Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-15

LS zsS U puSSeu 0ear the re-
 sz mote shaded bridle
 path in the hollow
 < L,[ to the west of the
 .~s --S-- lake the shrubbery was bright with frost tinted foliage Suddenly, with light batter of hoof be ts, fair amazon flashed across the open space, veritable Diana of a girl, cheeks bright and eyes sparkling with excitement, as she turned and glanced backward, at the same time reigning up her light limbed chestnut steed. The calculation was exact. On the instant her cavalier came dashing up behind on black horse, evidently well practiced in his role, and which joined step rhyth- mically with the chestnut, close beside. The lady, without turning again, tossed back her head slightly, in the right di- rection, and just as they passed out of sight he snatched the kiss, which was the gage of this pretty flying jeu de barre.
 An, I thought here is the outdoor woman. the fierce athletic girl" the poet sings of as his ideal for the coming race, at her best. She also conserves in a hard and prosaio age something of the brave gentleness of the woman of chivalry. And forthwith before my i'm agination there came trooping down the Mall a whole cavalcade of highborn heroines of the middle ages, those who went with the men to the crusades, "charming tho seas to give them gentle pass," noble ladies harnessed in armor of price and mounted on goodly steeds; Queen Philippa of England, firing her yeoman to victory at Neville's Cross; Jane de Montfort. who had, as Froissart tells us, "the courage of a man and the heart of lion," and whose cheery smiles amid the din of battle at the de- fense of Hennebon lighted the flame of noble chevisance in every noble breast;" whole platoons of the "bel cav alier" girls of tho old romances, mar shaled by Britomartis and Clarinda and led by the sublime oulmination of their class, the inspired Jeanne d'Arc, us she appears in Fremiet's spirited equestrian statue. My fine vision was abruptly broken in upon by the passing of a troop of real flesh and blood maidens of the unmistakable end of the century type, mounted, alas, on bicycles. This, then, is what it has come to. For every one woman on horseback nowadays you meet hundred en bicyclette. Such be- ing the accomplished fact, and the wheel tho far and away favorite with the contemporary athletic sisterhood as the vehicle of their emancipation and progress in the field of outdoor recrea- tion, any theoretical depreciation of it at this moment may be considered as superfuous. Still the superiority of this particular form of exercise as develop CT of physical harmony and grace, in woman particularly, is by no means demonstrated as yet. As to the costume devised to meet its requirements, opin- ions are as much divided as the skirts. Some frightful guys are seen on Madi- son avenue and may we'll account for the late alarming prevalence of runa- ways in the park. In Paris the "velooe women," as they arc called, fly to the opposite extreme and get themselves up in fantastic guises that are strongly suggestive of the cafe concert stage. My friend Colonel Cody of Wild West fame doubtless spoke out for a good many people when he said to a newspaper woman who was interviewing him about the threatened suppression of skirts the other day, "If you mean those bloomer arrangements, think a woman that wears such things ought to be shot. "
 However, costume is secondary con- sideration, once the principle establishes itself. I understand that no less per- sonage than Miss Frances Willard, the founder and improving spirit of the W. 0. T. U., gave the weight of her exam pie in favor of the bicycle some time ago. Judging from the number of ma chimes usually to be seen standing out side the doors of saloons, roadhouses and "pubs" generally, it may be doubted if this sort of exercise is conducive to the kind of temperance of which this excel lent lady is so distinguished an advo- cate, yet if she could only introduce a style of dress which would be comfort able and slightly, and at the same time not fast, her score would be to the good on the side of progress and humanity.
 Besides the saddle and the wheel, there are other outdoor exercises, appro- priate to the various seasons, which fashion is providing more and more lih- erally to keep the feminine athlete in form all the year round, even through Lent and the somewhat rapid periods that precede and follow it. The three summer months are glorious with ten his, mountaineering, bathing, canoeing and sailing the three winter ones with skating, sleighing, tobogganing, and the odd times of spring and fall with driv- ing and walking, not to speak of gar dening at home and learning "how to know the wild flowers" afield. This be- ing an outdoor paper, I am saying noth- ing here about calisthenics, gymnasium practice and school taught physical cul. trre, invaluable as these are, each and all, but my gentle and robust readers, such of them as have been able to keel with me throughout my series of chap