Evening star., 1908-12-20
FLOYD MCFARLAND
A HUMAN PUZZLE
Bike, Champion Never Goes
Into Training and Smokes
and Drinks.
"Och, he ates whin he's hungry.
An he drinks whin he's dhry;
He has money in his pockets,
So he doesn't have to cry"


He has money in his pockets.
| So he doesn't have to cry"
This old "come-all-ye' rhyme exactly
| fits the case of Floyd MacFarland. who
| has just grabbed the worlds six-day
| bicycle-racing record and with it the good
| looking bunch of brand-new Centuries
| that Pat Powers handed over to him last
| week. He is without question the most
| remarkable bicycle rider the world has
| ever known. He has beaten all the Won
ders that were speed marvels or showed
unusual endurance in the years he has
| been busy. Among his victims may be
| numbered Charley Terrill, Wilbur Ed
wards. Nat Butler. Maj. Taylor. Bald,
| Cooper, Loughhead, Jimmy Michael,
Jacquelin, the great French flyer, and
all those whose fame has long since
! passed up.
Nobody who sees MacFarland would
think he was a bicycle wonder He Is
| more than six feet in height and weighs
1yO pounds. He is big-boned, clear-eyed
and quick-limbed. He has heart big
ger than the normal, but it beats regu-
lar seventy-two to the minute no matter
what sort of a pocket he finds himself
in and it is always on the joO 1t was
this heart and his level head that en-
abed him to nip Rutt and DE Mara in
the muruerous mile finish of the siX-day
struggle In Madison Square Garden. His
height and build suggest rather that he
is one of those chaps you see with a
consignment of Indiana green horses, but
you certainly will have to say nothing
doing the first time the big fellow Is
pointed out as bicycle sprinter or en-
durance wonder.
Built Like Martin Sheridan.
In general construction he resembles
that other athletic marvel, Martin Sheri-
dan, and, too, like the great Irish-Ameri-
can Clubs all-around champion, he has
his own ideas Of preparing for a race.
Hear MacFarland tell it:
II never train for a race i keep in
good trim all the time. l don't indulge
in anything to excess but drink a glass
feel inclined. which is not infrequentiy.
1 smoke anything that is available from
cigarettes to pipes. l have no regular
hour for going to sleep and SIT IN
with the chips, but l don't plunge. I've
seen too much of that.
LAS a matter of fact, have seen so
many sorrowful results of excess among
those who follow my business that
just made up my mind to always keep
within the bounds of moderation, though
never denying myself what l thought
might help me along in the enjoyment
Of life-for although money Is use1ul
thing to have lying around the house
it isn't everything Did you get that?
1t was suggested that 1t required WILL
power on the part of men who find them
selves idols to keep back the desire at
times to step off the chalk line.
Value of Self-Control.
'It does" he quickly replied. but
man without self-control never amounts
to much in any walk of life. You may
hear Of a souse making good once IN
while, but that is inevitably because he
is a freak In some valuable line. When
the fellow who has the same line comes
along and sticks fairly near the water
cask he gets the coin every time ana
the souse gets the Here's your nat'
what's your hurry? RightT
sure he was right. John L. Sullivan's
homeiy philippics on the evils Of booze
and big Tins laudation Of Johnny
Meehan's coffee as a good SUBSTITUTE 1or
any intoxicant are not half as convinc-
ing arguments as this one pedaled in by
the man who holds three titles to his
line, Sprint King Handicap King
and Pursuit King of the wheel.
MacFarland tells some GOOD stories
He was employed as bank messenger
in his birthplace in San Jose. Cal, in
1893 when a railroad strike tied up things
so that the San Jose banks couldn't get
their 1unoS 10 tHeir SdH T onc'SSo AouSSo.
For six weeks MacFarland carried
currency ranging In amount from
$4,000 to $4,000 day on his wheel
q distance of fifty miles each way. with
out escort or aid. but can draw
bead very WE'LL" he interjected. meaning,
Of course, that If he shot at hold-up
he would hit the mark through accurate
gauging with that gray eye ana steady
fist Of his. This road work lured him into
some distance contests in the fall OF that
Lo
ness to stay.
An Adventure in France.
While in France in 1900 he was
matched against Jacquelin for twenty
five-mile race 1t rained heavily as the
hour drew on, and the French promoters
decided. to call the race off. MacFarland
was on the track ready to run The
20 900 thrifty Frenchmen who had paid
admission yelled for action, ram or no
rain, but the conditions didn't suit Jacque-
lin Then the tricky promoters had
big sign put out announcing that Mac
Farland had declined to run. Instantly
there was wild yell. and over the fences
they came in Swarms. Il could see IN
their eyes that 1 was the one they were
after, although l couldn't understand IT,
because l couldn't read the French sign
So hooked it on the double quick DID
Won know that l can do a hundred yards
fat in 10 3-5 seconds, and l am no siouch
over the hurdles? Well cut that bunch
off and got across the opposite fence
so quickly that my shoes smoked, but the
mob was after me till lost them in the
wood The early sprint won for me then
as the finishing squirt did last night. But
don't you think those Frenchmen played
It low down? Yes: well, I took it out
Of them later when l put 1t all over
Jacquelin and came back to America with
his title.
"yVhat is nv nationality? Well, my
father came from the mountains of Vir-,
ginia where there are colonies Of descend
ants of the Irish rebels who fought with
ONeill in 1641. My mother, bless her,
was an O'Boyle from Fighting Upper
ary.'"
How can a combination like that be
loser?