148 



RECREA TION. 



WORKING THE MACHINE. 



In treating things bicycular 

 We try to be particular, 



And write just so 



For wheelmen know 

 When facts aren't perpendicular. 



And so in style versicular 

 We treat of things vehicular, 

 Although at times 

 To write these rhymes 

 Is really not picnicular. 



— L. A. W. Bulletin. 



FIGHT FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP. 



The fight for the championship of Amer- 

 ica is a hard and determined one, this sea- 

 son, with 7 men engaged in the battle for 

 the honor. Arthur Gardiner made the best 

 start by winning the one mile and 5 mile 

 championship events on the first and sec- 

 ond nights of the National Circuit opening 

 at Louisville on the 16th and 17th of May. 

 These 2 victories gave him 12 points with 

 only 2 starts. His subsequent riding has 

 lowered his percentage, and he is liable to 

 be passed at any time by Cooper or Bald 

 in their keen rivalry between themselves. 



Cooper is riding in much better form 

 than last year and his chagrin at taking 

 rank lower than Bald last year will keep 

 him more closely to the circuit than his 

 more indifferent rival is likely to adhere. 



Tom Butler, O. L. Stevens and Jay 

 Eaton are also apparently in the fight. 

 Earl Riser's absence from the circuit dur- 

 ing the first month may affect his chances 

 seriously, but that curly-haired star of '97 

 seems to like match races better than open 

 competition. No new meteor appears yet 

 in the cycling firmament to upset the pub- 

 lic's calculations, and there are not many 

 who doubt that Bald and Cooper will head 

 the list at the end of the season, as they did 

 last year and the year before, with Gar- 

 diner a possible close third. Gardiner's 

 riding is considered too inconsistent to 

 place him any higher, with Bald and 

 Cooper in the running. 



The sprinkling-cart's unceasing tide 

 ' Would shrink somewhat, we feel, 

 If the man who runs it had to ride 

 Behind it on a wheel. 



DOES WHEELING CULTIVATE CORNS? 



A Detroit chiropodist who has been a 

 wheelman for 16 years, during which time 

 he claims to have made a study of the re- 

 lations between bicycle riding and the 

 growth of corns, has given publicity to 

 some apparently contradictory observa- 

 tions on the subject. He asserts that corns 

 are produced by the wearing of loose shoes 

 while cycling, the freedom of the feet caus- 

 ing friction and consequent thickening of 

 the epidermis. He seems to directly con- 



tradict himself, however, when he says the 

 thing which plays havoc with the toes — 

 and the entire foot for that matter — is the 

 stiff manner in which riders persist in 

 pedaling, seeming to forget there is a 

 socket in the ankle. 



Just how the foot doctor supposes tight 

 shoes will contribute to freedom of ankle 

 movement and facilitate that use of the 

 socket joint which he advocates is rather 

 obscure to the lay cyclist. Experienced 

 riders all agree with his observation that in- 

 stead of confining the movement entirely 

 to the knee there should be a free ankle 

 movement; and they would be disposed to 

 believe his further statement that bringing 

 the ankle into play assures circulation of 

 the blood and prevents the formation of 

 corns; but as tight shoes tend more than 

 anything else to prevent the free circula- 

 tion of the blood, they will look upon the 

 doctor's paradoxical reasoning with con- 

 siderable doubt and continue to ride in 

 loose, soft shoes and be comfortable. Cer- 

 tainly tightly laced shoes can not contribute 

 to freedom of ankle motion and pinched- 

 up toes can not add to the pleasure of 

 cycling. 



RUN HIM IN. 



It is little wonder that foreigners despair 

 of learning to speak our language. One of 

 the greatest difficulties is the way in which 

 the same syllabic sounds have often very 

 different meanings. 



" You'll get run in," said the pedestrian 

 to the cyclist without a light. 



' You'll get run into," responded the 

 rider, as he knocked the other down and 

 ran up his spine. 



"' You'll get run in, too," said the police- 

 man, as he stepped from'behind a tree and 

 grabbed the bicycle. 



Just then another scorcher came along 

 without a light, so the policeman had to 

 run in two. — Tid-Bits. 



SCORCHERS. 



" Scorching " is an evil that has devel- 

 oped in direct proportion as the bicycle 

 has grown in popularity, until it at- 

 tained such alarming proportions that 

 drastic measures had to be resorted to in 

 order to suppress the dangerous practice 

 of the ambitious young riders. Sometimes 

 these curative measures were almost as bad 

 as the ailment from which the large cities 

 suffered, as was demonstrated recently in 

 Detroit, where policemen in citizens' 

 clothes were mounted on bicycles and sent 

 out to arrest the violators of the speed or- 

 dinance. 



One night this summer a bicycle rider 

 was coming down one of the streets of the 

 Michigan city at a breakneck speed and as 

 he turned a corner without slackening his 

 pace, he failed to see an old man who was 



