The Stanley Cycling Club celebrated its coming of age in x sumptuous manner on Saturday last, by holding a musical entertainment, at. the Hotel Cecil. There are to-day no survivors of the original founders of the club, which has played so conspicuous 1 part in the history of cycling, especially in the matter of holding annual exhibitions, but there are many active members who date back from the dark ages of '77 and 't8, There are not many cycling clubs that can look back on more than twenty-cone years of active existence, the oldest of them all being the Edinburgh Amateurs C.C, who hold the record for priority by a few weeks: from the Pickwick B.C., and the London B.C. is another veteran' club, the only others being two Yorkshire clubs, the Bradford C.C. and the Wakefield €.C.
Another club to celebrate its birthday on the first of May was the Wheel Club, a bantling, as this w"s only its first anniversary, but noteworthy as one of the leading wheeling organisations among the more aristocratic class of riders. It is the Whee! Club that has set fashionable cydis's playing gam+s on their bicycles and holding cycling gymkhanas, "ud this season they are extending their programme by the holding of weekly Sunday runs. The Club as a large hose and extensive grounds in South Kensingt™ (where Private track is laid down) as their London margin of two-Gfths of x second, On the road, the first big ride has been the beating of the Brighton and back record by W. J. Neason, the holder of the Bath and back record. He covered the 104 miles of hilly rad between Brighton and London in 5b. 19min. 39 sess., or 2 mins. 54 secs. in front of the previous record held by C. G. Wridgeway. Neason had the misfortune to puncture about ten miles from the finish, ani was compelled to ride part of that distance on the rim of his machine, and part on the front seat of a tandem, of course by himself, hindrances that make his ride all the more remarkable.
In contrast to the exceptional activity apparent everywhere in the cycle factories, many of which are hard pressed to execute their orders, and in still greater contrast to the increase of the boom in cycling itself, the cycle share markets have been very dull for the past week or two, and prices are expected to droop still lower. The adverse conditions have been brought about by the flotation and attempte! flotation of an enormous number of cycle companies, many of them monstrously over-cspitslised, and some hardly worth the paper on which their prospectuses are printed.
The traditional celebrations of May Day are now seldom to be found except in the remoter villages of the out-of-the-way corners of the country. Nearer civilisition methods are more up-to-date, as at Brighton, where a great gathering of cycles, motor-cars, and four-in-hand coaches was organised by the Brighton cycling clubs.
The British postal authorities are at last alive tothe utility of the bicycle for the Fir the use of telegraphic messengers, and purposes of the rural postal deliveries, and it is the bicycle that has to be thanked for the two most recent reforms in the service. One is that in future there shall be 10 porterage charge on the delivery of telegrams up to a distance of three miles, instead of one, from the office, and the other is that there shall be a regular house-to-house delivery of letters all over the country daily in place of the present system, in ¥-gue in some districts, of letting dwellers in remote hamlets call for their letters at the post office, when they think there may be a letter for them.
The Referee offered a prize for the best health couplet, and a winning versicle was the following Walking's work, and riding's rest, Hiking's both, 20 biking's best."
A curiosity in the way of globe- girdlers is at present in this country, thoroughly exploring England, Scotland, and Ireland. He is not scampering round the world against the watch, but is touring with piles of luggage, including a tent, complete changes of clothes, cooking utensils, a camera, and many other things, his whole turn-out, including the bicycle, scaling at least eighty pounds. His bicycle isa very old velocipede, being the 1888 pattern, cross-framed, since fitted with cushion tyres, which are tied on here and there, and the machine itself shows signs of much hard usage, being reinforced with strengthening }eams of wood braced on where breakages have occured. Mr. Reyman is collecting materials for @ book which he hopes to write on his return to New York after a. couple of years extended touring all over j the world.
Londo", 7th May. were a craze of yest there are not now so many dilettante cyclists to be seen in Hyde Park and other fashionable rendezvous, where cycling was justifiably called a craze, these outside casual observers declare that a decline of the cycle brom has commenced. 'Active riders of experience, on the other hand, who ride a great deal on various roads are' convinced that there never were 0 many cyclists to be met with as at the present time. The two accounts are easily reconciled, as the novices of la-t year are now giving up the doubtful enjoyment of mere parade riding, and the body of real road-using cyclists has been largely reinforced. The true reason of the tempora decline in cycle shares, is not.a falling o in trade, as factories are all busy, but partly due to extensive sales by-one of the chief financiers who has set almost a-pani: example, and also to the flotation ofa lot of audacious rubbish.
At a busy corner in South London, where three roads meet, a youth was recently riding a bicycle at an admitted speed of ten miles an hour, when he came into collision with a servant girl who suddenly stepped in his way. The girl fell. and subsequently died from the result of the injuries she received, and in due course the cyclist was brought before the magistrate. The charge of manslaughter was dismissed, but he was fined 40s. for furious driving, as the magistrate held that ten miles an hour in such a place was too fast. "The English law does not prescribe a fixed maximum pace beyond which a cyclist may not ride, but leaves the term furious driving as an elastic expression which may be adjusted to the circumstances of each case. All the more surprise is therefore felt in the case of a North of England rider who was fined a sovereign for furious driving, although it was conclusively proved that there was not a soul, nora cart, nor anything animate or inanimate on the road, which was a straight length without cross-ronds or gates. In fact, it was an ideal place for a burst of harmless speed—at twenty shillings per sprint.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.