Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1891 — WHEELS ARE POPULAR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WHEELS ARE POPULAR.

ASTONISHING GROWTH IN THE NUMBER OF CYCLERS. Men, Women, and Children Cie Them in Every City In the Union Where Road# Are Good—ln Small Town* It Makes a Difference Who starts a Club—General Bike Gossip

HERE was a time a I few years ago when HI cycling seemed to have reached its i lv\ limit. One would A) have said it was "jpjir JfS likely to remain stationary, or even to V iffi decline in public ft favor. Since that VV 1 time a few things ® 'ill have happened, how- / VI % ever > which have lit i f/ft) si changed the appear • !//lLr ance of things won- \ JL-'y derfully. The perfection of the safety HrVioal Via a if.

wheel has maoe it possible to ride without the constant fear of a broken nose. The invention of the ladies’ bicycle has relieved the

weaker sex of the burden of a third wheel and set women all over the country to cycling. The pneumatic tire has placed the bicycle racer abreast of the trotting horse for short distances and away ahead of it for long ones. The prices of “machines” have dropped as their quality improved. The improvement of the common roads has been due largely to the persistent clamor of cyclists and reacts to increase their number. There are between 250,000 and 300,000 wheels in the country, not counting the myriads of children’s velocipedes. As some of the cycles are hired out and some owned in partnership and some are tandems and carry double, there may not be so very many short of 500,000 regular and occasional wheelmen in this country. The safety or “goat” bicycle is the universal favorite nowadays with men and women alike. The reasons are many. The certainty of avoiding tumbles is not the only one. Safeties are all practically of the same size, and if owner ever gets tired of one he lias no difficulty in selling it. If he has a big wheel the difficulty of selling is tenfold. I irst, he has to find a man who wants a wheel of that sort, and few do nowadays, and then it’s literally ten chances to one that the purchaser’s legs won’t be of the right length. The dealers like the safeties, too, as they are made in one size and three styles, and there is no necessity of carrying unsalable sizes to suit an occasional long or short-legged man. Men wheel because they want to, women because others do. It makes an immense difference whether bi-

c.vling starts right or wrong in a town. If women of character and social prominence happen to take to the wheel first iti a place, the dealers are happy in plenty of Orders. If the sport “starts wrong” it mav languish for years unless the leaders happen to take hold of it. , The cushion tiie pioves to be not much of au improvement upon the solid kind, but great things are expected of the pneumatic tire, which consists of a hollow rubber tube blown full of air. The great trouble with tire so far is that it has to be made soft and flexible, and soon wears and bursts. It may be doubted whether it will ever be much used on cheap load machines, but for track-racing it is certainly a great invention, saving several seconds on the mile. One inventive Philadelphian his devised a steam tricycle which, he says, will go fifteen miles an hour with no more labor than that of steering. Willi such huge profits to be made in the sale of wheels, the inventors are likely to keep improving them every year. - Chicago Times.

MATERNITY ON THE ROAD.

THE NEW STEAM TRICYCLE.