The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-07
BICYCLING ON SUNDAY
BISHOP DU MOULIN FINDS SCRIPTURE
TO JUSTIFY 1T.
Several Hundred Local Wheelmen
Take in the Cincinnati EXcur-
siOn-BicycIe Notes.

Indianapolis is fortunate in having few
persons who have made it a business TO
publicly condemn cycling on Sunday. 1t
may be that the very persons who would
be expected TO take this stand are them
selves wheel riders and as such can see
no harm in discreet and sensible Sunday
cycling. The per cent of the population of
this city which is awheel is greater than
in any city of it's size in the United States.
II is not therefore strange that the wheeling
spirit should have taken hold OF this por-
ton Of the population, and the few per-
sons who might desire TO say something
against the use of the bicycle on Sunday
have allowed the subject to go by default,
against the known overwhelming majority
against them in sentiment.
But in other cities there has from time
to time cropped out vigorous opposition to
the use of the bicycle on Sunday. Every
possible reason has been assigned against
it, the most potent of course being that
which came from the pulpit. There have
ever been propositions made to prohibit by
law the riding of the bicycle on the Sab
bath. While it is not probable that such
a law as this could ever become general,
even in any single State, it would not be
surprising If some towns in the puritanical
East should try to enforce such law.
The clergymen and others, who oppose
Sunday riding, point to the fact that the
attendance at the churches falls off when
the bicycling season is good and that this
year it has decreased to a greater extent
than formerly. This means, of course, that
churchgoers are spending the day awheel.
There are few people who would argue
against the proposition that in so far as
no {uIya IL divine
ices, to that extent it is an injury to So
ciety for divine services always make So
ciety better. But there are other things to
be considered in passing upon the harm
fulness of the wheel and in judging the
amount of harm that is done by Sunday
riding. While many people are kept from
church on Sunday, many times the number
are kept away from saloons, gambling
houses and other iniquitous places The
wheel claims all classes as It's Votaries.
! While 1t may blunt the SenS1btliueS OF some
! it has an opposite effect upon others:
| While 1T draws some from the places or
! Sabbath worship it keeps many others
| from the dens of vice to which men ana
! women are wont to go on Sabbath as We'll
| as on other days. The man or woman who
| takes a ride on his wheel instead or going
| to church Sunday morning is not mucn the
| worse for it when he or she returns nome
! but the man or woman VINO takes a rue rue III
| preference to spending the morning drlnk-
| ing peer or playing CdTuS Is d SISell dcell
! better off for it. Where one leaves church
| to ride ten leave off habits which are more
demoralizing than the wheel.
The trouble with the view taken by the
| pulpit has been that 1t extended no farther
| than the empty pews on Sunday morning
| The view has been to an extent SelhSh, put
| there are some ministers who are of the
| people and who have had practical eXpe-
rience with the world enough to look at
| the question from more than one point OF
| view. One of these evidently is the Right
! Rev Philip Du Moulin, Lord Bishop OF
| Niagara who, in an address before the
| brotherhood of St. Andrew of New York
| city, expressed himself as follows:
Says the young man: / have worked
hard all week My health demands that L
| take recreation. The Sunday is pleasant
| / will go for a trip to Blanktown. Any
body who says l ought not TO enjoy sight
of the fields and some whiffs OF fresh ar
is a straightlaced crank, bigot. Inc world
| has got beyond him. Sunday was mace Tor
man; l will take what was made for me.
Let narrow puritanS stay in the past CEN
fury, where they belong There are others
beside the young man, VINO argue III TINS
i same way, and who consider this argu-
ment unanswerable But the argument IS
not a safe one. Young men OF to-day ought
to go on Sunday morning, not on bicycle
tour but to church. In the afternoon they
may and should do as Christ did-go into
the fields, not on foot as he did, put on
the wheel, because pleasanter ana raster