The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-03-01

centuries TO come, When the farmer
prepares his soil for seeding with an
electric plow, chains the lightning to
mower and reaper, and speeds to town
through the air in his batlike flying
machine; when pneumatic railways shall
telegraph the tourist from one end OF the
continent to the other. and when Califor-
MIA fruit shall be sold in London only a
few days after it is picked from the trees !;
in such an era, when mechanical contriv-
ances furnish motive-power for every pur-
pose, and when that noble species of ami
mai, the horse, shall have become extinct
with what spirit of wonderment will the
student of history contemplate the days of
old when barbarous mortals fought and
slew each other on horseback to appease
pride or crafty ambition; with what
curious eye will that student scrutinize
the equine skeleton at the museum, and
pause to consider that such frame bore
the flesh of such an animal as that which
Richard III goes mad about in the thrill.
ing tragedy:
horse! horse! My kingdom for horse!
OF course, the majority of mortals can
not be led to believe that such an era is
possible No matter. We shall, perhaps,
enjoy it as immortal spirits peering down
from the everlasting stars.
The centuries to come may take as much
amusement at our expense as we
may derive at the expense of centuries
gone by.
Looking backward nowadays on ages of
the past the curious are prone to ask them.
selves how some of the olden heroes and
hsroines would appear in pictures with a
nineteenth century setting.
Ex-President Harrison and Speaker Tom
Reed both ride bicycles. Nothing odd
about that. 1t takes no jot or title away
from whatever fame is theirs. But Just
mount George Washington on wheel and
we become almost offended at the carica-
ture. 1t is all right ii we show him on the
back of melted charger. but the form of
the Father of His Country, attired in that
glorious old Continental uniform. doesn't
look natural on bicycle. Yet Washing
ton believed in plenty of outdoor exercise,
and, we're he in the land of the living to-
day, he would doubtless be seen, after
Office hours, working his little bike with
that characteristic nerve and energy which
orr relatives over the ocean were taught
to respect.
Napoleon Bonaparte would have been
charmed with the bicycle had it existed in
his day. 1t would have been necessary for
him to get a wheel made to order to suit
the requirements of his short legs. On an
old-fashioned ordinary, however, the Col
sican, upon whose genius the world still
eazes with awe, would have made ridicu-
lousy funny sight.
Wellington was better proportioned for
a rider of the bike, and had it been his lot
to discover that Napoleon had become an
expert on the pneumatic wheel the Iron
Duke would never have rested content I'M
til he had shattered the various records OF
the,rfvaI whose star he was destined to
pull down.
julius Cesar had proper build for
cyclist. Take the bay leaves from his
brow and hide his bald skull in launty
cap, then tuck the flaps of his toga into
some modern knee breeches and Julius is
not bad figure for wheeiman' gallery
The man who paralyzed great Pompey's
power would have mastered the bike with
out any waste of time, because, as Brutus
said, Cesar was ambitious
The bicycle would have been condemned
on sight by Richard III because of the I'M
shapeliness of his form and the fact that
one leg was little longer than the other.
There are people with limbs almost as I'M
perfect in this later day who "ger there"