The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-12-27
TANDEM BEATS MOTOR
Harry Elkes' Performance at Mad
ison Square Garden.
THE LOCOMOTIVE" COLLAPSED.

But Before the Accident to the French
mans Petroleum Motor the Human
Pacemakers and Their Follower Had
Demonstrated Their Superiority.
New York. Dec. 27.-The question of
supremacy between human and ma
chine pacemaking for bicycle racers
has yet to be determined. Last night,
at Madison Square Garden. the Ameri-
can Cycling Racing association held
one of Its tournaments, where amateurs
and professionals struggled hard for
honors. and the nights program was
to have been wound up with 20 mile
race between H. D. Elkes, the worlds
hour champion, Of Glens Falls, N. Y,
paced by regular pacemakers, and Jay
Eaton and Teddy Goodman. paced by
the French machine.
Oscar Hedstrom won the half mile
professional scratch race handily by
two lengths. with Caldwell and
Kreamer separated by half wheel
for second honors.
f. L. Kramer, of East Orange, N. j.,
won the half mile race for amateurs
by liberal margin. and during the
final heat he always held his COM
petitors safely.
Kreamer, of Chicago, wrested the
professional laurels from Hedstrom in
the one mile race, defeating the
Brooklynite in the final heat by
length and half, after a very pretty
contest in the last lap.
The tussle between human paeemak-
erss and the> petrGieum motof cycle.
which was tho event of the ni5m be-
gan shortly after II o'clock. Fosrnier,'
the French expert, made mo5e than a
dozen laps of the track to get'his ma
chine up to racing pace before the
pistol cracked for the start and then
Jay Eaton jumped in behind the loco
motive" which was on the pole, while
Ekes got in behind his tandem and
soon took commanding lead. In the
first lap Elkes passed the machine, and
up to the end of the first mile gained
constantly. In the second mile the
human pacematers gained very de-
cided advantage and had lap to their
credit when the two mile mark was
passed. During the third mile the
driving strap on the motor cycle snap
ped with loud crack. and Fournier
had to pull up. Then Eaton, who saw
that the task Of overtaking Elkes un-
paced was hopeless, got behind the lat
ter and Eikes slowed down bit. All
interest in the race was lost, as Elkes
had lap to the good and there was no
chance of his opponents catching him.
Eaton was chosen to ride the first ten
miles behind the motor. and after the
ho fpichaI hjs tan roiInq hphin1
Elkes. Then Teddy Goodman tackled
separate pacemakers. Goodman soon
found his PAGERS too slow, and tackled
on behind the Glens Falls rider. who
was flying around the track. At the
end of the 18th mile Elkes had lead of
one mile, but he did not relinquish his
fast pace, while Goodman was taken up
by several fresh tandems. In the last
lap of the 18th mile Elkes rode ahead
of his pacemakers, and finished the dis
tanc in Al minutes, Al 2-5 seconds, with
Goodman almost a mile behind.
Jimmy Michael's time for this dis
tance over the same track was 40 min
utes, 80 seconds
Harry Gibson, of Cincinnati, lad Of
16, rode an exhibition half mile paced
by a tandem in 50 As seconds. This
performance stamps the young Ohioan
a crackajack, as the time made beats
that of Tom Cooper over the same
track by one-fifth OF second.
The final Of the one mile amateur
handicap was rafting good race, and
Schrieber won by half a wheel from
C. M. Ertz after an exciting struggle.
Both men started from scratch. but
schrieber always showed in 'front.' and
not few of the spectators thought
that Frank. whom the judges placed
third. had beaten Ertz by narrow
margin for second place.