The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-12-27
HUMANS RACE
AGAINST MACHINE
The Question of Supremacy is
Yet to be Determineda
ACCIDENT TO THE MOTOR
Caused Interest in the Contest to Lag
Grand Meet Held At Madison
Square Garden by Cycle
Racing Association.
ACCIDENT TO THE MOTOR

New York. December 26.-The question Oh
supremacy between human and machlhe
pacemaking for bicycle riders has yet TO De
determined. Tonight at Madison SQUARE
Garden the American Cycle Racing aesoci"-
ton held one of it's tournaments, "here
amateurs and professionals struggled harn
for honors. The nights programme was
to have wound up with twenty mile race
between H. d. Elkes the world hour
champion. of Glens Falls, N. Y, paced py
regular pacemakers, and Jay Eaton ana
Eddy Goodman, paced by the French ma
chine.
Eaton was chosen to ride the first ten
miles behind the motor, but in the thlrd
race, when Elkes had a lead Oh more tnan
n Ian. the machine broke down, owing to
the swapping of a strap which cohtroiiea
the running of the machine, ana then the
interest in the contest Jagged. Soon atter-
ward Eaton fell in behind Elkes, and after
he had covered ten miles, Goodman tackled
separate pacemakers. Goodman soon found
his pacemakers too slow and tackled on
behind the Glen's Falls rider, who was
flying around the track.
At the end of the eighteenth mile Elkes
had a lead of one mile, but he did not re-
linauish his fast pace, while Goodman was
taken up by fresh tandems. In the last
lap of the twentieth mile Elkes rode ahead
of his pacemakers and finished the distance
in Al minutes 42-5 seconds, with Goodman
almost a mile ahead Jimmy Michaels'
time for this distance over the same track
was 40 minutes 80 seconds.
tha holt n nrn
fessional scratch handily by two lengths,
with Caldwell and Kreamer second by half
a wheel for second honors.
Kreamer, of Chicago, wrested the pro-
fessional laurels from Hedstrom in the one
mile race, defeating the Brooklynite in the
final heat by a length and a half after
very pretty contest in the last lap.
The tussle between human pacemakers
and the petroleum motorcycle, which was
the event of the night, began shortly after
Fourner, the French expert, made more
than a dozen laps of the track to get his
machine up to pacing pace before the pistol
crecked for the start and then Jay Eaton
jumped on behind the Locomotive" which
was on the pole, while Elkes 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 pdCeIndhtTS BdiISd a very uetiutu
advantage and had a lap to their credit
when the two mile mark was passed Dur
ing the third mile the driving strap of the
motorcycle snapped with a loud crack
and Fournier had to pull up. Then Eaton,
who saw that the task of overtakng Elkes
unpaced was hopeless, got in behind the
latter and Ekes slowed down bit. All
interest in the race was lost Elkes had
a lap to the good and there was no chance
of his opponent catching him.
Harry Gibson, of Cincinnati. a lad of 16.
rode an exhibition half mile, paced by a
tandem, In :59s4 seconds This perform
ance stamps him crack-a-jack as the tme
made beats that of Tom Cooper over the
same track by 10 second. Summaries:
Half Mile-Scratch, professional, final
heat won by Oscar Hedstrom; second, Cald-
well; third. Kreamer; fourth. Nat Butler.
Time, los 2-5.
One mile, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Final
heat won by Kreamer, fifty yards; He'd
strom, forty yards. second; Miller. fifty
yards, New York, third. Time, 2:C9 4-5