A thousand miles with the "Queer quartette."

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Chapter I. The Quartette

Before having anything to do with the " Thousand Miles," it may be as well to briefly introduce the " Queer Quartette " to those who feel enough interest in them or their doings to follow their wanderings as described in the following pages.

The *' Quartette " was composed of four Philadelphia cyclers, Mr. H. L. Roberts, Mr. Gilbert F. Wiese, and Mr. Arthur H. MacOwen, members of the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club, and Mr. Chester Roberts, a younger brother of the first-named gentleman. That they were a " Queer Quartette " will be sufficiently evidenced before their story is fully told, and a very brief personal mention of each in advance will suffice for the needs of a formal introduction. That a formal introduction is necessary is accounted for by the fact that Mr. Roberts, Sr.. is a great stickler for the proprieties — this is not casting any reflection on the general make-up of Mr. Roberts, Jr., or the rest of the party — and he will no doubt feel more at his ease on being introduced as " Laurie," which Annie, one of his friends, will recognize as his distinctive pet name. He is tall and spare, and you would never take him to be a cycling traveler, but what his form lacks in volume it more than makes up in muscle. He wears whiskers when he permits and cultivates their growth, and a mustache always ; the only things which he carries about with him as constantly and faithfully as the same mustache being his ever-present attribute of kindly good nature and an ever-ready ability to eat. One other feature of his personality must not be overlooked. His camera is as much a portion of himself as are his hands, only perhaps more so, for he never forgets that he owns a camera. Only one more of genial " Laurie's" good points need be noted— he has an eye for the ladies, and two eyes for the very pretty ladies, and when he divests himself of his hirsute chin ornaments it really does seem as though the ladies have a partiality for him.

Perhaps we should have first introduced our youngest companion in arms. Chester Roberts is what a mutual male friend termed a " dandy," and what a gushing young lady defined as a '' daisy." Exactly how the two terse summings up apply as describing accurately one individual is a problem to be worked out by our readers, if they have the inclination and possess the patience to follow the " Quartette " in its ramblings. Chester, who was the pet of the party, is a clean-cut, straight-limbed youth — no reflection intended anent the limbs of the rest of the party — with the budding promise of a blonde mustache, and with a fully developed sensibility as to the claims which everything beautiful and nearly everything good has upon his attention. Chester is a little less spare and a little less tall than his elder fraternal traveling companion. He has a slightly scientific bent of mind, has read a book or two in his time, and can dance better than he can play tennis, which latter recreation he affects more than cycling. Possessing very taking ways, it early became evident to the other three-quarters of the " Quartette " that it would be advisable in choosing stopping places to select those at which the usual summer-resort state of things existed, viz., a multiplicity of the fair sex, and as much of a paucity as possible of the opposite one. However, taking him all in all, Chester was a very fair fellow, both in face and action, throughout the " Wanderings."

" Say, Chester."

A half-sleepy and wholly-tired *' well," from Chester.

" Good night, Chester." Gilbert F. Wiese formed the third fourth part of our '' Quartette," and if we indulged in the prerogative of a son of Hibernia, we would say, he constituted the biggest fourth of the whole. At any rate, he possessed the biggest voice, and whether rendering the sweet modulations of ''Annie Laurie," "Steady Boys, Steady," or "Lassie Queenie," or whether howling to be allowed out of the salt water at Newport, on the first acquaintanceship of his life with it, his lung power could always assert itself over any two others of the " Quartette." *' Gilbert," or " Gil," which, remembering that brevity is the soul of wit and many other good things, is the name by which his friends know him, is tall and not spare, with a head and face molded on the lines of some of those old statues of Roman patricians — that i-^, it is round without being bulletlike — and with eyes which, although not Csesarean, would have stood their owner a fair show with Marc Antony in the good graces of Cleopatra, for '' Gil's" optics laugh as well as his lips.

