The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-28

South Amer1ca-NO Age Limit to
Their Usefulness - The Trade in
Secondhand Bicycles A Fifty
Six-POund Wheel.
What becomes of all the old bicycles2'
slowly repeated the manufacturers agent
to whom the question was put. well,
have frequently asked the very same
question and never received two answers
alike 1 do not know whether any person
has succeeded in discovering a profitable
means for utilizing Anticipated or discard
ed bicycles or any of their component
parts There might be a highly remunera-
tive field for some genius who can devise
a useful employment for the wheels,
frames and other important parts of the
bikes makeup; but then 1 don't know
where the genius would be able to collect
his abandoned machines. Certainly not
from the manufacturers or their agents,
because l never knew one of thepn who
was burdened with discarded or out-of-
date machines which could be sold so low
that a genius who wanted them for their
material could make profit out of the
deal, says the New York Sun.
ton. Most bicycle manufacturers will tell
you that the old wheels drift away in
lots of small size, some to the rural dis
tricts of the United States and Canada,
some to the Italian trade, which at one
time was quite extensive, and others to
the countries of South America or Mex
leo. Many oId-fashioned wheels are sent
by my own particular factory to the
Southern states, the colored people being
the principal purchasers.
There are thousands of bicycle riders
here in New York who buy new wheel
at the beginning of every season, and re-
turn their old ones for part payment.
They would no more think of disporting
themselves about town and it's vicinity
on wheels of last years pattern than they
would of going for a ride in Central park
in a hearse ard 1 know of several cases
where bike enthusiasts have refrained
from riding for weeks merely because
their wheels were month or so behind
the reigning style. This ambition to have
new machine every season is not con-
fined to any particular class or to those
cyclists who never know what it is to
need ready money. Many young men
and women of extremely modest means
procure a fresh mount every year, and in
order to be strictly up to date and crafty
this whim they will forego almost any
other pleasure. This accounts for the fact
that old wheels and by that l mean
wheels which were new less than two
years ago, are seldom seen in the streets
of New York. But as less than 55 per
cent of the machines find their way back
to the agents who originally sold them,
there are still thousands whose disap-
pearance and continued absence are mat
tiers of unsolved mystery.
"The annual exchange of old wheels
for new ones brings a great number of
secondhand wheels in all conditions to
the repair shops of the manufacturers.
These are carefully repaired, re-enam-
elied and put in the best of ornamental
condition. Some are in nearly the
same good order as when they were
sold, and 1t is seldom, indeed, that a
wheel is in such poor repair as to render
its renovation impossible or unpro1ta-
BILE. The restored machines are then
sent to the city stores and are kept in
reserve for beginners or are placed in
establishments in the ne:ghborhood of
good roads and pleasure resorts to be
rented.
1.-THE secondhand wheels where used
by our stores are a great aid to sales
For instance, man or woman who does
not know how to ride comes to one of
the warerooms and wants a wheel. He
or she will inquire if we have not a good
secondhand wheel which we can sell
cheap; and, of course, we promptly sup,
ply the demand, generally without an
effort to sell a new bike. In two or
three weeks the old wheel, IN nine cases
out of ten, will be brought back and ex-
changed &c
Ing so contagious as this ambition to
skim about on the very latest thing in
wheels. Warerooms, too, have many
calls for secondhand wheels for boys
and girls, as they generally subject a
machine to rather hard treatment AS in
the case of adult beginners with de-
sire to take their first falls from an out
of-date wheel, the secondhand affairs
purchased for the children are returned
in the course of time and replaced with
new ones.
There was a time, and not so long
ago at that when the majority of the
secondhand and out-of-date wheels found
a ready and exceptionally fine market
in the riding academies and renting
shops, but things have come to such
pass now that it is next to impossible
to rent wheels of the 81 or 9S pattern.
Every one of the first-class establish
ments has a full complement of 80
wheels, as well as ultra-fashionable de-
viations from the straight bike
Hundreds of obsolete wheels are put
to excellent use by the promoters and
managers of fresh-air institutions in the
rural districts and orphan asylums In
the interior of the state. These kind
hearted men and women turn the old
wheels over to amuse the boys and
girls under their care, and persons who
live near such homes and institutions can
tell many interesting stories of bare
footed boys and girls endeavoring to
ride old-fashioned machines without
saddles, minus spokes or with rap-trap
pedals, scorching away through sand.
dust or mud for hours, running hilarious
races and learning droll tricks The
children viii play for hours at a time
with old discarded wheels, converting
them into imaginery mills or spinning
wheels, if unable or too small to ride
and taking the best of care of them
In the South, as 1 said, and in the
West you will find very many old wheels
particularly in the country and small
villages. AS you travel westward from
Jersey City the wheels seem to date f11r-
ther back the further you go. To be sure.
there are many people in each of the
many towns you will strike on Your Jour
ney who have wheels of the latest pat
teern, for the ambition to be strictly up
to date in the matter of bikes and hiking
is confined to no particular region but
l am talking now of the poorer people and
the farm hands. In the manufacturing
towns you will find that nearly every
workingman and shop or factory girl en-
countered is spinning along to and from
work on wheel, and it seems to make
very little difference to them what it is
or When 1t was made so long as 1t per-
forms its mission. One thing in particular
which have noticed in the small manu-
featuring cities of the United States is
that on a rainy day the collection of
wheels seen is more rare, that is, from
the standpoint of antioi1itv whinI, in