Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-24

| school. Some were masquerading their
| youthful enthusiasm beh!1d a maternal
| front of riding just TO please the children.
| Two profeSsed to be adopting the bicycle
| solely because their doctors had ordered
| it-cne, to make her thin; the other, to
| make her fat.
| you better take turn now" said Will
| liam to ME for the third or fourth time
| deed. you need not be afraid. l amt
| goin' to let you fall
mo, William never let's you fall" went
| up in chorus from the assembled fe-
| males. when we fall it's because were
| not minding William" And William stood
| beaming down upon me as powerful and
| pleasant as a sultan in the midst of his
| Seraglo Truly, it was inspiring. / would
mount.
| What do you want me to do with that"
| / asked. William was extending to me a
stout leather strap having a buckle on
| one end and slung along its length what
| looked like a couple of trunk handles.
| You jes' wants to buckle this around
your waist said william, and holds
| you by II, sec? Now come around on
| this side" William was holding wheel
| ready for me to mount Put your right
| foot over on that treadle and spring up"
In the Power of the Wheel.
Spring? I'd like to see me do anything
SO kittenish.
you jest drags up said William. in
| tones of such serious disapproyal, 1 can
| divine the way my dignity is bound to be
| Sacrlflced on the next mount
| William William, go easy. You won't
| let me fall will you? Put my feet on the
| treadles-where earth are they? wait
a minute till L unwind my skirt. Where
are those foot pieces! NOW, NAiidhi'
DIDN'T, don't let CO.
Never, since l have attained years OF
understanding. did l suppose man could
stand for much of this world and all OF
the next as William now stood 10 me.
even thought Of calling hm dear william
could possibly touch his heart and insure
his firm clutch on my belt ana STEADY grip
on the handle of nay wheel-no, not my
wheel That relentIeSSly revolving thlnB
was not mine. / was its. 1t carried me
round and round-it and William knew
where. l knew nothing except that was
on bicycle, and that 1 was Il fool. Now
my feet connected with a treadle; more
often they didn't. Finally, l managed to
establish pretty certain connection with
the treadles. Then William said l wanted
to push them all the way around. I'M
mediatcly l began humping up and down in
the saddle with the movement of an ele-
plant a canter. What YOU DOING?
said William.
Well, you ought to know" / answered
with some asperIty; you told me to-
Deed l didn't tell youse TO hump yself
like that. You jes' wants to push the
treadles up and down like youse was work
in a sewn machine. You don't want TO
rise up in your seat and stand up in EN-
all the way around. You'll hill y'rself that
way, GllSS-deed you WILL
An awful suspicion suddenly seized me.
| have had man try TO teach me how to
swim, take hold OF my belt and get me
into deep water; thea let go.
William" l shrieEed, you wouldn't for
the world let go of ME without my know
ing it, would you?"
lie says he wouldn't but this dreadful
thought quite unnerves me, and want 10
stop. How?
Bring your right foot around to the
ground in front of your left one" says
William.
That's all there is to it, There's appar-
emily no other way. l can't do it, But
neither can my palpitating flesh stride that
bicycle another minute.
THERE
l was on the ground, and everybody drew
a breath Of relief.
TN never learn how to ride one of those
machines in this world" l declare. Fancy
being alone on one of them nobody holding
your belt, and to hear the snort Of a pur-
suing horse or clang of a defiant cable car.
I'd die on the spot
'Oh, l goes the street with you the
first time you goes" says William.
mo matter: I'll never learn anyhow" /
reply, to which one of the chaperones re-
joins But that was your first mount.
Think of me; l have been taking lessons
three months. and i am still under
graduate. But. you see weigh $50 pounds.
Some say 1 never can learn, but l won't
give up
Then this persevering woman tightens
her extra sized belt, and says she will show
what she can do, just to give me courage.
William manfuIy braces up her machine
until she is all on, runs halfway around
the track with her, and then she is off by
herself. She ploughS around and around;
her teeth are set and she doesn't wink once.
Talk about Columbus. You would never
mention him again in connection with a
fixed determination to succeed if you could
see this woman. When she calls out that
she is ready to stop, William gives chase
You know how, in circus, when a bare
l,nl- - dor hn, f,nt. hnl hAr
breaks into the ring and runs around till he
catches her horse. So did William catch
the large lady by the belt on the fly, slow
her up and hold her machine while she dis
mounted.
Everybody agrees that she does beauti-
fully, and she admits that she would be all
right If she could only learn how to stop
herself.
The Question of Feet.
A very pretty girl now mounts, and,
though 1t is only her fourth lesson, she goes
alone after the first round. Her wheel how
ever, has a will of its own, and while she
intends and really yearns to travel all the
way around the circle. exactly midway
each time around. her wheel heads across
the infield. combining her course to q semi
circle. Bravo! This time she has passed
the critical point and will go straight into
a big box rod from the track. There Is
flash of legs and lingerie and when the
girl is untangled from her bicycle and
both eXtricated from the box, the horsy
girl comes up warbling. She'll never go
there any more"
It's my turn to mount again. William
is telling me about one woman who wears
boomers and rides bicycle up and down
PENNSYLVANIA avenue as an advertisement
for a certain brand of bicycle when the
yell of a wild Commanche breaks upon the
crisp November air. It's my yell. though /
would scarcely believe it but for the ex-
preston of stern disapproval with which
a chaperone is looking at me. / don't care.
l did yell, and will yell every time Will
lam takes advantage of my trusting, sos-
sipy nature and removes his grip from the
handle of my wheel.
"You gives up SO easy" says William.
you never wants to give UP. Keep your
feet going whatever you do"
When l was again resting the manager
of the school drew a triangle, A, Is. Z, al d
from this demonstrated that the way to
keep from falling when you lose your bal
ance is always to guide your wheel to-
ward-not as is ones impulse, to guide 1t
away from--the direction in which the body
swerves. This beautiful theory seemed all
there is of falling, when, following n des-
perate pitch and rescue by William, the
girl in riding trousers complcates matters
with the conundrum, william, when 20
to fall what shall / do with my feet?"
Put 'em on the ground" says William,
who further explains: There amt nothin'