CHAPTER IX
MR. MUNGER'S PROPHECY FULFILLED
While the moguls of bicycle racing in this country were determining my fate in the winter of 1898-1899, I kept in the pink of physical condition. Naturally, I was somewhat worried as they maneuvered back and forth in an effort to stall my case, but I felt that the scales of justice would eventually swing my way so I kept hard at work at the gymnasium preparing for a busy season in 1899.
No sooner had I been fined $500 for my failure to participate in the Cape Girardeau, Mo., race meet, which wound up the 1898 championship season, than I started to work in earnest for the ensuing campaign. I made up my mind that 1899 would be my banner year, and that I would extend myself more than usual, if that were possible, to pick up any extra prize money, and the excessive amount that I still claim was unjustly levied against me in the guise of a fine.
I also determined to vindicate myself in the estimation of those good friends who had stood by me, and who had done everything possible to assist me in regaining my standing once more, and also to justify the good opinion of the press that had come to my rescue, and forced my opponents to let down the bars and reinstate me, as well as that of the public, whose sentiment was with me from the start.
Down in my heart I felt disappointed at the way the championship season terminated in 1898. Although I was declared the champion there were claims advanced for the honors by Eddie (Cannon) Bald, Tom Cooper, Arthur Gardiner and Tom Butler.
So as the 1899 championship season dawned I redoubled my efforts to establish myself as champion of America, and to make the margin wide enough between myself and my competitors to leave no room for doubt. Since such sterling riders as Bald, Cooper, Kiser and Gardiner, who were considered the four fastest riders in the country, and such other good men as Kramer, Eaton, Freeman, Kimble, Stevens, the Butler brothers, MacFarland, Bowler, Fisher, Simms, Terrill, Newhouse, Cutler, Wilson, Taylore, Jaap Eden, Mertins, Weinig, Collette, and Bobby Walthour were all competing for the championship title that season, I felt I had in that field foemen worthy of my steel. Incidentally the fact that I was competing against such a galaxy of racing stars as these, spurred me on to my greatest efforts, and 1899 will always live in my memory as one of my greatest seasons because I won the championship that season beyond a shadow of a doubt―my keenest competitors conceding me the laurels.
