Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-06-22
BLOOMERS ON WHEELS
Selection Of the Bike Depends On the Style
Of Costume.
Women Are Discussing the Merits of
Diamond and Loop Mnchines-A
Change in Sentiment.

1t would have taken a large assortm snt
of courage year ago to have asked your
| woman friend If she rode diamond, now
known as bloomer or loop wheel, but
from the standpoint of public opinion then
1t would have been absolutely impossible
for any lady to have even tried the former
and not have given the world strong sus-
picions that she and her petticoats were to
be strangers ever more.
Twelve short months have rolled around,
sentiment has entirely changed on the mat
ter, and while the picture woman in bloom
ers is, so far as this immediate locality is
concerned, much more frequent in the pub
lie eye than the model in real life, never
theless she Is coming and not particularly
concerned whether the rest of the world
likes 1T or not. The conviction of being
ahead a few months in any movement-it
no longer takes years to popularize any
thing where the fair sex is concerned
seems all that is necessary to cause the
laying aside of any traditions suspected of
old fogy tendencies. Are the women here
abouts ready for this phase of the bike
movement? A few of the advanced say
they are.
The patience and time given by most OF
the fashionables in learning how to ride,
as we'll as all about the mechanism of their
wheels and how to care for them and them
selves in emergencies, is pretty good proof
that they intend to stick at it. Therefore
any and everything which goes to make
their riding easier and safer comes up for
discussion
Economy is Considered.
The great majority of women do not in
tend to accumulate Centuries" and find
| their clothes questions sufficiently bother
some now, without adding to their bur-
dens trunks full of boomers, short trou-
sers and other paraphernalia advised by
the advanced cyclst. More than that
most of the girls have their wheels bought
and they are not diamond frames either,
and the question of the bloomer need not
necessarily bother them at this stage.
Girls nowadays are naturally thrifty as
the custom of letting them spend their
own money their own way grows apace.
'bunch of them were discussing the other
day the merits of several makes of which
the prices ranged from $50 to 800. The
desire to own the best is uppermost, but
| to get just as much fun out of an eXpendi
| ture of half a hundred as a whole one is
| problem worth considering. Along comes
| great big strong fellow, who rides like
| he was a piece of the wheel itself and
| creates CONSERVATION in the saving minds
| by saying:
| Cheap wheels are no good. That other
| fifty will soon slip away in repairs, and
some of them may be on yourselves. If
| women are going to get any practical re-
! suits from cycling they ought to ride dia-
| mond frames-and, of course, wear ;loom-
! ers-don't look SO Mortified! 1t really sounds
worse than it is. Women always want to
| buy light machine, because they have an
| idea hghtness guarantees easy running. A
| wheel too lightly built has had sacrificed
| vital points essential for strength and
| speed. Now, the diamond frame is much
lighter than the loop, such women
| dinarily buy. and it is stronger and better
| in every particular. If the ladies' keep
| wearing skirts they give up the steadiest
| and strongest machine and the one they
would find the easiest to control.
The BIoomcr Inevitable.
Now, if horrd man can calmly discuss
| the bloomer in this plain. sensible way,
! when a year ago he had decided opinions
| uncharitable of the woman who would
| dare to so unsex herself, we'll! does not
| this seem to change the whole situation?
| If women really want the greatest safety
| and speed conditions assured them, then
| the bloomer is inevitable, and If she thinks
1t is all right, and men say it is all right, and
| Seem1y too, it is good settled. Ten 10
| one. a big step in this direction will have
been made when granmamma, mamma and
| daughter bring back their wheels in the au-
| tumn after riding them all summer in the
| seclusion of country byways and lanes,
| with some practical ideas from experience
| on a subject now largely speculative
The women in New York and Chicago are
| making TO bones over the boomers. Three
| fourths of them wear them but they cling to
| the loop frame, possibly because it has never
| occurred &c them to 60 otherwise. Here
| the protecting skirt, are yet rather
| singular. There are, however, well devel-
| oped cases now and then to be seen on the
| road, and nobody appears to be much
| aghast at the spectacle.
One bright young woman told Star re-
| porter that the only thing that was keep
| ing her from learning to ride was the
| fact that women were holding back from
! the bloomer and the diamond. She had
| not nerve enough herself to go in advance
| of the procession. but she would join them
| when the movement was assured, and the
| world had taken it for granted that it
| was the proper thing.
The average life of good wheel of the
| best make. under ordinary conditions, ought
| to be about ten years and each year of
| its use it should have covered between
| two and three thousand miles. MANY lit
| tie repairs will have been needed mean
| while, but two or three cheap wheels would
| have gathered to the junk piles in the
| same period, with scarcely any safety
| at all in their use. In the question of a
| wheel purchase the best Is the cheap
est.
I,ots Of Choice in Skirts.