Girls and Bicycles.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2094, 16 April 1898, Page 2

Girls and Bicycles.

In former years it has always been possible for wise mothers to keep a certain espionage over their daughters* movements,, an espionage which has been by degrees relaxing its severity since the days of our Puritan ancestors, but which has been maintained in form and essence. This oversight was an ©asy thing to accomplish when the girl depended upon th|e resources of a stable, upon street cars, or even upon her own little feet, for ..all of these modes of travel required either some elaborate preparation or consumed sufficent time in their execution to make her absence, did she elect to sally forth without eeremony,. an inevitable discovery. Now all this is The girl, who is supposed to be dressing for dinner, reading or studying or embroidering, may in the-twinkling-of an eye slip out of the side* gate on her wheel, make a run of four or five miles and slip back into the* house without her absence havingbeen noted or suspected. From the beginning of time, or of civilised methods of reckoning time down to the present day, women have ever been adjudged timorous beings afraid! of their own shadows and the dark when shadows are no longer visible. The independence of the- wheel has; completely changed their natures. They are coming to be courageous; without being masculine; andjjppens© with feminine weaknesses wiiff--out. assuming masculine viees. To be self-selianfc and freed from nonsensical l imaginings is a great step forward in feminine developement.- Another credit for the wheel I There is no reason why the wheelwomaa should not be the very best type of woman,and. there is every one that those who have been emancipated by the wheel from foolish conventions and more foolish restraints will boast a strength dignity a poise and force impossible under ; the dd senseless rufik artificial straint to which was subjected. The immoral woman will not be more currupt because she takes up this form of healthful exercise. JLhe pure and modest woman will not be less securely intrenched in the ->■ i-i>Mgh-i-Id in*r virtu-; because she> is accoi'dod new freedom and lifts her honour m her-own keeping.^