The San Francisco call., 1897-04-05

coats or their arms and even wish they
had not brought them at all. The sun
shone its brightest and warmest-in fact,
it was summers day.
The boomer girl was in her glory yes.
terday. She caused her skirted sisters to
fairly turn green with envy. Her cos.
tune was in nearly every instance veri-
table dream. There were hundreds of
these boomer girls there and those who
watched from the stone walks and from
windows were at loss 10 decide which of
them looked the prettiest. They fitted
about everywhere on the course, resem-
bling myriad OF vari-colored butterflies.
Some sped along on tandems, plotting the
way for their male escorts others affected
the tr;plet, while still others, more inde-
pendent, pedaled their own wheels and
went where they pleased. Many of them.
though, preferred to pose afoot beneath
the big shadetrees that lined the avenue
and TO chat with friends and make new
acquaintances.
But the race-the race.
As might be expected, the Alameda
finish was to provide the spectacular end
of the days event, and it did. That's
why the thousands of cycling enthusiasts
gathered there. Quite true, the entire
journey around the peninsula was replete
with exciting incidents, but all these were
forgotten and lost sight of in the anxiety
and intense interest that attached to the
closing chapter and the proclaiming of the
victor.
Ten clubs had gone into the contest with
their very best trained riders. Only one
could win. Pride and an aching for glory
al nf han nd a hat
all the way. 1t was no wonder then that
the 100 mics were covered in six minutes
faster time than they were last year, nor
that the record was once more splintered.
The marshals and police were making a
last desperate effort to regain control of
the swaying and struggling crowd when
lad who had appointed himself lookout and
was perched upon the topmost point of
telegraph pole shouted out that he could
discern far up the avenue the outlines of
awheelman who, from his costume and
the desperate manner in which he was
riding, was undoubtedly the leader in the
great relay.
A shout went up from the crowd, and as
1t was taken up all along the dense line
for block after block, it developed into
defeanlng roar. All thoughts of order and
the ropes were torn from their fastenings
and everybody was prancing about ex-
citedly in the middle of the avenue in
complete defiance ot the guards
"Can you make out his colors YETI"
shouted one of the timers through his
hands ana directing his remarks to the
lookout.
mo, there's somebody in the way
ha fArN Nf hn r@1ia usc
head is down and he's riding like the
wind. He is-hold on-now I can see
him-he's Bay City rider!"
Wow! There was noise enough before,
but now pandemonium had broken loose.
Its Kenna! Hurrah for Kenna - The
Bay City men were delirious with excite
ment and danced about like Piutes,
waving sweaters, throwing their caps into
the air and yelling themselves hoarse.
And they had right to, Tor they had
won great victory. Everybody, too,
seemed to share in their Joy and shouted
and shouted again with them.
Make room for the winner" was the
order that now swept through the con-
fused mass of human beings. a narrow
aisle, from either side of which thousands
of heads bobbed and necks craned was
quickly formed and through it swept
kenna, perspiring and tired, but the hero
of the day.
There was another wild scene when this
athlete crossed the tape just one of the
pedals snapped from his wheel and the
machine itself collapsed. Kenna did not
fall. He cleveTly disengaged himself from
the wreck and delivered Mayor Pheian's
letter-the document that had been car
ried over the century circuit-to Chairman
Foederer of the Alameda Board of Trus-
tees. Had kenna been compelled to ride
another hundred yards he could not have
finished without an accident.
The wonQer is that he ever got home On
that wheel Two miles from the tape his
rear tire hattened and he was compelled
to ride on the rim. Then one of the pedals
loosened and the whole machine BEGAN to
wobble; but the lad would not stop-no.
it was do or die with him, and he kept on
as long as he could keep his balance on
the machine.
II had one thing to console me,
though" said Kenna after the race, "and
that was that none of my rivals were near
enough TO me to make trouble Even if
my wheel had collapsed l believe | would
have had time to borrow one from one of
my trailers and still win out the race for
my club"
Wing of the Olympic Club was next to
Kenna In the last relay. and crossed the
tape within a few seconds of two minutes
behind the Bay City man. Bates of the
Reliance Club came in third, three min
utes behind Wing; Decker of the Acme
Club was fourth and right on the heels of
Bates. The representatives of the ether
contestlng clubs came struggling in dur
ing the succeeding eight minutes. The
eoor-bearer of the Alameda Cyclers was