The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-08-26
Denr Girls of the Bicycle !:


Another word with you, please. no.
tice that ladies IN Paris ride bicycles with
big pants, with Small caps, and with Gig
arsttes in tho lips. I imagine this is not
confined to regions beyond the Atlantic,
and that the "wheer" and cigarette fasci-
nation may come to girls OF the South.
Do YOU notice how it has slowly made its
way over your sensibilities? Why was
the wheel slowly accepted? It was be.
cause your modesty protested, but finally
yielded. Why was it that you did not
take to the wheel as soon as the boys
It was because your inward sense of pro-
priety protested. If there had not been
an evident improperly in girls mounting
a wheel they would have sprung to the
amusement as soon as it appeared. But
good mothers and thoughtful gentlemen
Shook their heads at the thought. That
delicate fear slowly subsidcd, and father
and mother determined that you should
have wheel. There is something no.
ticeable in this slow movement that final
ly wins your consent. TWAS your innate
modesty that declined the invitation.
You repelled it as unbecoming. But the
first repulse was the strongest, and it
grew weaker and weaker, and you have
gone somewhere from your original con-
Victions. Is it up or down? May call
it activity or declivity? Inquire of your
hearts and you will have an answer from
womans internal monitor that will lead
you to suspect the latter. Ask again
What was it that led me to look with
some sort of admiration upon graceful
lady mounted on wheel, sailing softly
and rapidly and noiselessiy by? Was it
her beautiful modesty? or was it her
skill in poising her vehicle? Did I think
at first that her fixed, solemn gazs and
her new walking motion detracted some
what from the ease, the elegance and the
gracefulness with which she usually
walks the streets? Was there any rebate
of woman's modesty in the feat? Was
not the old-fashioned side saddle tribute
to the native modesty of the sex? That
was mounted becomingly from pedes-
tai. But the wheel is straddled outright,
and the retrogradation is from the mode
of mounting the one to the mode of
mounting the other. It is retrograde and
down-grade modesty from the side-saddle
to the wheel.
1 am not afraid, dear girls, that you will
dispute the point with me. au resting
my plea on that strange thing in woman
rified by a murder, that lies perfectly
dormant when flagrant ingratitude pass
es before it, but the moment that sexual
indelicacy passes before it, it leaps into
hostile posture. It has special and in
nate antipathy to the unchaste in thought,
word or manner. 1t is spcntaneity and
Is not argued. 1t needs no logic. It
protests, which means to witness before
there is time to convince.
want you to consult your natures, the
finest constitutions in the world. There
is nothing 80 beautiful. Gods own handi.
work and mans admiration. Made after
man was, the last of the creations, the
crowning piece, the citadel Of the virtues.
All civilization, all manners, all homes,
all happiness, are dependent upon the
safe-keeping of that citadel Of virtue.
That fllibustering meeting of boisterous,
semi-anarchists held recently ct the
Cooper Institute, New York, aud address,
ed by a woman (?) indicates what we
may come to if woman is careless of her
self. D. E. +.