The record-union., 1899-05-13
OF INTEREST TO CYCLISTS.
NEW NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
BADGES.
Having Fun With Them-Historic
Recital-The Southern Cycleway
Taxing Wheels.


Taxing Wheels.
The new clubhouse of the Capital
City Wheelmen approaches completion.
IL is case of transformation OF the
Old into the new. But the quarters will
very we'll serve the club a few years,
II the membership takes reasonable
care of the premises. The location is
admirable
The Capital City Wheelmen and the
Terminal City Observation-Disclosures
not clubs, for the clubs as such have
mad nothing to say-are being made
sport of by the newspapers. II is the
old story of the boy and the frogs. The
stone throwing is fun for the boy This
Whole matter of the fictional events
connected with the late relay race as
exploited by the newspapers is absurd
and ridiculous. Both the clubs deplcre
it. 1t is undignified and does no credit
to decent wheeling interests The
sooner it ceases the better Let the
members on both sides drop it, say no
more and steer clear of newspaper re-
porters, who have been having all sorts
of fun with the wheelmen, making
mountains out of mole hills, etc.
The events on the Agricultural Park
track tomorrow are purely personal
and not under club auspices. If well
conducted, however, they ought to at
ford good entertainment to those who
love bicycle athletics. The riders are
we'll known and the events are novel;
ties.
The c. c. w. wheelway badges will
be ready in a few days and ought to
sell out in a single day. The c. c. w.
needs assistance in its good roads work.
Golfers Weekly: On the 25th day
of next June it will be eighteen years
since Police Justice Murray committed
Wright, Foster and Walker, three citi-
zens of steady habits and of good re-
pute, into the hands of the keeper of
the. New York City Prison with the
solemn mandate that he should them
safely keep for the space of five days"
for having committed the unlawful act
of riding tricycles in Central Park. The
l.. A. w. had just rounded the first
year of its history. The bicycles of
that day were of the old high wheeled
SOi - having SOllQ tires anu SluDDOIu
saddles and weighing anywhere from
fifty to seventy-fve pounds stripped;
tricycles, if less lofty, were even more
clumsy and cumbersome, and it was
gravely discussed by many of our best
newspapers whether any of these pedo-
motive contrivances should be seriously
tolerated. In the Central Park case,
Wright and his companions sued out
writ of habeas corpus, and carried
their argument into the Superior Court.
Able counsel were retained and tie
contention assumed wide proportions.
Petitions, statements, letters, affidavits
and orders found place in the record
and finally a referee was appointed to
take testimony, which he proceeded to
do to the extent of $50 pages
To look back at the conditions of 1881
Is to realize with greater force the
strides which cycling has made in. the
intervening years. / sometimes think
1t is we'll for the sport that the wheel
men of the early eighties We're young
and brave, stout-hearted and strong
willed, and possessed of that versatile
disposition which led them to defy the
unjust statutes of tie State With as
much confidence and considerably bet
ter results than when they wrestled
with the more inevitable laws of grav-
ity and equilibrium. They sometimes
progressed too rapidly to please
thoughtful people, who thought mostly
of other things, but their trend was
we'll directed and the results have been
mainly good. The wheel has found
its dignified and permanent status it
has taken to itself a thousand i'm
provements, and these have made it
useful and practical to most people
and delightful to everybody. But more
than all. it has become an assertive
factor in the settlement of many public
questions. The wheel has found its
place upon the public roads, and the
public highways have been found to be
unfit for its use.
To those who from time to time raise
the cry for a tax on bicycles, two re-
marks made at the coming-of-ag din
neF of the National Cyclists Union may
we'll be pointed out. The first is Mr.
Balfour's declaration: There has been
no more civilizing invention in the
memory of the present generation than
that of the cycle" The second has not
attracted so much attention, but, as it
comes much within the scope of prac-
weight. 1t is the remark made by
Herbert Gladstone. Speaking strictly
as a PARTISAN" he said, II hope that
the Chancellor of the Exchequer will
propose a tax on bicycles. If 1 can do
anything to induce him to make such
a proposal, depend on it l will, for it
would be the best thing that could
happen-for us on the other side"
The formation of cycling corps in
connection with the New Zealand VOL
unteer forces is being actively pushed
forward and is likely to be brought to
a successful issue
Some of the continental racing cy-
clists are deserving the track for COM
merce. Arend will open a tobacco shop.
Lehr a hotel and Pontecchi. the Ital-
ian champion, is joining the staff cf a
Naples bank.
Riders often complain that their cy-
clometers are not accurate because
they do not register the same as those
of their riding companions. As a gem
eral rule the cyclometers register ex-
actly the number of revolutions neces-
sary in a wheel of given diameter to