The citizen., 1897-03-19
A<WHEEL STORY.
by o. *. sCHIMANsKY.

attempt to ride, but is my story of an
attempt to teach her to ride.
"She was a sweet sister, was this
maiden, sweet sister of John Jones'.
when she came TO me one evening Just
as old Sol was hiding his fire-red visage
back of the trees in the far west, and
asked me in an enhancing, apologetic
way if wouldn't assist her in her BIZ
cycle practice, as Brother John has
pressing engagement and can't be with
me, and, anyway, he says you know
more about bicycling than he does
"Say, just then could have Rugged
John Jones, and his sister, too, for that
matter, but John was not there, and as
for his sister-well, did not dare.
zAss Jones had been the possessor of
. bicycle about three days, and as we
wended our way side by side to her
home to get the steed Of steel she in
formed me that she was doing just
lovely And she also ventured the re-
mark that she actually believed she
could ride alone, only she got so terribly
frightened.
when we arrived at Miss Jones' home
ghe excused herself for a few minutes.
saying she wished to don an appropriate
costume, and when she emerged from
the house a little later, clad in neat
fitting garb of the hloomer type and
leading diamond-f frame machine, why,
1t simply took my breath away. Oh.
but she looked clipper, chic and de-
bonair, and my heart was at once smit-
ten with her. though always had pc
culiarly sympathetic feeling for her
She certainly was the most beautiful
and sweet morsel of femininity it had
been my pleasure to gaze upon. There
was no doubt about this. this lesson
would be extremely interesting. There
would be no skirts to get entangled in
the wheels and chain and to bother her
IN her awkward manipulations of the
same, and the time spent in teaching
her to properly manage the steed would
surely be just so long a time of un-
alloyed pleasure.
Miss Jones and l walked to a street
seldom travelled after sundown and the
walk over the intervening thorough
fares was an exceedingly short one. We
arrived Mt our destination. The first
thing was to show her how to mount
and this was a sumner. had assisted
many young ladies in their efforts to
master the bicycle but all of them rode
drop frame machines and they all wore
skirts. This case was far different.
However, | got on and off the wheel,
using the step, 'man-fashion,' and ex-
planned to her in detail every succeed
ing movement. Then Miss Jones tried
1t. First l firmly graspcd the handle
bar with one hand, holding the frame
in front of the saddle with the other.
Miss Jones reached over my arm, took
hold of the grips, put her right foot on
, the STEP made a lunDe for the saddle
band kerflop, we both landed on the
hard road. l was underneath, the
wheel made up the second layer of the
pile, while Miss Jones sat, not too
gently, on top of the whole. thought
one of the handle bars had punctured
my side and that | was swallowing a
heterogeneous mass of bicycle spokes,
good solid clay and rubber tires. Miss
Jones did not get off the heap at all but
sat therS half sobbing, half laughing,
and said she hoped l was not injured,
that she was so sorry, etc. With an
almost herculanean effort | rolled from
my position under the wheel and its
fair, but heavy burden, and after pull
ing myself together, gave Miss Jones
my hand and helped her to her feet. 1
inquired if she were hurt but she re-
ioicingly informed me that she came
out unscathed and was ready for an
other trial.
81 was not much njured-'no-but
whatever thoughts l had had of spend
ing an enjoyable evening were rudely
dispelled from my mind. No, was not
injured, but l could almost swear that
one of the pedals of that machine had
cut out few square inches of my shin
bone and l imagined l could feel it
dangling about my ankle. | was also
aware of the fact that there were several
non-repairable punctures in my trous-
ers and that my anatomy was bruised
and sore in more places than l could
enumerate in a three-page article.
"To tell the truth l was not at all
anxious to continue the demoraliZing
lesson, as l was sure that this expert
ence would be the death of me but l
wouldn't for an instant think of tell
ing. ny fair companion that l had to
give UP.
mo! she should be the first to say it
was time to postpone the practice until
another day. was in hopes the wheel
was in such condition. after the hard
fall, that it would be impossible to use
it, but outside of a few scratches, II
came out of the tumble as did its owner
not in the least damaged.
well, we tried the mounting busi-
ness over again, and this time l was
prepared for the shock and she did land
on the saddle l-ost beautifully. After
/ had balanced the seemingly uncon-
trollable wheel and told her to get ready
for the start off. she said to me that she
could ride fairly well now that she was
on and if would Just take hold under
. the back of the saddle and follow her in
that way she thought she could pedal
forward very well. | did as she told
me and after giving the wheel a slight
push she moved off. Yes. she went it
alone all right All had TO do was to
follow her. At first she went slowly.
at what you would call dog-trot, then
she increased her speed. And still all
( I had to do was to follow her!
"As we we're booming merrily onward,