1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Wheel and the Woman. 
BEGINNING WITH THE BICYCLE. 
The Wheelyvoman’s Wardrobe.— 
Since wheeling became a standard form 
of exercise, to be indulged in by old and 
young, styles of dress for its enjoyment 
have been regulated by fashion quite 
as much as those for riding or dancing. 
At one time, conservative women were 
strongly prejudiced by the outlandish 
and immodest costumes adopted by 
some wheehvomen, but this has passed 
away. There are still, perhaps, some re¬ 
spectable women who eschew skirts, 
and ride diamond-frame wheels, but 
such riders suggest, to most spectators, 
doubtfulness of character, tnough we 
may not all express our feelings like 
a certain citizen of Brooklyn. Horrified 
by the sight of a woman wheeling man- 
fashion, he told her that she ought to 
be ashamed of herself, whereupon she 
handed him over to a policeman, and 
later he was fined $5 for disorderly con¬ 
duct. 
The prediction was made, a few years 
ago, that divided skirts or bloomers 
would become the universal feminine 
costume for the wheel. This prediction 
has not been fulfilled; not only are these 
radical reform costumes looked upon 
with doubt, but, this season, the fashion¬ 
able bicycle skirt is decidedly longer 
than before. The fact is that women 
want a oicycle dress which they can 
wear when off the wheel, without look¬ 
ing awkward and ungainly, something 
which may be worn for other out-door 
amusements, and for walking in rainy 
weather. 
Tiie Matter of Underwear. —Dress¬ 
ing and undressing every time one goes 
out is a decided nuisance; still, a change 
of underwear after wheeling is an actual 
necessity in the case of a person who 
perspires freely, and it will be found an 
economy to keep special underwear for 
this purpose. Many women who wear 
the regulation corset with other dresses, 
use a corded health waist in its place 
when wheeling, not only because of the 
greater ease, but because the extra per¬ 
spiration induced stains a corset by 
rusting the steels. A union suit which, 
in Summer, need be but knee-length, 
of thin cotton, hs better than muslin 
undergarments, and a great saving of 
strength in the laundry. 
It is, of course, superfluous to say 
that no petticoats are worn. During 
warm weather, knickerbockers or 
bloomers of black sateen take the place 
of woolen material. The sateen bloom¬ 
ers may be bought readymade for $1, or 
they may be made at home, requiring 
about four yards of 27-inch material. 
Woolen bloomers should be fitted to a 
gored yoke, so as to avoid bunchiness 
at the waist, and they will be found a 
very comfortable substitute for a flannel 
underskirt in severe weather, worn un¬ 
der an ordinary gown. 
The Skirt and Coat.— A few years 
ago, some women were persuaded that 
the wheeling skirt must be entirely sup¬ 
planted by bloomers—not such bloomers 
as are now worn under the skirts, but 
voluminous garments which suggested 
Mrs. Bluebeard. These bloomers were 
unbeautiful upon the wheel, and ab¬ 
solutely harrowing off it; no wonder 
they have gone the way of all dead fads. 
The divided skirt has many advocates, 
hut except for the fact that it is less 
likely to fly up in the wind, we see few 
advantages. Friends of the divided 
skirt say that its opponents are moved 
only by the fact that it is not suitable 
for wearing off the wheel, but that it is 
the perfection of comfort for the pur¬ 
pose of wheeling. Personally, we do 
not like the divided skirt, but that is a 
matter of taste. 
A special binding is now made for 
bicycle skirts, which has small Hat lead 
weights fastened in it at intervals, and 
this would be desirable with a light¬ 
weight skirt. One of the most fash¬ 
ionable oicycle SKirts of the season is 
made of reversible golf suiting, solid 
color on one side, plaid or check on the 
other. The material is thick, yet soft 
and light, anu will stand all sorts of 
rough usage. A favorite style is Oxford 
gray on one side, black and white check 
on the other. The price, however, is a 
shock to many women, being from 
$10.75 up for the skirt alone. Ordinary 
bicycle skirts cost about the same as 
other dress skirts, and a full suit aver¬ 
ages the same price, readymade, as a 
plain skirt and coat. Eton jackets are 
popular for wearing on the wheel, but 
it is wiser to have a coat which will 
button over the chest, and there is lit¬ 
tle, if any difference in shape from 
those worn for walking. In buying a 
coat specially for wheeling, however, 
it is wise to have some deep inside 
pockets, and to do away with outside 
pockets entirely. 
