The Press., 1897-04-22

an ardent disciple of the rod and line, had gone ahead on the early train. The ltter arrivals were hurrying along the road to the stream which was to be the scene of sport.
 Il wonder if Gadsby has left any fish for us to catch" said one of them.
 ''I guess there will be a few," replied another. "I'd have got discouraged long ago if had been in his place. When he drops line in the water the fish all seem to turn around and run the other way. Who's that coming up the road, I won der ?''
 'I don't know. Looks odd, whoever it is. Maybe it's an escaped lunatic."
 But when the figure drew nearer, they recognized it. It was Gadsby. The change that had come over him, how ever, seemed to fully justify the lunacy theory. He was barefooted and wore a battered, big brimmed straw hat. A pair of rough, earth-stained trousers and gingham shirt completed an attire which, on a man of Gadsby's punctilous taste, was more than mysterious.
 "What in the name of common sense have you been doing ?" asked one of his friends in tones of the most anxious con- cern. "Have you gone staring mad ?"
 "No," was the reply. "rm not crazy"
 "What are you looking like this for, then? ?''
 live been trying to change my luck. Two hpo rH Tpnnlo fhaf Rch did 0t possess a great deal of intelligence. If anybody ever tells you that, don't you believe lem. I came up here ahead of you people to try an experiment. I've seen these country boys get bite after bite, while I did nothing but hang my feet over the water and look, so often that 1 resolved to try a new method. I got these clothes and bent pin for a 1 hook and baited with a common worm" |"
 And you didn't catch anything ?' Mot thing, except an eel. And as soon as he saw who I was he wriggled off the bank and got away. These scientists know a great deal; but when it comes to talking about the intelligence of fish, they are away off. I've tried the experi- ment and I am in position to speak. You can't fool 'em.''
 What is needed to crush the itinerant vendor more than law is a campaign of education. When once the people know the advantage of buying goods of home dealers, of responsible dealers, from who they can get a rebate if the goods sold are not what they arc represented to be, they will be less ready to dicker with strangers at the door, who may swindle them and to whom they cannot look for redress, or of transient persons with bankrupt stocks who turn off their goods regardless of cost" and usually regardless of their value to the buyers.
 The right of requiring these itinerant m >rchants to take out license is not dis puted, and to make them pay literally for them has long been in vogue and should be continued. A license system aids in keeping the itinerant dealers down to the minimum and in degree lessens their profits. The mistake is in attempt ing to make license fee legal which is prohibitive in effect. This cannot be done for greater length of time than 1t will require to take case to the supreme court because it is unconstitutional and it ought not to be attemped.
 Since the agitation of this question was begun in Norwich eight or ten years ago there has been great falling off in travel ing merchants, and it is questionable whether one of these firms has done a paying business in this city in the past five years.
 The cultivation of spirit that is loyal to home traders is preventative and a protection against the shrewd and un- scrupulous salesmen and peddlers who travel from town to town misrepresenting their goods and cheating the people.
 Cultivate the American spirit American goods. The merchants who combine and exhibit American goods a week at time in some of our cities are doing good thing for the country and for themselves. In business campaign of education is needed, not only to show the people the style and variety of goods Americans manufacture, but to imbue them with the feeling that money spent at home for American goods and with established merchants is well spent and cannot be spent to better advantage anywhere or with anybody. y.-Noroojch Bulletin.
 The New York Herald estimates that there are 4,OOO, ,OOO bicycle riders in the United States; that they spend each year on their wheels, bicycling accessories and the excursions they make by reason of being possessed of bicycles, $200, ,000, ,OO0; that in the 250 wheel factories, employing 70, ,OOO persons, $6O, 100000 are invested /; and that million wheels have been or will be built this season.
 More than IA, ,0O0 bicyclists passed giv- en point in New York city within 16 hours the other day, and there was probably nothing unusual about that either. There are, likely enough, 1000 riders in the metropolis. New Workers recognize the impression made by all this wheeling in a variety of ways. Undoubtedly the health. fitness of the sport decreases doctors fees, for all the occasional accident. So. cial habits are changed. Savings banks note the withdrawal of deposits. The theatrical season is cut short by reason oi the new diversion. The horse market is affected, although the effect is just now limited to the cheaper grade of horses. | Good roads are becoming more numer. ous, and the tailors and clothing dealers find profitable market for the new lines ence of the bicycle on our everyday life is tremendous and wide-spreading. The wheel will have to be reckoned with the telegraph, the ocean cable and the tele. phone as factor of importance to the student of human conditions.