Fast Diggers, Arthur B. Stone: Rice Flakes and Kumyss
Arthur Burr Stone (1874-1943) was one of the country's most accomplished bicycle racers in the early 1900s, and came to Los Angeles to race at the city's first indoor velodrome during the tracks' second (1900-1901) season. "Chimmie Fadden" Stone was lauded by the local newspapers as the "international indoor champion" when he arrived in the city in November 1900, and as such was expected to provide competition to John Nelson. Stone seems to have earned the champion title in part due to his victory over Jay Eaton, the "indoor king," as well as Antonio Tomasseli, the champion of Europe, and Henri Meyers, the champion of Holland and England during races at Madison Square Garden.
Stone was well enough respected among racing bicyclists that he often also took on the role of trainer. Among those he had charge of were Jimmy Michael, and Charles Miller and Frank Waller when the pair won the New York Six Day race during the pervious winter. During a New Years' 1900-01 twenty-four hour race in Los Angeles, Stone managed the team of Jed Newkirk and Joe Judge whom, Stone vowed, would "eat only rice flakes and kumyss;" the pair would finish the race a single lap behind the race winners, having covered 474 miles and four laps.
When Stone's racing career drew to a close he, along with his wife, traveled the world as trick riders, performing a bicycle and motorcycle act, the main feature of which saw them ride inside a sixteen foot steel cage alternately referred to as the "globe of life," or "globe of death." The two circled the cage at speeds upwards of forth-five to fifty miles per hour. Between 1911 and 1917, Stone and his family lived in Australia where they continued the performances - the last act seems to have been run during the Sydney Six-Day race of 1912. By then the bicycle act of "Wizard" Stone (as he came to be known) had been eclipsed by his aviation performances in which he flew demonstrations in a Bleriot monoplane around Australia and New Zealand. Stone was contracted to provide the first mail delivery service between Sidney and Melbourne in 1914, but following crashes with injuries, the plan was scuttled.
Stone is one of the many prominent figures from the early years of bicycle racing in Los Angeles who you will find in the pages of Fast Digs volume 2 when it is published this year. Until then be sure to check out volume 1 of Fast Digs, available for purchase here.
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