Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-04-18

Chief Consul Geiger, OF the League or
American Wheelmen. is very much en-
couraged by the increase in member
ship in the organization throughout the
State. and hopes TO be in a position to
organize a division for West Virginia
during the spring or summer Eacn
week he has issued number or men,
bership cards. The gain in three weeks,
exclusive OF the present, was about
thirty. bringing the membership up 10
more than half hundred. The Park
ersburg cyclers have organized club,
and il is understood that none but l.. a.
w members will be eligible. Mr..
Geiger has been in correspondence With
the Secretary. If the club adheres to
this rule. and reaches as large a men,
bershiD as has been predicted. the l..
A. W. membership in this State will
have reached the coveted one hundred
mark. This is sufficient for State Di-
vision. Wheeling riders are decidedly
backward, and the League has made no
gains in this section. If the local
cyclers manifest an interest in the L.
A. w. a Division will soon be an as
sured fact. and the riders will for the
first time realize the actual advantages
OF membership in the League.
A travelling man, whose territory eX-
tends over the greater portion of the
United States. remarked TO the sport
ing editor OF the Register last night
that he has nowhere seen a greater in
terest in cycling, all things taken into
consideration. than in Wheeling. The
number OF riders-men, women and
children-who were on the streets last
night, appeared 70 justify this broad
assertion. in measure at least. Bicy-
cles and bicyclists were very much in
evidence until ten o'clock, and they
made their presence known by a con-
tinuous Standardization of bells All
riders have complied with the provis-
ions of the ordinance recently adopted
By the city Council.
The carrying Of infants upon bicy-
cleS is a practice that cannot be too
strongly condemned To be sure it is
the outcome of parental fondness, but
IS certainly most injudicious proceed
ing. So long as the contrivance in
which the child is seated is securely
fastened and the parent is careful. the
liability TO accident may be reduced to
a certain extent. but the folly and dan
ger OF the whole thing is readily ap-
parent to a person possessing sound
judgement In the first place. the bicy-
Gle is not made for the purpose of car
rying a child in seat attached to the
handle bars. seat-post or upper part OF
the frame, or in any other manner 1t
is impossible TO keep under control a
bicycle so equipped; and to jeopardize
the lives os tender infants thus placed
on an over-weighted, over balanced BIZ
cycle, incapable of being controlled at
critical moments, is really little short
OF criminal ignorance.
In repairing single tube tire it is
well to excerise a little care in esti-
mating the size of the plug patch The
tire is often condemned when the plug
does not hold. when. in reality, the
fault lies in the inefficient repairing
material used. A plug with a blunt
edge patch should in all cases be of as
ample area as the aperture in the tire
will permit OF inserting. A common
mistake is the application of a thick
plug with no patch base. which COM
mon sense should tell the user will not
answer the purpose. A single tube tire
can be repaired both easily and per-
manently provided proper care is used
in the selection of the material.
Conditions such as recently existed
in a small town in New Jersey, twelve
miles from Philadelphia. from a fitting
object lesson of the profit in good roads.
In consequence of the bad roads the
wagon makers thereabout constructed
four horse vehiches TO carry fifty-fve
bushel baskets as a maximum load,
which was regarded as heavy hauling.
Real estate had gone abegging for
years: there was no possible market
for it, 1t had been impossible to settle
up estates because no purchaser could
be found for the land. But few years
ago the people of the community woke
up. The town issued SAC. 900 worth of
bonds and applied the proceeds to bet
ter roadways. AS q rssult New Jersey
wagon makers OF the vicinity OF Phila-
delphia are making two-horse vehicles
TO carry. not fifty-five bushel baskets.
but leads made up of from ninety TO one
hundred and twenty-five bushel bask-
cts. and still the loads are not regard
ed as heavy. Two horses are able to
do more work than four horses, and