BICYCLING. 



FACT AND FANCY. 

 NIXON WATERMAN, IN L. A. W. BULLETIN. 



I had an inspiration once, 



And wrote a verse so fine 

 That, when I polished it for months, 



It grew to be divine. 

 It was so pure, so sweet, so nice, 



So free from all that mars, 

 It seemed to breathe of Paradise, 



And lift me to the stars. 



One day an advertising man 



Secured an ad. for soap 

 With twenty times less trouble than 



I wrote my verse on " Hope." 

 The editor meant well, no doubt, 



But, oh! it was a sin! — 

 He threw my matchless poem out 



And put that soap ad. in! 



OLD RACERS RETURN TO THE TRACK. 



The season of 1898 has been remarkable 

 for the number of old-timers who have re- 

 turned to the race track and acquitted 

 themselves with honor. For instance, there 

 is John S. Johnson, of Minneapolis, who 

 began racing in 1889 and reached his zenith 

 in the early '90s. He was the idol of 

 American racing enthusiasts until he went 

 to Europe in '95 and suffered defeat in 

 every race he entered against the foreign- 

 ers. He came home a saddened man, to be 

 almost scoffed at by his countrymen. 



He then started in once more at his old 

 forte of record breaking, but, try as he 

 would, he failed repeatedly to get the mile 

 record. The following winter he almost 

 died of pneumonia in Canada and although 

 he attempted racing in 1897 he had to be 

 classed, however reluctantly, as a second 

 rater. He was in training in the South 

 most of last winter, and this season has 

 shown fine form and a return of his old- 

 time speed. 



Then there is E. A. McDuffie, who be- 

 gan racing in 1890 and has been at it ever 

 since, leaping into unexpected prominence 

 last year by his successful attack on the 

 mile record. Since then he has taken up- 

 middle distance paced competition racing 

 with the greatest success, defeating Mi- 

 chael, Titus and other good men. Fred 

 Titus is another old-timer returned, and 

 L. D. Cabanne, of St. Louis, who was sus- 

 pended at the same time as Fred Titus in 

 '95 by the racing board, is showing much 

 of his former speed this year. Tom Butler, 

 too, although a young rider, has been 

 racing since '94 and was supposed to have 

 retired from the track at one time. 



In '96 he showed such remarkable speed 

 that he had to be classed as the strongest 

 rival of Bald and Cooper, but last year he 



seemed unable to repeat his brilliant per- 

 formances. During last winter, A. A. Zim- 

 merman, who was the undoubted world's 

 champion in the early '90's, but retired 

 from the track after an unsuccessful cam- 

 paign in Australia in '95, rode in a number 

 of rates in Mexico before he returned to 

 his home in Freehold, N. J., and fell ill 

 with fever. . 



BAD ROADS RESPONSIBLE. 



Down from his wheel he swiftly sped, 

 And lit upon his luckless head. 



He mounted, and rode on apace, 

 Then fell, and lit upon his face. 



Again he tried and fell, and here 

 He lit upon his other ear. 



And then he lit, a swearing wreck, 

 Upon the Road Repairer's neck. 



MULTICYCLE RACES. 



One event on the programme of the 

 National Meet to be held at Indianapolis 

 in August is arousing a good deal of in- 

 terest and giving the state handicapper 

 considerable to think about. It is the 

 multicycle 2 mile handicap race, open to 

 all kinds of bicycles from the single ma- 

 chine to the septuplet. Multiplet races are 

 something new this season and only a few 

 such events have ever been run in this 

 country, the first of the kind in America 

 being the multicycle scratch race at the 

 Quill Club meet in May. That, however, 

 was a comparatively simple affair, since all 

 the contestants started together at the tape; 

 and it was won by a quadruplet, with a 

 single in second place and a tandem and 

 triplet not in at the finish. 



The League Meet multicycle handicap 

 requires that the different teams be given 

 advantages at the start that seem most just 

 to each and most likely to bring all to- 

 gether at the end of the 2 miles. What is 

 troubling the handicapper, therefore, is 

 whether to place the largest machine on 

 limit or on scratch, or to handicap the sin- 

 gle rider heaviest. The natural inclination 

 is to give the single contestant the greatest 

 advantage, because the machines are known 

 to possess speed in proportion to the num- 

 ber of riders who can apply power to drive 

 them; but experience has demonstrated 

 that these high speeds cannot be kept up 

 for more than a mile on anything larger 

 than a quadruplet, while a rider on a sin- 

 gle wheel can maintain a stiff pace for many 

 successive miles. So the handicapper thinks 

 perhaps the advantage should be the other 

 way and the largest machine placed on 

 limit. 



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