The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-11

NNNAN ASNeI rue d Wueel. Sne COhLSSs- es that she is twenty-six years old, She saw so many wheelwomen who were plain in appearance and ridiculous in their positions, that she probably feared she, too, would look as they did. "The homeliness of a homely woman IS acoentuated on a wheel" she used to say. So she opposed the wheel with all the energy of her character, at the same time forgetting that the beauty of beautiful woman is likewise accentu- ated when she Is we'll poised on bicy- cle.
 She was wise, however, to the main chance, as girls of twenty-six ought to be. Knowing the companionableness of her young man she had some cause to suspect the rumor she heard that when out on the road he was often in the company of other girls, While she professed not to'feel worried over it, se- cretly, 1t cost her some hours of wake fitness. Like all women she was re- soureeful and she made up her mind to become bicycllst. The vexed question arose, where would she get the money to buy the wheel. Of course she could get it from her father, but she dreaded his questions. He was wheelman to some extent, and she had been such an anti-cyclist so long that she blushed to think that her wise old father would guess. She had some dental work to be done and she told the dentist to charge for the work. When she told the doc- tor to charge her customary truthful nature came to the surface and she told h ht,,, +1,t hO tn1 n ey for her wheel. Any doctor who did not have a heart of flint would have ap- preciated the situation. And this one was an old friend, too, who said he was willing to wait till doomsday if neces- sary. But the doctor and the father had been chums together in college and they belonged to the same club. It was over their cocktails several weeks ago that the dentist told the story. It was too good to keep They both enjoyed it and had more cocktails
 Perhaps the young woman will never know why it was that her father ex- pressed no surprise when she brought her wheel home and never fntimated any suspicious. The old fellow did more. He bought tandem, ostensibly lOl HlIiSSil, Dul IL IS DOIIpNttt & Vf'' deal, and the cards are out.
 EDDIE BALD AS AN ACTOR.
 A young man upon whom the eyes of
 the country rest eight months of the
 year; a looking fellow with keen
 eye, sound judgment and tenacity of
 purpose which have helped to make him famous, is Eddie c. Bald, Ameri-
 ca's cycling companion and without | doubt the peer of any short distance rider in the world. Everyone knows him for good fellow. His gentleman ly bearing, suave manners and happy go-lucky way of making and keeping friends have made him universal fa- vorite.
 | Not content with the laurels he al
 ready wears, Eddie is desirous of ado | ing another wreath and will make his l debut on the dramatic stage next sea- 1 son as a full fiedged histrion in new play with the taking title of "A Twie of Laurel,'' which has been specially
 written for him with the view of dis
 playing his admitted dramatic ability
 The production is being prepared fol l the stage by the Luescher- Heffron com
 pany promoters of New York City, and i is under the management of Frank G 1 Cotter, who is well known in the theat-
 rical profession.
 | "A Twig of Laurel' is, of course, g bicycle drama" and bicycles and bicy.
 cle racing figure in it very prominent | ly but these clements are far from be- i ing all there is of it.
 wHEELER's SUSPENSION. 1 The suspension of Samuel B. Wheele, | for thirty days for ungentlemanly con 1 duct upon the Norwalk fair grounds l track during the Alpha races caused g ! great deal of talk in the southern part 1 of the state.
 l This is the lightest sentence that 1 Wheeler could have received and he car
 thank the Alphas bit. The officials
 while regretting the occurrence, re l fused to enter any complaint further 1 than that filed by the referee, as they
 considered that he had been sufficiently l punished by the hissing he received by 1 the grand stand and the roasting ir 1 the newspapers. Wheeler's public
 apology went good way towards miti- i gating his punishment.
 1 The charge is assault upon the track
 and is the result of the unpleasantness 1 which occurred at the Alpha Vince | club races on June 16, Wheeler striking i Hausman of New Haven, who hat i fouled him.
 1 GEARS.
 1 The opinion has been expressed that l higher gears on the average are use6
 this year than heretofore. This is not l borne out by observation, as one thing
 noticeable is the frequency of smal l front sprockets on the road, although | it is possible that this is only another 1 evidence of the unusually large cooper 1 ing up old mounts, already marked i The average sprocket undoubtedly die 1 increase on new wheels last year, but
 as the rear sprockets averaged a tootf | larger also there was not necessarily
 an increase in gear; and although eX. i treme fashion now affects big from 1 sprocket along with low drop it seems
 hardly warrantable to say that there i. l any rise in the gear ratio on the whole The old ordinary, level-geared, ranged l from forty-eight to fifty-six inches
 very rarely going over fifty-six and sel'
 dom under fifty, its average probably i being fifty-three. The length of les l governed then, and there was neither l selection or study as to what size could : rl, o.1-r l,y,