CYCLING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue IX, 21 August 1897, Page 271

CYCLING.

FROM Germany comes the news that cycle-stands, like cab-stands, are to be started in Berlin. It is proposed to put two hundred and fifty on hire in various parts of the city. The fee for hiring will be the modest sum of one penny for twenty minutes during the day and double at night.

Cycling is said to be affecting attendance at the theatres. We read that in New York the theatrical season is almost over already. This early-closing movement (says an American journal) is undoubtedly brought about by the bicycle, for the usual plea of hot weather cannot be urged this season.

‘ I don’t like to ride my bicycle now,’ said the fair young girl, ‘ because of the wind.’ The young man blushed slightly. * Co-couldn’t you use strips of lead or something ?’ he stammered. * Strips of lead for what ?’ The young man blushed again. The room seemed painfully hot. ‘Why, in the hem of your sk-skirts!’ he stammered. ‘My skirts!’ echoed the tall beauty. ‘l’m not talking of my skirts. It’s my curls that the wind blows ont!’

What is probably the oddest clock ever manufactured has been made by a Frenchman. It should interest every cyclist, for it is constructed solely of bicycles and parts thereof. It stands eleven and a-half feet high, and is the queerest combination in appearance at which any cyclist ever gazed. Withal, it keeps correct time, and the man whose duty it is to keep it in order has a very easy time of it, for so delicately is it constructed that the gain or loss is almost infinitesimal. It bears the appearance at first glance of a circlet of bicycle wheels intertwined, in the centre being an immense rim, while within this rim are the figures that denote time and the hands that point the hour and the minute. A LEGLESS CYCLIST. Mr G. B. Iliff, whose portrait we give, is the legless champion cyclist of the world. He was born in Chicago in 1872, lost his feet in 1893, and is now employed by Morgan and Wright, tyre manufacturers, as a member of their 1897 racing team. The following championship events were won by Mr Iliff:—Fifty-yard dash, Lincoln, Nebraska, September 12th, 1894, Bsecs. ; standing broad jump without weights, Chicago May 3rd, 1895, 6ft 4in ; one mile bicycle (paced), 2tnin 28sec ; half mile bicycle (paced), imin rosec, October 10th, 1896. Mr Iliff also holds the silver cup championship of the United States for men wearing one artificial leg. He won it, although

wearing two artificial legs ; no time given. He also won the gold medal championship of the United States, 100yard dash open to men wearing two artificial legs. Cup and medal were offered by the National Association of Railway Cripples at their annual athletic meet at Calhoum Park, Pittsburg, June 27th, 1896. Mr Iliff is also the legless champion in the manly art of self-defence. ‘ He is ready,’ says a friend, ‘at any time to meet any legless individual who wishes to try for championship honours in any of the following events :—One mile walk (heel and toe), fifty yards dash, 100 yards dash, 220 yards dash, standing broad jump, mile and a-half bicycle (paced or unpaced), trick and fancy riding for points, or a limited number of rounds with the gloves for points.’ Mr Iliff couldn’t do much more if he possessed the legs he was born with.

A lady friend of the writer relates the following amusing incidents: —In the vicinity of Budleigh Salterton, during the past summer, the poachers pursued their vocation with great earnestness, and, in order to secure their capture, the gamekeepers adopted the use of the bicycle, of which the poachers were not unaware. Very early one morning the poachers were out in full force, and had prepared their gins and slips for a good bag of game, when, suddenly, through the morning mist, and about fifty yards up the road, their watcher observed what he believed to be a man on a bicycle rapidly approaching. He at once gave the alarm, and the poaching crew decamped in haste, leaving everything behind them. It subsequently transpired that the supposed man was a la«Jy cyclist out for her morning spin, and arrayed in rational costume.