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diff --git a/old/60356-0.txt b/old/60356-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8563444..0000000 --- a/old/60356-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1620 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Wheel Within a Wheel, by Frances E. Willard - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: A Wheel Within a Wheel - How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle - -Author: Frances E. Willard - -Release Date: September 25, 2019 [EBook #60356] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WHEEL WITHIN A WHEEL *** - - - - -Produced by David Wilson and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - -A WHEEL WITHIN A WHEEL - - - - -[Illustration: _Frances E Willard_] - - - - - A WHEEL WITHIN A WHEEL - - HOW I LEARNED TO - RIDE THE BICYCLE - - _WITH SOME REFLECTIONS BY THE WAY_ - - - BY - FRANCES E. WILLARD - - - Illustrated - - [Decoration: Wheel] - - FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY - New York Chicago Toronto - 1895 - - - - - Copyright, 1895, - By Fleming H. Revell Company. - - - - - GRATEFULLY DEDICATED - TO - - LADY HENRY SOMERSET, - - WHO GAVE ME “GLADYS,” - THAT HARBINGER OF HEALTH AND HAPPINESS. - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - PAGE - Miss Willard _Frontispiece_ - - A Lack of Balance _facing page_ 21 - - Eastnor Castle 29 - - “So Easy—When You Know How” 36 - - “It’s Dogged as Does It” 44 - - “Let Go—but Stand By” 57 - - “At Last” 72 - - - - -A WHEEL WITHIN A WHEEL - - -PRELIMINARY - -From my earliest recollections, and up to the ripe age of fifty-three, -I had been an active and diligent worker in the world. This sounds -absurd; but having almost no toys except such as I could manufacture, -my first plays were but the outdoor work of active men and women on a -small scale. Born with an inveterate opposition to staying in the -house, I very early learned to use a carpenter’s kit and a gardener’s -tools, and followed in my mimic way the occupations of the poulterer -and the farmer, working my little field with a wooden plow of my own -making, and felling saplings with an ax rigged up from the old iron -of the wagon-shop. Living in the country, far from the artificial -restraints and conventions by which most girls are hedged from the -activities that would develop a good physique, and endowed with the -companionship of a mother who let me have my own sweet will, I “ran -wild” until my sixteenth birthday, when the hampering long skirts were -brought, with their accompanying corset and high heels; my hair was -clubbed up with pins, and I remember writing in my journal, in the -first heartbreak of a young human colt taken from its pleasant -pasture, “Altogether, I recognize that my occupation is gone.” - -From that time on I always realized and was obedient to the -limitations thus imposed, though in my heart of hearts I felt their -unwisdom even more than their injustice. My work then changed from my -beloved and breezy outdoor world to the indoor realm of study, -teaching, writing, speaking, and went on almost without a break or -pain until my fifty-third year, when the loss of my mother -accentuated the strain of this long period in which mental and -physical life were out of balance, and I fell into a mild form of what -is called nerve-wear by the patient and nervous prostration by the -lookers-on. Thus ruthlessly thrown out of the usual lines of reaction -on my environment, and sighing for new worlds to conquer, I determined -that I would learn the bicycle. - -An English naval officer had said to me, after learning it himself, -“You women have no idea of the new realm of happiness which the -bicycle has opened to us men.” Already I knew well enough that tens of -thousands who could never afford to own, feed, and stable a horse, had -by this bright invention enjoyed the swiftness of motion which is -perhaps the most fascinating feature of material life, the charm of a -wide outlook upon the natural world, and that sense of mastery which -is probably the greatest attraction in horseback-riding. But the steed -that never tires, and is “mettlesome” in the fullest sense of the -word, is full of tricks and capers, and to hold his head steady and -make him prance to suit you is no small accomplishment. I had often -mentioned in my temperance writings that the bicycle was perhaps our -strongest ally in winning young men away from public-houses, because -it afforded them a pleasure far more enduring, and an exhilaration as -much more delightful as the natural is than the unnatural. From my -observation of my own brother and hundreds of young men who have been -my pupils, I have always held that a boy’s heart is not set in him to -do evil any more than a girl’s, and that the reason our young men fall -into evil ways is largely because we have not had the wit and wisdom -to provide them with amusements suited to their joyous youth, by means -of which they could invest their superabundant animal spirits in ways -that should harm no one and help themselves to the best development -and the cleanliest ways of living. So as a temperance reformer I -always felt a strong attraction toward the bicycle, because it is the -vehicle of so much harmless pleasure, and because the skill required -in handling it obliges those who mount to keep clear heads and steady -hands. Nor could I see a reason in the world why a woman should not -ride the silent steed so swift and blithesome. I knew perfectly well -that when, some ten or fifteen years ago, Miss Bertha von Hillern, a -young German artist in America, took it into her head to give -exhibitions of her skill in riding the bicycle she was thought by some -to be a sort of semi-monster; and liberal as our people are in their -views of what a woman may undertake, I should certainly have felt -compromised, at that remote and benighted period, by going to see her -ride, not because there was any harm in it, but solely because of what -we call in homely phrase “the speech of people.” But behold! it was -long ago conceded that women might ride the tricycle—indeed, one had -been presented to me by my friend Colonel Pope, of Boston, a