With the Procession. 
Would you like a new recipe, simple, de¬ 
lightful. 
Breakfast, dinner or supper appropriate 
for, 
Whose components may always be found 
within you. 
Requiring no visits to cellar or store? 
Take a gill of forbearance, four ounces of 
patience, 
A pinch of submission, a handful of grace; 
Mix well with the milk of the best human 
kindness, 
Serve at once, with a radiant smile on 
your face. 
_The greatest remedy for anger is 
delay,—Seneca. 
_Listen not to a tale-bearer or slan¬ 
derer, for he tells thee nothing out of 
good will; but as he discoveretli of the 
secrets of others, so he will of thine in 
turn.—Socrates. 
_No man's life is free from struggles 
and mortifications, not even the hap¬ 
piest; but every one may build up his 
own happiness by seeking mental pleas¬ 
ures, and thus making himself indepen¬ 
dent of outward fortune.—Von Huiut 
boldt. 
....The great means of doing good, 
though we cannot tell why or how, only 
because God so directed it, is by exam¬ 
ple. We are to be ourselves what we 
would have others to be. And this not 
only when others know it, but in all 
places: for I believe that what we do in 
secret affects others.—Mary Lyon. 
....Life is a fatal complaint, and an 
eminently contirgious one. I took it 
early, as we all do, and have treated it 
all along with the best palliatives I 
could get hold of, inasmuch as I could 
find no radical cure for its evils, and 
have so far managed to keep pretty 
comfortable under it.—Oliver Wendell 
Holmes. 
_People get to feel that they are 
doing nothing unless they have a sphere, 
a mission. I do not deny that the world 
is in terrible want of a great many re¬ 
forms; but I do deny that God calls 
many of those who set themselves up to 
reform it. I do deny that He wants any¬ 
thing done anywhere that has to be done 
at cost of the next duty.—J. F. W. Ware. 
_“The trivial round, the daily task,’' 
say little as they unfold their endless 
length of unlooked-for or sadly ceitain 
happenings about a discipline which 
molds character as surely as the per¬ 
sistent chisel of a sculptor unveils the 
heauty in a formless block of stone. The 
cheery smile which conceals an aching 
head, the bright word which veils a 
foreboding heart, seem but valueless 
grains of sand on life's wide and mea¬ 
sureless shore. We do not discern in 
them the lesson-books in which we learn 
to bear those awful hours of bereaving 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use “Mrs. Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adv. 
551 
agony through which we must either 
pass, as they of the old sacred story 
walked scatheless through the fire, or 
perish.—N. Y. Evening Post. 
_Professor Waterhouse, of Wash¬ 
ington University, St. Louis, has made a 
unique suggestion. He wants the long 
official title “United States of North 
America” abbreviated by taking the first 
letter of each word of the title, thus 
making the word “Usona,” which is 
much shorter and more practical than 
the present title. The people of the 
United States now known as Americans 
would then have the more direct name 
of “Usonians.”—Philadelphia Record. 
... .When the Superintendent of the El¬ 
mira Reformatory was asked if inheri¬ 
tance was the cause of crime, he replied, 
“No! Weak wills. There is no moral 
resistance to temptation.” He might 
have gone further and said that crime is 
often due to the inability to reason from 
cause to effect, to apply the world’s ex¬ 
perience to the individual life; and to 
lack of imagination, the inability to see 
one’s self enduring the penalty not only 
of crimes but of mistakes.—The Outlook. 
_The Marquis of Lome, when Gov¬ 
ernor-General of Canada, was present at 
some sports held on the ice of the St. 
Lawrence. Though wrapped in furs, he 
felt the cold acutely, and was astonished 
to see an ancient Indian meandering 
around barefooted, enveloped only in a 
blanket. He asked the savage how he 
managed to bear such a temperature 
when he had so little on. “Why you no 
cover face?” inquired the Indian. The 
Marquis replied that no one ever did so, 
and that he was accustomed to have his 
face naked from birth. “Good,” rejoined 
the Prairie King, “me all face,” and 
walked away. 
