RECKLESS YOUTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19998, 15 November 1927, Page 6

RECKLESS YOUTH

“DEVIL MAY CARE” SPEED, AND STILL MORE SPEED. Houses and hedges went flickering by as a youth, superbly mounted on a high-powered machine, sped away from the city over a straight stretch of tarsealed road surface. The engine beneath him stuttered a fiery song, as the needle on the face of the speed indicator mounted to higher figures, but the rider filled his lungs with the fresh country air and reflected on the joy of living. This was life! Gleefully he noted the “specdo” pass the 90 miles mark, and, as a slight rise in the road loomed up, he reflected on the possibility of breaking his previous record of 99 miles along the straight flat ahead. Up to the crest of the rise roared the machine, but the pace was such that both wheels of the cycle left the road surface when the crest was reached. All would have been well, but, at the critical moment, when the human bullet was in mid-air, a strong wind caught it and the front wheel was twisted at an angle when it connected again with Alother Earth. For about half a chain the machine “snaked” and, although the rider made strenuous efforts to restore its equilibrium, it was soon out of control.

The crash which followed was heard half a mile down the road, and those who rushed to pick the young speedster up, doubted whether anything they could do would be of much avail. To their surprise there were no bones broken, and a few nasty cuts and bruises and a severe gravel rash seemed to be the extent of his injuries. The wounds were bandaged in a neighbouring house and, with just a trace of a limp, the rider walked back to his cycle, started up the engine, and rode back in the direction of the city. The same evening he went to the movies and thrilled at the exploits of another speed demon in the person of the film hero.