and secure for themselves new privileges, and frequently at the expense of horse conveyances. It is obvious that the time will soon have come when distinctions must be more carefully drawn and observed, respective rights more clearly defined and more readily granted, and when in general stricter rules of the road will be kept in force. Out of this seem likely to come cycle paths-places in the highway set apart exclusively for wheelmen and either of the type contemplated in Seventh Avenue or others constructed alongside the footpaths.

It has become inevitable since wheeling has spread so tremendously, both as a pasttime and as a task, that roads will in future be constructed with more and more regard for wheelmen's needs. Already in the larger cities this has been demonstrated by the actual construction of road surfaces to suit wheelmen, and there is every reason why this should be the case. Roads always

have been built for the convenience of those who use them; they have been carefully adapted to the special needs of such persons from the time of the building of the Pyramids to the time when Roman legions were sent from Italy to remote provinces of the empire; from the early turnpikes down to Telford and Macadam. In the nature of things this course always must be followed by the road builders, and hence the wheelman is destined to come into full possession of what is his own.

The wheel must ere long pass into general use as an article of utility. In serving purposes of pleasure alone it seems to find its narrowest field. The clerk, the mechanic, the farmer, each must adopt it as a means of transit to the office, the shop, the "job," and the village stores. This means an increasing demand for better surfaces to ride on, so that we shall yet see the farmer joining not only the clerk and mechanic, but the tradesman, the professional man, and the capitalist who ride, in behalf of cycle paths alongside the old highways.

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One of the best suggestions I have seen, and one which every wheelman would do well to paste in his cap for a reminder at the time when he most may need it, is the following communication from an English rider of evident fertility of resource, to an English cycling paper. He says:

Riders sometimes find themselves without rubber when they require to repair a puncture. Here, however, is an entirely new method, but one that can be guaranteed to answer successfully, as it has been tried only a few days back by the writer. After locating the puncture and cleaning the surface round, clip a small piece of paper from an envelope, or, preferably, if you have

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such a thing about you at the time, take a piece of brown paper, cut it to the required size, and then solution a piece of rag (cut from a handkerchief will do) upon it. nally, solution the whole over the puncture in exactly the same way, letting the edges of the rag touch the tube. The paper prevents the air from escaping, while the linen prevents its breaking. The method is only a makeshift, however, but one that will last out a twenty mile ride home over country roads.

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When social leaders in the upper sets of New York city began to take to the wheel some two or three years ago, they showed a marked aversion to riding during the afternoon or evening hours. Following their ideas as to exclusiveness, they evidently preferred to ride when their less fortunate fellows of both sexes were engaged at work in their offices and warerooms, in the great down town districts of the city. They accordingly instituted the practice, by all who enjoyed the means and the leisure, of riding during the early morning hours. That they have had many imitators can be readily understood by the steady increase in the number of riders that may be seen through Central Park and Riverside Drive in New York, and on the Coney Island path and through Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The social position and wealth of the enthusiasts who prefer these hours for their exercise awheel, can readily be guessed by the uniformly high grade quality of the wheels which they ride, the taste with which their costumes are gotten up and the materials of which they are made, as well as the general bearing and appearance of the riders themselves. Of course it was only a question of time as to how soon society, for the want of something more interesting, would tire of the mere exercise of riding. It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that the latest fad to be introduced by this class of riders, is the "bicycle breakfast," which has become exceedingly popular of late. These have been indulged in to the greatest extent at the numerous watering places and Summer resorts along the Long Island and New Jersey shores. The meet is usually arranged to take place early on Saturday morning, thus allowing the gentlemen of the party who have run down from New York business offices to spend Saturday and Sun

day, to participate. The time for the meeting is usually from seven to eight o'clock. Before starting, the riders partake of coffee or chocolate, and perhaps a sandwich, after which they start off for a two hours' spin, and return to find a dainty but substantial breakfast awaiting them. Whether it is the ride itself, the pleasure of companionship, the breakfast, or all three combined, certain it is that bicycle breakfasts have, during the past Summer, become an exceeding popular institution at nearly all of the eastern Summer resorts.

"A man who encourages his wife to ride the cycle is a wise one," says a writer in an English exchange. "There never was a better remedy for bad nerves and a ruffled temper."

