Evening star., 1897-06-12
r Gin CHAT.

grafton day. has called forth a long reply
from the official handicapper for the
occasion, seeking to defend his work.
The paragraph in question was in no
wise rejection upon the work Of the
Handicapped. but his reply seems to in
dicate that 1t was. The writer was IN
clfned to take q charitable view Of the
situation and pass the matter over as =
slight mistake on the part Of the official,
but that parsonage seems to still think
that the work Of handicapping in the par
ticular race should be praised instead of
condemned.
b In his statement Of figures the official
makes several miscalculations. and the ten
or Of his remarks would seem to indicate
that he figured entirely on the hfty-yard
Laarksmen. instead of the scratch men. for
winning the race. Though Thropp won
the race, he did not win his heat. On the
&C ntrary he had to work extremely hard
to qualify for a position, and 1t YVES ex-
tremely close when the judges awarded
him third place in his heat.
The object Of handicap race, as Is well
known, is to eaualize the chances Of all
riders. The work of doing this is extreme
ly difficult, and generally 1t is a hard mat
ter to give satisfaction all around. The
slowest men are given the limit, while the
speediest rider or riders are placed back on
the scratch, the Intervening space being
filled up with men who are faster than
the limit men. and slower than the men on
scratch 1t does not necessarily follow
that the limit men always win the race;
nor does 1t necessarily follow that the
scratch men will secure all of the positions.
In the one-mile race in question the hand
icapping was severely manifest ON the
scratch men as to call forth some express
sion from those who know anything about
racing. If only one scratch man failed to
catch the bund. the matter might have
been overlooked. Even if two of the men
ha
but when all three men in three different
Keats fail to do anything the fact can
hardly be attributed to the stereotyped
expression, that they did not ride as they
should. Another thing that can be spoken
OF. Wilson is fast man, locally. Still
he has not ridden as much or made as
good time has Sckade or Halstead yet
he was placed on scratch with them.
AS further excuse for his work the Of
hcial Handicapped states that only four of
the sixty-one entrants to the race filled out
their entry blanks as required by the rules,
and that he performed the work of handi-
Gaping from what he! personally knew of
the riders' ability. Evidently he knew very
little of some. Judging by the way the
race ended. In case of this sort the
referee can either throw out all of the en-
trants or he can place all of the men back
on scratch. or any other mark he may have
chosen but tt seems folly to have placed
some so far in the lead that for the two
laps of the three in the race they appeared
the distance being decreased
At the seventh annual meet of the Quaker
City Wheefmen last Saturday the racing
was interesting, and many of the we'll.
known racing men who have been in this
city participated. Charles A. Church must
have entirely recovered from his injuries
received Decoration day at the Interna-
tonal Park He was in a one-mile match
race with f. s. Aker and lost by a foot
The men were paced by triplet. with a
purse of 800 huLg uD The time was
rather slow. being 2:20 20. Fred Titus was
ne managed to get second place, Earl
Kiser winning. and Eddie Bald getting third
place. The time was 2:13.
In a one-mile handicap, professional, AL
B. Jack, 20 yards, second. The time was
ID 80. J. Frank Starbuck, who was
scratch man in the five-mile professional
race, managed to get fourth place.
Henry Smith, the Baltimore rider, who
recently broke the Maryland state record
for twenty-four hours by riding 314 miles,
has added another record to his string
more-Frederick record, which was held b.
Samuel NJ. Warns, the weIl-known cen tury
rider OF the monumental city. The dis
tance between the two places is 41.21
and 10 minutes. The attempt was made
last Sunday morning, Smith leaving Fred
erick at O'Clock. The roads were in none
of the best condition. owing to the rain
OF previous days, yet the rider reached
GWynn's Falls bridge at 9:J0:42h COM
pleting the ride in 2.50.421., or a little less
than twenty minutes under the record for
the distance The form in which Smith has
Deen riding mas surprised everybody and
ne calculates going after number of
other state records. Several weeks ago he
vas to have made an attempt against the
Baltimcre-Washington record, but the
lofa
From continued observation It seems as
though the number 13 cannot be an un-
ltcky number to the racing men, despite
the fact that In everything else the par
ticular number is looked upon with dis
favor. Wilson at the first race meet was
No. IL, and yet he won everything in the
amateur line, reference being made to the
day meet Carroll B. Jack wore the 13 num-
Der. and he had phenomenal buck, winning
all three Of the professional races and get
ting something like $40 In cash. He did
rot appear to mind the number, but, on
the contrary. took 1t as an omen of good
luck. This recalls to mind the fact that
last year, at the national meet at Louis
Vile. Tom Cooper was No. 13 on the list of
entrants, yet some of his best work Of the
season was done on that day, and he cap
tured several championships. He, how
ever, was superstitious and at first kicked
against the wearing of the number; but his
1uOtI1SA VCuO, PCiSudoSd Ail1Al ~
ride under 1t.
If you see notwithstanding wheel
without any name-plate on it you may be
reasonably sure that 1t Is "Scrappadee,"
the wheel of unknown quantities. Doubt
less many have seen the machine, but paid
Only a passing glance to it. when it de-
served much closer inspection. Scrap
padee' belongs to a young man whose
name is omitted for obvious reasons. He
did not have the cash to buy a wheel and,
with a mechanical turn Of mind, he man
aged to get the parts of several wheels and
make them into one machine, Of rather
unpretentious design. He exhibited the
CT mpIeted machine to friend. who I'M
mediately named IT. "Scrappadee," and that
name has stuck by it. Though the COM
posite machine Is not up to the models of
this years wheels in finish and style, yet
1t serves the purposes of its owner very
well, and 1t may be that before long 1t will
make it's appearance on the track. The
machine fs not half so bad looking as one
might imagine, yet when the owner went
out on it for pleasure spin the other day,
and slight accident befell the steed,
youth remarked that a call ought to be
turned In for an ashman to carry the bi-
cycle to some dump and there bury It de-
Gently. But such remarks as these do not
dismay the owner. and he is Just as proud
OF his mount as person riding a full
nfckeled. high-grade machine So II you