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The Bicycle In England

The Bicycle In England image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
December
Year
1880
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

It was not very long ngo that a}Toung man was descending a steep hill in the neighborhood of London, and came to grief before he rcached tlie bottom. Either he ran away with the bicycle or the bicycle ran away with him; at all evcnts he lost control a.nd rode violently down the steep place only to lind himself pulled up at the bottom by a policeman for fast and fuñona driving. ïhen a notable decisión was announced by the Judge who had to detprniine thp question whether a bicyele could be called a "carriage" or not. If it was not a carriage, then it could not be properly procccded against under the etatute which forbids carriages to bo driven at a reckless pace. 'íhe argument of the driver was, that really you eould not cali a thing consisting of two whüels only, with a little bit of a gaddle, a carriage; while on the other sido it was urgod that anything was a car riage that had wheels and a seat, anc that was usod for carrying people. A subtle dilemma this, like the great dis pute in "Alice in Wonderland" abou the "Cheshire Cat" in tiie tree which was always grinmng - m fact, was entirely grin and nothing else. We fcnow that the king of Hearta waxod angry, and orderea the executioner to behead the cat; while the executioner replied that he o -''dn't behead a creature that had n body, whieli ■ll" Soilff answercd that anything t!iat had a hcad coüd be beheaded, and he "wasn't to talk nonsense." Mr. Jusüce Lush soon settled the analogous bicyele case, and now it stands recorded in all our law books that a velocipede is a oarriage, "and nothing but it," as Mr. Weller remarked, and must be ridden or driven at a reasonable paco so as not to endanger the lives of her Majcsty's subjects. As regards the present condition of velocipeding in England, soveral ncw inventions have lately come out for making the amusement safer. Eldcrly gentlemen - yes, and ladies, too, eiderhr or not - can stop up jnto a comfortable seat, something like an arm-chair, lean back, work their ieet up and down as if they were at a sewing-machine, and glide along the ground easily and safely. This is the modern tricycle. Nothing, however, comes upto the 'twowheeled phantom, the dainty and delicate "racer," on one of which Mr. Curtis, an amateur rider, has just plished tho astomsmng feat of ten miles in less than thirly minutes - rather faster tlian twenty miles an hour. For combincd ease and speed of locomotion nothing can beat the old bicycle with lts many moduru iiiiprovumuiils, except a railway train. It is perfectly easy now - a young man from tlie mcrry midlands has just done it - to mount at Birmingham, ride through charming English icenery to Dover, take Bteamer and mount againt on tho opposite coast, visit all the scènes of the FrancoGerman war, Sedan, Melz, Strasburg, and roll home again through Paris - arriving at his English haliitat after a forlJiight's holiday of good all-round exercise and keen enjoyment. Bieycles have to a certain extent taken the place of coaches; they frequent all dut grcat main roads and gladden the hearts of ion-keepers, who look out for the tinkling bella which beraldthe advent of a "club" of wandering veloeipedists just as they anticipated of yore the gladsome tooting of the hom that bespoke the approach of tlie Enterprise, the Highflyer, or some Other well-known conveyance of tlie oiu i;oaching days. Thero is a great deal of oomfort in boino; a saleswoman. Witness the caso of her who the other day sold six yarda of trimming to a customer only to sce her come back in half an hour with the statement, "My dressmaker says that it is too heavy for a gown," and the request, "Caa't you ohange it?" Three times before set of sus did that customer walk in and go through the whole stock of trimming in order to find gomething to guit the fastidious dressmaker. No wonder sume women'a clothes show great unity of design, and no wonder that some saleswomen aro thin and pallid. Goldfish were inti-oducod into England in 1G01. . The flrst Atlanlic cable was laid August 12, 1857. The aoreage of wheat in the United States aggregates 80,000,000. The Sultan