Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1897 — BICYCLISTS OF INTEREST TO [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BICYCLISTS OF INTEREST TO

Cycling is the sport of sports, and it is continually broadening its sphere of usefulness. There really never was much of a movement on foot for building roads until the movement was mounted on a bicycle. There threatens to be a clash between the organization calling itself the National ’Cycle Track Association and the L. A. W. Michael is the greatest of living pace followers and is conceded by those who know to have every paced record at his mercy. Judge Olmstead of Potter County, Pa., drew the attention of the grand jury to their duty regarding the keeping of the roads in good repair. A farmer by the name of Inman, who hailed from Kansas, competed at the Kansas City meet on the national circuit and a handicap handsomely. Irving A. Powell, the amateur crack of New York City, who rode in the circuit races at Rochester recently, will come into an inheritance of $400,000 on his birthday. Eddie Bald states positively that he will go to Europe at the close of the national circuit for two months, there to rest until the opening of an indoor circuit, which he says is sure to come. Railroad managers continue to recognize the needs of wheelmen. Many roads now have baggage cars equipped to carry bicycles by means of safety bars and hooks, on which wheels are suspended at the top of the car out of the way of other baggage. The break in bicycle prices is the natural result of open competition, reduction in cost of materials, enormous demand and consequent profit in the business. Everybody wants a wheel, and it looks as if comparatively few would be debarred on account of price. - Says the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in the case of Strohl vs. Swan: “A party who acts so uncivilly as to endeavor to keep the read and prevent others with lighter and more active vehicles from passing, or strives to run them off or repast them by unusual and reckless driving, richly deserves to be made to pay all I damage incident to such temerity.”