The Bicycle a Benefactor

1895

A reliable correspondent writes to the New York World that in Chicago there flourishes a club of young women bound by a vow to ride horseback astride henceforth and forever. These young women have abandoned the spine-twisting side saddle; they have lived down the ridicule which accompanied the inauguration of their reform, and, most important of all, they attribute the success of their movement to the beneficent influence of the bicycle.

Each day it grows plainer that we must add the bicycle to the list of humanity's great benefactors. Already tens of thousands owe to it health, strength and their first intimate acquaintance with outdoor life. It has helped the farmer who foolishly despises it, by advancing the fight for good roads. It has filled the pockets of languishing owners of country inns. It has made the country boy and girl acquainted with their brothers and sisters from the city. It promises to do away with the stupid fashion of long trousers — to restore to mankind the graceful knickerbockers of old. It promotes equality. It discourages the separation of the people into hostile classes.

The bicycle is a democratic machine, a faithful servant, a luxury and a necessity, great and cheap. It is a good doctor, a destroyer of the blues. It deserves the monument which it is building to itself in the shape of a healthier, happier people.