New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-04-24
Fond Recollections

Fond Recollections
Sir: I we'll remember the day the fell
low rode down the Capitol steps on
bicycle--only we used to call them bikes,
or wheels, just as you often hear of an
automobile being called an auto, or
motah cab. I was seated on a soapbox
in front Of Charlie Rooney's bicycle re-
pair shop when the news came. The
man rode-I'll never forget this-a
Sterling bicycle with Palmer tires. Later
a picture of him appeared in "Bearings"
and "The American. Wheelman." AS
rode Sterling and almost invariably
used Palmer tires-having switched
over from Morgan G. Wrights-I took
the demonstration at the Capitol as a
personal tribute. Friends gave me u
good deal of Difference and I strutted
around Xenia with not little aplomb,
as you might say, for several days.
1t was perfectly all right in those
far off times to pick up the wheel of
total stranger, parked in a rack in front
of a restaurant, and monkey with it,
to see If it ran easy and to determine
how much it weighed. If it weighed
around 18 pounds it was perhaps built
to order and the owner was looked upon
with awe. A 21-pound machine was
pretty good, and % pounds just barely
avoided exciting contempt.
Everybody hated everybody who didn't
ride the same make of bicycle that thew
did. My particular aversion was any
body who rode a Stearns or a Barnes
White Flyer. The Sterling-the kind I
had-was the best. 1t had a onc-piece
front fork, drop forgings. seamless tub
ing, and lots of special patents like
that.
l note contribution from reader
champion trick bicycle rider Of Gallia
County, Ohio. I lived right in Greene
County, Ohio, and never even heard of
INN. SO far as l can recall, his name
never appeared in the Xenia or Spring
Valley papers. l don't believe he
amounted to much as trick rider. Nv
hero was Clarence Mclean, who could
take his front wheel off without dis
mounting. G. x
Even Scribner's prints a piece this
month about bicycling "When the BIZ
cycle Was King" But the best cycling
story, as we'll as one of the best stories
he ever wrote, is H. G. Wells's "rhe
Wheels Of Chance
BY the way:
To Whom 1t Probably Doesn't Concern
o pardon, pray, our petulance,
But splease return 1.-THE Wheels OF
Chance"
Society Dances for the Blind.-Illus-
trated News.
A sight, observes P. Fl. M, for sore
eyes.
AS a matter Of fact, we are rather
skeptical about any direct relationship
between beauty and exercise. Babe
Ruth hit twenty-nine home runs last
season and Frank Adams plays tennis
every clear day.-Heywood Broun, in
The New York Tribune.
"That was hot one Broun had on
you this morning" cried they all in our
establishment yesterday. during ono of
the quieter moments that will occur in
the seethingest Offices. "What comeback
are you going to make?"
LET US first bring our intellect to
bear upon it," we temporized.
1t was the work Of second to say,
"Well, I might say that Haywood never
takes any exercise himself, and look at
him!" Great and loud was the laughter
that followed this thrust.
But it occurs to US that there is q
relationship between beauty and exer-
else, the b. varying inverscly as the
square of the exercise For Mr.. Broun,
whose violentest physical exertion Is
entering or leaving taxicab, is per-
haps the handsomest newspaper man in
all the fair countryside.
It'll march on Broadway this morn
ing, because, as II. NJ. T. suggests. the
Cheese Club is probably persona au
gratin on Fifth Avenue.
Tho Fowler Bill, which repeats day.
fight saving, passed the Assembly yes.
terday, but 1t contains provision by
which localities may nave their own day
Ight saving ordinances
Last night Coming Tower, N. Y,
voted for daylight saving by a vote OF
! to 0.
u