CYCLING AT HOME.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume V, Issue 588, 29 December 1897, Page 4

CYCLING AT HOME.

l,onuo>i, November 12. Pre-scot Brow is the name of a hill in the neighborhood of Liverpool, v bich has become famous throughout tire cycling world us the scene of n.uny police outrages on cyclists, culminating in the dragging off a rtder by a constable with a hooked stick. The case may he called to mind owing to the iniquity of the magisterial finding when the case was heard, fur the cyclist was lined for furious driving, and the policeman for his personal safety’s sake was tran.-lerred to another district. But the cyclist did not let his case rest there, and with the help of the Liverpool Centre of the Union, a subscription from the Cyclists’ Touring Club, and other pecuniary support he carried it to a successful appeal in a superior court. The efforts of the magistrates to justify their conduct failed. They pointed to the absence of hell and lamp as evidence that the cyclist was a reckless rider, Llit us it was not dark and In- carried a whistle, tin.: precious contention failed, The constable win, ‘•hooked” the cyclist produced h. bludgeon, which was a terrible brain batterer, and explained that it w not his intention to hurt the poor di ar gentleman, hut to run along ide Lid in- stopped. As the constable had already ilepo i d to a : peed of 2d n ill an hour his estimate of his running powi n waa distinctly rosy, I mi* t dozen other witnesses swore to . or nin mill ad hoi r, and the < u list at la t triumphed amid un-nii-nso applause. The attitude of magistrates varie greatly wit!, the pane, and Lie person eharged. At Brighton, on tin crowded front, ill the present busy - .i nn, Mr Wiiimi-', tho American millionaire, was . topped driving a light ilog curt IH miles an hour. Pace was high, place crowd* d, danger great. Mi Wiiians was usked merely not to do it again, probably the magi trater thought 111 hillings not worth n king a niillionairo to pay. Compare this with ilillier, at twelve an hour, on an <- npty suburban road ill ab oltii.c lilKy, fined, with added co : s, bring a cyclist and not u millionaire. Uncords die hard, or rather t pr.ictii i of milking them, anil in; i Nuvonber, tin, cry is still , are beaten ! In addition to a nno unimportant multicycle performances, tlur- were two inti rest ng rid,- , i sell nf a kilometre length, on tin- Cry. Is! Palace a day or two ago, by a I n iicli mb - of lb,- Aliel cycle, •lamed Maurice Lmnbarl. Both were world’ records for tin- di timco, one v. it!i a Hying, and tie- other with a standstill start. The times were I Inn.i. H 0 .Vli s-v ~ which arc inlure: ting us giving a uriaotue of the difficulty in getting

going, and the faster the flying mile or kilometre becomes, the greater will be the difference between it, and the one accomplished with a start from a stationary position. The Stanley Show, which opens next week, has been brought before the cycling world in the now timehonored manner by the holding of a monster smoking concert in one of the largest concert halls in the metropolis. It is customary at this gathering for a few words ou the question to drop from the Chairman, but as there is no fight on now there was only a peaceful speech. But the concert was not a disappointment, and the vast crowd of nearly 8,000 invited delegates from countless cycling clubs voted the affair a big success. So will the Show he, for it is ever popular with the c.ubman, the private buyer, and the followers of the pastime who are the back-bone of the retail trade. There is no progress to report, as yet, in the fight with the railway companies on the carriage of cycles free of charge. The companies are, however, exercising themselves to provide better accommodation for machines, and as one of their organs sapiently remarks, it is better to build vans to suit cycles than to ask cyclists to ride folding machines, built to suit travelling in vans. There is some doubt, however, as to the sanity of the leader writer on this exponent of the railway world, as he is of opinion that the uso of cycle vans would so overtax tho drawing powers of an engine that couplings would snap, and had accidents result I Dr Turner, ex-road racer, ex-path racer, can’t let either of the sides of the sport alone. He was an ardent supporter of the new rules hampering road events, by prohibiting licensed riders from road-racing and from certain ferms of road trials, He was the father of the licensing scheme, and now has made a suggestion that a remedy for loafing in scratch ces would he to set a time limit , .a lay a rope across the finishing straight to prevent a finish if time was tip ! Such an absurdity makes one wonder whether it is the Dr Turner who once raced that can be tho Dr Turner of such chimerical ideas. That tho Union is not solid on the new-fangled road rules is evident from the voting of provincial centres against them, although in a minor-ity,-and from the fact that one of its vice-presidents, Mr Robert Todd, who is also the Union’s solicitor, took the opportunity at the Catford dinner [he other evening of expressing his disagreement with tba Union’s policy. Can it be that the little birds in the Union nest are going to fall out?