The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-18
INC Mornnn nnd the MheeI.

"
In Brooklyn on last Saturday lOoOo BIZ
cyclists turned out on parade. Among the
number il is estimated there were 200
women. Their destination in a literal
sense was well understood. but as an an-
straci proposition involving the influence
Of the bicycle upon men and women. cs-
pecially women, where were they all 60
ing a Denver clergyman IN recent
sermon said the riders OF wheels were
wheeling straight 10 torment The Wo-
mans Rescue League Of Boston, at re-
cent meeting. resolved that the bicycle
habit was degrading to women, and had
a tendency to blast both their present and
their future. The league professed to re-
gard the bicycle as power for evil which
should be combatted by every lover OF
morality and correct department The
Rev. Madison Peters, one OF the sensa-
tionaI preachers Of New York, recently
said the wheel had a most pernicioIs in
fuencc upon the young of both sexes.
on the other hand. Miss Francis L. Will
lard, the famous temperance advocate,
who is rider herself. says that the wheel
is a powerful agent in The cause Of TEN
perance. And Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stan
ton Is quoted as having said: Women are
riding to suffrage on the bicycle" The
wheel is indorsed by the medical frasar-
nifty almost without exception. and d large
number Of ministers have given it then
unqualified approval, some Of them going
to the extent Of providing wheel storage
rooms at their churches and inviting
riders especially to attend their services,
riding their wheels to church.
There can be no doubt that Miss VII
lard is right when she places the wheel
on the side of temperance. The drinking
OF liquor and the riding of a bicycle do not
60 together. \ horse will take drunken
man safely home; a bicycle Will not. The
drunken man who attempts to so home,
or elsewhere. on wheel will soon have
his condition exposed, and find himself
in the gutter. with the disguised steed Of
steel probably on top of him.
the objection OF the Woman's Rescue
League of Boston to the wheel seems to
be based chiefly on the facts that all
women who ride wheels are not good
women, and that the tendency of fashion
for female riders is toward the wearing
OF boomers. As to the first objection,
which is really a very poor argument, it
may be said that the same objection ap-
plies to the riding and driving of horses;
yet not even the rescue league would de-
nounce the riding or driving of horses
because immoral people do the same
thing. Bloomers were invented by wo-
man, a good woman at that; a devoted
and true wife and mother. They have
survived a number of years of criticism,
which, however, has been pretty nearly
ali of the good natured, humorous kind
The real earnest opposition to the style
has come mainly from those women who
for obvious reasons, would hardly dare
wear boomers If they were so inclined;
and the possibilities are that the object
ors in the Woman's Rescue League are
of the class to whom the obvious reasons.
apply, and hence the objection. At least
the leaguers are so prudish as to war
rant suspicious.
The sensible conclusion seems to be
that the well balanced woman may adopt
the bicycle with impunity. and wear while
she rides it either skirts or boomers, as
suits her fancy. without running any
greater risks than of an occasional fall,
possibly, ard the envious criticism of per-
sons not so well balanced.