As our ears still resonate from the celebratory explosions that marked our great nations 250th birthday, let us also pay tribute to that other enduring symbol of freedom: the velocipede.As a Cervino owner I am always heartened to see an old Nishiki still in regular service:And as a vintage bonded Trek enthusiast I will never cease to be amazed at the cockroach-like resiliency of that particular species:But for today let us go even further back in time, to July 3rd, 1879, when one Wentworth Rollins undertook what would eventually become the longest-ever bicycle ride in these United States (or those United States, there were only like 38 of them then) at the time:[All articles via the New York Times]An oudoor sports enthusiast with no discernible source of income, lots of time to ride, and a WASPy name that suggested a trust fund or legacy of some kind, Wentworth Rollins was just the sort of person you might read about today on any number of cycling websites:I myself routinely ride to and from Tarrytown, and for most city cyclists today thats little more than an easy morning ride. But back then, between the limitations of the bicycle and the state of the roads, the one-way trip presumably took a full day and required an overnight stay:Ive actually mentioned Wentworth Rollins before, since short dispatches such as these are in stark contrast to the lengthy, self-congratulatory ride reports we read today:Though now that Im reading all these in sequence he did receive a fair number of column inches:Especially when he finally reached Saratoga:And decided to just keep riding:Which reinforces the idea that he didnt have to work:Today there is a plaque in Saratoga memorializing Rollinss accomplishments, which Ive noted when visiting the area:It is plaque-worthy, too, because here is what a Columbia ordinary bicycle with a 52-inch wheel looks like:And his route probably looked like this:[Via here]And that would have been the easy parts.Now, Im not sure whether the following is from before or after the big ride, but either way, around that time, Rollins was the present king of bicyclists in America:Even now the fever is spreading rapidly thanks chiefly to the efforts of Mr. Wentworth Rollins, the present king of bicyclists in America. He sells machines to people he can trust on installments and has a large stock of goods on hand which he sells below the usual prices to beginners.And with the country in the grip of bicycle fever and decent pennyfarthings starting at well over Two Thousand American Fun Tickets in todays money, maybe he wasnt a gentleman of leisure at all. Maybe he was just making big money selling bikes:The prices of bicycles range from $80 to $100, according to the size of wheel; the smallest being 42 inches in diameter, the largest 60 inches. The best way to get enjoyment out of the sport is to form a club of congenial spirits who will ride together. A single bicyclist is apt to attract too much attention in country places, and would often be insulted, where two or three together would meet with a hearty welcome. Moreover, company is elevating to the spirits.Yes, there was so much money in bikes in those days that by 1880 people were fighting over bags of money:As for Rollinss later years, the trail goes cold, though in 1911 someone named Wentworth Rollins writes Theodore Roosevelt in support of laws prohibiting marriage of incompetents:Heres my best attempt at a transcription:Dear Sir,The breeders of animal and vegetable, as you know, select the best for propagation while the human animal is retrograding; the lower increasingthe higher decreasing.If laws prohibiting marriage of incompetents were enacted, what a glorious race would result.It takes a strong man to advance such a propositionyou are the man.Wentworth RollinsToday California is the home of Silicon Valley, where visionaries build the future using revolutionary new tools such as AI. Back then it was much the same, only the hot concept wasnt AIit was eugenics, and Sonoma State Home was its Anthropic:Eugenics was a hallmark of the Progressive Era, espoused by figures such as Margaret Sanger, as Planned Parenthood themselves will tell you:Sanger believed in eugenics an inherently racist and ableist ideology that labeled certain people unfit to have children. Eugenics is the theory that society can be improved through planned breeding for desirable traits like intelligence and industriousness. In the early 20th century, eugenic ideas were popular among highly educated, privileged, and mostly white Americans. Margaret Sanger pronounced her belief in and alignment with the eugenics movement many times in her writings, especially in the scientific journal Birth Control Review.And in 1927 the Supreme Court decided that, yes, states can forcibly sterilize people, including the feeble-mindeda decision that, 99 years later, has never formally been overturned.Talk about a wild ride!