Gilbert never rode a bicycle until three months ago, and he never laid eyes on the ocean until he saw it at Coney Island on the first day of the "Quartette's " wanderings. But if in such matters his education was neglected, like individuals who lack the possession of any one or more of the senses, his mastery of other things is wonderful. Music hath charms for others than the untamed, of course, and certainly it hath charms for Gilbert. Only for his having to carry, most religiously, a package of cigarettes wherever he went, it is fair to suppose that his mandolin would have formed a portion of his traveling outfit.

" Hope deferred maketh the heart sick," and we have no doubt but that our readers have been impatiently waiting to hear what the fourth party of the " Quartette " is like, therefore we hasten to relieve the impatient strain of expectancy by saying that we are an implicit believer in the truth of the old saying that '■ the last is always best," and we think this is description enough of the writer.

Chapter II. The Start

" Where are you going, my pretty maid ?"

" To Coney Island, sir," she said.

'• What will you do there, my pretty maid ?''

" Why I'll see what the world calls fun," she said.

It had been the original intention to start from Philadelphia on July 4th, but two of the parly being detained at the great meet held at Magerstown, Md., and the other two having ridden several times across New Jersey, it was decided to start from New York on July 5th, and leave the ride between the two great cities of the eastern seaboard until the return trip, and thus preserve as much as possible the schedule of the ride as at first laid down, one of the party having but two weeks at his disposal.

Brightly gleamed the waters of New York Bay as the huge ferry-boat of the Pennsylvania Railroad forged slowly out of her New Jersey dock, and slanted her pug nose across the broad bosom of the Hudson toward Cortlandt Street on the New York side. In the first row of passengers, crowding as American passengers always will, to the front, so as to make time getting off, was the " Quartette," each with his bicycle, and each in the gray habiliments characteristic now of so many of our cycling clubs. In the front of three caps were three silver keystones resting on three little cross-bar squares of blue and gold ribbon, the former the emblem of the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club, the latter mementos of the Hagerstown Bicycle Meet at which the colors of '' Pennsy " had been carried in the fashion instanced. On two of the machines cameras were strapped, on one a tripod and "fixings" were securely lashed, and on every one was also a large bundle, encased in a waterproof cover. These bundles, averaging in weight 15 pounds each, with the cameras, constituted all the baigage considered requisite for a trip of from two to three weeks.

'■ Where are you bound for?'' asked an old gentleman, who evidently voiced the wish on the part of the surrounding crowd to know where the squadron of heavy cavalry was bound for.

" The White Mountains," was the answer from the writer followed by the words, " and beyond," from Gil Weise.

" What, on those things ?" said the questioner, elevating his eyebrow.":, and then he added, " and, how far beyond ?"

Gil thought that perhaps he was counting his chickens, or, more properly speaking, his m.iles before they were realized, so he said :

"That depends, sir.''

" I should think it does. But I wish you a pleasant trip there and ' beyond,' " said the old fellow, laying the least little bit of stress on the word " beyond."

The crowd looked us all over as the boat ran into the slip, and, no doubt, many of them set us down as of the genus fools, which was rather rough on Gil Wiese, seeing that he formed, as before remarked, the biggest quarter of the " Quartette."

