Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1896-09-17
Cupid and the Wheel.
!, The bicycle a matchmaker ?

noly SoNeThlnehI oOiiu9 VI
say "yea, verify" When they discern
a lover and lovee tandeming about on
the gloamingest sides of the streets,
they at once add another wedding fee
to their prospective assets.
And the single wheels are as con-
ducive to doubleness, so they say, as
are the ones built for twin happiness.
As while-you-wait matchmaker,
the bicycle, it would almost seem, must
set the pace, and there is nothing else
in its class.
First of all it enables young couples
to find the sort of surroundings suited
to their wishes, and to obtain that rare
atmosphere in which, alone, the sensi-
tive flower of love dares to blossom.
"There are moments when we want to
be alone, or, at least, to choose our
own company. The bicycle makes 1t
easy.
Thanks to the encroachments Of age,
with its attendant stiffening of joints,
the old folks seldom ride bicycles, and
so the young people, by the very force
! of circumstances mnst wheel away out
along the shady lanes, all, all alone.
But young people do not mind lone
someness when there are two or more
than one 1.-TWO" of them to share it.
And the chaperone-well, somehow
she hasn't been able to keep up with
the bicycle, but they say she is learn
ing to ride, and so she'll no doubt be
tagging along soon, She will find it
very difficult to keep within hearing
distance of all that is said, and seeing
distance of all that is done And,
besides, when she rides the wheel she
All. yes and there's another
He's the trying little brother,
will feel lust as young as she used to
be, and she won't, for the world, lay
straw in Cupid's way.
And the maiden aunt who from
the beginning" has gone driving with
the young people-well, there is no
place for her on the tandem. And,
besides, she thinks the bicycle is an
invention ofSatan. She is now almost
wholly forgotten and is partially tor
given.
The little brother has been thorn
in the side of parlor courtships ever
since courtships and little brothers
have been in existence.
Alas how many a young man,
kneeling by the parlor sofa at the feet
of his guiding star, has had his swell
ing declaration of affection punctured
by the suppressed litter of an innocent
little brother, in hiding behind some
of the parlor furniture. Or the piece
may have been spoken while the pair
were riding in a carriage, blissfully
unaware of the awful fact that a mean
little boy was hanging on to the rear
of the carriage, hearing every word.
Once upon a time 1t was thought
by many that the hammock was in
vented by Cupid for the purpose of
booming his business. But a hammock
is too much like the leopard-it can
not always change it. spots very read
lily. If hammock possessed the power
of locomotion, and could 90 silently
stealing away off through boslly dim
giles and shady dells, it would be about
as good as bicycle. But it can
1t is fixed to one more or less eternal
spot and that spot is usually in plain
sight Of a window, at which sits an
envious, mean, watchful, gossipy per,
son, whose hammocky days have gone
sadly whistling down the dream Of
things that were.
And there's always an electric light
in the street, right in front Of the
house. In the name, and on behalfo
thousands of spooney pairs, in this
light distressed land, we ask, O, Mr.
Edison why did you? The pale
Pickering gaslight, the moonlight, the
starlight, any or no light was grea
plenty.
But the bicycling pair doesn't care
a rap. Love has laughed at lock
smiths for ever and ever so long, anC
now he is giving the gleeful "Ha, ha''
to most everything else, and all be
cause the young people ride bicycles.
A cycling pair that does not become
engaged in thirty days, including thu
twenty-nine intervening evenings, Ger
tainly do not make the most of thel
opportunities.
It's love that makes the world g
round. And the same power ha
more or less to do with making tn
bicycle wheels revolve. The bicycl
is Cupid's carriage. A. W. Bul
letm.