The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-05-23

prising cyclist and the native ever see.
 Naturally, I can give but the barest
 outline of the journey through central Italy. It admits of many variations, of
 many lesser tours and excursions; for instance, from Florence to Pisa and
 Lucca in the west, to Arezzo and Urbi-
 no in the east. It Is inexhaustible, and
 there is not a town hardly q village, 1 that has not, in it's architecture or in It's
 galleries, something beautiful or strange
 or curious to detain you. And always,
 between the towns and villages, are the
 same olive gardens and cypress avenues
 and vineyards and hills crowned by
 monastery or church, and always the
 same clear skies and brilliant sunshine. | Autumn the Best Time.
 A more comprehensive and, in some
 ways, more picturesque tour could be
 made by riding into the country from
 Marseilles, along the Riviera, following
 the Cornice road to Genoa, and, by less famous roads, wheeling as far down as
 possible on the western coast and re- turning up the eastern. There are sec l tions of this route where you would be obliged to make rather wide detours in- land, if you would keep to ridable high
 ways. Thus, on the western side, after Spezia and Leghorn and San Vincenzo, you would leave the coast for Grosseto, returning to it again at Civitavecchia and leaving it there again for Rome, and, indeed, between Rome and Naples you would see less of the Mediterranean than you could wish.
 From here southward, it is doubtful If you could get anything in the shape of coast road, and the crossing the coun- try to the other coast is so complicated that, unless you want to play the ex- plorer for the cyclists who come after, you had better ride from Naples by Pompeii and Salerno, so as not to miss these two places of interest, by an ex- tremely roundabout route to Ortona, from which town, all the way to Raven aa, passing Ancona and Rimini, the road borders the Adriatic. From Ravenna, Venice is not so far off, and from Ven- ice, if you have any time left over you can cross the Brenner on the route some- ward.
 Most of these routes and distances you can obtain from the c. T. c. foreign road book, and with this and the road books published by the Italian club, and for sale at the c. T. c. offices, you can easi ly map out your journey and calculate the length of time it will take. The maps of the Italian club are most prac- tical and useful.
 Italy is unquestionably hot in July and August. Even in the north, around the Italian lakes, it is warm work riding these two months, and you will quickly learn that the natives themselves rarely appear on their cycles, except in the ear ly morning and late afternoon. The spring is better only, in May and until the very end of June, there is too much snow on the high Alpine passes to cross them with any comfort, so that you would miss that first beautiful descent into Italy. The autumn, almost up to Christmas, is capital riding weather though after the summer drought the roads are often loose and dusty, and in October the roadmenders begin to get to work.
 About the Expense
 If you avoid tourist hotels and fash ionable resorts you may live as cheaply as in France or Germany. In Rome, or Florence, or any one of the large cities, | you can pay just as much or as little as you choose and it is funny about the lakes for example, to discover how, once you get away from places like Cadenab- bia and Bellaggio or Lugano or Baveno and Pallanza, the tourists headquar- ters, your expenses are reduced to quite one-fifth of what you have been spend- ing. It is always well to make your bargain with the landlord as soon as you go into an Italian hotel. It is bother to those who are not used to bargaining, but it is the Italians way of doing busi- ness and his amusement, too, and you must conform to it, unless. you belong to the Cyclists Touring club, which has made a tariff arrangement with many hotels chiefly those appointed by the Italian club. A list & hotels, with the tariff, when it has been accepted, for each, is published in the c. T. c. For eign Handbooks. Consult this, shun fashionable haunts and you cannot of the expense.
 A knowledge of Italian will be both an aid and pleasure and little will go a long way, for the natives are always ready to understand you, if they possi- ply can manage it. Tn the out-of-the- way villages the foreign cyclst may still be mobbed. Why, I do not know, or you see plenty of cycles on the roads md in the towns, but the people are so charming in everything they do that you ] will not mind it much. In a word to um up, nowhere can you find com- l ,ined such beautiful country, such pie ( uresque towns and villages, such inter- sting galleries, such Con the whole) good roads, such charming people and uch blue skies and brilliant sunshine as Il Italy.-Chicago Daily News.
 BANK MEN TO MEET.