The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-09-18
Society Topics.

1t is strange what people will do when
they have the bicycle fever: No amount
of obstacles, no ridieule will keep them
| from riding a bicycle. Never has an OBJ
| lection been devised which has succeeded
in lettering a bicycle enthusiast from rid
| ing. There have been a few cases known
when a man has sold his wheel because
in c~oasting down a long hin he fell off and
| s~prained his nkle and had to limp several
miles to- his home. But if the man is
| really an enthusiast his fail affects him
| in quite a different way. Instead Of sell
ing his wheel he uses his spare time learn
ing how to ride with one foot on a coaster
and the other on one pedal, so that next
time he sprains his ankle he can ride
instead of limping. Then when his ankle
is once again strong and well he revisits
the scene of his disaster fired with the
| determination to coast down that hill II
he dies for it. When he has succeeded in
| coasting it he is filled with satisfaction
that he did not give in and let such a
little thing as a troublesome hill. balk
him. Sometimes a man stops riding wnen
he gets seventeen punctures in the course
of one ride. The rule is though, that ne
calls on all his brother cyclists for help
and then when he returns to his club tells
how he, unaided, mended seventeen pune
lures in one day. 1t is seldom, indeed,
that a bicyclist stops riding once he has
purchased a wheel. They with whom OBJ
~jections nave any weight, they who are
deferred by fear of ridicule are they who
have never experienced the pleasures of
a ride-they who have thought they would
-, A. -. ~ 1..A 49, -o.,ar n we ynd
it. This class of people is an unfortunate
one. On them all the attention OF BIZ
cyclists and non-bicyclists is turned. The
bicyclists urge them to action. The nom
bicyclists advance all the theories ever
heard of against 1t. But even one OF that
class is seldom kept from riding if the
fever has been caught.
There is a lady Of the Heights who once
had the bicycle fever. She is very promi-
.nent in social circles. Unfortunately for
her aspirations her husband was not a
bicycle enthusiast. He cared little for
bicycles. He had never tried to ride.
He opposed bicycle riding for women.
| Every allusion she made to Mrs. So-ond-So
or Miss Somebody, who had recently
/ ltdllC4 u OdS
| criticisms of women who could so forget
their sex as to ride a bicycle. The case
| seemed hopeless. All her four hundred
intimate friends had long ago given up
her case.
One summer not so long G she went
| to the country. He was kept in town by
business. While in the country she learned
| to ride. After that she was more eager
than ever to own a bicycle.
One day shortly after her return from
the country one of her dear friends called.
The talk soon strayed to bicycles. With
great mystery she took her friend up
stairs with her to the top of the house,
where there was a large garnet. This
garnet a been devoted to the use of the
| old articles of furniture, cast off clothes
| and such things. The friend was as
tcnished to observe hat it was almost
| empty; tisat there was a large open space
IN the centre. The friend was still more
astonished to see in this open space a
| beautiful new ladies' bicycle. They went
into raptures over the wheel. She rode
around several times, explaining that as
her husband did not approve of women
| riding in the public streets, she had con-
verted the garnet into a riding academy.
Unfortunately, she forgot to add that her
| husband knew nothing of either the wheel
or the garnet.
The friend stayed to dinner. At the
table she said to the husband, by the
way, what a lovely Wheel you have given
your wifei'' Tableau.
For several weeks the wife and the
friend did not speak. Then one day the
h11Snond and uifa moro scam riding TO-
gether on the Boulevard, and the friend
was appeased. Thu story goes that when
he visited the garnet and saw how much
more lovely than any other woman his
wife looked on a wheel his objections
were overruled, and he learned to ride
that he might accompany her. So much
woman.
The Rev. and Mrs. John L. Scudder
and the Misses Scudder returned from
their summer home at Shelter Island last
Saturday. They are now busily at work
completing the furnishing of their new
home, No. 305 York street, which they be-
gan last spring.
Mr.. and Mrs. w. j.. Hunt and the Misses
Hunt have returned to their home, Bel
mont avenue. They have been spending
part of the summer at Liberty, Sullivan
county, New York.
Mr.. and Mrs. Horace c. Wait are back
from Europe. They enjoyed while there
the novel pleasure of touring about
Europe on their bicycles. Mrs. Wait, as
usual, took copious notes of her travels,
but this year she will mot deliver her
usual course of lectures. 1t is possible
that Mrs. Wait will yield to the impor-
~tunities of her friends and write a book of
her impressions.
Mrs. hannah Cairns, of West Hamilton
place, has recently returned from Chautau-
qua. Mrs. Cairns is a member of the
Chautauqua Circle and visits Chautauqua
each ummer. Miss Frances willard,
who is to be present at a temperance re-
ceptson in the Tabernacle, next month,
will be the guest of Mrs. Cairns while in
this city. 1t is thought that Lady Henry
Somerset will accompany Miss Willard.
Miss Edith Cairns, who has been visit
ing friends in Ohio. has returned to the
city. She has decided not to return to
Smith College this year, but TO make a
! careful study Of music. Miss Cairns is