The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-08-10

The managers of state and county
fairs are at their wits end to provide
sensational entertainment for the good
people whom they wish to get out to
the fairs. Diving horses and elks, col
llsions between locomotives, balloon
ascensions. races of all sorts, have had
their day. and a perverted public taste
demands something new, horrible and
tragic. A bulltight would draw like
mustard plaster, as would prizehght,
to be interspersed with series of dog
and cock fights. or they might provide
for touch of Donnybrook fair, where
1t would be free for all and where
every head would become mark for a
shillalah. They might put a spicy di-
vorce case on trial at the grard stand
or, in states where capital pw ishment
is In vogue, have the hangings and
electrocutions the last day of the fair.
The animal, brutal and vulgar in the
race, should be catered to at all haz-
ards and at any expense, because all
such sort Of entertainment so helps
along the cause of an improved agri-
culture and an ennobled civilization.
Jimmy MichnePs New Idea.
In pace following the bicycle rider
has taught much to rapid transit
theorists. 1t Is natural that this should
be so. The sailor and the cyclist are
Of the two classes to whom the wind
b of first consequence. Since the ride
Of Charlie Murphy behind locomo
tive that made pace for him for n mile
In 81 4-5 seconds the attention Of the
railway world has been engaged in the
subject of reducing aerial resistance.
The problem fraught with 80 much
consequence began with bicycle, and
It may be that 1t will be solved at that
end.
Jimmy Michael, of diminutive stat
ure, was first to suggest an "over-
hang" machine for pacing purposes.
Such a muticycle, built so that the
rear rider sits directly over the rear
axle, was found to make great diff
ference in the pacing. Next to the
"overhang" Michael concluded that It
would be good thing II he could get
closer to his PAGERS and more "under
the lee." This idea was expressed
practically recently when Jimmy
Michael came out for training at Man
haitian Beach on a bicycle having
2S inch wheel behind and one of "a
Inches In front Four inches less In di.
ameter meant that he could get four
Inches nearer to his pace. and also 1t
meant that he would be two inches
nearer the ground in front over the
handle bars and need not stoop so low.
Jimmy always sat up in n style that
bred enthusiasm.
His idea of lowering the front wheel
Is one step that is worthy of imitation
Trucksters did 1t many years ago when
they learned that 1t was better to carry
the load in the rear. In the game OF
bicycle pacing, though, II looks as II
Jimmy and those who initiate him
might make the one mistake Of getting
too far below the wind shield offered
by the pacing riders in their efforts to
get closer to 1t. What the man behind
pace needs is the partial vacuum caus-
ed by the moving body In front. On n
bicycle track the man who gets closest
and stays there is best, but the man
who gets closest must also be lowest
and he is apt in trying to get close and
low to put himself in the range of a
draft from underneath. This Is a promo.
siuon that suggests a possibility of
pacing machines being better II built
20 as to be lower behind than they
now are.