promised them I would but added, “But I can’t stop all the kids in town from calling me ‘Major,” but I’ll try.”
Not long after that I left Indianapolis. The next time I returned to the city I was a big “champ,” and no longer a little “chump.” The name, Major Taylor, was appearing frequently in big headlines in the newspapers throughout the country and on billboards as well.
The day after my success on the Newby Oval track, when I won the third of a Mile Special Championship match race and the Two-mile Championship race, I received another letter. Imagine my surprise when I learned it was from Mr. Major Taylor, the local merchant. Again he asked me to call to see him, I figured that I was a big champion now and couldn’t be bluffed any more, so down I went to see him with blood in my eye. However, I found that Mr. Taylor had evidently experienced a change of heart. He told me that I had performed on the race tracks of the country in such a sportsmanlike manner that I was now free to adopt the name “Major.”” He also told me that my work on the track had won the honor for me. “I want to congratulate you as champion and wish you every success,” said Mr. Taylor as he shook my hand warmly.
When I recovered from my surprise I thanked Mr. Taylor for the privilege of using his name Major, and assured the venerable gentleman that I would always do my very best to uphold with dignity and pride the proud old family name of “Major Taylor,” even though the “Major” part of it had been wished on me.
An Indianapolis paper got wind of this meeting of Major Taylor and Major Taylor and ran the following item concerning it in their next issue:
“Major Taylor and Major Taylor. Major Taylor the business man, and Major Taylor the bicycle racer are both of Indianapolis, yet they are two distinct individuals. This could be easily seen if the two were brought face to face.
“The racing man is young and black, while the business man is past the racing age and white, but unfortunately, so Major Taylor the business man says, thousands of people are not aware of this fact and confuse the two. He also says that the use of his name in connection with bicycle racing is causing him no end of trouble, and that he has been obliged to explain to hundreds of his friends that he has not deserted his business and gone into the bicycle racing game.
“Major the racing man, so he asserts, is masquerading around under an assumed name, and that the racing man’s correct name is Marshall Walter Taylor. This the racing man admits but claims the right to answer to the name of Major if he likes, although he does not sign his name Major.
“Major is a name in both cases and not a title. Major Taylor the
