PREFACE. Close confinement to mercantile business for a dozen or more years brought on a feeling of discontent with the monotonous routine, that I at length tried to drive away by taking a little recreation on a bicycle. The machine, I found, was not only a source of great enjoyment,…

CHAPTER I.—ADRIFT IN THE DESERT. Once more the bicycle boys pushed on westward, and it must be said that in spite of all their perils they were in the best of spirits. The beautiful valley in Utah was left behind, and some time later found them on the edge of…

CYCLING having taken such a mighty grasp upon the land, it has naturally followed that an etiquette of cycling should be established, and that it should be well established and rigidly regarded by society. There are the details of meeting, mounting, right of way and various other points which are carefully…

A vague longing to do something first flattered, then irritated, then oppressed me. In vain I tried to argumentatively brush it aside, to pooh-pooh it, to laugh it out of countenance. My arsenal of trite well-worn sayings (so commonly the accompaniment of a weak argument) was ransacked for ammunition to once and…