famous -manufacturer of these swift roadsters, as far back as 1886; and I had -swung around the garden-paths upon its saddle a few minutes every -evening when work was over at my Rest Cottage home. I had even hoped -to give an impetus among conservative women to this new line of -physical development and outdoor happiness; but that is quite another -story and will come in later. Suffice it for the present that it did -me good, as it doth the upright in heart, to notice recently that the -Princesses Louise and Beatrice both ride the tricycle at Balmoral; for -I know that with the great mass of feminine humanity this precedent -will have exceeding weight—and where the tricycle prophesies the -bicycle shall ere long preach the gospel of outdoors. - -For we are all unconsciously the slaves of public opinion. When the -hansom first came on London streets no woman having regard to her -social state and standing would have dreamed of entering one of these -pavement gondolas unless accompanied by a gentleman as her escort. -But in course of time a few women, of stronger individuality than the -average, ventured to go unattended; later on, use wore off the glamour -of the traditions which said that women must not go alone, and now -none but an imbecile would hold herself to any such observance. - -A trip around the world by a young woman would have been regarded a -quarter of a century ago as equivalent to social outlawry; but now -young women of the highest character and talent are employed by -leading journals to whip around the world “on time,” and one has done -so in seventy-three, another in seventy-four days, while the young -women recently sent out by an Edinburgh newspaper will no doubt -considerably contract these figures. - -As I have mentioned, Fräulein von Hillern is the first woman, so far -as I know, who ever rode a bicycle, and for this she was considered to -be one of those persons who classified nowhere, and who could not do -so except to the injury of the feminine guild with which they were -connected before they “stepped out”; but now, in France, for a woman -to ride a bicycle is not only “good form,” but the current craze among -the aristocracy. - -Since Balaam’s beast there has been but little authentic talking done -by the four-footed; but that is no reason why the two-wheeled should -not speak its mind, and the first utterance I have to chronicle in the -softly flowing vocables of my bicycle is to the following purport. I -heard it as we trundled off down the Priory incline at the suburban -home of Lady Henry Somerset, Reigate, England; it said: “Behold, I do -not fail you; I am not a skittish beastie, but a sober, well-conducted -roadster. I did not ask you to mount or drive, but since you have done -so you must now learn the laws of balance and exploitation. I did not -invent these laws, but I have been built conformably to them, and you -must suit yourself to the unchanging regulations of gravity, general -and specific, as illustrated in me. Strange as the paradox may seem, -you will do this best by not trying to do it at all. You must make up -what you are pleased to call your mind—make it up speedily, or you -will be cast in yonder mud-puddle, and no blame to me and no thanks to -yourself. Two things must occupy your thinking powers to the exclusion -of every other thing: first, the goal; and, second, the momentum -requisite to reach it. Do not look down like an imbecile upon the -steering-wheel in front of you—that would be about as wise as for a -nauseated voyager to keep his optical instruments fixed upon the -rolling waves. It is the curse of life that nearly every one looks -down. But the microscope will never set you free; you must glue your -eyes to the telescope for ever and a day. Look up and off and on and -out; get forehead and foot into line, the latter acting as a rhythmic -spur in the flanks of your equilibriated equine; so shall you win, and -that right speedily. - -“It was divinely said that the kingdom of God is within you. Some -make a mysticism of this declaration, but it is hard common sense; for -the lesson you will learn from me is this: every kingdom over which we -reign must be first formed within us on what the psychic people call -the ‘astral plane,’ but what I as a bicycle look upon as the common -parade-ground of individual thought.” - - -THE PROCESS - -Courtiers wittily say that horseback riding is the only thing in which -a prince is apt to excel, for the reason that the horse never flatters -and would as soon throw him as if he were a groom. Therefore it is -only by actually mastering the art of riding that a prince can hold -his place with the noblest of the four-footed animals. - -Happily there is now another locomotive contrivance which is no -flatterer, and which peasant and prince must master, if they do this -at all, by the democratic route of honest hard work. Well will it be -for rulers when the tough old Yorkshire proverb applies to them as -strictly as to the lowest of their subjects: “_It’s dogged as does -it._” We all know the old saying, “Fire is a good servant, but a bad -master.” This is equally true of the bicycle: if you give it an -inch—nay, a hair—it will take an ell—nay, an evolution—and you a -contusion, or, like enough, a perforated kneecap. - -Not a single friend encouraged me to learn the bicycle except an -active-minded young school-teacher, Miss Luther, of my hometown, -Evanston, who came several times with her wheel and gave me lessons. I -also took a few lessons in a stuffy, semi-subterranean gallery in -Chicago. But at fifty-three I was at more disadvantage than most -people, for not only had I the impedimenta that result from the -unnatural style of dress, but I also suffered from the sedentary -habits of a lifetime. And then that small world (which is our real -one) of those who loved me best, and who considered themselves -largely responsible for my every-day methods of life, did not -encourage me, but in their affectionate solicitude—and with abundant -reason—thought I should “break my bones” and “spoil my future.” It -must be said, however, to their everlasting praise, that they opposed -no objection when they saw that my will was