The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-03-27
WHEELING AND DANCING.


oicycle Riding Impairs the Gracofulnesa
OF Ladies' In the ballroom.
The wheel no doubt makes the bicycle
girls legs stronger, but when it come.
to pirouetting about and tracing on the
ballroom floor the mystic figures SC
dear to the heart of the debntante and
her seniors, then, alas, the ill-effects OF
the wheel are apparent. The young
woman who has plighted her affections
TO the bike in the season when it was
particularly in evidence, suddenly dis
covers that while in her mind she ID
thoroughly familiar with just what she
ought to do. she is absolutely incapable
OF performing proper action. The mus
cles of her limbs seem to have lost their
cunning. Instead of being able to zone,
two, three; one two, three" as the
dancing master would have it, she finds
IL hard to even "one," and her parents
wonder what on earth is the matter
with the young woman, who, the year
before, danced as if she were syIph.
The difficulty referred to is partic-
ularly noticeable in the waltz The
bicycle girl finds it absolutely impossi-
tie to execute the steady glide. Awk-
wardness does not describe what she
feels. She can only perform a move
ment that is az eccentric in it's way as it
lacks elasticity. The polka, the schot-
tische and the quadrille are almost as
difficult, although the latter, of course,
calls for much less exercise of skill in
the matter of executing the steps. In
quiry among the young women who
ride the bicycle shows it to be an actual
fact that exercise on the wheel seems to
deaden and stiffen the set of muscles
that come into play in dancing. just
why this is so the doctors are unable to
explain, except in general way that
they become lax and useless through
constant exercise of other muscles, and
that when the old-time muscles again
are put in use they are awkward and not
inclined to respond to the call made
upon them.
Several of the young women who have
danced to the delight of thousands at
the theaters ruefully admit that their
affection for the wheel has caused them
no end of trouble. why" said one
young woman, whose merry eyes have
gained for her an international reputa-
ton, Il took up the wheel for exercise,
don't you know, and liked it ever and
ever SO much, but what was my sur
prise, after had been riding awhile, to
find that for some reason or other it
was very much harder for me to dance
than it had been before / couldn't
imagine what was the matter. Finally
went to see my doctor and asked him
If there was anything wrong with my
muscles. He looked me all over careful
~, and then said the only thing that was
wrong, so far as he could judge, was the
wheel.
Il asked him what in the world he
meant, and he said that riding the wheel
ieadened the muscles that had used
in dancing, and that every night, when
had been riding in the day, would
lind that the muscles for dancing
wouldn't act as if had not been riding.
Walking does not affect me that way at
AL can walk miles and miles and feel
just as well as ever at night, so far as
The muscles are concerned, but do YOU
know have just had to give up the
/ have had to give it up alto
,ether, much as hate to. You see,
iancing is my bread and butter, and as
find that riding the wheel hurts my
iancing I simply have got to stop it.
How does the affection make me feel?
Why, l have sort of sense of gone
less in my legs, just as if the muscles
hat l know are there were taking va
,ation, or something of that sort. /
annot make the little kicks and twirls
With my legs that l ought to in order to |
make my dance perfect, and so you see
lave had to give up the wheel"
That is just about the same way it
Gems to most of the young women who
lave been questioned on this rather
lelicate subject. So general has been
he practice of riding wheels by young
women the past season that this curious
Election of the dancing muscles is
natter of almost national interest. Go
nto the ballroom where young women
Il ordinary society are to be found and
watch the movements of the dancers.
here will at once be apparent that lack
t grace and lithesomeness that is
sually characteristic of the American
iri. There is dragging movement
bout the feet as if tendon was out of
rider, or something of that nature.-
Philadelphia Times.
Great Ice Avalanche.