Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1898-05-11

legs of their fellow creatures. No matter what
damage they may infiict upon their victims,
they can always get out of reach OF an indig
nant populace, long before the nearest police
man can reach the spot
And In the New York Sun of Oct. "A,
! 1868, this advertisement is found, indicat-
| log that Mr.. Pickering had commenced
the manufacture OF wheels, "improved
and simplified;"
IMPROVED and simpihed velocipede. Ad
| l dress PICKERING & DAVIS, No. IA
Green Street, New York. See cut and de
scrption In No. Is, Vol. VII, American Ar
tisan.
Contemporaneously with Pickering,
the celebrated gymnasts, the Hanlon
brothers, secured a patent in the United
States for velocipede. OF this inven-
tion the New York Sun, Nov. 4, 1865, thus
speaks editorially:
| can exhibition of the mode of locomotion
known as the vclocipede was given yesterday
at witty's carriage factory, corner of Blocker
street and Broadway The performer was one
of the IIanlons, who has patented the invention
| In this country The machine consists of two
wheels. one before the other. with a seat or
on the saddle, puts his feet ia two iron strrups
attached to the forward wheel. and Immediately
begins 10 work hi. passage. The steering ap
paratus consists Of cross handle, which Is
grasped by the rider, and turned and twisted
at pleasure. The exercise Is invigorating and
healthful. There are four sizes of the veloci
pedes, varying in price from s23 to S75. As
soon the price Is lowered the invention will
u.
he able 10 keep horse of his own
The Tribune, New York, Nov. p, 1868,
regales its readers wi h two or more col
umns, said to be from the pen of Horace
Greeley, which exhaust the subject com
pletely. 1t is regretted that limited space
forbids the entire reproduction OF this
article. Prophetic words are uttered
here, and the reader sees the prediction
filled Jessicas are everywhere astride
the wheel, and New Orleans has " witnessed
the introduction Of the modern proto-
type of its visitor Of nearly half a hum
dred years ago. These extracts read:
at is matter of doubt as yet. whether TIE
ladies will take 10 yeocipede- not. The
of the bicycle IS of course, out Of the question.
ample, and obscures herself In the lovely gar
nish of the boy. When this time comes and
when obnoxious office holders skim themselves
| out on two wheels at twenty miles an hour; and
Office. seekers who behind their ticket strad-
die the bicycle and labor to run ahead; and
over. sanguine candidates for the White House
glide leisurely thereto only to meet disappont-
ment, and pedal back to their constituents at
packa
hy between the corner boxes and the Office with
their loads of Sy bis leaves; and school BOYS
with their satchels. messengers with their par.
GELS. lawyers with their briefs, doctors with
their pills, aud whole sewing societies with
their knitting aud things scud through the
streets on their various crrand-, each indiyid
ual of the countless thrapg borne smoothly
along on the wheels OF fleet velecipede-w what
a busy word we'll have 10 buffet with. and how
Respondent will the cabncn he, aud the ear con
ductors, how indignant, and the railway com
panies, how Disguised with the tickle minded
people"
The fad did not spread very rapidly
for some time, for We find in the Chi
cago Republican OF Sept. 3, 1868, these
queries and conclusions:
"Why does mol some enterpri-irg Chicagoan
either import or build and Introduce these pop.
ular vehicles in Chicago 1t is quite time we
had some other means of locomoton than the
present modes. We need such aids here They
would become popular. And American in.
genuity would soon suggest improvements
which would reader their tie an agreeable
exerci-e"
The writer had evidently overlooked
Wheeler in frightening horses and alHrm-
ing pedestrians with their primitive ma
chimes for months previous. Later III the
season the same paper concludes a column
velocipede article as follows:
an conclusion it may be stated that though
the veiocipede disease Is now raging so fear
fully as to make 1t appear that the epidemic is
doomed to run etcrnally. yet when we remem
Der that the affair has often been brought for
ward under the most favorable c!rcumst stances
and as often has sunk out of sight again, we can
only believe that within another twelve months
1t will once more disappear from public gaze"
This writer also seems TO have been a
seventh son of seventh SOM, for in a
measure his words came true. Within
twelve months its glories waned through
out the world. The bone-shaker was
relegated to garnet and cellar, and the
pedestrian assumed his wonted nonchal-
ance and ease upon the city's busy st reets.
The instrument OF destruction had dis
appeared almost as suddenly as it had
appeared, but not for long was it doomed
to seclusion. in 1873, in a somewha
different form, it came again on earth
under the name Of the bicycle. OF this
new machine not hing much in praise can
be said even by its inventor, J. K. Starley
However, the flame broke out afresh, and
the Ordinary" as a direct descendant of
the velocipede, OF which so much has
here been written, blossomed as a rose,
and acquired its full bloom and fragrance
in the years spanning the latter half OF
No ., 70