The morning times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-09
HAS THE BICYCLE HELPED THE WORLDS?
Leading Men, Minister'S Doctors and Women Answer
This Question.

the shOetOps, or ankles; CATERS to mat CHI;
shirt waist, and a pretty, jaunty cap. Sum-
ming up my experience and knowledge,
would sa y that have not noticed any I'M
favorable results from bicycle riding"
MRS. SARAH ID. LA FETRA for a long
time president OF the Young Women's Chris
tian Temperance Union and now OF the
Florence Crittenton Mission: why. ~
course, I'd ike to talk about the bicycle:
everybody else is. But l can't indorse
everything that has been said against It.
In the first pace. it is an excellent thing
for girls. Between lazy, lstIess after
noon in a swing, with a more or less
advisable novel in her hand, and girl
speeding along the street In good COM
pany or by herself, would choose the
bicycle girl every time. l know, too,
that the bicycle has done away with .
great deal or the rfivonties, and especially
the extrayagances. OF dress. For that
one respect the revolution OF the bicycle
ought never to go backward, and II would
be a good thing IL the craze as some
people call ii, would increase until every
girl who eau ride had u wheel OF her
own.
why, the buying of a wheel by girl
from her own resources and savings Is
practical lesson in economy, 1t has made
Eew and extended social circles; il has
decreased the idle hours which all girls
have even In the Test regulated families;
it has made her more sociable. she finds
an agreeable conipaDionship in her girl
friends with whom the wheel is bond or
Gnion, and, in fact, I'll round she is a more
active healthful and rcstful girl when the
time comes for rest"
And how has IL affected them morally
THAT is question w hich is fully answered
BIZ what i have said. The fewer wasted,
idle, inaDe hours for Young women the less
chance, opportunity or incentive Will there
tt,tt, t,,,tt a1r al
purity OF young women. / don't think that
the bicycle has made revolution in
morals. The girls whom 1 know who ride
the bicycle have, IL anything, cha nged only
III the respect Of what is best in their Lives
of freedom and innocence
MISS EVA SIIONTZ. who is associated
with Mrs. Carse in the ". c. T. U. Temple
fund: Il indorse the wheel for, woman as
a Coequal sharer in the greatest legacy
OF the age. The question of possible change
in the moral ways and means OF woman's
life simply because she adopted The wheel
has been discussed from several points OF
view. / do not think that such question
would ever have arisen had IL not been
for the uDdeniable fact that reckless.
abandoned women have made immodest
exhibitions OF themselves. This proves
nothing.
1T will scarcely be contended that the
small percentage OF outcast women il a
logical basis for the printing OF libel
on the whole sex. Just as in every other
ethical question: or moral question, IL
is the abuse of u privilege and not its use
thatis aimed at by the too Jealous, captious
critic. Any general statement as to the
immortality or even iInmoIesty or wontei
riders must be based on tire exceptions to
the rule, which process ia very faulty logic.
But the reverse, in my varied experience.
is true.
"Of all modes of lCCnInoiiCD, from the
crib TO the hobby horse, TO the lady's gentle
horse, to the horse ridden to the hounds
by the huBtress, down to the bicycle, the
latter has done the most for the female sex,
in health, in sociahility and, i was going
to say, morality, but that, like the poor,
woman is always expected to have with her
on or off the teel stead or any other"
MISS L. II MILLER, of enc OF TIE select
woIneD's societies OF the city, in which
athletes is Il branch of the culture among
its members: II regard the invention as
one by which woman has been benefited
TO greater degree than by any other
intended for physical development. But
apart from that il is also womaD's priv
ilege TO use the wheel in the daily routine
of her social and commercial business.
Il am OF the opinion that ii would be
pervcrsion of facts, So far as krow them,
to infer that the bicycle has unfavorably
affected the moral sense Of young women.
l do not think the bicycle needs any defense
on that score. IS to TIE healthfulneSs of
the exercise moderately and wisely taken,
1 am in accord with the great majority
OF obs erycrs."