acceptance of their conditions.

* * * * *

Company E, of the Eighth New York Regiment, has started on an important
military expedition.

It is the desire of the commanders to find out just what the practical
value of a bicycle would be in time of war.

To demonstrate this, Company E, which is the bicycle company of the
regiment, received orders to make a week's trip on Long Island, instead
of going to the state camp as usual.

It is the intention to have the command cover a distance of five hundred
miles during the week, each man carrying with him the regulation kit of
a soldier on the march.

This outfit consists of the canteen or water-bottle, knife, fork, spoon,
and combination frying-pan and plate, a blanket to sleep in, and of
course a rifle, bayonet, and cartridge-box.

With the bicycle command, all these articles had to be stowed away so
that the hands should be free to control the wheel.

The blanket was therefore strapped on the handle-bars, the musket slung
under the saddle, the cartridge-box and bayonet hung from the soldier's
belt, and slung across the shoulders were the canteen and a haversack
containing all the other articles.