_The first printing press in England 
was set up by William Caxton in 1474, in 
what was known as the almonry, a little 
building adjoining Westminster Abbey, 
where the alms collected in that church 
were distributed to the poor, and his 
original sign can now be seen in the 
library of Brasenose College, Oxford. 
When the house was torn down in 1845, 
a beam of wood was preserved, and from 
it were made by a skillful carver two 
sets of chessmen as souvenirs of the his¬ 
torical fact that the first book printed in 
England with movable types was “The 
Gayme and Playe of the Chesse,” 3474— 
a beautiful folio, of which several copies 
are still preserved.—Chicago Record. 
_The author of “Wild Flowers of 
California” gives an entertaining ac¬ 
count of how the Indians prepare for 
food a plant that is commonly called In¬ 
dian lettuce. It will be recalled that 
formic acid takes its name from the red 
ant, and that the acid was first obtained 
from the insect. 
The Placer County Indians greedily 
eat the succulent leaves and stems of 
their “lettuce.” Their way of prepar¬ 
ing the plant for food is novel. Gath¬ 
ering the leaves, they lay these about 
the entrances to the nests of certain 
large red ants. The ants, swarming out, 
run all over the plants. After a time 
the Indians shake the ants off the 
leaves, satisfied that the lettuce now has 
a pleasant sour taste, equaling that 
which might be given it by vinegar. 
_What a waste of life, just getting 
and spending! Sitting by my pansy 
beds, with the slow clouds floating lei¬ 
surely past, and all the clear day before 
me, I look on at the hot scramble for the 
pennies of existence and am lost in won¬ 
der at the vulgarity that pushes and 
cringes, and tramples, untiring and un¬ 
abashed. And when you have got your 
pennies, what then? They are only pen¬ 
nies, after all—unpleasant, battered, 
copper things, without a gold piece 
among them, and never worth the deg¬ 
radation of self, and the hatred of those 
below you who have fewer, and the de¬ 
rision of those above you who have 
more.—The Solitary Summer. 
B.&B. 
It’s goods and prices 
people want—and they’re what bhow a 
store’s importance to your self-interest. 
They’re the one great convincing feat¬ 
ure this Dry Goods store puts its heart 
into and wins with. 
Write for samples of odd lots 75c. aiid 
$1 fine Dress Goods and Suitings J5oC. 
25 and 35e. Dress Goods 10c. 
Priestly’s Black Goods, 40 to 42 inch, 
f»Oc —price un approached for genuine 
Priestly’s celebrated Black Dress Goods. 
Odd lines—large variety—Summery 
Silks J55c —50 and 60c. kinds. 
And if ever there was a 
wash goods sacrifice 
it’s here, and now. 
20c. Madras 10c. 
25c. colored striped P K’s 10c. 
30c. Organdies 15c. 
12%c Dimities 6kfc. 
Other good Wash Goods 4c , 5c. 
Name the kind or kinds you want 
samples of—we’ll send you evidence 
that will show we mean sell—and every 
one who buys will find it to their un¬ 
usual profit. 
BOGGS & BUHL, 
Department C, 
ALLEGHENY, PA. 
FRUIT EVAPORATOR 
11 THk rPAlUPITP For family use. Cheapest in 
I11L UlUlJbLU. the market. SCI, 85 & !*8. 
Clr. EASTERN MFG. CO , 267 S. 5th St., Phlla., Fa. 
$2.45 bu ysa r c t d E bo o? Baby Carriage 
82 page Catalogue Free. We Fay Froightaiul ship oil 111 
‘lays trial. No money required i n advance. Address 
VICTOR MANUFACTURING CO. 
Dept. 11 uli, l 01 to 103 Fly mouth FI., Chicago, III. 
Wherever the pain may be, 
there is the place for an 
Allcock’s PIASTERS 
ECONOMY 
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For greatest economy buy our large package. 
THE N. K. FAIRBANK COMPANY 
CHICAGO ST. LOUIS NEW YORK BOSTON 
