The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1896-06-02
A BICYCLE THIEF.

NAN -oS
but for the purpose of stealing bicycles,
and they added that l was an expert
thief, and, for n time at least, l had
succeeded in battling the most praise
worthy attempts of the police of two
towns to capture me.
While this statement is naturally fiat
tering to me it is nevertheless a libel.
and, in fact, if l cared to use strong
language l might go SO far as to take
the last syllable away from the word
"libel."
The whole trouble arose through
Switzerland not having a proper Ian
guage Ct its own that hilly country pre-
ferring to express what few thoughts it
has in u 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-
ton 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 so 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
a cloudless sky.
Under these circumstances I thought
it would be a nice thing, as the roads
were good and the scenery picturesque,
to take a bicycle our right around Lake
Thun, beginning at the town which
gives the lake it's name, going around
the north side of the lake to Interlaken
and returning by the south Shore
The hoteI keeper told me that if l
went up the street, turned to, the right,
went under an arcade until l came to a
tunnel, penetrated that and emerged ON
another street, turned to the left and
kept on l would come to the shop of a
man who would let me have a bicycle
lowed the directions as closely as posi-
BILE and thought I recognized the shop
because a bicycle was leaning against
the wall. The owner was leaning
against the doorway, looking at the BIZ
cycle outside. The following CONVERSE
ton in many languages took place be-
tween us:
"Haben sic I'M kcyclette a louer?" I
opened OF him with the above impartial
mixture Of German and French. 1t
seems be understood me t ask if that
was his bicycle, %whereupon he replied
in four languages:
"Yaw, yaw, oui, yes. se."
Then, throwing in a bit of Italian, I
led off with:
"Quanta costa la machine a la hoor,
oder per tag?"
Now, I submit that to any educated
person, or even to a university man,
this sentence said as 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 l asked how
much the bicycle had cost him. He says
that he answered he paid 500 francs for
that brute Of a machine, made in
France, while I understood him to agree
to let me have it for 3 francs a day,
which was cheap. / was in a hurry to
be of and was afraid he might repent
his offer. so I said it was all right, and
! would take it, whereupon, without
further parley, I wheeled the bicycle
into the middle of the road, sprang on
its back and was off, leaving the aston
ished man standing by his door, too
thunderstruck, it seems, to make any
outcry until I had passed beyond his
sight at the frst turning Of the road.
I pedaled serenely ON, little realizing
what a commotion / had left behind
me, and the n funny thing about this
most regrettable episode is that I spent
an exceedingly quiet, peaceful and en-
joyable day, not knowing I 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 1nterlaken, with the bicycle in plain
view Of everybody, was not the brazen
dct VI d udTucueu CIlUlnal, VINO knew
the police would be searching for him
in the back streets.
When the man standing against the
doorway had recovered partly from hi.
amazement at my sudden fight on hi
machine, he rushed to the police station
and told the authorities there a plausi
BILE foreigner had engaged him in polit,
O~llendorfian conversation, and, Will,
his mind was distracted in trying to fol
low his remarks, had seized the oppor
tunity and also the machine and was a
that moment making his way to tn
north road towardalnterlaken.
Now, capture under these circum
stances seemed to be deliciously easy
There were no branching of roads. Tn
mountains were on one side and the lax
On the other. on neither side of whicl
was bicycling practicable. Therefore al
the two policemen had to do, when the
mounted their machines, was to rid
faster than ] did, and 10 overtake me
A. ! had no idsa that . race was on,