The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-13
dohn Gi1pin Outdone.
An English Investors Adventure With a Run
away Motorcycle.

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I.aporte Junction, and the dusty party
hove in sight about dusk. A gang of
wheelmen met them on the outskirts
with inquiries as to the start and des-
| tlnatlon, and assurances that they
stood no show. The baronet had gone
through like full blooded meteor
! forty minutes before
He made the run in one and one-half
hours. They gave it up and waited for
train, intending to head him off at
Stillwell town forty miles farther
! on.
In the meantime the baronet was
Keeling off miles, hanging on like grim
! death, his motor gathering power with
every turn, his eyes sticking out and
his hair beginning to show gray spots.
Flapping and pounding his ribs, the
flask of spring water and fieldglasses
set him half crazy. Dogs ran out to
bark at. him, but. he had disappeared
before they. could get their jaws work
ing A few minor runaways are all
the casualties reported from this
stretch of forty miles, which was COW
cred in ninety minutes.
Between Stillwell and Kankakee the
road measures thirty miles. The bar
onet covered the distance in fifty min
utes.
kankakee prides itself on being mod
ern. 1t is town of about 5000, and
ter is conscientious official, and al
ways arrests scorchers without Ian
terms. By the time the baronet's steed
reached the west end of the town
1T was dusk. John Davis, the aforesaid
copper, saw him coming down, and
he promptly made after him. Davis
recollections are of seeing an aged man
apparently, with Smutty face and
glaring eyes, shoot by like the wind
The feldglasses had hit him. Davis
reported to headquarters that the devil
had gone through town on a wheel
which spit fire and acted like a live
animal.
The baronet's friends had not forgot
ten him in the meantime They had
missed him at Stillwell and decided to
head him off by telegraph. A message
was sent all along the line to stop
man on a wheel"
At Walkerton, the next place beyond
kankakee, the telegraph operator re-
ported that bicycle thief was en- route
there, and although it was already
dark, two officers were sent out the pike
to stop him. They did not succeed.
AS the baronet approached the little
group one of the policemen grabbed
at him, while the other presented
revolver. The baronet went on without
locking. The policeman who attempt
/ ed to seize him got a whack from the
l1dSh VI Spring water ana is SufI0rlng
from conclusion of the brain. The
other policeman cried, stop thief"
His revolver went off, but never touch
ed the baronet.
All through the siXty-nine miles to
| Tyner City the baronet had it easier
and scattered less devastation. He
was nearing the mile minute gait
and flashed through Tyner City in
eighty minutes, upSetting a party of
loafers as he passed, and Plymouth
was only thirty miles away. At $50
o'clock the chief of police received
the following message, signed by the
name of the young inventor, whom he
knew we'll:
stop bicyclist. Will enter city from
the west side on pike, on motorcycle,
and machinery beyond his control. Stop
at all hazards with barricade of soft
material
The famous modern, fin de steele. UP
to date John Gilpin ended his ride here
Chief Mannering and his assistants
held a short consultation and deter
mined to take effective measures. The
chief had an idea which will make
him famous. The Inhabitants of near
by houses were aroused. few min
utes sufficed to explain. All the feather
beds in the vicinity were collected
In one huge heap they were woven into
a barricade across the pike. Hay
IIn1tl1 SSSi~LS, 4uIIIS ollO even lIIilS else
to deaden the shock was tossed on the
heap.
In the meantime the baronet was
nearing the end. He was caked in
mud His hair was white as the driven
snow. while his face was as black as
the ace of clubs. His hands were rigid
as steel and glued to the handle bars
He was the apotheosis of a scorcher
1t was all over too quickly to COM
prehend. The watchers at Plymouth
remember hearing a far-away whiz-
zing. Then there was a binding flare,
smell of burned feathers, and the
baronet lit on the barricade at exactly
11:2S by the clock, almost unrecogniza-
BILE. The wheel, like the one-horsa
shay, collapsed into it's original eIe-
ments while the electricity went off
like lightning bolt, burning the bar
ricade to ashes. The baronet was car
ried to a nearby drug store, where his
injuries were ascertained His friends
arrived the next morning and took
him to Pittsburg in a private car