By boat and bicycle to the White Mountains, and as far "beyond" as possible, was the programme of our trip, and the afternoon of the 5th was to see us on board the palace steamer " Pilgrim," en route for Newport, Two of the party, strange to say, had not been in New York before, and, of course, wanted to see everything from the Battery to the far end of Central Park. Such a programme being out of the question for one day, it was resolved to cross the city to the East River Bridge, then across this connecting link between the two great centres of what should be one metropolis, ride through Brooklyn to its beautiful Prospect Park, and from the Park by way of the splendid boulevard to Coney Island, the Brighton of New York. While conversant with all that makes Atlantic City the Brighton of Philadelphia, and, indeed, of a great portion of America, the " Quartette " were wholly ignorant of what Coney Island, which maintains the same relationship with New York, was like, so the wheels were fronted eastward, and the softest Belgian blocks selected until the long rise to the magnificent aerial spans of the Brooklyn Bridge was reached. Over this monument to the engineering genius of the New World passes the great stream of travel between New York City proper and Brooklyn. Steam cars, all kinds of wheel vehicles, and pedestrians cross it, and from the central span, under which large ships can pass without stepping their topmasts, a splendid view is had of the two cities, the bay, islands, and shipping extending for miles in every direction. A halt was made on the centre of the structure, and the camera unstrapped. Along came a large three-master, a barque, and as she passed underneath our feet, the novel sight was caught and kept for reference by our photographer, Down the Long Island side of the bridge there is a slope that is good for a magnificent coast, but several accidents having happened to cyclers who, deceived by what appears but a slight grade, allowed their machines to get from under control, the police have strict orders to prohibit coasting by wheelmen on the bridge. Being strangers we were sampling the lazy man's ride, when " wan of the force " politely informed us we were " brakin' the law," which offense was immediately condoned by braking the machines.

The belgian blocks of Brooklyn are no better than those of New York or Philadelphia, and we had to cover quite a number of them before Schermerhorn Street was reached, and a few asphalt thoroughfares carried us to the entrance to Prospect Park, the pleasure-ground on which Brooklyn prides itself.

Without the ultra cultivation of Central Park, and without the wild, natural beauty of Fairmount Park, Prospect Park has a charm of its own, and approaches more the style of beautiful Druid Hill Park, in Baltimore, than do either the noted Nev/ York or Philadelphia pleasure grounds. A long and most enjoyable coast round the side of the lake sent us out toward the gate on the Coney Island side at a rapid rate, and then per the counsel of a local cycler, we followed the sidewalk all the way to Coney Island, a distance of some seven miles. The roadway is good enough, but rather cut up on account of the amount of driving done on it, and no objection is made to wheelmen using the footway, which, for the entire distance, is little better than the ordinary sidepath on a country road running into a country town.

Riding at a fast gait, we were just beginning to think the miles very long when the hotel buildings on the beach came into view ahead and in a very few minutes we were among them and in the precincts of the much talked about and lauded Coney Island.

The said Coney Island is not a patch upon Atlantic City, except in the matter of running beer saloons and keeping concert gardens and theatres open on Sunday. In the matter of size and general make-up, it cannot compare with the great New Jersey summer resort, and to get anything of the better sort of entertainment in the line of creature comforts, as well as a moderate amount of ease or retirement, you have to cross over to Manhattan Beach or Brighton Beach. As for a board-walk, that is a thing the Coneyites don't have.

" Everything goes," as the saying is, at Coney Island, week day and Sunday. There is an endless variety of the stereotyped amusements which the great public never tires of. Merry-go-rounds, toboggans,- razzle-dazzle rides, shooting galleries, monstrosity shows, theatrical and acrobatic exhibitions, music, mixed with beer and other things, the big elevator, and the monster elephant, chance games of all descriptions, bathing in all its branches, and in all rigs, etc., etc., etc.

A few pictures of scenes eminently typical of the most democratic of American holiday resorts were imperative and a few were secured, owing to the courtesy of Superintendent R. Schermerhorn, of the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad.

It was within five minutes of sailing time when the " Quartette " pulled up at the wharf of the Fall River line of steamers, after pounding for a considerable distance over the New York belgians and cobble-stones, which, so far as softness and smoothness goes, are not a whit more pleasant to ride over than their brothers which make the streets of Philadelphia alike the terror of cyclers and carriage drivers and the pride of city councilman.

And now we have to recount a curious fact, but before recounting said curious fact, we will record an extremely gratifying one. Upon deciding to start from New York, we also decided to take the Pennsylvania Railroad to that place, and both on the train and in Jersey City, the conductor and also the brakeman of the train. No. 4, were more than attentive, the former opening up a car in which were some of the Columbia College party returning after the boat race the previous day, and the latter waiting a quarter of an hour with us in the depot to see that we got our wheels and baggage on the elevators in the new mammoth terminus that we were strangers to.

