TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9298, 26 December 1895, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The pory large number o! The Modern bicycles now in use is an Bicycle. extraordinary . thing in itself, but it is all tb* more remarkable when one remembers thai cycling is a recreation or bub somt twenty-Gvo years' growth, and that th< bicycle, ac we know it to-day, first saw ths light ten years ago. Ib was ia 1835 tbao Stanley and Sutton introduced to the public, ia the* shape of the Hover safety, the prototype of t the' cycles our roads and whose riders meet in rivalry to-day at Lancaster Park. Ton years ago the appearance of a " safety" bicycle on the racing track would have occasioned . as great surprise as would that of an old •' ordinary" in a bioyole race to-day* Truth to tell, the change, in our opinion, i p not altogether for the best. Faster time* are, of course, recorded by the diminulivf pneumatic-tyred racing machine which i now in universal use than by iht tall Humbers of a few years ago, but the. latter afforded much the more pleaeiug spectacle to the onlookers, and one missel now at cycling meetings the exhilarating whizzing rush of half a dozen of these bicycles which to both eye and ear eug. gested epeed. However, the "ordinary" has had its day, and will gradually, no doubt, become as rare as the old " bone* shaker" of thirty yeare ago.. Its life may be said to have covered barely twenty yean, and in that time it underwent several changes. It commenced as a heavy machine —the racing bicycle of lees than twent) years ago weighed forty pounds—with a pro portionately largo back wheel. The im« provemouts which were effeoted year by year were in the direction of .reducing the weight, increasing the size of the fronD wheel and reducing that of the *mall wheel, and they culminated in 1884 in the' Humber machine referred to above, whioh was the perfection of an "ordl* nary." Then came the "safety" bioycl*. At first these were raced in company with the ordinary machines, bnb as the rider* o! the latter complained of the clangor Mused by the handle bars of the email machine, being level with the pedals of the high OHM , separate races were instituted. With tricyole and eafety racing came a demand. ; for high banked tracks. During the first , few years of it* existence, the eafety proved capable of much improvement, the .molt - noteworthy alteration being the introdm>« tion of the pnenmatio tyre. Aocording to a recent writer two pneumatic tyred bioyclei were need at the spring meeting of (he Surrey 8.0., in April, 1890, one by 3P." W. Shorland and the other by G. L. Herri* and the manner in which these two riders simply ran away from all the other competi* - ton astounded the spectators and created consternation among the officials. Iβ the first part of the year . doubt was evinced as to the capabilities of the innovation. It made the machine was very susceptible to accident, and. difficult to repair. Bat notwithstanding th«s drawbacks, which were partly remedied by. further experienoe, the pneumatic tyre to* .: created rapidly in popular favour. Eidtrt. - of "ordinaries" came down to the hitherto despised safeties, and in 1892 the "ordinary" championships were brought tq.jßj.ead. ■ Since that time the " safety " has, feigned supreme. Ib has reduced, to an extra*. ordinary extent, the records of ; the old machines, and though one may regret; fot, some reasons, the disappearance of the latter, it is idle to deny that to its successor is due the credit for the remarkable mv petns oycling has ex- perienced in all partt ■;- of the world daring the last few years. Ballooning as a sport it. One Danger an amusement the ttal ■■" ot enjoyment of which seems ■> Ballooning. to demand certain ch»r»<K \ teristics sot posseased »J; the average man. The same might, how?' ever, be said of Alpine olimbing, yet weal* know there are men to whom the danjrer.ofscaling snowy peaks of appalling difficulty i< ' - v the breath of tbeir nostrils, and so there are those who find their ohiefest pleasure ia ■ going up ia a balloon. Lieutenant R. Baden : Powell Beams to be one of these individual* ; judging from his remarks in a recent article ' v published under the rather ominous headiog ■ 4 of '• A Trip Heavenward." The opinion $_ k $

