The record-union., 1896-07-19

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Her face won his devotion,
And her figures queenly motion
Filled his being with notion
ALL have felt.
She rode her wheel so sweetly
That she conquered him completely,
And slre had him tucked up neatly
Meath her belt
Her dot was more than ample,
For a thou was but a sample,
And she never tried to trample
On his vows.
So. this youth, in luck emphatic,
Had a future more ecstatic
Had he not been too erratic
To espouse.
For although her face and wheeling
And her fortune raised a feeling
That his peace of mind was stealing
And his ease,
He had courage never Tagging,
And preferred forever Staging
When he saw her bloomers bagging
At the knees.
Opinions of Mrs Charlotte Smith,
President of the Womans Rescue
League of Washington, and those of
several prominent Baltimore physicians
Go not agree on the subject of bicycle
riding by women. A Baltimore wheel
woman, who signs herself "One Enjoy
ing the Curse" thus answers the argu-
ments of the Rescue Leagues resolu-
tions:
The bicycle is a godsend to the
American woman said prominent fe
male physician of Baltimore not long
ago, and so say we all of us who are en-
joying the pleasure and benefit of
wheel. That the advantages of bicycle
riding should be unappreciated by ell
derly ladies' to whom the late magazine
is ideal recreation is not surprising; in
deed, we can excuse in them a gentle
opposition to the wheel How a young
woman. mentally, morally and physic-
ally sound, can find any objection to the
bicycle save the price, is past compre-
hension.
1T has been my privilege to have been
intimately associated with many young
women, hundreds of whom I have ex-
amined physically and trained in gym
nasium work The breathing apparatus
of the majority of these girls has been
miserable. Bicycle riding, requiring as
It does such deep and rapid breathing,
Will do more in a season to develop these
lungs than daily half-hour gymnasium
periods can accomplish in a year.
THE evil results of the compression Of
1he female waist has been groaned over
and deplored by physicians for a CEN
tury without visibly increasing the size
Of the waist but such is the construc-
ton of the bicycle that a woman cannot
ride in tight clothing. If she loves the
exercise she will submit to an inch or
two increase in waist measure that she
may ride with ease.
"The animal heat necessary to develop
such an amount of energy required to
propel a bicycle cannot be obtained
from sweetmeats and other dainties
such as the swell delights to subsist
upon 1t requires a substantial bread
and meat diet, and the riders are de-
veloping such appetites. This energy
cannot be applied to it's best advantage
through tight, pointedtoed shoes, hence
women are taking to sensible shoes.
THE bicycle seems likely to open the
gateway through which we women may
ere long pass TO a sensible, more decent
and hygienic style of street dress. A
short skirt that will not wind up in the
pedals IS a necessity on a wheel, and, as
we walk up the hills too steep for rid
ing, we begin to realize that a short
skirt is not bad thing for walking as
we'll as riding a bicycle. When we come
home and find the lower edge of our
bicycle skirt clean and intact, while all
the other street costumes are in need OF
cleansing and rebinding, we wish from
the bottom of our hearts that we could
all wear short skirts on the street.
What contamination can reach
man rolling through space at the rate of
ten miles an hour, with their eyes alert
for obstacles and their hands busy
guiding their wheels?
IF delegation from the Rescue
League. with their lungs filled with
pure air and their stomachs with diges-
tible food, would visit Druid Hill Park
some pleasant evening and view the
scene around Druid Lake for an hour.
they could secure better points for bicy-
Gle resolutions than they seem to have
been able to obtain from the women
of questionable morals with whom they
have been conversing in Baltimore.
Think of the exercise, the fresh air,
Aiiu the Deautl1uI scenery enjoyed by
the 25000 bicyciists of Baltimore while
1t is safe to say that at least one-half
the number would have had no summer
air and scenery except what may be
enjoyed from the decks of the Column
bia and Louise
If some poor girl, maintaining her
self by her own efforts, forced to live
In large city through the summer sea-
son, becomes disheartened and what
the league calls reckless a bicycle
would be surer aid to a higher moral
plane than tracts provided by legisla-
tion to enforce pure thoughts"
a careful authority puts the number
or bicycle failures during the month
just ended at thirty, one for each day
In a number of cases the liabilities
We're not large being confined to agents
rather than manufacturers, but the ag-
gregate amount involved makes an i'm
posing showing. Attention was called
some weeks since to the generally un-
satisfactory state Of the bicycle trade,
owing to over-production and the in
ferior equipment with which many
companies were attempting to carry on
the business and the prediction then