19th century bicycling — Snakes and spokes

Watch out for snakes when bicycling along country roads, The Granville Sentinel advised on Aug. 2, 1895. “Near wooded hills big black snakes are met with sometimes that are ugly, and, though an encounter with them is more frightening than dangerous,” the newspaper reported. “It is rare to meet with a poisonous one, except in very wild and unsettled country, where sometimes a rattler is unearthed.”

In other 19th century bicycling news collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• The mail must go through — either using two feet or two wheels.

“Letter carriers mounted on swift bicycles will perhaps soon in all our cities,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on July 2, 1894. “It is found that deliveries can be make much quicker this way.”

• “W.H.P. Hatch is taking a two-weeks tour on his wheel through the Green Mountains of Vermont.” the South Hartford correspondent reported in The Granville Sentinel on Aug. 2, 1894.
• “Quite a number of the Troy Bicycle Club took dinner at Hotel Hudson yesterday,” the Fort Edward correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Aug 6.
• “Roscoe Crandall, who took second place in the world bicycle race at the fairgrounds on field day, is one of the fastest and best riders of his age in this village,” the Fort Edward correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Aug. 24, 1894.
• “Alexander Smith is the last one to join the bicycle riders, he having purchased a wheel this week,” the Warrensburg correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Aug. 25, 1894.
• Messrs. Arndt, Cornwall, Bond, Ingalls and Stevens of Troy Bicycle Club made a flying trip to Lake George on their steel steeds. The distance to the lake, sixty miles, was covered in four-and-one-half hours. The return trip was made in four hours,” The Morning Star reported on Aug. 24, 1894.
• “Melvin Lustig and Harry Englander made a bicycle trip to Granville on Sunday and returned yesterday,” the Fort Edward correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Aug. 28, 1894.

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