CYCLING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1843, 18 March 1887, Page 27

CYCLING.

WHEEL NOTES.

Br Demos. - I have been favoured • with a copy of the Southlands Amateur' Athletic Club's programme for March 17 "(St. Patrick's Day). A. very good day's sport will apparently be the result of the exertions of the committee. There are three bicycle races, one of which is the Twenty-five-mile Championship of New Zea-i land. One of the cycling papers tells an amusing story. At a cycling social, one of the performers, 4 who gave a stump speech, arranged with a friend to interrupt him, and with another to pretend to remove him. The little comedy would have : worked all right but for .the faot that one of the audience imagined the whole; thing., to be bona Jide^aaA, accordingly, collared the interrupter and "fired" him down the stairs, tearing bin coat into the bargain. This doable complication must have been remarkably funny for all except the confederate, .who will doubtless think' twice before he again consents to play "feeder" to a performer at a public entertainment. At the last race-meeting in Melbourne Rollinson gave his amusing burlesque of a masher learning to ride a bicycle. It is truly marvellous (says an exchange) how this man can carry on as he does without breaking half the bones in his body. Scarcely a minute passes during his performance without him either tumbling on hist head or he is dashed over the handle bar, the bicycle falling on top of him. Cyclists who know what spills are say "he leads a charmed life." The next champion meeting will probably be between Fred Wood and Rolfe. Wood has ex« pressed his willingness to ride Rolfe from one to 10 miles for £100 a-side within bix' weeks' time. Mr Henry Sturmey, hon. sec. of the Jubilee Lifeboat Fund, early .in January announced subscriptions amounting to over £30.- Although the scheme is as yet scarcely under way on all sides the idea has been warmly welcomed. - It does not require a very big effort on the part of j the men who consitute " cyoledom " to raise the sum required, and if every wheelman would contribute one shilling the result would bo attained. I AN AUTUMN REVERIE. Swift down the created hil'side My singing win el doth glide, Then lar across the meadow W» rest, the brook beside. The autumn vistas deepen With rusßet, gold and brown, And from the forest mouarchs The leaves are fluttering down. The Southern winds are blowing ! So fair and fresh and free, That. lingering on the upland, Soft fancies come to me Of 'manhood's early dreaming ; Days when the golden glow Seemed bathing life's dim future In one all-radiant flow. Old memories surging wildly, Thoughts nigh akin to pain,' Throng swift as summer's lightning, Or light as April rain. The silver of the Wuite Gross— The Holy Grail's high questAlas ! how vain tho saomlng t The realty is best ! Before earth's disenchantm«nts Bright hopes aud h;gh empriea Fade as tho day-dawu flushes The star-lit Eastern skies. I Is life nob worth the living, I Shall love be incomplete. Because we take, my masters, The bitter with the sweet ? * * # V H Once more upon the saddle ; Turn, turn, my wheel, thy flight : For in the Weatern azure There fades the dying light. A slumberous calm o'ershadows Afar the distant plain, A'iid Indian summer's hazes Are drifting into rain. And harM! from out the Northland, So ole^r aud keen aud thin, There sound the Jar off portents Of winter's coming in. The Ice-Kiug's rude dominion, The storm blast's ebb and flow, Farewell to summer's dreaming— Ihere comes the ■winter's snow !