}hts«t>thusiastic aeronaut is that ballooning is not «o dangerous as it is said to be, and he asserts that most of the serious balloon acoidents which have ocourxed neT e caused by gross mismanagement, either from ignorance or carelessness, j* proof Lieut. Baden Powell tail* how at oDtfo-e ho bought a balloon from a pro* fessioaal aeronaut, whioh, though not a new one, answered his purpose for some time. Ho made sevoral ascents in it, damaged it a good deal, had it patched aud altered, and i finally "towed it away in a cellar. Some j time after, as he knew it to be probably un* trustworthy, he sold it as old material to tbe maker for a few pounds. Hearing shortly afterwards that an ascent had been made in it, he reminded the aeronaut that ho was incurring a great risk in using a balloon that had seen so much service, jhe man took hia advice, and sold the balloon to a brother aeronaut named Dale, whether as " old material " or not, history does not record. Dale had 11 great invention of his own for converting old balloons into new ones, and he tried it on the old Eclipse, as this balloon was called, by boiling it down in soda and chemicals until aU the varnish disappeared in the process, and a mass of cambric was left, as snow* white as if new, if not so strong. Dale then revarnished it, and turned out a iplendid looking balloou. Some years after he found a purchaser for it in a young naval reierve officer in India named Mansfield, wbo bad some theories on the subject of aeronautics. Mansfield made an ascent in tbe rejuvenated Eclipse, but before the balloon had reached 200 ft, it collapsed, and he was fatally itijured. Dale had evidently complete faith in his patent, process, for he re-made another balloou in the same way, w d ascended in it himself, accompanied by his son and some others. This balloon acted in the same way tt tbe old Eclipse had done, and bnrst before it was clear of the - Crystal Palace grounds, D_le aud one of his companions being killed and the others dreadfully injured. Such stories as these will not help Lieut. Baden Powell very mncb in bis eudeavour to popularise ballooning, aa they will simply confirm the average man's opinion that a balloon ascent is enjoyed with the greatest safety when watched from terra firm*.

This difficult) question of how A best to deal with the crowds of Modified young girls and boys who crowd Curfew, the city etreets at night has often been discussed by those who are concerned in the moral welfare of tbe rising generation, and who recognise in the custom one of the greatest dangers to which the youth of a city are subjected. The evil -— for it is nothing lens — haa, we aro told, grown to such proportions in many of the smaller towns in some of the American States that the municipal authorities have taken up the task of dealing with it. By-laws have,* it appears, been put into force which provide for the tapping of the town firobells at nine o'clock every night, and forbid boys and girli under sixteen to remain on the street after that hour without adult escorts. It is not surprising to learn that these by-laws, whioh revive in some degree the mediaeval custom of the curfew bell, have drawn forth much criticism, and they are declared to be opposed to American ideas of personal liberty, but, on the other hand, they find many defenders. A Chicago paper says:—"The desire of preventing children from running on the streets when they should be in bed has taken the shape .of a general movement towards the passage and enforcement of what are termed cuffew ordinances. There can be no doubt ■'that the idea is an excellent one, and deserves to spread and grow. The mediaeval cover-fire bell which protected William the Conqueror's subjects from midnight conflagrations and from marauders in the unlighted streets is still capable of wise use in the era of fire departments and electric lights. To teaoh children orderly and regular habits, and to keep them away from tho bad associations of the streets after dark is a worthy object for an ordinance. It is a pity tho idea is nob practicable for the large Another newspaper says—" If not the curfew, then some other means ehould be provided to prevent the children of thoughtless parents from roaming about the streets, bent on mischief when they ought to be at home. Surely to teach children orderly and regular habits, and to keep them &way from the evil associations of the streets after dark, is a worthy objeob for municipal lawmakers." Such regulations should, of course", be unnecessary, and would be 80 if parents did their duty. But apparently they fail in this respect in America, as well as elsewhere. Certain it is that on any night in summer scores, nay hundreds, of girls and boys may be seen parading the streets of Christchurch, a fact which argues a state of parental irresponsibility little short of criminal, and whioh aonstitutes a serious menace to the future wellbeing of tbe community.