The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1896-07-09
BICYCLE AND BUSINESS.
Hard Times Attributed In Part TO the Wheel
ing Craze.

Now the bicycle is accused of re-
sponsibility for a lot of the hard times
in various lines of business. The
theatrical man stands in front of his
showhouse and swears as he sees the
men and maidens wheeling by. The
confectioner stands is his doorway
and looks into his window of unsold
candy and says the bicycles are ruin
ing his business. The clothier says
he can't sell half as many fine clothes
as he did because people wear bicycle
suits more than half the time. The
cigar man says his trade is suffering
because everybody rides a bicycle and
not one in twenty smokers smokes
awheel. The livery stable man and
the riding academy man grind their
teeth in rage and declare that business
is going or has gone to the demnition
bowwows. The shoe man says he
can't sell anything but cheap bicycle
shoes now. The hat manufacturer
says his orders for fine hats are off
one-half, and all he can sell is cheap
caps, in which there is no money.
Everybody is growing except tn e BIZ
cycle man, and the bicycle has to
bear the brunt of it all.
A New Yorker, now in the western
part of the state, writes;
az have made discovery since l
left home. 1t is not the silver question
which has caused the financial de-
preston throughout the country. 1t
is the bicycle. 1 have talked with
men in a dozen different trades, and
each one says his business has been
nearly ruined by the cycle mania.
A large bookseller, for instance,
told me that he did almost no bust
ness, because instead of reading as
they used to do everybody and his
wife go bicycling every evening. He
said that his magazine sales had fallen
off one-half and his book trade pro-
portionately. There are So,o BIZ
cycles in use in Buffalo, and between
$2,ooo,ooo and $4,000, 900 ale in
vested in them in Rochester.
GA sewing machine agent told me
that his customers tailed to pay him
because they had spent their money
in buying bicycles. This loss is the
worst feature of the craze. People,
who cannot afford it, buy bicycles,
and either, as in this case, do not pay
their debts or 60 without things that
are necessary to their we'll being
The tradesmen who are kicking
haven't any hope in sight. 1t isn't
likely that half the people who are
going to ride the bicycle are riding it
it now, and not all those who ride
own their own wheels yet, but they
all intend to. It's great harvest TOR
the bicycle men, and they are happy
as clans at high tide.
The unlucky tradesmen who are
losing money can obtain consolation
in the thought that large part of
their loss is a gain to humanity as
well as to the bicycle dealer. One of
the best known physicians in New
York, in conversation with the re-
porter few days ago, said: "Not in
200 years has there been any one
thing that has SO benefited the race
as the invention of the bicycle. Whyl
Why, thousands upon thousands of
men and women who previous to
year or SO ago never got any outdoor
exercise to speak of are now devoting
half of their leisure time to healthy
recreation. They are strengthening
their bodies and developing them
selves in every way, and not only are
they reaping benefit themselve, but
the generation that follows them will
be born of healthy parents and will
start in life with the constitution that
our fathers had, free from the weak
nesses that come to those who are
habitually indolent.-New York Sun.