England Only Half Crazy

"Bicycling is not nearly so much o a craze in Bngland as hrre; and thi reason therefor, as I figured it out aftel much interested investigation, is illus trative of a notable difference betweei the United States and England in ath letic and sporting matters," said wheelman just returned from a trans atlantic trip to a New York Sun reporter. "Because oí the iupsrb roads t be found in every part of Engiand ) expected to find the country simplj overrun with bicyclists. But I didn't Of course there are bicyclisls to be mei all over the land, but I soon learnec that the sport had by no means tht general hold on the people disposed te exercise or athletics that it has here It has taken a comparatively greatei hold upon the women than the men which is entirely consistent with m theory. Here in the Uni .cd States th growth of bicycling has meant verj largely the gröwth of the habit of taking exercise. We do not go into sports actively, as the English tío. "vr, as people, don't play baseball, footbail, 01 any other athletic game. We ari mightily interested in sports, but mostIy in seeing professionals at play in them. Of the twenty thousand peopl who go to see the three or Jour big football games in a year, how many play footbail? How many of tbe t?n thousand or more cranks who watch tht paid baseball nines ever play the gam themselves? Now in England there are actually dozens of footbaü and cricket clubs in every town, and every village and hamlet has its team. They play cricket all summer and footbail al) winter. Every fine evenir a.i-1 ever) Saturday afternoon every bit of turl near a town or village is covered witb players of some game or another. Sport is a profession here; a pnsfime there Here the mass of the people are Ínterested as spectators; there as participants. Bicycling is there only an alternative means of exerci.s ana amusement; here it is practically the one form of athletics that the whole people have taken to. It's a mighty gootl thing that something has turned up at last to turn the attention cf the nation to healthful exercise and athletics. The bicycle fad will wane a while, foi it isn't an ideal sport, úth&vcíi in many ways an attractive one. But other popular outdoor sport will follow in ita waTe, and I imagine the bicycle craze will figure as the beginning of an important era in American history."