I am glad my English friend has had that experience. Mine has been somewhat different. When I first began to ride, I was so enthusiastic over the pleasures enjoyed by myself awheel, that I unselfishly determined upon having my better half share them with me. When I suggested it, her nose tiptilted at an angle of forty-five degrees, and in a very few words she expressed her opinion of "any woman who would so far forget her dignity and self-respect, to say nothing of what the neighbors would say of her, as to mount a bicycle." I persisted in my efforts for some weeks, but all in vain, and finally made up my mind to the effect that " birds who would not sing must be made to sing," with its fullest application to the case in question. Instead, therefore, of taking my better half to the theatre occasionally, as I had been accustomed to do, or suggesting to her a game of euchre at the house of a neighbor, I made it convenient to leave my office a little earlier than usual, mount my wheel, and ride away with a friend for supper at a far distant club house. Eventually I made a practice of making dates for Sunday morning with fellow wheelmen, and we would go off for a day on Staten Island or out through the Oranges, or perhaps up to Yonkers, or Tarrytown and back. My wife protested, but my only reply was the suggestion that if she would ride with me, she might enjoy as much of my company as she wanted to. But no, she would not have it, On the contrary she expressed her opinion

of women cyclists more forcibly than ever, until finally, she announced to me one morning that a cousin of hers was coming to New York, and she had asked her to visit us.

Whether fate was playing into my hands or not, I do not know, but not long after the arrival of the cousin, she announced herself as an enthusiastic wheelwoman, and that nothing ever delighted her more than a good long spin before breakfast, and one after supper. I will never forget my wife's expression when I brought a wheel down one evening for her cousin, and we started off after supper. She had retired when I got back, and she did not have very much to say to me next morning at the breakfast table. "Eureka!" I thought, "I have struck the missing link of attraction between my wife and her bicycle." So, that evening, the cousin and I repeated our ride of the evening before. This we continued, when the weather was favorable, for the next two weeks.

At the end of two weeks, my wife surprised me at the breakfast table by stating that I could send her a wheel that day, as she proposed to ride with me that evening. She had quietly been taking lessons for a whole fortnight at Madison Square Garden, and had started her lessons the day following my first ride with the cousin. She rode with us that night and won my admiration by the manner in which she handled her wheel. The next morning, the cousin and myself started out Riverside Drive and over into Jersey, via Fort Lee; my better half, needless to say, was close beside us. On our return, as we approached Fort Lee Hill, I warned both girls to dismount before they had gone far over the pitch of the hill. The cousin obeyed. My better half did not. Her wheel ran away with her, and I was compelled to throw mine into the ditch, pull my cap over my eyes, and start after her. It was no time to let her down gently. I simply grabbed her wheel, which stopped, and she went on.

I am glad my English friend thinks that cycle riding is a good remedy for "bad nerves and a ruffled temper," but I wish he could have been present when my wife recovered her equilibrium, and her feet. I paid for a new hat and a riding costume the next morning. I am very certain that my

wife, although now a cyclist and a very good one, has never felt quite the same, and never will feel the same, toward her cousin.

There are other instances upon record in which I am quite sure that tempers have not been improved, nor domestic felicity augmented by teaching one's wife to ride a wheel. For instance, a New York friend of mine who had experienced equal difficulty with myself in converting his spouse, and finally gave it up as a bad job, was surprised one day to find her an accomplished wheelwoman. The discovery was one, of course, at which he should have been highly gratified judging from the ardor he had shown in his endeavors to make a wheelwoman of her, and he doubtless would have been delighted, but for the fact that having despaired of ever having his wife for a companion, he had done the next best thing that had suggested itself to him, and had taken the other fellow's wife." His own wife now invariably accompanies him when he goes out awheel, and no explanation he has ever been able to make has straightened out the conditions under which he first met his wife awheel.

I might go on, stating many more instances; if I should do so, however, it would only be by way of raising the question, for while I may not agree with my friend that wheeling is by any means an infallible remedy for bad nerves and ruffled temper, still I think with him, that the man who teaches his wife to ride and takes her as a companion, is a wise one. The mountains of trouble that he will, in time, be able to set down as having been avoided, will certainly tower higher than Pike's Peak itself.

