The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1896-08-25
Continued from Ist Page)

and towns and villages. Attendance
upon religion service in these places
has been helped by the fact that
there was little else to do on Sun
day, and also by the fact that the
church was really the social centre
of the community. Now comes the
bicycle with proposal for a social
ride into the country on Sunday,
for day in the open air, in rolling
swiftly over smooth roadways, or
through shady lanes, and past green
and Towering meadows. 1t is not
in human nature, to resist call like
this. The departure once made is
usually for all time. The churches
are fast losing their young people,
and efforts to call them back by APP
peals TO their sense Of Christian
duty, and by Offering them storage
room for their bicycles in the base
ment in case they will ride upon
them to the House OF God rather
than into open communion with
nature, are likely to prove unavail-
ing. They are deaf even to such ap-
peals as that of the New Haven
clergyman who drew a terrifying
picture of long columns of Sunday
bicycle riders rolling swiftly and
elplessly-without brake, of course
down glittering hill to "place
where there is no mud on the streets
because of its high temperature"
The theatrical plant is that the
bicycle seriously Injuries The play
house in the winter, and ruins it
outright in the summer. In the
cities during the evenings of autumn
and winter, when the weather is not
severe, the young people take rides
npon their wheels rather than go to
a theatre. When spring comes they
ride on, every matinee day and on
every evening, leaving theatre
desert. "We used to go to Balti-
more, Washing ton, and Boston every
summer and do good business"
says a New York manager, "but it's
no use now. The theatrical season
is dead everywhere as soon as the
roads get good for bicycle-riding.
It's the same way in California. l
tell you it's the bicycle that is ruin
ing the theatrical business" One
curious effect, which should afford
some consolation to Sabbatarians. is
that theatres in certain cities which
were formerly open on Sundays
have been closed permanently.
New social laws have been enacted
to meet the requirements of the new
order. Parents who will not allow
their daughters to accompany young
men to the theatre without chaper-
onage allow them to go bicycle
riding alone with young men, This
is considered perfectly proper. 1t
seems to be one phase of the good
comradeship which is SO strong a
future of the pastime, for there is
no leveller like the wheel. Every
rider feels at liberty to accost or
converse with every other rider, not
only bound but willing to give him
aid in distress or accident, and in
various ways to treat the bicycle as
the badge of equality among all its
possessors. Yet every man who has
ridden much, either on Sundays,
holidays, or other days, must have
been struck with the uniformly quiet,
orderly, and decorous conduct of
the great army of wheelmen. They
are seldom boisterous, and the
rowdies are the great exceptions.
OF no other form of popular exer-
else, or excursion, can it be said that
it is so conductive to good manners,
simple conduct, and kindly inter
course as bicycle-riding. 1t brings
all classes together when all are in
condition Of healthy enjoyment
and physical content, The artisan,
the millionaire, the professional
man, the laborer, the rich merchant,
| tho Iadv whoa mama anpears in all