New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-07-28
OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
Motorcycle ExpeCtantIy Awaits
Its Izaak Walton.
TRAVELLERS JUST TRAVEL
Literary Possibilities in the
Broad Highway Are Wasted
on Passers BY.

What a wealth OF literature there Is IN
Journey.
You have never noticed II? You have
never felt that half an hour on the Dis
trict Railway Is a worthy subject for IN
essay; that days ride through the coun-
try Is meet food for an epic? Sir, how
much you see and how little you observe.
It Is characteristic, think, Of the An
glo-Saxon to see and see and see, and
then not to know what he has seen. How
many millions Of miles do British and
American tourists cover in year? They
see the canals OF Bruges. knowing neither
whence the canalboats come nor whittier
they 60 They drive In a drosky through
a Russian city. gazing at statues and
spires and never hearing what the driver
says to his pair.
They call this doing thlngs"--doing
Belgium. doing Russia. And it is because
British people have SO fallen into the
habit of doing things"-of sightless
sightseeing by clockwork-that some hun
dreds, or perhaps thousands. OF motor
cyclists are now sitting at their desks
with knitted brows and wet cloths around
their temples, bemoaning that II Is 20
hard TO make an essay on a motorcycle
journey.
Tho essay they want to write will be
worth the writing.
The motorcyclist should merely put in
words the hints, the gains, the wrinkles
he learns In a motorcycle journey. And
some think it is difficult.
uitbpI
learning, II he Will but keep his ears and
eyes open wide From Exodus. when the
Israelltes learned how to kill the heaven
sent quail unto the latest seaside trip.
all Journeys shower broadcast upon YOU
the learning OF tine road.
Read what Tom Brown learned when
he went TO Rugby on board the Tally-ho
how straw will keep tho feet warm
better than the finest lady's munf; Just
what to drink when the coach pulls up;
how 10 begin and how 10 end a pea
shooter fight. Read "A sentimental
Journey" and. leaving the sentimental
part aside. see how much there is in
the journey alone
Read--oh, read any OF the thousand
and-one journey books published in a
year. and then see II you cannot do as
well with n motorcycle trip.
In point Of fact. you can do better.
Every essaylst has a fallow field before
him. because the motorcycle. stil a
subject OF learning and research, has
been so little written about
There IN such an enormous area for the
essayist 10 disport in. Ia he a school
boy7 Then he will ride to school next
half armed with a dozen hints on saw
ing petrol. on keeping his tires At. on
cleaning Up. that he did not know when
he mad. his first schooiward journey
last term
IL he Territorial whose motorcycle
must bivouac with him. must always be
reliable under whatever strain mimic var
demands? Then he knows how 10 reduce
his accessories TO Il compact minimum, IN
which llghtness and efficiency combine
in a wonderful copartnership.
IL hc-and this is what he most probs-
bly, is-iust an ordinary man, who keeps
HIS motorcycle for pleasure and likes
TO get the best he can out OF IL with the
minimum OF cost? Has he no special
'"F W h''PiAS P'NAois DONS ~" bVN
adopt some plan, all his own. for prevent
ing damage by damp or oil while his steel
steed is housed In its little stable2
He must Else why do some men seem
to run their motorcycles on nothing
year while others contrive TO make them
cost as much as a six-seater car?
We all know the motorcycling Jonah.
His accessories come loose because re
does not know how 10 Ak them. His tires
rot because he does not know how 10 care
Tor them. His journeys cost double as
much AZ the train fare.
II We are not OF his company. Il IL be
cause we have learned ways 70 avoid
these things
our little conttivances may seem ob-
vious But It will not do to take It for
granted that they are so. ANY ono Of
them-so simple. so perfectly straightfor-
ward once you have been told about IT
may settle q problem.
II you go TO Territorial camp. ana
watch q recruit cleaning his rife. you will
zee that he handles Il az II Il were a
refractory young ostrich, saser 70 escape
from his crutch. Yet sergeant In
strictor will come along with a word Of
advice. and In day or two the cleaning
OF rifle is flve-mnute business.
A fisherman on the Thames bank, be-
ginning his career. will offer roach q
morsel about az dainty, from tho fish
point OF view. az hyblown Gods head
would be To an habitue of West End
supper room. But II only takes "a chapter
of fzaak Walton. or half an hours dem
onstration by one OF his modern disct-
pies, TO put that novice Of the line into
the way Of serving UP. for roach and dace
and gudPeon. u bonnie bouche that no
wellbred coarse fish can resist.
The motorcycle has not yet found It's
IZaak Walton. The man has not yet
come forward TO tell how II is to be used,
with personal care that you would give
to a horse or a sick friend, with simple
and cheap homo remedies But any man
who feels conscious that he runs his
cheapy and well. and gets
out OF II tho pleasure he desires, may be
the Tyaak Walton Of motorcyc!edom-
London Daily Express.