The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-06-28

riding for young women, IL, indeed, there be
any evil at all. Washington has more lady
bicyclists than any other American city, and
none of our watchful clergymen nor other
guardians of public morals seem to have dis
covered that the moral tone OF the fair
riders has become deteriorated because of
their indulgence in the joys OF the
flying wheel. Colonel Robert has not
included the riding of bicycles by girls
and women in the catalogue of evil things he
thinks he has discovered in Washington; and
if the Colonel's exquisite moral sensorum has
not been affected it is safe to assume that the
custom is all right. Probably the belief of
Bishop Coke that there is danger to the fair
sex in bicycle riding arises from causes that
are partly local to Buffalo Perhaps the
female bicyclists of the Bishops see are not
skillful and artistic wheelwomen IL so, this
would go far to account for the impression
their riding has left on the good Bishops
mind. One can readily understand that the
frequent sight OF ladies of youthful, uncer-
tain, and middle age mingled in chaotic
confusion with their mismanaged wheels in
public places might convince holy man, such
as the Bishop is, that the effect on the moral
nature OF the dirt-begrimed victims Of the
catastrophes could not be altogether good.
Moreover, the effect on the witnesses of these
distressing spectaclcs may at times not be
quite calculated to promote serious
and sanctimonious thought. There are
male natures, it is to be feared, who cannot
view an impromptu and informal revelation
of wildly disarranged skirts and inverted
ankles with that composure which moral and
rational beings should ever strive to maintain.
There are in this wicked world eyes that will
leer with an unholy light at sight of snowy
underlinen suddenly exposed when an un-
skillful wheelwoman meets disaster There
are hypocritical and unsympathetic male
wretches who, even while they extricate torn
skirts from the maws of perverse cogs and
aid the distressed fair one to remount, will
smile and smile and still be villains. And
perhaps the Bishop has had personal expert
ences with fractions bicycles which have re-
vealed to him the evil which may come to
the male temper through ''taking a header"
Maybe the Bishop has felt the seething anger
boiling in his own soul as he went down in
confusion Of limb and raiment amid the dust
of city street, while \ ribald gang of
urchins jeered at his discontinue; and if he
female nature could not wholly curb on such
occasions the impulse to think thoughts, if
not to utter words. that it would never do to
print.
But while all these things may be true of
the bicycle riders of Buffalo, especially the
females, in Washington it is otherwise. The
lady riders of Washington, as they glide alone
in groups or with husbands, brothers, and
sweethearts over our smooth pavements, are
perpetual source of artistic pleasure to the
eye and in no wise an impediment to the piety
of the heart. The unconscious grace and
dignity of their movements as they whirl
along with confident but modest mien win
fresh admiration for womanhood. The fasci-
mating trou.trou of gently tapping skirts and
the flying glimpses of swlft-pedaling feet are
charming adjuncts to the living picture, with
just SO much excitement for the imagi-
nation as any one who would not
have man wholly spiritual must admit to be
wholesome. No, Bishop Coxe's objections to
female bicycle riding must arise from purely
local causes If he will come to Washington
for while and watch our lady riders as they
glide along in grace and beauty, perfect SYM
phonic poems on wheels, he will give them his
blessing and tell the girls of his flock to go
and do likewise.