SUNDAY RIDING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9640, 15 January 1903, Page 4

SUNDAY RIDING.

♦ Major Taylor, tlie American crack cyclist, says lie reckons lie has lost <50,00U dollars lor refusmg to ride on a tSunuay. Interviewed by a Sydney paper, he saia : "The first temptation I lijid to ride on Sundays was the greatest temptation oi my life. 1 was lbuO dollars m debt, and had to mortgage my little iiome m Worcester Then fcliere was trouble, m tlie League. Some of the riders left the Lrague ; and I and some others stood by the League. Unfortunately, tllie other fellows came out on top, ana to penaJise me, though I had done nothing, they mode me pay 500 dollars before l could ride again. "Well, I hadn't got the money. Just then came the agont over from Europe, and offered me a big contract, but as it meant Sunday racing I declined. Then 1 went to one of our bicycle firms and told the manager about the fine, and he said, "If you ride our wheel 1 will pay the fine.' I said, 'All right,' and be gave me a cheque for the SU) dollars. 'xhen I started m, and do you know I won every race that season, and when the Fu.ll came I had paid off every dollar of that 1500 I owed, and had 1000 dollars to my credit m the bank. I tell you, sir (and the champion's face beamed 'with the joy that he could not conceal), it's all right. Sunday riding has been no temptation to me since. "I can tell you a story to illustrate Uhis Sunday question, about the proprietor m the great Corliss engine works, of America. He is a builder of locomotives. At the Philadelphia Exposition he had on exhibition an enormous stationary steam engine, which was used to drive the machinery all round the grounds. When the time came to open the Exposition, some wanted it to remain open seven days a week, while others objected. Finally it was decided to keep open on Sundays, for the convenience, as it was said, of tlhe working men, who hadn't the opportunity during the week. Then Mr Corliss went to the directors, and said, 'Gentlemen, if you permit the Exposition to be opened on x .Sundays, I shall take down all my machinery, which has cost me hundred's of thousands of dollars to erect.' The display he- >had was of such significance to the Exposition that they could not afford to defy him, so they decided to close on Sundays."