Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-07-26

ing at night without a lighted lamp. As for sidewalk riding, it is only al- lowed in sparsely settled places, and the tendency against it is more and more marked among wheelmen them selves.
 Probably the most magnificent show bicycle ride in the world is that from upper New York through the park, down the boulevard-or on Sunday the cable car "slot" on Broadway-across the bridge, through lovely Prospect park and down the new cycle path to Coney Island. On Sundays and holi- days many thousands make use of this route, and the proportion of accidents is small. The first bicycle path from the park to the island proved it's in- adequacy in single season, and sec ond has just been opened. Each of l these paths is about 15 feet wide, built of very fine granite chips, perfect in surface and about 51s miles leng A drunken cyclist is comparatively rare, and many of the road restaurants sell only temperance drinks. Ginger ale with a lemon squeezed into it is perhaps the commonest drink of male bieyclists The prettiest thing about the cycle path spectacle is to see how young and old join in it. Here at last is the ideal out door exercise in which whole families can join. In the good roads section of Jersey tits almost the rule that the base ment of a dwelling contains wheel for every member of the family except the baby.
 Women learn from the bicycle the control of their nerves. It is a fine sight to see in 1896 a woman weaving her wheel in and out among loaded teams who in 1894 would hardly have dared to cross the same street with out policeman's arm. When the moth CT of a family can strap lunch box to her handle-bar and convoy brood of young cyclists for a day at the sea- shore or in the woods, there is a de- cided gain in the average health of women.
 The girls-not few girls, but nearly all of them-are getting out of doors; which is precisely what has been wanted for the last two generations
  chance to survive.
 The young men profit quite as much. They are learning, long before they be- come voters, the power of organization in enforcing public measures. They are learning to reason that if by combina- tion a granite ring may be broken, so may other rings. They are learning to talk not lace n hc11+ Ta a+;opo1 ,,o1i+;oe necessarily, but more about street pay ing and street cleaning, the board of al- dcrmen and municipal affairs general ly. They are learning to take an inter- est in public business and larger towns, and these affairs, as all critics agree, are those most needing attention.
 With the extension of good roads the bicycle will silence the deserted farm" cry. No one is likely much to mind liv- ing 12 miles from a lemon if he can get on fair turnpike and wheel to his lemon in an hour, instead of sitting sul- lenly staring at a mud canal, called by courtesy road. The horseless car riage with pneumatic tires will supple ment the bicycle in this improvement. There may come day, and soon, when d good road once built will need no re- pair of the wear of wheels. The coun- try boy will surely be more willing to stay on the farm when he, too, can have his century runs almost from his own door and can feel along the interlink- ing arteries of perfect roads the one- ness of himself with the big world in a sense that the railroad station half dozen miles away can never give.
 The United States has reason to thank Heaven for the bicycle. It was just what we needed, and it came when our need of it was the greatest.
 DAVID WECHSLER.