“It can scarcely be expected that the one-mile figures will show some drop correspondingly in the next 14 months, as has been shown since September, 1897. In that month J. S. Stocks rode a mile at Crystal Palace, London, in 1:35 2/5. It was that performance which exhibited the bicycle as speedier by one-tenth of a second than the horse. When two or three years previous, W. W, Hamilton of Denver, rode a mile at Coranado, California, in 1:39, it was thought that the bicycle had attained an astonishing speed, but a little over a year after Hamilton’s record was lowered almost a second by Eddie McDuffee of Boston, and in about a week after the latter’s record ride, J. Platt Betts, the English champion, rode the mile in 1:37 2/5.
“It was thought by many when Stocks knocked two seconds from the previous record that it might remain for some time on the other side of the water, but now our English fliers will have to bestir themselves if they hope to regain past honors.”
Another New York newspaper carried the following story on the same day:
“Major Taylor a Cycling Wonder. His Riding at Philadelphia stamps him as the Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World. Colored Marvel will make an Effort to cover the Mile in less than 1:30. No man knows what speed possibilities are concealed in those lithe limbs of the colored boy, Major Taylor, who today is being deluged with telegrams from all parts of the country congratulating him on the annexation of the world’s one-mile and half-mile bicycle records, but Taylor smiles and is not satisfied. He is certain of 1:30 for the mile or better, and 44 seconds or better for the half mile is possible.
“Taylor has shown himself a wonder. Other record breakers have again and again tried for the coveted record. Hamilton tried 16 times before he turned the trick in 1:39 1/5 which stood as a record for 17 months. Earl Kiser followed Hamilton in 16 trials, in a great majority of which he lost his pace, and made it in 1:40, and could not come lower. Johnnie Johnson went 12 times for the record of Hamilton, but came no nearer than 1:40.
“While it is true that attempts since that time have been more uniformly successful, as in the case of Eddie McDuffee and Edward Taylore, these have been made at the very height of the racing season when pacemaking teams were at their very best, and after months and months of training and not during the early winter when the cold winds made the teeth chatter, and when officials and spectators would rather have been at the side of a warm stove than at the track side.
“Major Taylor went up against great odds and succeeded. He made his attempts when others would not have done so, and succeeded. He failed but once, and that was the mile which he did in 1:33 3/5,
