Dear Mr Mackenzie
This is probably rather peripheral to your interest
but Kipling wrote a spoof poem on the lines of C.G.
Leland titled "How Breitmann Became President on the
Bicycle Ticket". This was printed in New York in "The
World's Sunday Magazine" on 26 April 1896.
The fourth verse includes the line:
"Bestrident a patent safety,
Mit a plue self-oilin' chain"
With best regards
David Page
Editor, Kipling Journal
--- john mackenzie <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear subscribers,
> I am a Briton who is resident in Vermont, and am
> trying to research Rudyard
> Kipling's Brattlboro period. I am looking for any
> information about his
> bicycle in particular. Not knowing all that much
> about the evolution of the
> bicycle, I am also after a simple history. I am
> trying to answer questions
> such as what kind of bicycle did RK ride? Who gave
> it to him? What would
> it have looked like/been made of? How would the
> locals have taken to seeing
> the Englishman pedalling around the steep lanes of
> southern Vermont? Also,
> peripherally, it has recently been told to me that
> RK had a passion for
> motorcars, although was himself unable to drive.
> Did this fact make the
> bicycle the closest thing he could find to driving
> an automobile?
> I would be grateful for any leads in relation to any
> of the above! I live
> in Peacham, Vermont, and am residing in Vershire in
> the Upper Valley for the
> duration of the summer as a break from my year-round
> job of teaching English
> to high-schoolers. So, if anyone knows of a good
> bicycle rental company in
> the Dummerston/Brattleboro area, I might just head
> down there one evening to
> take myself out along RK's fateful route along Pine
> Tree Hill..!
> Many thanks in advance.
> Sincerely,
> John Mackenzie
>
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