Los Angeles herald., 1909-03-07

amount belonging to one Z. >. SPARKS
of the Asphalt Paving company, that
| the Reading Standard, which Paul
| Derkum CHANGED to be tuning out On
the new track, would not be able 10 40
| a mile in so seconds. Derkum at the
time was having difficulty in getting
one of the cylinders of the new ma
chine to spark properly, and was I'M
| able to make a circuit of the track IN
| better than Is seconds, or equal to n
mile in about 521s seconds. Jak
sneered little, or is said to have done
so, and vouehsafed the opinion that
| it never could do better than 80 sec
onds Jake didn't seem to realize thai
he was taking a favorite against the
entire field of possibilities in his con-
clusion, or perhaps he didn't thlnk
that anyone would call him. But they
did. His deposit money was coVeren
before the offer of a $50 bet had made
more than half dozen sound waves,
and Jake will lose his money-or should.
Not that 1T isn't real money, and not
because Jake is a bad fellow, but be-
cause Jake is up against the light OF
his life, and he should realize it If it
even comes high. With the sole eX-
ception of the unbeaten Arthur Zim-
norman, in the very earliest days Of
low wheeled bicycle racing, that field
of sport has never brought out man
from those days until the present who
was so altogether the best that some
other fellow didn't come along and
lower his colorS. 1t was sometimes
attributed to the man and sometimes to
the machine, more generally to the
man. And just as certain as this was
the fact Is it certain that Jake IS
destined to have his colorj lowered. He
might get away with 1t, If he were
overconfident in but one or the other
of the two vital essentials-the headi-
ness of the man or the superiority of
the machine-but he can't be cock
sure when he has to include both of
these elements into his calculations.
1t may not be on the first day that
Jake falls from the pedestal And, If
he falls, it is not impossible nor i'm
probable that he will crawl back upon
the pedestal the next day. But some
day or some week some likely young
chap who has been getting up better
nerve and who feels a little surer of
the limelight is going to go out of the
bunch and poke the nose of his ma
chine across the tape ahead of Jake S.
And the talent will say that it was
"fluke" and a mistake and that Jake
was loafing and that Jake will go out
and show them" tomorrow. And to-
morrow the same likely chap, who has
been tested in the limelight and has
learned how it feels, will go out and
repeat the dose.
And then Jake will begin to realize
that the world do move, and he will
probably begin a new study of his ma
chine for a fraction more of speed, and
the factory will begin getting busy
adding a new wrinkle here and there to
get another fraction, and Jake may go
out on still another tomorrow and clean
up the whole bunch. And he may not
1t all depends on how many more
other likely chaps have been getting
that limelight idea into their heads.
And this sentiment does not run
against the other local or foreign cracks
the coliseum saucer. There is not a
they are very much alive.
Arthur Mitchell, the N. S. u. crack,
although here but a comparatively few
not only believe in him, but in his abil-
gentleman, believed to have all the
ability of DeRosier, but with much
less reduced bump of ego. He prom
doesn't do a forty-second clip. and he
| he doesn't do it. then Samuelson, the
idol of the Rocky mountain motor
cyclists, may; or Eddie Lingenfelder
the fast Buffalo boy, may be the chosen
one.
Duer has lien here for a week, but
Lingenfelder is also in the city, but