Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1889 — A FEMALE CYCLIST. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A FEMALE CYCLIST.

How the Wily Machine Ban Away With an Estimable Lady. Bh© Took an Afternoon Outing In Central Park and Added Materially to the Attractions of that Interesting Resort. Among the many interesting things to be seen in Central Park, the past week, was my wife’s mother on a bi-; cycle. It was not her intention originally to enter into competition with the menagerie, but it’s a frozen fact that the two hippopotami were nothing to her after she got fairly started. I may add that the difficulty was right there—getting started. With the aid of two men and a step ladder my wife’s mother can climb upon a good, square-rigged horse with a stout leg under each corner of him, and do it so nicely that the beast will smile through his tears; but with dbicycle it is different. A bicycle has only two legs and neither of them-can be der dended upon to hold still in an emergency. She enjoys equestrianism very much because she thinks that it reduces her weight, but, as the matter of

fact, it is much more likely to have that effect upon the horse. As a friend of dumb animals 1 have advised my wife’s mother to transfer her affections to the bicycle. I told her that it was becoming very fashionable —so much, so that the newspapers had begun to libel celebrated actresses and others— Mrs. Langtry and Mrs. Potter imong the others by saying that they were experts with the wheel. I also told my wife’s mother that I knew of a girl who reduced her weight twenty pounds by bicycle riding. This was a fact. She broke her spine in three places and isn’t out of the hospital yet. I did not mention the latter part of this to my wife’s mother, because I wouldn’t be so mean as to spoil her sport with needless anxiety, as, after all, she micht live through this as she had through many other things that I had confidently depended upon. My representations decided her and she prepared for a gre it success on wheels. She did not care to appear in the park without preparatory practice, 30 she hirod a bicycle and had it brought to tho house. With this she 9xperimented in the hall outside the door of- our flat, during the daytime, when the men were down town. She did not learn to ride up and down stairs, though she went part of the way down once very successfully, but she acquired a pose which was somewhat easier and more dignified than if the bicycle had been a brush fence, though not much.Then she decided that it was safe to try the park. There is a place close by where women can hire bicycles, and there my wife’s mother asked for and. obtained one with a nigged constitution and a gentle disposition. She led the decile mnehine tn a secluded spot, where alia- thought to get a good start before sailing out before the admiring gaze orttre TnTrttTrade. Their ste Tried; to mount, but it wasn’t so easy there as in the hall with the bannisters to hang on to. She tried it till the machine got tired and then it lay down and she, fell over it. At the next attempt she put her foot through one wheel and sat down on the other one. At this moment park policemaii No. 13 hove in sight. I ‘‘Can I help ye thin wid that haythin machine, I duntio?” he inquired politely. “I cad ride real" well on my own bicycle,” said my wife’s mother with true feminine mendacity, “but this ugly thing lies down every time I look at it. ” “It looks daycint and docile,” said No. 13, “but the dayvil is in them things. I see a power of ’em every day, and the tricks jhey is up to, an’ why half the women in this town ain’t walkin’ round this minute with broken necks i 3 boyant me entirely.”

By this time No. T 3 had lifted up .the machine and was holding it on one side while my wife’s mother mounted on the other. Severn 1 spectators had strolled up meanwhile. My wife’s mother made a bold hasty step,and the bicycle took a tut toward No. 13. Tie dug iris toarmto the srma and tried to brace up under the load, but it was a little too much for him. Things began to look serious; My wife's mother let 'gO'hrrr grijv on the steering appCetua and Hung her arm 3 around No, 13’s tieek. He took a new grip on the earth at an increased angle. Several of the spectators offered advice, though there was really nothing to do but

trust Id providence. Wo. 18’s feet slip*' ped slowly out from under him; mjl wife’s mother attempted to fly, and succeeded so well that when she and the bicycle, after a short aerial performance, decended together they found No. lfi’s prostrate body waiting for them. He Was removed from under the wreck much broader, hut not nearly so thick as he had been before. Nevertheless the spectators of whom there were now a large number, re-, garded the affair as a great joke, and fifty or a hundred of them offered to hold the machine for nothing if my wife’s mother would try it again. Probably they thought that they could bluff her out. This mistake arose from not having had her in the family. She was in a condition of mind to ride that bicycle if nothing had remained of it but one wheel. Singularly enough, however, it was found to be substantially uninjured. About a dozen men then grabbed the machine while the female cyclist of our family proceeded to mount. They were insisted by one small boy who took hold of the rear wheel with the avowed intention of “steadyin’ de bloomin’ bike till de old lady hollered go.” He didn’t wait for the signal, however, but, as soon as my wife’s mother got her seat, he gave the machine a violent push which caused the slender man in front to sit down very suddenly— The cyclist, having by this time got a grip on the treadles, took a flying start and passing over the slender man lengthwise, proceeded on her way down hill. It isn’t very hard to run a bicycle down hill If you’re iu a hurry and don’t care how fast you go, and don’t get your feet mixed up with the treadles or run over a dog or meet anything coming up. Some of these possibilities occurred to my wife’s mother after the speed of the machine began to get away From her; and they destroyed her peace of mind. But nothing serious happened. She ran down the long hill beautifully, and her headway took her about forty feet up a short, steep incline that faced the other slope. She tried to continue her progress up this slope but it wouldn’t work. Instead, she began to gather speed in the opposite direction; so she gracefully alighted on her back, and picked up the machine which had run into a tree. She led the bicycle up the hill, and endeavored to look as if nothiug had happened. She was not wholly successful for her fame spread and there seemed to be people all over the place who wanted to hold the machine, and then see the fun afterwards. Among them was a large, fat patriarch who said that he was an expert. He really did understand the subject very well, for he put my wife’s mother on it without much trouble, and suggested that she should ride round and round on the level space at the top of the hill and not try to go down. She tried this plan and succeeded fairly well.

Meanwhile the expert strolled down the hill. Probably he knew that my wife’s mother would get down there eventually. She go! there sooner than he expected. For riding a bicycle a woman wears a round, full skirt, much like an ordinary riding habit but not so long. Now there-happened to be a good breeze on the eminence, and before my wife’s mother was aware of it her skirt had blown out like a great balloon and was sailing off with her before the wind, and the wind blew straight down the hill. Forty miles an hour was nothing to her speed at the moment when the obliging expert turned and saw her bearing down upon him. He was too completely taken by surprise to dodge, so he fled. A half dozen other pedestrians and several’dogs joined in the stampede. They made good time but it was no use; they couldn’t beat the air ship on wheels. The flying machine passed over the fat gentleman and ground his nose into the sand. The bicycle was deflected from its course by this collision, and made a jump for a sh idy nook where one of tho park gardners was eating his lunch silling on a board across two barrels. The bicycle went under the hoard, and my wife’s mother went over it. She took the gardner with her. He did not mean to elope but he couldn’t help it. He had no time-to reflect. They both landed in a large'tank which the gardener had been filling as a sort-of reservior. I’ndoubtedly if I had seen this event with all its breakneck possibilities I should have thought mvse’.f ih luck. But I wasn’t. My wife's mother escaped entirely uninjured, but the bicycle was a wreck and I had to pay for It. Still it is a fact that although bicycling is getti ntr -more fuslu wonjen. it has permanently lost its popularity in our family.

TOO NUCH FOR ONE MAN.

THEY ALL WANTED TO HOLD IT.

MY WIFE’S MOTHER UNDER FULL SAIL.