CYCLING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue IX, 26 February 1898, Page 255

CYCLING.

Two cyclists, Mr anil Mrs T. Warnock, have returned to Wellington from a most enjoyable cycle tour in the Hot Lakes district, having visited Te Aroha, Okoroire, Waiotapu, Ohineniutu, the Rotorua Sanatorium, Wakarewarewa, Waitake, the Spa. and Taupo; thence on to Napier. The trip occupied ten days from the Thames to Napier; and the cyclometer registered 380 miles. Mr Molesworth Tolhurst, the wellknown barrister and solicitor, of Wellington, had a most unpleasant experience on Sunday last, when returning from Porirua on his bicycle, as he was attacked by a bullock which had broken loose from his pursuers. Seeing the animal coming at him, Mr Tolhurst lifted his bicycle over a low fence near, and was proceeding to get over himself, when the infuriated animal charged at him, and tossed him over the fence; and then, fortunately for Mr Tolhurst, turned his attention to the bicycle, which he almost demolished. And in the meantime Mr Tolhurst had got to a place of safety, escaping with a few bruises and a severe shaking. Several other cyclists on the road at the time disappeared in an incredibly short time, establishing a ‘record’ until they reached a more peaceful locality. Bicycle riding as a test of sobriety or otherwise has received a rude shock from the conduct of Otto Sasse. a German, who, from the condition in which he was, may be described as a very ‘schnappish’ young man. Someone helped him to mount his cycle, and, once started, he rode beautifully, although at a rate which spectators described as furious. Still, he managed to steer along Ratcliff Highway, London, as straight as an arrow, and would probably have got safely past the Mint, had he not there collided with John Grant, a dock labourer. Both fell, and the shock completely upset Sasse’s powers as an equilibrist. In vain he tried to remount the bicycle and ride away again. The feat was impossible., and he fell an easy victim to the police, after having assaulted Grant for having incontinently putan end of his spin. The Thames .Magistrate fined him 20/ and costs. Hereafter the bicycle test of sobriety must not be that a man is able to bowl along after he has received a friendly lead, but that he is able to start ‘on his own.’ After sitting laboriously in special session on the question whether Queen Wilhelmina should ride her new bicycle, the Privy Council of the Netherlands decided that considerations of regal dignity and personal safety forbade her to ride. What the girl queen herself thought about it may be inferred from the fact that she acquired the bicycle before the question was submitted to the PrivyCouncil. An English inventor has designed a new style of brqke for those who object to twisting the handle grip to apply the brake. The arrangement is practically the same in all respects, save that a trigger projects from the handle bar below the grip, which can be instantly worked by the fingers in the way that the lever usually is, though, of course, the whole affair is much neater, as nothing is visible lietween the brake spoon and the

trigger lever. He has also brought out a neat little arrangement for ringing any ordinary bell by means of twisting the handle grip.. Greece is probably the only country in the world in which the bicycle has l>een introduced by the ruler. The machine which King George first sprung upon the descendants of Demosthenes and Xenophon (says the •Bicycling World’) was a wooden affair, commonly known in this country as a ‘bone-shaker,’ upon which he wheeled about the streets of Athens a long time before he finally gave it up for a later pattern. It is said that the native-born Greeks got it into their heads that bicycles had something supernatural and uncanny about them. Some of them associated the wheel with various myths handed down by their story-tellers from time immemorial, end even threatened to ‘shy’ bricks and other impedimenta at His Majesty. Since then, however, they have learned better, and the bicycle has made such headway in the kingdom that several hundred were enumerated at the last Athenian census. •I CANNOT RIDE A WHEEL.’ I am a humble citizen, with little store of pelf, And yet I can remember when I really thought myself A person with a perfect right upon this earth to dwell. But now my views are altered quite—the shameful truth I’ll tell. Although at once in scorn and hate you’ll turn upon your heel— I’m cursed by a malignant fate—l cannot ride a wheel. I meet the friends of other days; they wheel In silence by. I wander mid the woodland ways, and tandems meet my eye. Do what I may, go where I will, though fast and far I flee. The cursed wheel is with me still —and evermore shall be. To speak of joys I may not share, of pleasures I’ll ne’er feel; The frost of care is on my hair—l cannot ride a wheel. I was betrothed, a winsome maid had promised to be mine; And, joyous. I was unafraid, come shower or come shine. But now the wheel’s enthralled her heart, for me there’s but a bow; And Billy Snooks performs my part (he has a tandem now). They, mounted, scorch from scene to scene; on foot I meekly steal. Earth has no denizen so mean—l cannot ride a wheel. In life I see no gleam of hope, in death no hope I see, For when I tread the heavenly slope, I know assuredly The cycling shades will pass me by and leave me far behind. And when I reach the gate on high, St. Peter I shall find. Will bang it with a scornful shout and seal it with a seal. And turn me out with, ‘Right about!’— I cannot ride a wheel.