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Show KRAMER BEGAN RIDING BICYCLE FOR HEALTH : i i When Youngster His Parents Considered Sending Him to Salt Lake or Denver to Cdre His Tuberculosis; Now the Champion Cham-pion Is Considered Finest Specimen of Speed-Developed Athlete: Hts Won Over 500 Races: Best Record Ever Made: Automo-hiling Automo-hiling and Chicken Raising His Hobbies; Has Fortune, Too. (Spsclal to The TAma) NEWARK, N. J., Aug. 10. Thirteen years ago Frank Kramer cam very near making a trip to the west, not aa the hero of the bike world and the undisputed champion of cycling, but aa victim of the j great white plague 1 ' . , r At the age of 17 Frank Kramer was a puny little fellow, with all of the symptoms of tuberculosis and his parent were on the point of sending him to Salt Lake or Denver in hope of saving their boy. Just about that time, however, they got Frank a bicycle and he began to ride his wheel from early morning until late at night. Af first 1heywereapprehengive" lest the crouched position" on hii bike, which threw his chest in, would be very harmful, but the little fellow began to pick up in weight and his color took on a healthy appearance ap-pearance in place of the deathlike paleness with the intermittent hectic hec-tic flush. . Encouraged by the rapid improvement shown from riding the bike his parents encouraged him to ride aa much aa possible and to take long rides out in the country. . In a short time the project, of sending the boy west waa forgotten and a year later little Frank won his first race, a novice affair at Waverly, N. J. The following year Frank, no longer the puny boy, although still rather alender, was the amateur champion of America. Two years later this same Kramer was the professional champion of America and a fine example of physical development. |