Outside politics the event that has excited most popular interest
in France during the past week has been the great international bicycle race from Paris to Brest and back. The winner, who covered the. distance—some seven hundred and
y miles--in fifty-two hours, or nineteen hours less than the time taken ten years ago, is an ex-chimney sweep of the name of Garin, and wore down the favourite, Lesna, who threw alvayn certain victory by forcing the pace during the first half of the race. It was, in fact, the old story of the hare aad the tortoise, as exemplified in a tour de force of unneces- sary athleticism. The practical value of the feat is of the slightest, discounted as it is by the infinitely greater speed attainable by the automobile. Yet it would be unjust to withholds tribute of admiration from the digestive powers of the winner, who subsisted on sixty eggs, washed down by copious draughts of sugared Vichy water. Success so dearly bought reconciles one to the passing of athletic pre-eminence from the. Anglo-Saxon race.
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