Old-fashioned high-wheel bicycles accounted for the appearance in last week's news of George Washington in a striking state of undress. Noting a sudden public interest in the "bone-shakers" of the 1860s, United Pressman Frederick Othmann took up his hat and went over to Washington's Smithsonian Institution to research.
"In looking for the bicycle department," he explained later, "I ran smack into the giant statue of a man with a smirk, half undressed. The inscription said he was G. Washington."
The story Newshawk Othmann uncovered in the Smithsonian basement revived for a new...
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