The sun., 1896-09-22
prrrrr womEN STEAL B1oroLKs.
wheel Dealers Lose Conndence In sonas
Msmhnrs Of the CYeline SIsterhood.

wheel Dealers Lose Confidence In Sors
| Members or che cyeiins Sisterhood.
At the beginning OF this year. whom the pric,
| NJ n rood bicycle was much higher than II 10
| now. dealers In wheels were not surprised that
thieves should visit their stores with the inten.
tIon Of stealing machines, but now that pretty
fair bicycle may be bought for a few dollars, II
seems queer TO tho shopmen that anybody
sbould want to steel one and run tho chance OF
being detected. It didn't take dealers long to
spot the men who made q regular business Of
hiring wheels and not returning them, because
rcports OF such things travel rapidly from one
.bop TO another. Strangers who tried to rent
machines wero usually treated with extreme
coolness, and only rarely was one allowed 70
take n wheel out of the store. At that tlma,
however, the persons whom the shopkeepers
had reason to suspect belonged to the male sex,
and. ns q rule, the women who camo to bird
wheels were accommodated. Now the suspicion
OF bicycle dealers hereabouts rests on both :men
and women, and IL anything, IL rests mora
heavily on tho latter.
This feeiinr Of mistrust has not been enReu-
dered By the arrest or conviction OF women
bicycle thieves in other parts of the country,
but by the personal experiences of the New
York dealers themselves.
"why." said the manager Of wheel-rentinE
store ~ had rather have dozen men thieves
man calls 10 hire wheel and we are q. all In
doubt as to his honesty. we simply tell him he
ia told that our rule s TO refuse to lot wheels TO
persons we don't know. and he goes away
n an %n sSsa.S cu cn dson y ssG Rsr s6s sss
wheel ;he says Just for little spin IN the park.
Her Her friends have told her. that we have
such lovely wheels and she has wanted
sb OBJ ia brave enough TO AJAX for her address she
tosses her head and snaps her eyes and Gays abe
lived lived q there. % and her father ia Mr. SO.
prominent politician Y may BE- and she 10 sur
% her that dons M
ber word but thst our rules e forbid our renting
enmssancss cum s' do we let Wheels to any one whose @
Then shs declares that the whole thing Is ab-
afternoons pleasure all because none OF us
happens to know her. When an argument like
against it. we have had dozens Of women cali
and have had TO deny their requests" S '' ""ee
The owner b 9f Thsssirsntins place on Eighth
Gle thieves that never deceives him. ''-'''''' WY
" Almost every day" said he. women who
machine OUT for oH little T WSe a and 20 some Of
them have corkinE good looks, too. Often with
out SAYING yes nd or p,1 no to sr ask for
tell them that our rule is always to investigate
the trustworthiness of strangers before1sntinc
them wheels. Some women Will frowh at that,
and Others will say: OF course. understand
that perfectly well. but do want ride so aw-
fully. and: really now. you know I'm all right.
don't you /?
" In cases like that tits only natural for man
to scratch his head and tell the woman that Of
course he knows she's all right. But the fellow
who yields is liable to be out wheel. Let
me tell you. young women have come to this
shop-women with big blue eyes and sound
from har who Looked sS they came direct
we have afterward looked mp and found to bo
purely nctitous; persons with the names given
us did not live there. It may be that some Of tho
false names and street numbers are given us
merely In n spirit of revenge. tho women sup
posing that We will make wild goose chase to
ook up their whereabouts. Anyhow. customers
of that sort who call here once never come back
which Is lucky torus as we always have enough
lew ones TO attend to-"