MONARCH CYCLE CO.

Factory and Main Office, Lake and Halsted Sts., Chicago.

Eastern Branch: 79 Reade St. & 97 Chambers St., N.Y.

The C. F. GUYON CO., Ltd., Managers.

HARPER'S PERIODICALS.

Per Year:

HARPER'S MAGAZINE _Postage Free_, $4.00 HARPER'S WEEKLY " 4.00 HARPER'S BAZAR " 4.00 HARPER'S ROUND TABLE " 2.00

_Booksellers and Postmasters usually receive subscriptions.

Subscriptions sent direct to the publishers should be accompanied by Post-office Money Order or Draft._

HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, N. Y.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BICYCLING]

This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our maps and tours contain much valuable data kindly supplied from the official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen.

Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L. A. W. the Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership blanks and information so far as possible

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright, 1895, by Harper & Brothers.]

The map this week is perhaps one of the best in New Jersey which can be taken by a New-Yorker without too long a journey before reaching the starting-point. It not only extends to Paterson, which is a good eighteen-mile ride, and, with the return trip, makes a good half-day run, but it extends to Pine Brook, twenty-nine miles altogether, which is the first stage on the tour from New York to Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, and thence on to Buffalo.

The rider should take the Fourteenth Street ferry from New York to Hoboken, and his first object then is to get to the Boulevard. The road to the Boulevard is direct from the ferry, with a sharp turn to the right a few minutes after leaving the ferry-house, where the railroad is crossed, and the rider then comes into the Boulevard. After a long gradual ascent, he should take the first prominent turn to the left, leaving the Boulevard on the right, and going northeast to the cemetery, still uphill. The road circles this, and keeping always to the left the rider comes into the Paterson Plank Road, crosses several tracks at Homestead Station, with the Scheutzen Park on the right, then runs across the salt meadows, and finally rides over the Hackensack River.

There is but one fork before he reaches the outskirts of Rutherford, which is at Washington Grove. He should keep to the Paterson Plank Road, which is the turn to the left. The road from Homestead Station to the road-house at Washington Grove is macadamized and in reasonably good condition. From the Washington Grove road-house, between Rutherford and Carlstadt, the road is perfectly straight and level, but is in poorer condition, and somewhat sandy. As the rider pa.s.ses out of Carlstadt he crosses the railroad track, runs a few hundred yards until the road takes a sharp curve to the right northward, almost to the Pa.s.saic River.

Here he should turn sharply to the left and cross the Pa.s.saic. This is a somewhat difficult turn, and he should be careful not to keep on to the north towards Garfield Post-office. Crossing the river, he soon arrives at a fork, where he should turn to the right, the left-hand turn being Main Street, which, though the more direct route to Pa.s.saic, is not so good a road. This fork is reached just before entering Pa.s.saic.

Pa.s.sing through Pa.s.saic, the run is direct to the cemetery on the Pa.s.saic River at the outskirts of Paterson. Keep to this road until you run into Market Street. At the bridge turn sharp left and pa.s.s through the city of Paterson on Market Street to its end. Then turn to the right up a short grade to the bridge that crosses the Pa.s.saic again. The rider should not cross the bridge, but should turn sharp to the left and follow the car tracks through West Paterson Station to Little Falls.

This stretch of road is in fine condition, is macadamized and level.

From Little Falls it is a one-mile run to Singac. Immediately on leaving Singac and crossing the track the rider comes to cross roads. He should keep on the main road, skirting around with the river on the right, over a hilly country, by a hotel, into Fairfield; or if he chooses, he may turn to the left just before reaching Fairfield into Pier Lane. But if he wishes to make a stop in Fairfield, he must keep on to the hotel in the centre of the town. This stretch of country is a rolling macadamized road in reasonably good condition. From Fairfield, or from the junction of the main road and Pier Lane, the road southward to Franklin Post-office is in poorer condition and clay, and is much more hilly. At the junction of the roads in Franklin the rider should inquire for Bloomfield Avenue, which is the direct road to Pine Brook. This is a sandy road, somewhat hilly, and it is necessary to take the side path.

At Pine Brook he has made about thirty miles, and may stop either at the hotel just off the Bloomfield road about a mile before reaching the town or at the hotel in the centre of the town.

By examining the map it will be seen that the same trip may be made by riding up to 125th Street in New York, taking the Fort Lee ferry, and riding over the direct route from Fort Lee through Taylorsville on to Hackensack, and thence over a reasonably good straight road, crossing the Pa.s.saic, and meeting Market Street above the cemetery at the point where the Paterson Plank Road joins it. A good run would be to take this latter road, to leave Market Street in Paterson, and strike for the fair bicycle road indicated on the map, which runs nearly due south through South Paterson, leaving on the west, or right hand, Montclair Heights, Cedar Grove, Upper Montclair, and riding into Montclair through Watchung, where the train may be taken for New York. This is, of course, a somewhat hilly road.

NOTE.--Map of New York city asphalted streets in No. 809. Map of route from New York to Tarrytown in No. 810, New York to Stamford, Connecticut, in No. 811. New York to Staten Island in No. 812.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STAMPS]

This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor Stamp Department.

A subscriber asks if the value of United States postage-stamps is likely to increase in the future in a manner to make them a safe investment. We can only judge of the future by the past, and taking that as a criterion, the United States stamps, with, of course, the exception of the common low values, will increase in value in the future to a far greater extent than they ever have in the past. There are to-day many millions of dollars invested in postage-stamps for collections, and while the question of stamps as an investment was somewhat doubtful ten or more years ago, at present the prominent collectors have less hesitation in investing in rare stamps than in United States bonds. The former they know will pay large interest. The recent great increase in the price of all old United States stamps is due to the buying up by collectors of all the rarities they can get, and the trend of the prices is always upward, not down.

It is reported that nearly all of the Columbian stamps on sale at Washington have been disposed of, only a few values being left. It is a last opportunity to get those much prized stamps at face value as the prices will rapidly rise after they are sold out.

The eight-cent stamp with ornaments in the corner has been issued, thus completing the set. The color is darker than the previous stamp.

The Grand-Duke Alexis Michaelivitch of Russia, who died in March, was an ardent stamp collector, and although only nineteen years of age, had already done much for the pursuit through his writings. He had planned many greater things to do for philately, but these the stamp world will lose through his early death.

When the new issue of Mexico was placed on sale, a band of music was engaged for the occasion, and after the Postmaster-General had opened the post-office window, the stamps were sold to the strains of music.

E. C. TATNALL.--Lithographed stamps are printed from stones, while all the United States, and majority of other stamps are printed from steel plates. In lithographic printing the lines are coa.r.s.er and the surface smooth, while steel-plate printing shows fine lines and perfectly clean surface. The 1870-2 issue of France is lithographed.

ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nTS.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_Could I have another Gla.s.s of that_

[Ill.u.s.tration: HIRES' Rootbeer]

Give the children as much Hires' Rootbeer as they want. Take as much as you want, yourself. There's no harm in it--nothing but good.

A 25 cent package makes 5 gallons.

The Chas. E. Hires Co., Philada.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

a Living Picture

of health--because she uses Pond's Extract at her toilet, and appreciates the fact that no subst.i.tute can equal it.

Avoid subst.i.tutes; accept genuine only, with buff wrapper and yellow label.

POND'S EXTRACT CO., 76 Fifth Ave., New York.