FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



I begged Seely to send this to Life. He protested, but finally 

 did so, and it was published. He received a check, I think, 

 for two dollars, which he kept as a souvenir and never cashed. 



But enough about the Capitol Bicycle Club and about the tall 

 bicycle. That extraordinary machine was succeeded, after the 

 invention of the chain wheel, by the low-wheeled machines, and 

 for me, at least, the spirit of adventure in wheeling was lost. 

 But at the same time the tall bicycle and the bicycle organizations 

 constituted an early and very strong impetus to the Good Roads 

 Movement which, through the much later invention of the auto- 

 mobile, has revolutionized road travel in most countries. Con- 

 trast in your mind, if you can, the roads of today and those of 

 fifty years ago! 



But time did not hang heavily on my hands outside of office 

 hours, even in the days before the bicycle. Mac Borden and I 

 were very fond of whist, and had played against each other 

 in interfraternity tournaments at Cornell. President Hayes was 

 in the White House, and one of his sons, Rutherford B. Hayes, 

 Jr., had also been at Cornell with us and had played for his 

 fraternity in the same tournaments. Young Hayes looked us 

 up during the first winter, and we played whist at the White 

 House at least once a week. We saw little of the President, but 

 Mrs. Hayes was a charming woman, who treated us quite as 

 members of the family and was utterly devoid of pretense. 



Those were rather primitive days in Washington. The down- 

 town parts of the city had already been paved with asphalt, and 

 the early marked improvements carried out under Boss Shepard 

 had been finished, but the northwest quarter had not been devel- 

 oped, although the tendency was in that direction. Pennsylvania 

 Avenue and Seventh Street out as far as K Street were the only 

 important business thoroughfares, although shops were encroach- 



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