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

'front.' OF every junk shop, and very often
the proprietor carries line OF five or
SIX. Besides this he has usually two or
three supply wheels on hand-that is,
II ne purchased four or more utterly d.
lapidated wheels he will take one apart
TO replace the broken and missing parts
on the others. In case the substitution
should fail to answer, what then? Oh,
the dealer is bound to make them fit some
way. On one of the cranks of the refur-
b1shed wheel he will place a rubber COM
p1nation pedal taken from a woman's
wheel and bestow upon the other crank
tremendous rat-trap pedal which would
make No. 13 boot feel lonely.
Il was sauntering down Centre street
just few days ago and paused in voice.
less awe before q rehabilitated machine
which graced the assorted show before
one of the junk shops. The proprietor re-
marked me, and, ssoenting possible Gus
TONER came bowling out to talk about
the merits Of the contraptton.
I jest fixed that wheel up as good as
new myself said he, swelling with pride,
an dere amt better on tn street. 1t
weighs fifty-six pounds, an I'll sell 1t
cheap as it stands
But fifty-six pounds! Don't you think
that's too much?f 1 protested He look
at me In establishment, apparently hold
ing my knowledge of wheels in great con-
tempt.
Certnly not was his emphatic re-
Spouse "A heavy wheel is worth a great
deal more than one of desc cheap little
light ones what falls apart when you ride
EN-. It's got more stuff in it, don't you
see, an holds you better
That seemed to be the prevailing idea
among the Center street junk dealers, as
l ascertained on inquiry. One of them
informed me quite conf1dentially, on
learning that 1 was connected with the
bicycle trade, that the business in old
wheels was languishing because capital
lists and corporations had reduced the
price of good and fair wheels to a mini
mum. Workingmen, said he, can afford
to buy new wheels now. 80 the junk deal
ers do not keep so many as formerly.
There was q good trade in the obsolete
wheels few years ago, but at present
the Center street trade is almost wholly
confined to supplying young men from
the Italian quarter, who are the most en-
thusiastic wheelmen among our foreign
population"
What ever became of all the old-fash-
Ion f1fty-two-inch wheels - the high
wheelers, as they were called?" asked the
reporter.
well, have often wondered what be-
came of the dangerous old giants, which
those high wheelers certainly WERE" re-
piled the bicycle man. II was in Wash
ington in 1888 and 1889, about the time the
safeties first began to get hold on the
population and the work of revolution
1z1ng wheeling began. There were more
nigh wheels in that city then than there
were in many of the states, and when the
low safeties began to glide around 1 re-
member what howl of derision went up
from all the bicycle clubs and wheeling
enthusiasts Many were the confident
predictions that the low wheel would go
out like = candle, and those who persisted
In riding it were subject to all manner
of chatting from cyclists astride the high
wheelers. But in less than two years the
few men who continued to mount the
ffty-two-inch machines were gliding
around the sequestered parks of the city
in order to escape the remorseless ridi-
cule heaped upon them by the growing
army of safety riders. 1t was the quick
est victory and most complete annihilia-
ton in the history of sports, and even
within three years after the Introduction
of the low wheel a man mounted on a
high wheeler was sufficient of a novelty
to draw crowd
Hundreds of the high wheels found
their way to Mexico, Brazil and other
countries in South America, but there
were tens Of thousands which have never
been accurately accounted for. One of
our agents who Travelled through Brazil
some time ago told me that he saw quite
a number of the old high wheelers down
there. Besides he saw several of the
very early safeties, with nice hard tires
spring forks, and the whole outfit of
backbone shatterers peculiar to that pc
Rod. The low wheels, however, were IN
popular, the people preferring the high
wheels because they were understood to
be harder to ride, and therefore man
who would straddlea a low wheel was
looked upon as a coward"