Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1896-09-17
WHEELING FOR WOMEN.
An English Medical Mans View
Thinks Healthy Women Can Ride.


Thinks Healthy Women Can Ride
That ladies are cycling, and that they
mean to cycle, is at this moment very
obvious fact. So many are "on the
wheel, and have been for sufficient
length of time. that we are in position
to fairly review the effects, to decide
whether they have done well in over
coming deeprooted prejudiees and reyo-
lutiouizing trade. 1t is not cur nur-
pose to consider what Mrs Grundy may
have said or thought about the ques
ton, but whether women as women
should or should not cycle. Does it in
jure or improve the health of those who
attempt it?
At the outset the medical profession
said little. but unquestionabiy it looked
askanee, and there was solemn wag-
ging of grey boards and a low-pitched
murmur of grave consequences to be
anticipated. Small wonder. when one
remembers that medical men, to whose
opinion the greatest weight would be
most likely to be attached, had them
selves. from age and considerations OF
dignity, no practical experience of the
art.
The old-fashioned ordinary with
its huge front driving wheel and the
scramble to reach the saddle, to say
nothing of what might happen TO its
occupant when once there, had doubt
less much to answer for.
Then came the "whippet,' but, alas!
with it the "scorcher" with his bowed
back well besprinkled with mud, his
awful swoop on the harmless but
necessary pedestrian, made more m
pleasant by the ridiculous note of
warning from his infantile fog horn.
Enough surely to raise alarms of
strains, of bicycle backs" and of APP
palling accidents amidst congested
traffic. But the big wheel has gone,
the scorcher is on his death bed and
the bicycle back" has never been de
veloped.
Women would cycle. How they be-
gan, when or where, history telleth
not.
The "whippet" made mounting and
dismounting easy; the drop frame"
made both still easier; the pneumatic
tire banished other jars. Ladies never
scorched. The tailor has done the
rest, and here we are in the year of
grace, 1896, with women cycling on
every decent day on every bit of level
road.
The medical profession, alasl cannot
claim that it has the credit of having
urged or even advised women to cycle.
Just as ever, women have tasted the
fruit for themselves, with less harm 10
the sex and the world at large than fol-
lowed Ewes historical experiment
Let it at once be said, an organically
sound woman cam cycle with as much
impunity as man. Thank heaven, we
know now that this is not one more of
the sexual problems of the day. Sex
has nothing to do with it, beyond the
adaptation of machine to dress ami
dress to machine.
With cycles as now perfected there
is nothing in the anatomy or the physi-
ology of a woman to prevent their be-
ing fully and freely enjoyed within the
limits defined by common sense.
For many generations women have
been debarred from the benefits and
pleasures of physical recreation; but
the tide of public opinion has turned.
Riding, hunting, tennis, golf, are al
ready on their list. The rational enjoy
ment of these pastimes has been pro
ductive of nothing but good to mind and
body alike. The limit Of physical On
durance in women Is much sooner
reached, OF course, than in men, doubt
less due more to hereditary disuse Of
their motar centers and their organs of
locomotion, circulation, and resplra-
ton, than to sex. Time will level this
up Women are capable of great ply
steal Improvement where the opportun-
ity exists. Dress even now heavi}4'
handicaps them. How fatiguing ard
dangerous were heavy pctticoats and
flowing skirts in cycling even few
years ago, the plucky pioneers alone
can tell us.
There may be something yet to be
done in making the machines more
perfect, in increasing rapidity, in reduc-
ton of weight, and in banishing tire
troubles; but already the ladies cycle
is. when turned out by first-class firm,
a splendid mount Dress, is on the
other hand in the early stages of
evolution. The strife between the
esthetic and the useful viii probably
end in compromise.
From time out of mind it has become
an axiom that a man is better for all
the physical exercise he can take short
of exhaustion or damage to his organs.
Prejudice alone has prevented this view
being held with regard to women. Bit
$3.50 ----t