This was the gratifying fact, and now we will mention the curious one. The Fall River line charge fifty cents a wheel for the trip between New York and Newport. This seems curious since the large transportation companies carry wheels free. Each bicycle, with what we had on it, weighed less than the regular amount of baggage allowed passengers, and of course we handled them ourselves and they lay up in a corner side by side, taking up but little space, and giving no trouble to either the cloak room or parcel office. The Hudson River boats, on the contrary, do not make any charge for a man's bicycle, neither do the Lake Champlain steamers, so that when a party of wheelmen like the " Quartette " are on a trip it is questionable if it is policy to take the Fall River line if transport is required in the direction we followed.

CHAPTER III. ON TO NE\yPORT

All aboard the " Pilgrim"

Steaming fast and free, Over fair Long Island's

Royal inland sea ; Jolly boat and cycle

Pilgrims, four are we.

Cloud-tops far to Westward

Lose their amber light, Hill-tops off to Eastward

Slowly fade from sight, Jolly boat and cycle

Pilgrims say " Good night.''

Long Island Sound is a splendid sail by day, as it is a beautiful one by night when the moon lends its aid to enhance the charms of this beati ideal route between the metropolis and the large centres of New England, I have traveled it by day and by night, and when the queen of the dark hours dedicated to repose asserts her right to rule over the calm waters that stretch for 150 miles along the New York and Connecticut shores, the journey over the shimmering wavelets, is an experience which the most prosaic individual cannot make without experiencing some pleasure, be it great or small.

The " Quartette," however, were not favored with the attention of '' her most gracious majesty." Slowly the green slopes of Long Island grew more distant, slowly the village- fringed shore of Connecticut receded toward the west, and slowly the shadows dropped over a scene of water, sky, and woodland that is indeed very fair to look upon, while fast sped the great steamboat, the much-talked-about and truly palatial '* Pilgrim," toward the haven we desired to reach, the noted Newport.

An adjournment to supper at half-past seven, developed the fact that, trip appetites were coming to the front, and introduced us to the storage capacity, fearful and wonderful in its make-up and extent, of '' our Laurie."

Cigarette, stogie, and cigar helped to while away the hours on the upper deck after supper, and the strains of the really good orchestra, which is a feature of travel on this and all the boats of the Fall River line, found their way out of the windows of the main saloon, and set Gil Wiese singing, or trying to sing, for, oppressed with the knowledge that he was on part and parcel of the ocean, our vocal light seemed more inclined to be meditative than musical. By degrees, what looked like low-lying stars peeped out along the water-line ; they were the lights on the fa' -away shore of Long Island, and ever and anon a cluster would appear on the opposite side showing where some town or village lay on the seaward edge of Connecticut.

Owing to our late arrival we had failed to secure a state-room aboard, every one being taken, and about 10 o'clock, as the great waste of water continually passing away behind us commenced to grow tiresome in the darkness, almost simultaneously the question suggested itself to us all. Well, what are we going to do about it ?

" Let's sit in the saloon all night," suggested Laurie.

*' Or on deck," put in Chester.

II

" Yes we will, I'm going to get a bed somewhere if I pay double for it," chimed in Wiese. " I'll go ask the Captain," he added, jumping up as he spoke.

We all commenced to laugh.

" The Captain will refer you to the cook, Gil," said Laurie ; '' suppose you try the steward."

Gilbert went off, and had not been gone long when he returned jubilant and smiling, saying:

** Hallo, boys ! let's all sing * Rock me to sleep, Mother,' I've got the quarters, come see them."

It is needless to say we were not slow in responding.

" There's your couch, fit for an Ottoman Turk," said he, pointing to the upper floor of the grand saloon.

