The times., 1898-10-23
Four Claimants for National
Championship.
AMERICAS FAST RIDERS
Good Roads Bills VIII BE Introduced
in Nearly All the Legislatures
This Wfnter-Protection in Bicycle
RacinE-Pubiic Demands Honest
Races Under Competent Authority.

that this country has faster wheel riders |
than any other country on earth. Ask any
rider of a bicycle anywhere in the United
States what country furnishes the cy-
cling champions and the reply is invari-
ably patriotic. This condition was never
fully realized. however. until the present
time. but now there can be no doubt OF
It. 1t is so true than even the most in
creduious can realize it. with but little
effort. for we now have no less than four
national champions, each duly accredited
and all claiming the same honor, backed
by support which Is satisfactory to each
claimant. if to no one else.
This condition comes from the effort TO
introduce some plan by which there would
be only one national champion at the end
OF the season and which caused the IN
veution of the national circuit champion
ship heats this season. Under this plan the
winner of one of the heats tand one was
ridden AT every national circuit meeting)
was entitled to score six points in the
championship table. the second man at
the tape four, the third three. the fourth
two and the fifth one.
BY this method the man having the
largest number of points at the end of
the season was to declared the national
trimming to the table in the shape of in
creased points at the national meet.
which was held 1T indianapolis. and for
the distances not contested at the ma
tional meet in other cities. Under this
scheme there would be increased points
for one race at each of the standard dis
tences. which are the quarter, third
half. one two and five miles. In each
OF those big races the winner was 10
count sixty points. or ten times the num-
ber for an ordinary circuit meet, and SO
on with each of the place holders. This
was done to make the national meet the
most important of ali meets of the year.
Previous TO this year the national cham
pionships were conducted solely at the
annual gathering and there was cham
pion for each distance This caused dis
satisfaction and cry for one champion
only. it being urged that the riders ab-
sented themselves from the national cir
cult previous to the annual meet that
they might be in the best OF condition
for the championships and the regular
riders on the circuit were thereby pia ed
at Il disadvantage. The present plan
was. therefore, outlined to overcome all
the difficulties, but 1t seems that 1t has
caused only new ones and some OF them
OF a srievous nature for instead of one
champion, we have four. and nobody
knows who is the real laurel wearer.
The principal cause OF the situation as
It exists is the rebellion of the leaders in
the championship table a month ago,
since which time they have failed to fig
ure in the count By defyIng the league
they missed the three increased point
races which were held during the past
month and all of which were won by
Tom Butler, who thereby added $50 points
to his score and is now the officially
stamped national champion.
But while it is fact that Butler is the
official champion ii is also a fact that the
rebeiIious riders, when they left the ju-
ris6iction of the league, continued cir
cult of their own, holding in their score
the points they had already gained in the
official table and contesting the three in
creased point races on their own account.
As a result of their count, Owen Kim
BILE is the official outlaw cycle champion
of the United States. In this way We
have two official champions.
There are others yet to hear from for
Arthur Gardiner claims that the increas-
ed points are an unjust way of scoring,
claiming that it is not right TO allow one
man TO count as much for winning one
race as another for winning ten, and as
ne has won more races than any other
rider in the national championship series
he is entitled TO the honorS of being the
only genuine champion in the United
States.
Still another champion bobs up in Eddie
, Bald, who was in the lead for the cham
pionship when the rebellion started and
who has the largest score of any of the
outlaws in the official league table. He
also left the outlaw circuit before it was
declared off and is therefore entitled to
consideration.
There ara many ways of figuring a
champion, and as there are still several
riders with ambitions it may be that we
will have several more than four national
champions when all the returns are in and
counted.
He Met with Himself.
The widely-advertised meeting of track
owners. who were to gather together in
New York city for the purpose of telling
the League of American Wheelmen that
they would no longer operate their prop
critics under its guidance, took place as
scheduled and there was just one track
owner present. II is reported that after
organizing himself into board of officers
committee on credentials and organization
and duly calling himself to order he put
the motion, made by himself, TO defy the
league. and then voted against it, having
decided that he was satisfied with the
league and its government.
The call for this meeting was signed by
the owners of three tracks, situated ir
the East but only the one mentioned put
in an appearance. The other two recon
sidered and stayed away. Thus was the
end of the great gathering, which, nu-
merically, consisted of newspaper report
ers looking for a sensation and suspend
ed job hunters, not to mention the tX-
Handicapped who was turned down for
reappointment this year because of his
connection with a famous short track
This latter gentleman representing the
outlaw riders, made trip all the way
from St. Louis for the purpose of attend
ing the meeting and it is said that he was
much chagrined when the track owner
voted against himself. He gave out an
announcement that there would be an
other meeting Of the track owners, at
which al least two are expected, but it
is not believed that he has sufficient in
fluence at his command to marshal SO
large a number
Good Roads Bill.
In the coming sessions of the various
legislatures nearly all will have bills for
highway improvements to consider. These
bills will be supported by wheelmen,
farmers and horsemen generally. 1t is
expected that the coming winter will see
the most extensive agitation for good
roads that this country has ever wit
messed, and II is also expected that q
great amount of public good in the sue
of hills ypilI