The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-07-25

the men ran into Johnnie at the bridge and threw him off. The boy, being rendered unconscious by the blow, was drowned in the water underneath. The men thinking the boy dead, hurried away as rapidly as possible.
 Old man Whitwell could never tell how he managed to get home that night, But he did, and he brought his dead poy and bicycle with him. Three days later the boy was buried in the little country cemetery on the hill back of the village, where his grave may be seen to-day.
 All through the long winter of 1SS9-sO the wheel was kept carefully housed Tn the front parlor of the cottage. In the spring of 1890, the father, now older and less able to work, owing to his loss, was badly in need. of money and desired to sell the wheel. A boy from the village wanted to buy it, but before making the purchase he tried the wheel. Al though a good rider, when he attempt- ed to take the road toward Old Fort Erie he fell from the wheel three times before he had gone two hundred yards. | The road was in fair condition, too, at | the time, but somehow he failed to manage his wheel. Thinking the road might be little better down the river, he turned the wheel in that direction. It went along smoothly and he did not have a fall until he attempted to cross the bridge over Frenchman's Creek. He had gone about fifty yards beyond the bridge when he fell once more, al- though he could find no obstruction in the road. Whenever he attempted to go further down the road he would either have fall or the cones would l tighten up or something would happen to the wheel which would impede his progress. Becoming disgusted, he turned about and started on the home. ward way toward the ferry. The wheel fairly flew along until the ferry was reached, but when he tried to go beyond this place the usual fall oc- cured.
 Since that time score of people from | the village and from Buffalo have tried to ride the wheel, but with the same re- suits. It went nicely between the ferry and the bridge, but in other places it became unmanageable.
 1 Gradually these different experiences | UL uliLeISHl ptOplt GSHle " ild'C q meaning for old Whitwell, and it was not long before he believed that the spirit of his dead boy had something to do with the conduct of the wheel. In time he came to hold the wheel in su- perstitious awe, and a little study of the theory of theosophy which the cid man afterward indulged in served to increase this feeling, until now he is | convinced that the bicycle is the sym bol through which the boy would com municate with him if the father were only able to understand his message. There is no doubt in the.old mans mind that his boy was thrown from the bridge by the three drunken men; neither does he doubt that if the wheel were taken across the ferry to the American side it would take the rider to the place where the gray horse stopped with his drunken load. But the test will never be made, for the sor died long ago, and even though the men should be found in this way it is doubtful if the charge could be proved against them. And besides, as the ole man says, nothing could bring little Johnnie back.
 The wheel still stands in the lonely J cottage in the lane hidden from the I eyes of all but the father. Some tims
 before he dies the father declares ht
 will destroy the wheel in order that f
 may not fall into another's hands, | Buffalo Courier