The herald., 1897-08-07

WHEEL WORLD
Inclines Its Face Toward
Philadelphia
MULTITUDINoUs PEDALERs
"
WORK THEIR RAPID WAY TO
NJ WILLOW GROVE
Good Weather, Big Crowd and a Fast
Track Tempt the Cracks to
Do Their Best
Associated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
!. PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 6. - The
/ opening race of the eighteenth annua
meet of the L. A. w. was held today al
Willow Grove, fourteen miles from this
city, before $1,000 spectators. 1t was the
most successful in the history of the or
ganization in point of attendance, en-
thusiasm and good racing. Several state
iner of Chicago came within two-fifths
of second of beating Hamilton's record
for one mile, paced. He succeeded in low
. ering the fast mile made by ]. S. John
of second. Gardiner was paced by two
quads, one ridden by Wenzel, the Tru-
Vile boys and Coburn, and the other
with w. E. Becker Crooks, Brown and
: Stenzer He crossed the line like flash
for the start and never ceased his pace
until the finish, in 1873 3-5, breaking the
state. record of LAS 3-5, held by Earl
Kiser. Starbuck also took a try at the
record, paced by quad and triplet.
l1 s
KiSer's record.
Both these events followed the sched-
uled races for the day. In the latter the
honors among the professionals were
won by F. j. Loughead of Sarnia, Ont,
who crossed the tape. in three trials, two
finals, and was second man in a third
final In one of these finals, the one mile
professional, he broke the state compet-
dtive record of 2:04 As by covering the
distance in 2:03 3-5 He captured the
quarter mile championship in AZ Sec
onds.
Among the amateurs honors were
more evenly divided, with the best rae
ing done by Peabody, Johnson, Midden-
dorf. Schaede, Krick and Miller.
The day was perfect and the sun was
not long up before hundreds of cyclists
were pedaling along the historic and
picturesque York road toward Willow
grove. and even greater numbers were
taxing the railroad trains and trolly
cars to their utmost. The heat from the
sun was tempered by a cool northwest
erly breeze and there was an almost to-
tai absence of humidity.
There were early morning runs to
League Island navy yard at the lower
end Of Brown street, across Rope Ferry
bridge to Paschalville, Pa, returning
by way of Woodland avenue, West Phil
adelphia, to Broad street, where the col
umns merged in to the army of wheelmer
who Mad gone through Fairmount park
and the Wissa hickon drive and the big
scheduled run to the track began.
The trials began promptly at o'clock
with several thousand spectators. At
12:40 there was recess for lunch.
Meanwhile the seats were rapidly filling
up and long before the hour for resuming
it was evident that the crowd would be
enormous. At o'clock the track was
cleared and racing began. continuing
until 6 o'clock without the slightest
hitch. During the entire day there were
but two or three spills and nobody was
hurt by these.
Tonight Willow Grove park was given
over to the wheelmen, and the visitors
saw exhibitions of trick and fancy riding
a display of fireworks and general
good time.
Tomorrow promises to be the banner
day, and the seating capacity of the
track will be taxed to the utmost. The
races will begin at 8 o'clock, under the
same officials with the exception that
the ex-chairman of the racing board,
Gideon, will be relieved by Albert Mott
of Baltimore, the present chairman, as
referee.
.All roads leading to the Willow Grove
track seemed to have been converted
into bicycle paths. policemen, usually
80 strict with regard to scorching, paid
no, attention to the visitors committing
a breach of the law by travelling at a
2:40 gait. Notwithstanding that thous-
ands were pushing their way to Willow
Grove on wheels, the street cars and
railroads were also taxed to the utmost.
Willow Grove track was revelation to
the visitors. They had never seen such a
race course-specially constructed with
wood, solid as rock, and entirely sur
rounded by seats, with a capacity of
nearly 25,000 Flags fiuttered from hun
dreds of staffs, and the l.. A. w. purple
predominated everywhere. The racing
cracks were awake early this morning,
and after a good rubbing down, took
preliminary spins.
A light wind swept across the track
from the northwest. Everything was
in proper condition for fast time. The
wheelmen expressed themselves as i'm
mensely pleased with the three-laI
board track, which was built especially
for this meet. 1t was banked seven feet
at turns and was forty feet wide a t the
finish, solid as rock, and lightning fast
The first event was two-mile handi-
cap, professional. This was in six heats
and in all there were about eighty en-
tries, the first three to qualify.
in
Ont, scratch, won; w. E. Becker, Mime
apolis, 40 yards, second; e. J. Titus, New
York, so yards, third. Time. 4:46 1-5.
w. c. Sanger was the scratch man ir
the second heat of the two-mile race
with Arthur Lee, so yards, and H. r
Steenson of Dayton, 25 yards. The pace
was slow and the men rode in bunch
throughout. A. L. Wing, ITO yards, won
w. C. Sanger second, c. r. Newton, 6(
yards, third. Time, 5:03 4-5.
Tom Cooper had the tape in the third
heat, and the nearest men were j. A
Newhouse, 5 yards, and Dock Brown, sc
yards For the first few laps the pace
was fast but the men soon punched and
tapped to the finish, when Cooper crossed
two lengths ahead, Fred Sims of Wash
lngton. 100 yards, second, ]. A. Newhouse
Buffalo, rs yeards, third. Time, 5:06 2-5
Arthur Gardiner Chicago, was the
scratch man in the fourth heat, with