The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-07-23
HE DOES NOT RIDE ONE
This May Account For John LIS
Objection to the Bicycle.
THERE MAY BE OTHER REASONS.
Sullivan Praises the L. A. W., But
Condemns Cycling-Says Wheel
ing Develops Muscles IN
equally.

The bicycle fever has swept over tho
country like prairie fire. I have been in
pretty nearly every state of the Union dur
ing the past II months, and everywhere
found men, women and children searching
along the highways and byways
This is about the only game have never
played. When say games, do not mean
such pleasantries as croquet, lawn tennis
or golf, but downright manly sport like
hunting Shooting, fishing, rowing, run
ming, walking, riding, wrestling, baseball,
football and boxing. 1 never cottoned to a
bike, somehow, and while I will never
knock any honest sport can't say am
particularly stuck on this one know it
is a rather bad play to speak right out in
meetin, - as they say down east, about a
game that is as popular as this unless you
say something nice, but I have been on the
level all my life, and I will give you a
straight tip what think about the game
since you have been good enough to ask
my views about it.
In the first place, I must say that I ad-
mire the spirit of the men who are run
ming the wheelman's league, as they call
it, in making governors, legislatures and
municipal authorities come to time In
New York state they made the legislature
pass a law and the governor sign it COM
pelling railroads to carry their bicycles
valises of passeng ers-this, too with my
able and eloquent friend, Chauncey NJ
Depew, kicking like mule They must
be handles to beat Chauncey, and, as no
body but greedy corporations are hurt 4
bit by the move I take off my hat to the
league and say more power to its elbow.
Then, too, they threw q scare into the
New York board of aldermen and made
them vote away $40, 900 to light up the
Boulevard so they could wheel away at
night That IS more than all the million
aire horse owners and big sportslnen of the
metropolis ever had the nerve to try. Score
another point to their credit They have
got the politicians afraid of them They
must be sFleEdidly organized to do this. I
hope the American Liberty league, which
I am about to start, with the aid Of repre-
sentative spGrtsInen, to promote and pro
tect the interests of boxing, viii be as sue
cessful as the wheelnan' s league certainly
is Our society viii be somewhat similar
in character We will organize in every
state in the Union before September, and
about the time nominations are to be made
by the various political parties for con
gressInen, assemblymen, aldermen, mayors
and the like we VIII wait upon them and
ascertain their views on boxing. Those
who are bigoted and against US we will
scratch at the polls, and those who are
with US we will fight for tooth and nail
and energy that the wheelmen have done,
we will win hands down. The politicians
won't dare run counter to US, and you
won't see any more senseless crusades
against boxing.
But am depressing, as my friend Sen
ator Timothy Dry Dollar Sullivan would
say. 1 started out to tell you what I
thought of cycling and how it compares
with other games. Honest Injun, I think
it is the poorest, least invigorating and
least strengthening of the lot. It might
be nice thing for a fellow to be out
wheeling with his best girl on a bicycle
built for two and go flying past pretty
pasture lands and ripping rivulets; but, to
my mind, it would be far nicer to be seated
in a light road wagon behind a speedy
trotter, with one arm at least at liberty,
and drink in the fresh air and charming
scenery.
81 I take no stock in the theory of crank
doctors and crazy specialists that cycling
brings on crooked spines, spinal menin-
gifts, heart troubles, congestion of the
brain, nervous diseases and the like. That
is all tommy rot. 1t was only a week ago
I saw Lillian Russell Cissy Fitzgerald and
Della Fox speeding down the Boulevard,
and they all looked the picture of health as
well as beauty Their eyes were frightened
and their cheeks a pearly pink from the
exhilarating feeling the exercise brought
were only going fast enough to feel good.
Cycling, however, has these disadvan-
tages as compared with other games-I
mean of course when the rider is going at
a good clip: The muscles of the legs, espe-
cially of the calves, are developed abnor-
mally at the expense of the rest of the body;
the shoulders become stopped and the
chest hollow, while the circulation becomes
quickened, but still impeded by the con
tracSed position of the rider. In almost
every other kind of game it is different. In
walking, running, rowing, horseback rid
ing, wrestling, baseball, football and box
ing, the body is erect, the shoulders uncon-
tracted, the chest thrown out, and the blood
given a chance to circulate evenly and IN
impeded through the system. The best of
all games for developing qualities of head,
heart and courage is boxing. 1t is the
most healthful of all exercises. 1t strength
ems the lungs and develops the muscles
of the entire body, arms, chest, shoulders,
neck, back, thighs and calves. So even is
the distribution of physical effort that the
trained boxer is seldom, if ever, known TO
have an enlarged heart or other serious all
ment save such as he himself brings on
through dissipation or other excuses
which sometimes follow in the wake of
success. Yet this is the game which kings
once played and which fanatics now try to
destroy.
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