriages lying continuously
idle on their hands. They have more har-
ness than they know what to do with, and
they can't sell it to some other liveryman,
for they are all in the same boat. What
does the young man with girl do now !?
He spends his holidays on his bike. He
teaches his girl to ride, and they now go
out wheeling side by side.
when somebody introduces electricity
as the motive power of the Wheel then
those who don't feel equal to the task of
working the treadle for great distances On
the bicycle will buy wheel with an cleo
trio motor, and ride without any particular
physical effort. You'll see! The wheel is
going to capture the whole people in time
"Why, sir, business is improving in all
lines but ours and few others that are
being knocked out along with the horse.
Electricity is doing a big part of the
damage. Ten years ago there were some
1000 horses pulling streetcars in this and
neighboring cities. How is it to-day?
You find a few bobtaii-cars still running,
but people regard these as relics of past
age. The electrlc-car has driven them
out. The horses are thrown on the coun-
try. The demand for horses is down near
the zero mark, and only the other day, in
one OF the northern counties of California,
band of 300 horses was sold for total of
$3.50. or a little over so cents apiece.
$50 to the mines. We used to supply
the miners with harness for the mule
teams which hauled the ore. We did an
immense business, but we don't do it any
longer. The mule team has seen its day
in the mines. What's the reason? The
miners have gone to the nearest mountain
stream and used the water power to gene
rate electricity, which is conveyed to the
mines and does the hauling. Horses are
being crowded out everywhere. No won
der horses are being butchered for meat.
ats rather gloomy picture for our
business; but it's a TACT nevertheless. The
bicycle is pushing US hard, and when cleo
tricity is fastened to the wheel we'll be
pushed harder still.''
o. f. Wiley of the firm of o. f. Wiley
d Co., wholesale harness and carriage deal
ers, had not given the subject sufficient
attention to enable him to say Just what
relation the bicycle may have to the dull
nessin the harness and carriage business.
at certainly hurts the carriage trade
some" he said. 81 hear many complaints
from livery stable men. who claim that
the bicycle is taking trade away from them.
In so far the wheel hurts the livery men it
hurts the carriage trade"
w. Davis, wholesale harness dealer.
thought that the principal effect of the
modern safety" was on the livery busi-
ness in the cities.
1--WE can't help feeling the hurt little -
he continued. when a liveryman who
ordered ten sets of harness last year saws
he needs only half that many this year
some ex planation has to be looked for, and
l guess the bicycle explains the difference
Last Sunday I hired a rig for $6 that
couldn't have got under $40 two years ago.
But hard times brought down prices in
every line. Somebody told me while ago
that the bicycle craze was dying out. l
don't hear anything about a horse craze,
though"
William Walcom is carriage e-painter at
the Fashion carriage factory on Ellis
street. His firm has plenty of business
"for the times" and he laughed at the
idea of the bicycle retiring the horse.
Hard times" was his definition of the
cause OF the dullness.
''There is one odd thing, though" re-
marked Mr.. Walcom, after a few seconds
of thought, land l wonder if this bicycle
theory explains it. Really never thought
of bicycles and buggies in this relation
before. Our buggy trade is going out-we
don't make buggies extensively any more.
We confine ourselves to carriage building.
coaches and fine equipages. What's the
matter with the buggiesP No demand for
them. 1t is rough on the buggy trade
when three-quarters of the buggies in the
stables lie idle continuously. A buggy,
when in use, needs to be painted about
once a year. If firm of painters does
business for stables that use 200 buggies
it will have 200 buggies to paint II the
stables have to put three-quarters of those
buggies aside the painter suffers a falling
off OF three-quarters in that buggy paint
ing particular. l am not disposed TO con-
tradict you if you say that bicycles have
rung the knell of the buggy trade. In
former years we have turned out of this
shop as many as forty pleasure buggies a
month. To-day if We turn out half a
dozen we are doing remarkably we'll"
Among the proprietors of livery stables
the idea that the bicycle has come to stay
and is increasing its influence is treated
with scorn. Some of them peer far into
the future and see junk-shops full of BIZ
cycles and the winged wheel in general
disfavor.
Manager Bailey of the Golden Gate
stables said that cycling had acted as a
drawb hack last reason especiaIIy with fba