VELOCIPEDIANA.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 547, 26 August 1869, Page 2

VELOCIPEDIANA.

VELOCIPEDE FEATS IN AMERICA. The fastest time ever made on a velocipede in Europe or America has been made recently in Jersey City Velocipedodrome by "W.H. Eussel on a 3G-inch wheel machine with a cogwheel combination which triples the speed with one-third the velocity of a treadle movement and double the power. Mr Eussell did one mile, or twenty-eight times round the ring, in the unprecedented time of two minutes. A man in Boston rode a velocipede (with grooved wheels) upon a tight rope, twenty feet above the heads of his audience. ONE-WHEELED VELOCIPEDES. An elderly gentleman has invented a one-wheeled velocipede, which is quite a novelty. It does away with seats, pedals, breaks, and all. There is a cradle attached to the axle oo» each side of the wheel. You sit between the spokes, and turn the crank with your hands. The rider goes round with the wheel, turning a somersault at each revolution. The sensation is therefore peculiar, and the ride is much more exciting than on anordinary velocipede. The objection to this style is that they can never be used by ladies. BTJIL FIGHTING ON VELOCIPEDES. The boldest innovators will be sur- j prised to hear that the new-fangled vehicle has actually made its appear- 1 ance in the bull-fighting ring. In the j circus at Nismes the picadors appeared mounted on velocipedes instead of horses, and displayed such skill in the management of their iron steeds that the astonished bull was unable to dismount a single one of them. Should this fashion become universal in bull-fighting countries, the gain to common humanity will be undoubtedly great, but it is feared that the increased expense will prove an insurmountable obstacle to its general adoption, a single velocipede being worth, as a rule, at least half-a-dozen of the wretched horses yearly disemboweled by the hundred for the amusement of the fair ladies of Madrid and Seville. ACCIDENTS. Numerous velocipede accidents are recorded in the papers by last mail, comprising broken heads, legs, and j arms, and a plentiful allowance of the j

ailment commonly known as the "gravel rash," but none of a fatal character. DECLETE OP THE iIAIfIA. Such was the extent of the velocipede mania in America, that many of the daily papers devoted a portion of their space to velocipede notes. In the last files, however, wo Bee by the following that the decline of the velocipede has begun : —" The impetuous career of the fiery, untamed steed which has gavorted so wildly over the wooden floors of our velocipede halls is apparently drawing to a close." Numerous sales of velocipedes are advertised, preparatory, we suppose, to another mania.