Women on Wheels

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 265, 14 November 1885, Page 5

Women on Wheels

Foua years ago a woman on whoola was a rare and conspicuous sight; but today there are few parts of England—perhaps I may say of the United Kingdom—where a tricycling maid or matron excites any wonder in ths mind of tho spoctator. Certainly no more delightful means of locomotion was over placed within my sex's reach. Women aro seldom good walkers; their duties and pursuits conSne them far moro within doora thandotloso of men, and even thoso who are mo3t ardent ovor tennis or ar.ohory think, as a rule, that they have rather achieved n deed of prowess whon they have taken a ten-mile waUi. But the tricyclo gives them at once a means of wandering far afield ; of exploring foroat glades and heathery moorlands ; of finding; close to their own familiar haunts beauties hitherto undreamed of, which, without such aid, they would never have been able to discover. We have slowly grown to realise that, in these daysof over brain-work and ovor-civiliriationnomedicino but fresh air can calm the restless pulse and ?oothe the fovered mind, and the tricyclo offers to women that pmacea for over-wrought nerves and tried tempers. " Why not ride instead';" asks eomo- one. Certainly almost all that can bo said 'in praiso of tho tricyolo applies equally to tho horse; but while thousands jnay enjoy the formur, tho latter is within the rouch of the rich alono And it is particularly to the women of the middle class that I wish to recommond tho use of the tricyclo ; that clasa which sutlers most from what wo have grown to call the "littlo health of women," the class whose lives are the busiest, and whose minds the most heavily taxed, and who, just in proportion to that taxation and that buuness, need some lelaxation which shall ofler them the most complete- eh v.go and rest from their ordinary occupations " A Lady Cyclist," in "Uussell's Family Magazine" for September.

Ho had heen going to see her a longtime, but never stated the object of his visits, and she wis desrious of knowing something of the futute. The last night he called ho seemed to be quito sad, and after several well-developed sighs ho said : " Life is full, very full of bitterness, isn't it?" "Oh, ( I don't know," she responded, cheerily^ "I haven't much cause to complain." " Possibly not now, Mary, but the bitter cup haß not been placed to your lips." " los, Henry, my parents are dead. And is there no bitterness in that, Mary ? Is it not very sad to be an orphan ?" "Of course it is, Henry, but you see"—and she blushed vividly "it relieves you of the embarrassment of having to aak father." Henry's heart was touched.