We looked in astonishment along the corridor formed between the ornamental woodwork covering in the engine space, etc., and the long row of state-room doors. On the floor were dozens of improvised beds, made up of a mattress, blanket, and pillow each, and most of them were already occupied, some with wakeful, others with most undoubted — from the noise they made — sleeping travelers. The whole scene looked more like what you would see in a hospital than what you would expect to see on a palace steamboat.

' Any objection to sleep with your feet to the boiler, Chester?" said Gil, throwing off his coat.

'' None in the least, but it's not in there."

" Well, the inwards of the boat are, whether they are the boiler or not, I know there are no berths there, for I looked," said Gil, '' This is a free treat, boys, from the Captain, you don't pay anything for this kind of a sleep," he added, as we all commenced to turn in.

This was the case. We paid nothing for our berth, and as we had to get off at two o'clock in the morning, at which time the steamer reached Newport, our missing getting a state-room was not such a severe affliction after all.

" Newport, gents," shouted the colored steward, and with some grumblings at the unearthly hour, we rubbed our eyes, sat up in our not uncomfortable sleeping places, and took a look at the long lines of sleepers upon the floor. Then there was a hustle into our outside garments, which we had discarded for what was a short period of repose, and then a descent to the lower deck for our wheels.

The big boat got slowly up alongside the wharf and in a few minutes we were once more on terra firma, feeling very much as if we were strangers in a strange land, at two o'clock in the morning, and also feeling slightly chilly, owing to the sudden transition from our warm quarters aboard the boat to the cool air of a Rhode Island night. Obtaining our bearings from a wharfman, we followed about a quarter of a mile of thoroughfare to the Perry House.

Our time being limited breakfast was ordered early, and then, by the advice of the natives, we took in what is known as the " Ocean Drive," a magnificent stretch of macadamized road running for lo miles around the town and the coast adjoining. Passing the noted Casino and the Ocean View Hotel en route, we soon found ourselves among the villa residences of the fortunate and wealthy, which make Newport so well known in the realm ruled by money and fashion. The great Vanderbilt marble mansion, now in course of completion, loomed up on our left, and then after a mile or so, we ran out on the coast, and for several miles traversed a succession of small ups and downs, with an extended view of the sea to the left, and to the right, rocky hillocks, farm lands, and handsome summer residences. On returning to the town, Gilbert, who had never tasted the sweets of salt-water bathing, proposed that before dinner we should hunt up the beach and '* go in." To reach the bathing place a mile had to be traversed a-wheel, and a local cycler who sported one of Sterling Elliott's hickory bicycles very kindly showed us the way, and then piloted us back. The rider of the hickory product of Newton, Mass., was very curious about the hickory " Common Sense " wheel that wherever our party w^ent drew attention. While we enjoyed the salt water, he tried the Philadelphia wooden wheel, and said he did not think the '' Quaker City " could be as slow as it was generally made out to be. Colder than the water at Atlantic City or the other New Jersey coast resorts, it was a trying ordeal to Gil on his first introduction to the embrace of Father Neptune. Although a capital swimmer, try how we would we could not induce the product of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers to go beyond waist deep in the briny pool at Newport.

" Is this what you call salt water, why it is as cold as ice water, ice water that you can't drink, too, that makes it worse ; I'm going out to wait for a better day," shouted he of river water education, and out he went, too. At a later date, however, when you got him in you could hardly get him out of the '' ice water."

The cottages at Newport are the great feature of the place, and they bear favorable comparison with the most pretentious of our rich men's suburban residences near Philadelphia, New York, or the other large cities.

