The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-06
WHEELS AT THE e
The L. A. w. Crowd Surprises the
Quaker City People.
Philadelphia Press.

Philadelphia Press.
The visitors came in clubs and delega-
tons, which were met at the stations by
local reception committees and taken to
the hotels. The clubs wore badges or but
tons or uniforms to distinguish them, and
you were not allowed to make so fearful a
mistake as to take a member of the Pedal
pushing Pirates for a man in the Thirty
Thirsty Trundlers."
When you stop to think that there are
more than 100, 900 wheels in the streets of
Philadelphia every day. the matter of an
extra 10, 200 bicycles is not strikingly OBJ
trusive. The tide of whizzing, purring,
flashing wheels will be swelled to-day on
Broad street and over the country roads
as the visitors flock in, until by Friday it
is expected that 80, 600 strangers will be dis
cussing the best make of wheel in the city
and country round.
This l.. A. w. meet is a big affair. And
the bicycle is a national institution. Think
of $4,000 people or more coming from the
country only as far as the middle West for
an outing and a great picnic, the only unit
ing bond the love of the sport that Is
evolved from a mechanical combination of
steel, rubber and wind. This annual
roundup of the l.. A. w. is Il wholesome
jollilcation, and nothing else except, of
course, the racing. The business of this
great organization is attended TO at a meet
ing held in February, so the summer gath
erlng gives free foot for all kinds of a good
time.
Just what these leaguers are going to do
to the town cannot be foretold now, but
last might, when only the Vanguards had
arrived, there were Indications that Phila-
delphia was booked for capture and uncon-
ditional surrender by an army of rubber
tired cavalry. Broad street was a wonder
full sight, and the cleaning, Pickering
length of it was as if alive with nnumer-
able red, white and green ~fireflies. A Won
derful show Of motion and color. So many
bicycles were never before on Broad street
at once, and what will 1t be tonight? A be-
ginner or an ineXpert rider had no business
or the thoroughfare last night, and more
in the wreck of what looked like an old
h%oopskirt when the procession had finished
with his new high grade
The currents of sparks and Shimmering
ripples of steel flowed in two directions by
each other ceaselessly, and the air was
filled with the tinkling chime of bicycle
bells that made SilVery chorus all the time.
At the crossings the big policemen stood
by their red lanterns and lowered amid the
flood like a spar buoy in a tideway.
eff they try to get 1900 more of them on
here tomorrow night, said a mountainous
reserve, faith they'll all have TO start and
stop together and jam themselves into a
solid body goin' round and round. / saw a
man fall off his wheel tonight and he
didn't touch the pavement for half a block.
He couldn't find room to fall into, deed he
couldn't. Why, there's so much air pumped
into these tires that you can notice how
rare the atmosphere is g~etting-makes you
breathe hard like on the top of a noun
tain. There won't be any wind left for you
and me pretty soon.'
Just made a bet that there'll be two
bushels of hairpins and a barrel of gum
swept up on this street tomorrow morning.
It's a cinch. A bushel and a half of hair
pins is the record, but this night will knock
1t out"
The scene was remarkable for the number
of plural machines and ngular
costumes. There were tandems. triplets,
''quads'' and "quints' flashing past with
rows of ~hunched-up men strung along the
frames exactly like frogs on a skewer in the
shops. A pretty girl who had stopped to
light her lamp was heard to remark to the
man in the party:
ITS getting awfully confusing to remem-
Der the names of all these combinations,
from a tandem to a sexte'. and l suppose it
will get worse now that they've made a
new machine bigger than all the rest. L
think it's called an octogenarian. How
many men ride on an octoSenarIan, jack
But Jack was the center of q Sympa-
thetic crowd as he lay, passing from one fit
to another with lightning rapidly and
abandon.
For two squares either way from the
Arena the street was almost impossible. an
amazing tangle OF wheels as thousands OF
men and women sought q chance 10 register
and secure credentials. Nearly 4,GU9 had
been accommodated at 10 O'Clock last night,
and several big delegations were expected,
among them the Washington and Mary
land battalions, each COO strong. The Arena
will be opened at Z O'clock this morning
and the registration ONCE VIII handle the
crowds as fast as possible.
Many clubs viii come to the meet awheel
and will fatten both mileage records and
pc2ketbOoks thereby in saving railway
fares. The first OF the dead game" en-
thusiasts to arrive per pedal were the mem
bers of the Hackensack Wheelmen, thirty
in number, who came over the dusty roads
and brought most of the dust with them.
They wore red and white caps and when
the weary wanderers had dug themselves
out of the CRIME they looked gay and cheer
full and flew around Broad street like
chunks of an exploded comet