encourages tailors by ayïng three hundred and sixty-five uits a year. Abont one hundred thonsand watehes are sold every ïuonth in the United States. ■ i 'm Since the discovevy of petroleum in 85S has produced 188,fi--',033 barrels of crude oil, valued at 840,709, 672. The populntion of the district of Conrnbia, as official ly givon, is 177, GS8. About one-third of the number are colored people. Altbongh paper oollars hare to a xeat extent gone out of use wrthin the ast ten years, 200,000,000 of theni are now mauniactured aunually. Reraenyi has three violins, of wjilch one is a "SLradivarius, called tlie Princesa, and valued at $5,000; another, callod tlie Prince, is an Amati, of the ame valué; and the third, called the own Prince, and used forparlor playtiir, valued at $3,000, was made by Mr. Jollon of New York, who works so slowly and so carefully that ghould he work till very oíd, he would complete, t is said, onïy iifteen violins, Tbc London Times makes this statement of tho progresa of Great Britain and Ireland in the last ten years: 'Dpnlation liaa Inoreafed H percentlüveuue 5 ' rubio eailli 3(1 ;oiDiiiBrce i f Sliipping ] ,, Tfxlile maniilactures M Mlnernla 5 ' lUilway ir:.filc-. 4D Pt"io ,. .. Schools 1 l'u ulic mural ity !■) Welfare of the po .r 19 We record the fact, on the authority of the Journal of the Telegraph, that there are now in working condition 97,568 nautical miles of submarina telegraph cables. During the past year 11,983 miles were added. The Engineering remarks that the cables still required to coniplete the telegraphic system of the world are; One aoross the Pacific, two between the United States and Rio and Valparaíso respectively, and certain minor cables to connect Cayenne, Colurabia, New Calodonia, the Philippine Islands and Chinese stations with the world1 s telegraphio sys? tem. Mr. Greville, in his Memoirs, tells a good story apropos to .the demand for condensation, which is a mark of thi3 age: A bishop who rose to spcak in the house of lords, and announced that he should divide what he luvd to sy into twelve parts, when the Duke of Wharton interrupted him and'begged indulgence for a few minutes as he had a story to teil which he could only introduce at that moment. A dronken fellow was passing Si. Paul' 9 at night, and heard the clock slowly chime twelve. Ile counted the strokes, and then looked up to the clock, and said, "Why couldn't yon give us all that at once!" The story put an end' to the bishop' s speech. It is related that while Wagner was at Naples he was shaved by a barber who bargained in advance with certain admiréis of the composer to sell them locks of his ïron-gray hair. To his consternation, however, the composer' s wife carefully gathered up every hair which feil from the sbears. The barber went home in despair, bnt his wife was equal to the occasion. "The nuestro is a great composer, no doubt," said she, "but his hair and that of our neighbor, the butcher, are much alikc." The barber took the hint, and those who L.ciU contraeiou ,,;ii. ï.i ,...„..;,. , i:ks which they reUgiously placed under glass for eternal preservaiioa. mr. . n Aicott no in the opinions of the ancientdisciplinarians of New England. "I hold," said he the other day. "that the man who oannot govern ehildren, or men eitlier, by moral means - by the pover of his eyo, the charm of his mannors, the resources of his intelligenee - isnot worthy to control his fellow-creatures. Beware of all imported caidies, they are universallv ulu lterated. A cheap artiele of glucose ia now made by a chemical procesa from old ïnen rags and other substances, which annot be detected by ordinary taste r means, and furnishes a profitüble alulterant for jellies, candies and confcclionery generally. Pure oandy is abott as rare an articie as can b ffund iuthe ruarkot. As a curious faot, it has beeii noted by Sir Samuel Baker that a negro Sea never been known to tamo a wild lephant or any wild animal. The elephants employed by tiie ancientCaiilüiginian8 and Romans were trained by Arabs and others, never by negroes. - It had often strack Sir Samuel as very distressing that tho little children in Afric never had a pet inimal; and thoogh he offered rewards for young elepüants, he never sueceeded ia getüuir one alive. i ,

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Argus