It was after three o'clock when we bade adieu to this noted watering place, with its beautiful harbor, its handsome residences, and its historic associations, in connection with the chequered early life of New England, and turning our faces northward took the road up the Island for Fall River, some i8 miles distant on the Massachusetts side. The sun shone with a little more good-will than was exactly comfortable, but from many points on the road we had glorious views of the beautiful land-locked stretch of blue water that forms the highway for vessels from the ocean to Fall River and Providence. The roadway itself was not bad, and no dismounts were in order until within a few miles of Fall River, where, after descending a long and rough surfaced hill, we tumbled into the unwelcome embrace of six-inch deep sand, which extended for a mile along the level of the water which some little time before we had almost lost ourselves in admiring. There is nothing in this world either in the way of pleasure or pain that is not counterbalanced in some way or other by its opposite, although you may not always realize the fact. We fully realized that, in the wealth of sand which we had to sample, there was more than the balance to the pleasure we had derived from the splendid view over the sail-dotted and hill-girdled expanse of beautiful blue water.

A causeway takes you across the narrow portion of the river or inlet, from the Rhode Island to the Massachusetts side, and then you are only a mile from the great manufacturing town of Fall River, and strike very fair roads until you run in on the belgian block pavement of the city proper. We entered the place just about the time that many of the. mills were letting out their swarms of employees, and dusty as we were, and burdened with more than the ordinary amount of baggage carried by cycling strollers, the attention of the rank and file of cotton spinners, etc., was of necessity aroused.

The writer carried a valise strapped on the handle-bar of his machine, and the way that machine steered in consequence was, to descend to the vulgar, '• a caution." In addition to the weight of mundane cares in the way of baggage, two of the party carried extra weight in the shape of the divine endowment of whiskers, and such attributes of cycling being evidently new to the unsentimental citizens of Fall River, most pointed and not very flittering remarks were passed, not sotto voce, either, by those severely practical sons of toil, and presumably true-blue Democrats.

" Look at the man with whiskers riding a bicycle," shouted a young urchin, with a tm dinner-pail swinging in one hand while with the other he pointed with half glee, half ridicule at our dear old Laurie, riding over the hillocks of a not very good road. Everybody within hearing distance who was not looking looked at our little party on hearing this sally. Wiese burst out laughing, and shouted to our vanguard :

" Laurie, you're a marked man ; hold up your head."

The writer laughed also, and then laughed again, but the second time on the wrong side of his mouth, as the same shrill treble, prefacing his exclamation with an expletive, yelled :

" Oh ! here's another on 'em with whiskers ; look at the portmantys, fellers ; get onto 'em. G', ain't they good uns."

He was only a 12-year-old, and must have been English, by the way he spoke. While on the subject, I may add that the facial adornments of two of us seemed a fruitful source of pleasure to the dwellers in a number of places we^struck in this region of what we supposed to be one of the enlightened divisions of this great United States. Whether they do not hold such things at their proper value or not, I cannot say, but, while the feelings of the writer were not exactly hurt, he could not help experiencing some disappointment at finding out that the education of the masses which Massachusetts brags so much about, is not all that it is cracked up to be.

Riding into the centre of the town, which, by the way, is a large and prosperous one, with many fine mills and extensive manufacturing interests, we commenced to look around for our hotel, and while eagerly scanning the names of streets, and looking for signs that would tell us whether the place was " prohibition " or not, a cycler hailed us and inquired if we wanted the L. A. W. stopping-place. On our answering yes, if it was a good house, he directed us to the Mellin House, and we had no reason to regret his kindly courtesy, for we found the place eminently to our taste, and though the most pretentious hostelry in the town, it did not prove too much for our pocket-books. I make this remark because we had started out with half an idea of roughing it — that is, trying if we could not strike places en route after the order of the wayside inns of England, where, as a couple of us had experienced, man and beast are well entertained at generally preposterously low prices. Early on our trip, however, we gave up the idea of following this programme on this side the water, and when a town was struck Gil Wiese's first question always was, " Where is the Delmonico's of this city?" while good, patriotic old Laurie would chin in with, " No, Gil, no; not ' Del's,' What is ' Del's,' Where's the place that's the nearest thing to Boldt's that can be gotten in this centre of Eastern civilization ?"