19th century bicycling — Romance on wheels?

Forget that notion about eloping on a bicycle built for two.

Some insisted there was no opportunity for romance on a bicycle ride.

“Somebody objects to the bicycle because it gives no opportunity for matchmaking between young people,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Aug. 8, 1895. “The riders must attend strictly to business, they say, and instead of gazing into each other’s eyes must gaze sternly forward to the road.”

But would it be more expeditious to ride a bicycle built for two or walk?

“An event at the bicycle races this afternoon in which considerable interest is manifested will be the race between M. M. Donovan of South Glens Falls, who will attempt to walk a mile while George Eddy and L. Auston cover three miles on a tandem wheel. The winner will receive a silver cup valued at ten dollars,” The Morning Star reported on Aug. 15.

In other 1895 bicycle news collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• “A party of our young wheelmen went to Round Lake yesterday,” the Fort Edward correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Aug. 12.
• “R. H. Ingalls and C. Frank Stevens of the Troy Bicycle Club had a 140-mile run yesterday, going as far as Granville and Fort Ann and returning by Fort Edward. The trip occupied fourteen hours,” The Troy Times reported on Aug. 12.
• “A. R. Willard and son, Allie, and daughter, Miss Bessie, of Albany are making a bicycle trip to Lake George and are stopping over for a few days to visit friends here,” the Vaughns correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Aug. 23. “Mr. Holland is principal of School №6 in Albany.”
• “A. J. Latham was the only local wheelman who gained a place at the annual meeting of the Albany Bicycle Club on Saturday. He got third place in the two-thirds mile event,” The Morning Star reported on Aug. 26.
• “Dr. Harry Chesbrough made the run on his wheel from Glens Falls to Fort Ann one morning the past week in forty-nine minutes,” The Granville Sentinel reported on Aug. 27.
• “Notwithstanding the phenomenal demand for bicycles this year there has been no drop in prices,” The Granville Sentinel reported on Sept. 6. “The principal reason for this is that all factories are so far behind in their orders that there is no necessity for lowering prices.”
• “H. M. Tibbetts leaves this afternoon in a bicycle trip to Middleburgh, Schoharie County. He will be absent several days,” The Morning Star reported on Sept. 9.

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