The record-union., 1896-08-16
BIKE! BIKE! BIKE!

BIKE! BIKE! BIKE!
Bike! Bike. Bike!
Ger the hard street stones, o she
And would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me!
o, we'll for the newspaper boy
That he scoots on his cycle away!
0, we'll for the butcher lad
That he pedals-perchance it may
pay!
But when stately girls get on
All a-crouch, and with prospect of
spill,
1t is o, for the touch of a wee soft
hand,
And the sound of a voice that could
thrill
Bike! Bike! Bike!
With thy foot on the pedal, o she!
VIII the girlish grace that the scorcher
doth lack
Ever return to theel
The bicycle has brought in it's wake
track of slang. The trail of the wheel
is over the English language to-day.
The new vocabulary which has been
brought in with the polished handle bar
and the pneumatic tire has come to
stay. Language is made up principally
of the slang of the generation before.
Now the proper way to speak of a
man whose habits of life are expensive
is not to refer to him as 'rounder,"
bon vivant" or "one of the boys"
He is simply "geared too high" or
'geared up to ninetysix."
An expression of extreme anxiety
which was hitherto characterized as
careworn is now only a variation of
the bicycle face"
The man who is a little behind the
times was formerly fossil" person
who had dropped into rut, an "old
fogy," "a fossil if you please. Those
who make the boulevard a cloud of
wheels by day and a pillar of scorching
fire by night refer to such a one as a
high wheel" By that they mean that
he is not a high roller He is behind the
times, for the bicycle with the big high
wheel and the little wheel which trun-
died slowly behind in a frantic effort
to keep up with the procession is con-
sidered as vehicle very much behind
the times.
Whenever the bicyclist wishes to in
sinuate that your statements are not as
truthful as they might be he looks at
You in a quizzical sort of way, and in
stead of remarking that You're off
your trolley" he simply says: MY
friend, your tire is punctured." If he
thinks that your. statements are reck-
less rather than rnendacious, he tosses
his head knowingly and says: You're
coasting, now. amt your"
The term chestnut" as applied to an
ancient story, has passed out of use up
on the boulevard. Suppose, for instance,
that you and she are trundling along
between the hill lined avenues, and you
say that she is the only girl whom you
ever loved. She, if she is thoroughly
familiar with the language of the wheel,
will give the bell of her bicycle a merry
tinkle and say: 20, Mr.. Blank, what a
century,
The use of the verb to scorch, as ap-
piled to fast bicycle riding, Is entirely
new. 1t has crept in within a very
few years. According to Mr.. Worcester
it means to burn specifically" So
rapidly do bicyclists ride these days
that they are supposed to parch the very
pavements under their swift flying
wheels. One of these days the diction-
ary will say that scorch also means ito
ride a bicycle at an extraordinary high
rate of speed
NO" the bicycle young woman will
say, IT do not care especially for Mr..
Van Skuler. He's a high wheel, and his
talk is a century. I hope you won't think
I'm coasting, but my pacemaker says
that I'm likely to take a header and
find myself in love with him."
The covert suggestion is that she
thinks that her chaperon has wheels.
The bicycle craze has given a variety
of names to the young woman who rides
the wheel We call her the bicycle
girl," and are wont to speak of her as
"a bloomer." In Chicago, where the or
dinances against fast riding are not so
strict, the young woman is spoken of
simply as a "scoot." In some Western
cities she is a "scorcher," while to New
Zealand remains the glory Of coming
that muscial expression, "a cyclic DON
na,'' or if you please, bicycle lady"
The New Zealanders are a polite and
courageous race. Clyco donna is a
much more musical term than "scoot."
One of these days you may see in the
book stalls "a Glossary of Bicycle Eng
lish,'' by Thomas Spinning Doubletire.
or some such noted author.
There is no more enthusiastic wheel
man in the country than Bishop Curtis
of Wilmington, Del. He has been rid
ing a bicycle for several years, and as
result of his example several priests
have learned to ride, and the sight of
a man in the habiliments of the priest
hood wheeling about the streers is not
unusual in this city, although it may
be elsewhere.
Bishop Curtis has been riding for so
long that many of his friends believe
that he was the first Catholic Bishop to
mount wheel. When interrogated on
this point by the correspondent of the
Sunday World" the Bishop said that
lie was not the first; that a Bishop
somewhere in the West is entitled to
that distinction Two priests who live
with the Bishop ride wheels, and so
does Vicar General Lyons. The Bishop
thinks a great deal of his mount, and
visitors find it stored in the reception
room of his residence when not in use.
The road between Wilmington and
Newcastle is macadamized with shell
and is as smooth as asphalt. 1t is a
favorite road for wheelmen and scores
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