During no past season has tandem riding developed to so great an extent as during the season of '96. So great, indeed, has been the demand for tandems that several manufacturers of popular makes have never once been within sight of their orders, since the outset of the season. One manufacturer figured upon an output of 1,500 tandems for this year and had received orders for double that number before July 10. A subject that is greatly concerning tandem riders just at present is the proper position for the lady to occupy on the tandem. With few exceptions, the average tandem intended

With

for use by both sexes, is made with a drop frame in front; it has been contended of late, however, that the proper position for the lady rider is the rear seat, the contention being based upon the claim that when so seated, she is much less liable to danger through collision or accident than she would be if seated in front of her escort. There is no gainsaying the force of this argument, yet we very seriously doubt if the supporters of the rear-seat-for-the-lady idea will succeed in carrying their point. out going into detail as to the why and wherefore, the reverse of this order of things is much more satisfactory to both riders. No woman likes to talk to a man's back, while for the man, particularly in the case of married men, the practice has come to be a matter of course; in fact (in some instances) they rather prefer it. To ride with one's charge behind one on a tendem, would be, to say the least, irritating to the average Cicerone, particularly if the charge were a very pretty girl, and one was unable to defend her from the many temptations she would certainly be called upon to face, for a little flirtation behind one's back. No, this rear seat idea will not do. The danger of collision compared with the dangers of a rear seat on the tandem for the lady are not to be considered for a moment.

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There is at least one trade that has not been injured, but on the contrary has been materially stimulated, by the growth of cycling, viz., the manufacture of small arms. After having been, for a period of two or three years past held up by tramps on lonely country roads, and attacked by vicious brutes that are as a rule identified with the average farmhouse, the cyclist has determined to suffer no longer, and it is safe to say that in nine cases out of ten, any dog or tramp who makes the mistake of tackling an up-to-date wheelman, can be assured of receiving a fairly warm reception. The arm carried by the average wheelman is of the hammerless type, this to avoid the danger of its accidental explosion through the catching of the trigger in the clothing, or the dropping of the arm; the calibres range from 22 to 32; and the execution of which it is capable depends largely upon its proximity to the object at which it is fired.

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INFORMATION FOR SPORTSMEN.

WHATEVER else THE SPORTSMAN'S

MAGAZINE will endeavor to become,

it proposes to be, primarily, a magazine of practical information for sportsmen— those who hunt game birds and game animals of all kinds, who fish, who travel, who enjoy and indulge in athletics, in tennis, in golf, canoeing, yachting, football and field sports of every character; who own and love the dog and horse; and who are sportsmen for the love of sport itself.

There are few countries upon the globe possessing greater attractions for the sportsman, than do the United States and Canada. Even in the most thickly settled States of the Union, game birds, game fishes, and many of the smaller game animals, are found in abundance, while the great mountains and plains of the far West are still the home of almost every species of big game indigenous to this northern half of our continent.

The chief obstacle to a full enjoyment of sport with the rod and gun, for those who have the means and leisure to enjoy them, is unquestionably in the lack of information as to where to go for good shooting and fishing, and as to the accommodations that are offered sportsmen in different localities. We know instance after instance in which sportsmen have either deferred until too late, or have abandoned altogether, plans that they would gladly have carried out for a vacation in camp, simply because they were at a loss as to where to go for just what they wanted. On the other hand we know of many instances in which sportsmen who, for a season or longer, had not taken a rod or gun from the case for actual use, have as the result of an invitation to join a party of sportsmen who did know of "a place to go," looked forward to subsequent vacations with more ardor and enthusiasm than they

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had ever believed themselves capable of. Knowing, as it does, that there is not a State in the Union in which good shooting or good fishing, or both, can not be enjoyed, THE SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE, through its resident and staff correspondents, proposes, by recording the personal experiences of h ters and fishermen in all sections of the United States and Canada, to acquaint its readers with the characteristics of these sections, the best routes by which to reach them, the game that may be found there, and the accommodations and facilities that are afforded visiting sportsmen by the hotels and guides provided.

Even the sportsman who is poorly posted knows, in a general way, that right here in our great State of New York, within a few hours railway ride of the City, are located as fine woodcock, quail and partridge grounds as will be found anywhere; that one does not have to go half a day's journey beyond the Hudson to find squirrel shooting such as one would hardly believe existed in this year 1896; that in a large area of New England fox hunting is as good, if not better, than it was ten years ago; that all along the Atlantic Coast, from Bangor to the Florida Peninsula, water fowl are undiminished in numbers; that certain sections of Pennsylvania are as secure a haunt for bear and deer as though untrodden or unexplored by man; that the Carolinas and Georgia afford some rare upland shooting over thousands and thousands of acres ; that Florida is still a sportsman's paradise; that the great region along the Gulf Coast and about the bayous and the waters of the lower Mississippi is to-day practically as good ground for the sportsman as though never shot over; and that scores of other sections beyond the Mississippi, and nearer home, offer rich harvests to the fisherman and the hunter who will visit them. The great drawback, however, is the loss of