The New York herald., 1922-01-01

w yHEN we attended the recent six day
w bicycle race at Madison Square
Garden It was our first peep at a
contest Of this kind. We went with a
prejudice. for we had decided in advance that
an endless grind of this sort could not be
interesting. Our feeling toward six day bike
racing was like the average mans attitude
toward those freak 100 mile walking races:
1t IL wonderful to think that athletes can
travel that distance afoot without stor ping
but who wants to see them do it? This IS
cur feeling toward most endurance tests.
II you had a chance to see a professional
strong man lift hundred pound weight over
his head thousand times in succession
would you go? Out Of curiosity, perhaps
and if you did you'd weary of the per-
formance after the twenty-fifth count Or
the thirtieth. The rest of the evening would
resolve itself into counting bee, and your
first impulse would be to go home to the
family and the old brier pipe. Great
stunt!" you'd say on tine way out, but If you
were invited the following week to watch
tho same man lift a five ton girder 1900
times in succession, using only the thumb
and middle finger of the right hand to per-
without. according to your manners. This
time you wouldn't even be curious.
We were curious about the six day bike
race-curious to learn If it was as dull as
we thought. When we took our seat the
riders were plodding along at a pushcart
pace This was on the fourth night of the
race. We didn't wonder that they were NOV
ing slowly; we wondered that they were
moving at all.
nd rIo
was packed; there was hardly an empty
seat. The gallery-whch we later visited
was jammed. The roof beams were dotted
with bike fans who had draped their legs
around the latticed steel work with all the
efficiency of monkeys Hundreds of less
agile-or less intrepid-fans were standing
in the rear. Hundreds more were being
turned away at the door The house was
sold out at S:45.
\ we surveyed that tremendous crowd
~ one Of the largest We have ever
seen in Madison Square Garden
we sensed that we had made mistake
about six day racing. These people weren't
here to keep out of the cold. They were
here for thrills. And the thrills came. For
If there Is anything more exciting than
line of flying bicycles shooting up those
steep wooden embankments and tearing
around the bend like comets in hurry well
like to know what 1t is.
The purpose of all OF which is to show
that it is unfair to regard the six day bike
race as a mere endurance test That phrase
''six day" is deceptive: 1t started our preju-
dice and Kept us away from these contests
for years. We ina gined a string of cyclists
plugging along stubbornlv to see how far
they could ride before dropping Off their
bikes. We were totally unprepared for what
we saw--a series Of ten brilliant sprints in
the course Of an hour. How the riders man.
aged to do II after four DAYS of riding we
don't understand. But they did and we were
converted
We wonder whether Wen ever finish the
nonsense rhyme we started at the race. Only
one precious quatrain is ready for inspec-
tlon:
The riders are pedaling wheels
The vendors are pedding eats.
The riders are hot. Too bad they've got
To ride so many heats!
II the riders would call themselves psych-
lists think OF all the Freudians who'd turn
out to watch em!
IT HE other day a motion picture pro-
ducer to advertise a movie of fail
life had five men dressed in prison
stripes parade up and down Broadway
Which reminds us that while prison stripes
are no longer fashionable in our iails (no
We didn't read this in What the Men Will
Wear for the Winter Term") the popular
conception of convict is man marked
like zebra.
Stripes have not been worn at the leading
jails for some time. Dame Fashion has de-
creed, as the writer's on modes would say,
that the prisoner of good taste shall wear
plain gray. No stylish prisoner would think
Of wearing stripes at Sing Sing, for instance.
In fact, ii isn't permitted. Gray plain
gray we repeats the reignng color to
quote the modistes again.
Thomas Mott Osborne brought about the