The evening times., 1897-02-16
THE THOMPSON STREET
BICYCLE CLUB

When the regular Saturday night meeting
of the Thompson Street Bicycle Club had
been opened in due form, President Toots
announced the following new notices to
be hung on the walls:
1T is better to take a tumble than to
meet a cable car head on
IF you must swear, then swear with
fellow"
"Thels smppdst was here before the bike
You oweit TO humanity to make long
turn around the corners"
mo religion will Jump bike over an
open ditch"
Providence never helps the bikist who
goes out with his lamp unlighted
The punctured tire comes to the just as
well as the unjust -
The secretary then announced the fol-
lowing replies TO letters sent out within
the last month:
4 colored man in Alabama wrote that
up TO year ago the razor backed hog
was the fastest thing on legs in the whole
South, and that after seventy-five years
of useless effort, the colored population
had givenup trying to catch him. Then the
bike was introduced, and now the hog lies
right down without a squeal and becomes
roast pork.
a colored man in Illinois wrote that be-
fore the bike came he was bald headed.
hump backed, Iop shouldered, and suffered
with catarrh, sore throat, near sighted
ness, aud rheumatism. Sixty days Of
riding had made such change In him that
a constable who was holding a warrant
for his arrest on charge of abducting
hen passed him by several times daily. In
sixty days more he expected to get away
from his wife and seven children and
begin life all over again
A letter from Ohio announced that the
writer had been so troubled with insomnia
that sometimes he had not slept for thirty
nights at a time He had tried stealing n
ham from a butcher shop and going
to Jail for a month, carrying off
ten rods Of sidewalk for firewood,
shooting craps, borrow wing money and
running iii debt, but nothing helped him
until he began to ride the bike After get
ting out on the road five times he fell
asleep and ran into tolIgate, and since
then his slumbers are so sound that his wife
has to lick all the children in rotation and
pour q pail of water over him before he can
be aroused.
A colored man in West Virginia wrote
from a county Jail in the nature of an ap-
peal He was bikist and had been sent
up for three months under a misapprehen-
sion. He didn't Complain Of that, as
everybody, even the President of the
United States, was liable to be mistaken
for another man and sent to Jail any day.
bat the only harsh thing was that the
jaiIer refused to furnish bikes for the pris-
oners, or let them out to borrow wheels
The law might deprive a man OF his lib
erty, but did the lawmakers intend to de-
prive a man of the privilege or riding a
bike? 1t could not be, and he hoped the
club would take action at once Every
jail and prison ought to I've provided with
a bicycle track, and every such institu
ton should be provided with from one to
ten machines for the use Of the prisoners
Judge Tarheel Jones then arose and call
ed up the case of Shutdown Green, against
whom charges were preferred at the last
meeting for abandoning his wife and Gre
ating Il public scandal to the letriment Of
the club. The judge had been appointed
committee of one to thoroughly investigate
the case, and he had performed his duties
conscentiously. He had found the cause of
the trouble to be that Mrs. Green did not
ride bike She was very devout per-
son, and she could not mix the bike and her
religion Her husband had no such scruples,
and he rode Hence a clash The wife h ad
carried things to such a point that the hus-
band had been compelled to leave home to
enjoy any peace of mind. Here was
question affecting the domestic peace Of
thousands of homes,
IL the husband ode bike and the wife
didn't. shouldn't she sacrifice any feelings
she might have for the sake of the goud
it was doing him? Should she meet him
with club at his one-ccming, and should
she express wish tllat he v ould break.his
neck as he set out for spin? Should
she either ride or tJcrifice her feelings?
The Judge contended that she should.
and desired vote on it, A vote was
taken. and the judges position was up