The evening times., 1897-05-26
BOYS MAN|AF0R BICYCLING
Young Raymond Brown Afflicted
With a New Disease.
ITS PECULIAR SYMPTOMS
The Victim Buys a Cheap Wheel
and Starts TO Ride to the End of
the Earth Finally Overtaken by
His Father, Who Brings HIN Back
Home.

Acute bicycle mania, is the very latest
mental infirmity on the lists of the spe-
ciaiists, and nineteen-year-oId RaymOnd
Brown, the son of Thomas j. Brown, d
clerk in the Pension Bureau, is, accord
ing to his father, its first victim.
peculiar formin which young Brown S
weakness manifested itself was his dra W
ing, week ago, Of $35 from a savings
bank, purchasing secondhand wheel for
$50, and starting out on a bicycle tour
with no ultimate destination, and ap-
parently with no other reason than be
cause he had the machine on which to ride
Fortunately, he was very IOquacious
and at each stopping place cOnfided to all
who would listen the place where he was
next going, so that his father. starting sew
eral days after him, was able to overhaul
and finally capture him. Father and son
returned home Monday evening.
Young Raymond, who is a country
bred lad, has been living with some frienls
i'll Brookland until about three weeks ago,
VIXEN his father sent fer the boy to come
and live with him at his boarding house,
No sos Sixth street northwest.
Mr. Brown, 81, kept Raymond at home
at study, preparatory to entering college,
but ever since his arrival in the city. the
lads heart and mind have been centered
on bicycles, of which he saw 50 many in
the streets of WaShin gtOH
Every minute he could steal from his
books he would spend in bicycle shops,
handling the wheels lovingly and inquiring
As To their price When he returned hOme
he would talk of nothing else
Last Wednesday the fatiIeT came home
and 1oHnd his son missing. Hc also dis
covered that the sum Of $35, which had
been deposited in the boys maine in a
savings bank, had been drawn.
At first he thought that Ra ytnOnd had
returned TO BrOokland, but upon lea arning
that be had not Mr.. Brown, surniSiRg
what had occurred, set about making a
systematic inquiry at all the bicycle shops
in town, to see whether his son had puT-
chased a wheel. The description he gave
was Of a boy about nineteen years old.
but looking older, short and thicGset. fair,
and with an incipient beard. When he
left home he wore Il blue serge coat, long
brown vest and a straw hat
After spending a day among the bicycle
dealers MIR. Brown learned that his son had
purchased a broken-dOwn mac Chine for $50,
and had informed the dealer Of whom he
bought it that he intended To go to Han
cock. Nd The father Immediately left
for that place This was last Saturday
night. Upon his arrival he found that the
boy had passed through that town on his
wheel, and had told several persons that he
vas going to Martinsburg, W. Va. Pro
ceeding to Martinsburg, Mr.. Brown found
that he was again too late. and that his
son had just departed with all speed for
Wheeling
Between Hancock aud Martinsburg, how
ever, he had evidently had a bad fail. as
one side Of his handle-bar had been com
pletely broken off.
Nothing daunted, however. the enthu-
siastic wheelman was pedaling ahead
with half Of his steering apparatus.
At Martinsburg the anxious father took
q buggy and soon caught sight OF his miss
ing son pushing laboriously ahead on the
dusty road.
He expressed no Un willingness to return
home, and accordingly by Sunday evening
father. son and what remained of the
wheel started for Washington.
Neither Mr.. Brown nor Raymond could
be found yesterday, but it is thought By
his son in a school, where, if the " heel
ing mania again seizes him, he will be IN
able to give way to it.