848 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



found on Siindaj-— in the saloon or off in the 

 country, on a wheel? Of course you would 

 rather have him at ( burch and iSunday-school 

 than at either of the places. But suppose it is 

 either the wheel or the saloon. Is there any 

 one who can for a moment think of calling one 

 as good as the of/if r/ If he goes to the saloon 

 he has already braved conscience and public 

 opinion. He knows, without being told, that 

 he is on the road to ruin. He voluntarily seeks 

 the society of the lowest and most depraved? 

 But is it so with the wheel ? A great part of 

 wheel-riding is done in no company at all: in 

 fact, it is hard work to keep side by side with any 

 one. If you get too close you are liable to have 

 a collision; and when any part of your wheel, 

 your body, or even your clothing, touches any 

 thing, you lose your center of gravity and down 

 you go.* The saloon is social in its tendencies. 

 For reasons given, the wheel can never be very 

 social— that is, while you are riding. The sa- 

 loon favors late hours: the wheel emphatically 

 directs that all riding be done by dayliglit. It 

 is dangerous to ride after dark, especially in 

 the country. The wheel takes you out into the 

 free open air, usually into the country, araid 

 the trees and green fields, and God's clear sky. 

 The surroundings are calculated to ennoble, 

 and this wonderful new exhilaration from ve- 

 hement exercise stimulates one's />e.sf thoughts 

 and feelings. It is the greatest encouragement 

 I ever felt toward godliness. In fact, it leads 

 one to look u]) to God with gratitude and 

 thanksgiving. The atmosphere of the saloon, 

 physically and morally, tends to W7/ spiritual- 

 ity. I believe the tendency of the wheel is to 

 encourage a healthy, wholesome spirituality. 

 I am sorry tliat our boys are riding so much on 

 Sunday: but if the wheel is going to be the 

 means of drawing our boys out of the saloons 

 on Sunday, I feel that it is inducing them to 

 make a tremendous step in a hetter direction. 

 If we can get our boys into the open air. I 

 think our chances are ever so much lietter for 

 saving them.t I have wondered what our young 

 men have said when they met this paragrnph 

 in the BicycWKj World. I am inclined to think 

 they have said to themselves, "Why. that 

 Christian Secretary is an old mossback. He 

 has stayed cooped up in his office so long that 

 he does not even know wliat is going on in this 

 great country of ours." And by the way. dear 

 friends, I do fear that a good niany of Uv« who 

 are professing Christians are in great danger of 

 meriting the title of " mossback." When the 

 Endeavor Society was first started, the biggest 

 part of our ministers, and perhaps the greater 

 l)art of onr old deacons, frowned on the new 

 venture, and I myself was guilty of suggesting 

 that we had organizations and societies enotigh. 

 We turned a cold shoulder toward it, and ser- 

 mons were delivered in some pulpits against it. 

 But the movement was of ^Tor7'.s- appointment. 



* It is sulci tliat a very polite wheel rider once sim- 

 ply l)ruslied a lady's arm while he was riding- by the 

 side i)f a canal. It threw him out of l)alaiice, and 

 down lie went iiitci the water, and under it. As 

 soon as he could get his head above the liquid he 

 blubbered out an apology for his rudeness in having- 

 ridden so near her. 



•♦-Once more: It is just beginning to be discovered 

 that experts on the wheel must not u.se either 

 strong drink nor tohacc-o. The man wlio uses to- 

 bacco will surely fall behind; and I believe that 

 quite a few of those who ride wheels have abandon- 

 ed tobacco on this account. Tobacco strikes a sure 

 and deadly blow at the best muscular development. 

 May the Lord be praised that we are .iust beginning 

 to find this out. I have before spoken of the fact 

 that those who make great rides on the wheel 

 choose milk in place of alcoholic drinks or even tea 

 and cofifee. 



and not of man's, and it pushed through all 

 opposition, and it astonished the world by 

 showing what it could do and what it is doing. 

 Now. I believe the wheel too is of God— a won- 

 derful and precious gift to the present century. 

 Why, just think of it I almost everybody must 

 do miles and miles of walking. Business men 

 spend a great part of their lives in walking. 

 They wear out their boots and wear out their 

 bodies in slowly tramping here and there. A 

 man can walk four miles an houi-; and even 

 four miles an hour is very fatiguing to many 

 people. With the wheel, eight miles an hour 

 is a slow gait. With fair roads, almost any 

 one can make twelve, and the boys often make 

 sixteen without a bit of trouble. Ernest rode 

 five miles in sixteen minutes, and I presume he 

 could liave gone five miles more in the next 

 sixteen, without a bit of trouble. This was on 

 a smooth race- track, however: but the road 

 was not a bit better than most of our country 

 roads sliould be, and, I verily believe, will be. 

 Just think of iti when you are in a hurry, and 

 it is desirable for you to see a good many peo- 

 ple in a short time, with tlie wheel you can 

 almost annihilate distance. Best of all, when 

 you come to talk to somebody on business you 

 are in a good frame of mind. In fact, it is a 

 daily surprise to me to find that there is an 

 invention right here before us that will make a 

 sour and crabbed man good-natured. Yes, I 

 have purposely tried the experiment of getting 

 on the wheel just before supper-time, wlien 1 

 felt weak and nervous, and fidgety and cross. 

 I have tried it when I felt sure that nothing in 

 the world could help me. In half an hour I 

 was strong, well, bright, happy, and cheer- 

 ful, and pleasant to my wife and children. 

 May be this is making a confession. Can't 

 help it; it is too good (not too good to be true) 

 to keep to myself. Our boy Hitber. only nine 

 years old, takes the same wheel that I ride, 

 and runs all over the country with it, even 

 though he can not touch the pedals with his 

 feet much more than half the way round. Aft- 

 ei' school he gives us a series of gymnastic per- 

 formances out in the street between the house 

 and factory. The wheel stands still for him — 

 at least, it looks as if it did. While he climbs 

 on, it looks as if he were going up a series of 

 steps upstairs. Then he gets first on one side 

 and then on another: puts his feet over the 

 handle-bars, side-saddle fashion, stands upon 

 the pedals without sitting on the seat at all, 

 and yet I can not remember that we ever saw 

 him get a fall. When suppertirae comes he is 

 rosy and happy from the exercise that it gives 

 him. A few days ago a man was wanted who 

 was about a mile and a half away. It was over 

 some pretty long steep hills, but Huber thought 

 he could master them. He did the errand and 

 was back so soon that I scarcely missed him 

 from his play. It is the nicest and most whole- 

 some sport in the world for cliildren, and th(U-e 

 is real utility in the sport. It brings all man- 

 kind closer together. At our prayer-meeting 

 last week some of the old people asked what 

 should be done with restless hoys who want 

 exercise, and who want to go out into the 

 country on Sunday. I ventured the suggestion 

 that the boys should be permitted to get on 

 their wheels and go to a Sunday-school at three 

 o'clock in the afternoon, just two miles away. 

 I said that, if the boys would take a seat in oin^ 

 of the classes, and listen to the instruction, and. 

 as soon as school is out, ride straight home, I 

 should not fear that such an amount of Sunday 

 riding, and for such a purpose, would result in 

 any thing bad. 



A little way back I spoke of a race- track 

 where our boys do a great deal of riding. It is 

 true, we have wheel-racing like horse-racing; 



