The morning news., 1894-11-11
WOMEN ON BICYCLES.
Bah Declares The Female CyCleT Locks
UlgTdCelul.

Fat, Purple and Thin Bicycle Guys-The
| New French womeus Method of
Walking - serawny Females With
Low Bodicss-Ths Professional Face
! Washer-Peacock-Li Women-Stun-
ming New Bodices-The Small Boy at
Election Time.
] New York, Nov. lot is said just now
that all the women are trying to learn
how to walk, and that this is being done
after that pretty French fashion which
demands that a bright scarlet ribbon be
stretched straight across the floor, and
that it is walked. And by walked is
meant that the toes, or heels, are never
allowed to touch the carpet on either
side of It, To me it seems as If this would
| give rather a marching step, but the
teachers of walking insist that it will
make women hold in the abdomen, stretch
their shoulders, take long breaths, and,
( in addition, walk daindly. Personally.
I rather doubt all this being achieved,
still the new method is more or less in
tercsting. Some women walk as If they
tip on their toes; others come down on
their heels as if they thought they would
add to their hight by doing this. and some
! others put the whole foot down, as If
they were treading on a cornheld. There
/ is an inclination On the part of tall
womeR to take funny little steps that
/ make them look as if they were on stilts,
] T4yIoiie a CHI 70
/ knock their feet against the ground, as
/ if they were clicking out a trot
| With the tailor-made girl, an easy walk
came in a walk that did have a sug-
/ gestien of stride, but still, as 1t was
/ swinging, was perfectly feminine and
/ easy. 1t was much prettier than the min
/ cling steps attained by walking the ribbon
/ Bye-the-bye, it seems that while women
are talking so much about their rights, as
/ if they had left very few to men. They
/ have taken his loose, heaVy-stitched
gloves with the big buttons, they have
taken his shirt front, his tie, his scarf
/ pin, his watch chain, his cigarettes, his
coat pockets, and if some of the bicycle
( riders continue to divide their skirts, they
will have taken his trousers. 1 have
/ tried my very best TO be convinced that
a woman looks well on a bicycle She does
not. The attitude is an ungraceful,
strained one, and if the rider happens to
be a fat woman, her face gets fiercely
| red. and she does look an object! No
mater how much care may have been
! given to the get-up, they all look pretty
much alike, and most of the riders have
an untidy look; tumbled hair negligee
cap, and, well the general loose get-up
being far from natty looking. Riding the
iron and steel horse may be popular, but
| certainly il is not pretty. OF course, some
of the fashionable women have learned
e. ~ S,,,ra
some new distraction. But yoA can be
very certain that they will ride in private
| schools, or on their own private grounds,
and not through the streets of New York
or in the public parks. They are too wise
to make guys of themselves for the ben
eft of the general public. Occasionally
they might, do 1t among their own crowd
but be very sure that they are not going to
let the hoi poiloi see them make fools of
themselves.
/ don't think that Greek word is spelt
right, but then I'm not very we'll up in
Greek, because I've always been told they
weren't quite proper. One thing I should
like to know. and that is, what did the
Greeks do with their old ladies'? When
women reached, well, say 80 years, did
some gentle Greeks chloroform them?
Because, in all the pictures that I have
ever seen, the Grecian lady is sitting on
a cold, marble bench, in a very light and
AIRY tOlIGl, GlluGT listening 10 q new
poem or enjoying the bath. They never
seemed to change their garments for these
two occasions, but it is fair to suppose that
when they were out listening to the work
of the gentle amateur, that their drap-
cries were dry. l would like to resurrect
a few of the Greeks. The gentle ones
who did the sitting act, and get them to
dispose of a few foolish old women who
insist upon appearing in society when the
poor old dears ought to be at home and
wearing extremely low-cut bodices, quite
as low as those fancied by the Greeks.
Some of these old ladies are so scrawny
that one wonders their bones do not speak (;
while some Of the others are of the red
faced csw type, that suggests the need
! of subduing.
Some of these old ladies are not quite
dainty, and it is wished that they might
initiate the Greeks, long as they will
live and go out, in their affection for a
scrubbing Now, if one or two of them
would be really Greek, and go to the bath,
/ and first get warm, and then get cold,
and then have lot of soap scrubbed on
them, and then a cold shower down their
backs to give them courage and then a
cold douche aimed at their bodices-well.
at least, the part under their bodices,
to develop them, although ! suppose all
that would be developed now would be
the bodice-and then they be rubbed down
with alcohol and then have brandy and
soGa, 10 Keep them from catching cold
] tell you, il this were done, these old guys
would ceme out, If not younger, at least,
cleaner women. and with more sense.
, And then, possibly, there would be some
hope Of their dressing themselves and con-
Quoting themselves more in accordance
with their years.
am one Of the advocates of women
staying young as long as possible; but !
don't see anything funny in a great-grand-
mether gowned up to date, with a bodice
cut as low as it can be and yet stay on
smoking cigarettes and telling unique sto-
ries. There is one woman here. a grand
mother whose face is the reddest you ever
saw, and who is absolutely learning to
rido the bicycle. During her first ride
she was fairly purple, and ] am tempted
to think that she is being encouraged
TO take lessons by her sons-in-law. in the
hepe that tho iron steed viii be too much
fer her. But IL won't She Is what a
district messenger boy would call "tuff "
! 1t Is announced positively that we must
all take 70 tho rSuse pct. That the Prin.
cess 81 Wales nnds she needs a little
coler IN her face, and that she is supply
imn what nature does nat "a that In addi.