The record-union., 1896-07-27
WOMEN, LEAGUE, WHEEL AND
PRESS.

We believe that the Des Moines Reg
In response to the attack of the Rescue
League upon all women who ride the
bicycle as being immodest, because of
the familiarity the riding is supposed
to engender. The Register comedies
that the use of the wheel may promote
familiar association between men and
women; that, indeed, in some cases it
let's down the bars of conventional re-
straint which has so long governed wo-
men while living more or less in the
seclusion of their homes.
But these have not necessarily i'm
paired either the nnodesty or the virtue
Of women, as the rescuing ladies of the
National Capital seem to think and
aver. Whether this tendency, which
may perhaps be called a "commoning"
tendency, will go any farther remains
20 be seen We believe that those wo-
men who are modest viii be modest
still We are told of a time when a
woman would faint If a strange man
SO much as caught a glimpse Of
long since passed that stage of civiliza-
ton The modern woman on a bicycle
does not faint so easily. She is stronger
and more sensible, but no one but an
other woman, or set of women, leagued
under the name of rescuers, would pre-
sumo to say that she is also more i'm
moral.
Concerning the other proposition, that
the wheel is a physical menace to the
good health of our women, the New
York 'Tribune'' fairly reflects the great
er volume of more vigorous press ex-
preston, that the league assault has
brought out The Tribune says:
To say that the use of the bicycle by
women of any age is a prolific cause of
disease is fatty to contradict the all but
unanimous opinion of intelligent physi-
clans as well as the results OF expert
ence. We trust we may be pardoned
for accepting the Judgment Of the medf-
cal profession rather than that of the
Wou,an's Rescue League To say that
practice which takes women into the
open air and into communion with
nature. which develops their mus
cles, Strengthens their nerves, gives
them truer poise Of mind and
body, and teaches them self-help
and self-reliance, Is transform
ing hem into physical wrecks and
moral lepers, is an affront to common
sense which would be more amusing If
Ut were less revolving.
The "Times-Herald'' of Chicago takes
the middle ground and represents a re-
specially large number of journals
says:
The alarming pesstmistic view Of the
bicycle question is not justified by the
facts. It Is doubtless true that
many young women are riding to excess
and are laying the foundations OF
future physical ailments of a grave
character but where one woman is SO
foolish as to do this hunderd ride the
wheel sensdbly, decently and health
fully.
It is also doubtless true that to the
woman of impure life the wheel may
offer g. convenient means for facilitating
the execution of immoral designs, but
that the pastirne has a tendency to de-
grade or demoraLze is a proposition too
absurd for a moments consideration.
A woman who will violate the decencies
and proprieties of life while wheeling
will violate them upon other occasions
when the opportunity is offered. Where
one woman rides to destruction on the
wheel thousand ride to good health
and maintain all the decorum, modesty
and cfrcumspection that characterize
the well-bred, self-respecting women
from the ideal American homes.