JOHN S. PRINCE

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 232, 21 February 1885, Page 6

JOHN S. PRINCE

The Wonderful Rider on the Flying Wheel, who has Beaten Man and Horse. John S. Prince, the champion bicyclist of America, was born at Langley Green, Worcestershire, England, November 27th, 1858, and is therefore (according to the Police Gazette, of New York, the recognised authority) 25 years of age. He was apprenticed to a brass-founder, but left him, at the age of 17 years, to become a professional cricketer. As a bowler he soon distinguished himself, and for three years found constant engagements all over England. He then dropped cricket, and at the age of 20 years took up the bicycle. His first public race took place in 1879 with John Keen, the English champion, who conceded him 160 yards start in a mile. There were from 40 to 50 starters, among them Rolfe, now champion of Australia, who had 100 yards. Prince won easily in 2iniu. 56sec. The stake was £20, and the race was decided at Roodend, near Birmingham. His next race was decided at Smethwick, in Worcestershire, the same year, when he defeated Patrick and many others in a mile handicap in 3min. 6sec, he starting at scratch. •Prince afterwards won as many as 80 medals and prizes on the same track, which is one of six laps to the mile. In 1880, Prince, with 80 yards, won a mile handicap at Roodend, defeating Keen, Rolf e, Patrick, Phillips, and

others in 2min-. 51sec. At Willenhall, Staffordshire, he defeated Palmer, Owen, Rolfe, and several others in a mile handicap. Time, 2min. 58sec. Pie won three handicaps in 1880 on that track. At Bournbrook, Birmingham, lie defeated Slater, Whitehouse, Ho well, and others in a mile handicap; with. 30 yards start, in 2min. 58sec, easily beating the back man. In the same year he won two one-mile handicaps in succession at Wolverhampton. The first, with 80 yards start, he won in 2mm. 46sec. ; the. second, with 50 yards, he won in.2min. slsec. The cracks of England were in these races. In the third race, with 30 yards start, he finished second by 1 foot. Time, 2min. 46sec. Afterwards Keen gave him 20 yards start on the same track in a mile for £20 a side, in the presence of about 6000 people, and was defeated by Prince by 2 yards in 2min. 51 sec. The next race Prince entered was for the one mile championship at Leicester. The other starters included Howell, Keen and Cooper, all going from scratch, in heats. In the first heat Howell boat Keen by a yard in 2min. u3sec. In the second heat Coopor, who was certainly one of the best men in England, and who had defeated Keen about as many times as the latter had beaten him, met Prince. Eight

.T. S. PRINCE,

thousand people witnessed this race, which resulted in a dead heat in 2niin. 56sec. A quarter of an hour's rest was allowed, and, after a desperate struggle, the last lap of which both men were neck-and-neck, Prince won by three yards in 2min. 51 sec. Prince was allowed ten minutes rest only to get ready for the final heat, and was unfit to meet such a fresh man as Howell, who won by two yards, in 2inin. oSsec. Prince defeated De Civry, the French champion, in the mile scratch race at Wolverhampton, in 2min. oSsec, and Derkindren, the "Flying Dutchman," in a 20-mile race at Birmingham, on a 12-lap track, by one lap, in lhr Gmin. He also won races from Edmonds (champion of Wales), James, Wood, Edlin, and many others. He was defeated twice by Keen in England and within the last three months has twice beaten Keen in America. He came to American in September, 1881, and defeated Fred Rollinson five times for the championship. He met Woodside, the champion of Ireland, and Morgan, the champion of Canada, and defeated them three times each. He beat Fry, of Marlborough, Mass., twice for the mile championship, and in 1882 he beat the best four men in America in a 20-mile race, allowing a fresh rider every five miles. In two matches with Mile. Armaindo he gave her five miles start in 50 and three in 25, winning both races. H. W. Higham has been beaten by Prince for the short-distance championship several times, and so have Wilson, Young, Miller, Nelson, Harrison, Morgan, and Woodside. The champion ' s measurements ive : Height, sft 9^in; weight, 1721 b; chest, 43in; thigh, 23in; caff, 15in. He is now resident in Boston, which has been his home ever since he went to America. His last notable performances were on the Pacific Coast. Af. San Jose, California, he defeated the trotting horse, Captain Lewis, in a ten-mile race, making the last quarter in 37^-sec, and at the Oakland Driving Park, California, he defeated the trotter, Edward, in a 20-mile spin, -the pace being so fast the last half that the horse had to gallop to keep anywhere near the champiou. He has to his credit the following best records in America : 1 mile, 2mins 51 2-sths sees. ; 5 miles, lomins 15secs ; 10 miles, 31mins 3secs; 50 miles, 2hrs 59mins losecs. He aldo holds all the best records in America up to 486 miles. Prince is ready to race any man in the world for any reasonable amount. At the Springfield B.C. Tournament he fully sustained his hard-earned reputation, and that, too, against two of England's most noted professionals, namely, R. Howell and James. In the mile scratch race he surpassed every other of his long list of victories by vanquishing both the English "demons" and winning by a few inches in the fastest time ever recorded, viz., 2min. 39sec. In the three miles scratch race he ran third, but in the five miles took second honors, and finished up by taking fourth position in the 10 miles. Whilst on the subject of. our engraving a word as to the machine which he rides. It is a " Royal Mail," built by the Royal Machine Manufacturing Company, of Her-bert-road, Small Heath, Birmingham. Prince, so to speak, swears by it, and we think justly so, seeing that it has, carried him so splendidly in all his. great races. On it he won the one

mile at Springfield in"2mm." 39sec.,' James running second on a machine" by the same firm in only two-fifths of a second longer time, and Howell third. Thus the honour of making the fastest mile on record can be claimed by this firm, an extraordinary feat indeed, seeing that the raau had taken parb in the 10 miles race just previoiisly. It is, in fact, stated— and the statement is supported by the strongest evidence — that Prince's real time was 2min. 38£ sec. In fact, American timekeepers, acting independently, agreed that this was the case. >- Messrs Shakespeare and Co., of Queenstreet, Auckland, the local reps, of the firm, have some of the Royal Mail left in stock for sale at wonderfully "low prices to clear for the season.