The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-07-15
THE EVENING STORY
When CIoyerdale Croaned.


was Aunt Sarah Dutton. She had lived
IN single 'blessedness to the age of As
ana was fairly well off and had opin-
ions of herr own
Six o'clock supper had been eaten In
CIoVerdale, and the hens were thinking
OF going to roost, and the village cows
were coming home to be MIXED, when
shlver suddenly ran through the burg.
A tow headed boy of ten years was re-
sponsible for the shiver Aunt Sarah,
as she was known to all, had been
away visiting her sister for fort
night She had now returned. She had
not only returned, but she had come
across the country from GreggSville on
bike, and at that very moment the
said bike was leaning UP against the
front of her house in a way to DEFY
public opinion.
For some minutes the town was so
taken by surprise that no one knew
just what to do. 1t was Uncle Reuben
Phelps who soonest recovered from the
shock and called an indignation meet
ing on the steps of the postofice For
some time he was in doubt as to
whether to ring a fire alarm on the
church bells or build a bonfire to call
out the town, but finally conpr omlsed
by making speech in which he con-
WINGED every hearer that the bulwarks
of morality were in danger and that
every citizen with sentiment in his soul
must arise to do battle.
a committee of five had just been
appointed to proceed to the house OF
Aunt Sarah and investigate, taking the
tow headed boy along as hostage,
when the woman they were looking
for appeared. She was on her bike.
She was wearing bicycle outfit, and
| she whizzed so close to Uncle Reuben
that the wind caught his coat tails
and made them stream out like flags.
Gentlemen" he remarked as he
| tried hard to crowd back his emo
| tons. "the crisis has arrived, and the
l rY- SCic ho 70 hn Of ct M
| it at any cost of blood and treasure
Thereupon the committee let go OF
the tow headed boys hair and re-
turned to the postoffice. Aunt Sarah
up and down and around on her bike.
Fifty men and boys looked on, but she
was not abashed. The silence of the
crowd was ominous of displeasure, but
she smiled and giggled as she rode; Z
was Deacon Nottingham who reached
| the limit first and stepped out into the
street and burst forth with:
| Woman, l never expected to see
| this day! If you have gone crazy
pity you, but if you are here in your
sober senses-if this shameless ex-
hibition"-
| But at that moment the front wheel
of the bike struck his knees and
/ slowed him into the ditch and caused
him to forget the remainder of his
peroration.
Then Josiah Green, on whose land
the annual camp meetings had beer
held for the last twenty-five years and
who had always held that a woman
who climbed over a rail fence instead
OF through it was a menace to founda.
ton principles, called for the cyclis
to stop her gambols and uttered {
groan and began:
when my wife died two years ago
I thought could never be reconciled
to her loss. but when I now behold one
of her sex wobblin' around on wob-
ble'-
'I don't wobbIe," interrupted Aunt
Sarah as she headed for him and drove
him out of the street.
when see one of her own sex wob-
| bin around on a wobble"-continued
Josiah from the sidewalk. But he had
only got that far when Aunt Sarah dis
i mounted and faced the crowd and said:
| This is a woman's wheel. I have
| learned to ride. I shall ride every day.
shall ride up and down every street
| and such of you as don't like 1t can
| lump it,
| Groans of anguish followed her as
| she mounted and rode away, and then
Uncle Reuben was called upon for an
other speech. He made one. He pref
aced it by saying that he was fifty-six
years old and had passed through sew
| eral epochs, but never before had he
been called upon to face such an epoch
as this. AS he stood there he could
feel the bulwarks of morality and re-
spectability tottering to their fall.
| It had been predicted that the time
would come when women would climb
| trees and turn somersaults off the TOP
of haystacks, but he had refused to be-
| lieve it. Now, however, he must be-
Heve He must believe that unless
something were done they would &c
| further.
Uncle Reuben wanted to close his re-
| marks with a few words on Washing
| ton crossing the Delaware, but the
| crowd had decided to appeal to Aunt
| Sarah's pastor to bring her to boob
! and began to move off. A dozen OF
demand that she be tried by the
! church, but the smiling pastor waved
| them aside and quietly said:
| I'm the first place, brethren, it may
| not be unknown to you, though tenn
porarily forgotten, that Aunt Sarah
holds a mortgage on our church fol
| $3.50 and can begin foreclosure any
/ and her sister have just gone over Il
| Aunt Sarah's house to take riding les
sons on her bike, can't consistently
| receive and act upon such charges.
| really think we shall have to accepi
| the innovation and get used to it,
A month later almost every girl an6
woman in Cloverdale was webbing
| on a wobbler." Uncle Reuben's CIR
among the number, and all he coule
| saw about 1t, as he stood on his Office
/ steps and gestured, was:
/ 81 never expected to live long enough
| to see wimmen wobblin on wheels, bu1
sence they will wobble-well, let ZEN
| wobble.'' M QUOD.
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