firmly set to do this -thing; on the contrary, they put me in the way of carrying out my -purpose, and lent to my laborious lessons the light of their -countenances reconciled. Actions speak so much louder than words that -I here set before you what may be called a feminine bicycler’s first -position—at least it was mine. - -Given a safety-bicycle—pneumatic tires and all the rest of it which -renders the pneumatic safety the only safe Bucephalus—the gearing -carefully wired in so that we shall not be entangled. “Woe is me!” was -my first exclamation, naturally enough interpreted by my outriders -“Whoa is me,” and they “whoaed”—indeed, we did little else but “check -up.” - - [Illustration: A LACK OF BALANCE.] - -(Just here let me interpolate: Learn on a low machine, but “fly high” -when once you have mastered it, as you have much more power over the -wheels and can get up better speed with a less expenditure of force -when you are above the instrument than when you are at the back of it. -And remember this is as true of the world as of the wheel.) - -The order of evolution was something like this: First, three young -Englishmen, all strong-armed and accomplished bicyclers, held the -machine in place while I climbed timidly into the saddle. Second, two -well-disposed young women put in all the power they had, until they -grew red in the face, offsetting each other’s pressure on the -cross-bar and thus maintaining the equipoise to which I was unequal. -Third, one walked beside me, steadying the ark as best she could by -holding the center of the deadly cross-bar, to let go whose handles -meant chaos and collapse. After this I was able to hold my own if I -had the moral support of my kind trainers, and it passed into a -proverb among them, the short emphatic word of command I gave them at -every few turns of the wheel: “Let go, but stand by.” Still later -everything was learned—how to sit, how to pedal, how to turn, how to -dismount; but alas! how to vault into the saddle I found not; that was -the coveted power that lingered long and would not yield itself. - -That which caused the many failures I had in learning the bicycle had -caused me failures in life; namely, a certain fearful looking for of -judgment; a too vivid realization of the uncertainty of everything -about me; an underlying doubt—at once, however (and this is all that -saved me), matched and overcome by the determination not to give in to -it. - -The best gains that we make come to us after an interval of rest which -follows strenuous endeavor. Having, as I hoped, mastered the -rudiments of bicycling, I went away to Germany and for a fortnight did -not even see the winsome wheel. Returning, I had the horse brought -round, and mounted with no little trepidation, being assisted by one -of my faithful guides; but behold! I found that in advancing, turning, -and descending I was much more at home than when I had last exercised -that new intelligence in the muscles which had been the result of -repetitions resolutely attempted and practised long. - -Another thing I found is that we carry in the mind a picture of the -road; and if it is humpy by reason of pebbles, even if we steer clear -of them, we can by no means skim along as happily as when its -smoothness facilitates the pleasing impression on the retina; indeed, -the whole science and practice of the bicycle is “in your eye” and in -your will; the rest is mere manipulation. - -As I have said, in many curious particulars the bicycle is like the -world. When it had thrown me painfully once (which was the extent of -my downfalls during the entire process of learning, and did not -prevent me from resuming my place on the back of the treacherous -creature a few minutes afterward), and more especially when it threw -one of my dearest friends, hurting her knee so that it was painful for -a month, then for a time Gladys had gladsome ways for me no longer, -but seemed the embodiment of misfortune and dread. Even so the world -has often seemed in hours of darkness and despondency; its iron -mechanism, its pitiless grind, its swift, silent, on-rolling gait have -oppressed to pathos, if not to melancholy. Good health and plenty of -oxygenated air have promptly restored the equilibrium. But how many a -fine spirit, to finest issues touched, has been worn and shredded by -the world’s mill until in desperation it flung itself away. We can -easily carp at those who quit the crowded race-course without so much -as saying “By your leave”; but “let him that thinketh he standeth -take heed lest he fall.” We owe it to nature, to nurture, to our -environments, and, most of all, to our faith in God, that we, too, do -not cry, like so many gentle hearts less brave and sturdy, “Anywhere, -anywhere, out of the world.” - -Gradually, item by item, I learned the location of every screw and -spring, spoke and tire, and every beam and bearing that went to make -up Gladys. This was not the lesson of a day, but of many days and -weeks, and it had to be learned before we could get on well together. -To my mind the infelicities of which we see so much in life grow out -of lack of time and patience thus to study and adjust the natures that -have agreed in the sight of God and man to stand by one another to the -last. They will not take the pains, they have not enough specific -gravity, to balance themselves in their new environment. Indeed, I -found a whole philosophy of life in the wooing and the winning of my -bicycle. - -Just as a strong and skilful swimmer takes the waves, so the bicycler -must learn to take such waves of mental impression as the passing of a -gigantic hay-wagon, the sudden obtrusion of black cattle with -wide-branching horns, the rattling pace of high-stepping steeds, or -even the swift transit of a railway-train. At first she will be upset -by the apparition of the smallest poodle, and not until she has -attained a wide experience will she hold herself steady in presence of -the critical eyes of a coach-and-four. But all this is a part of that -equilibration of thought and action by which we conquer the universe -in conquering ourselves. - -I finally concluded that all failure was from a wobbling will rather -than a wobbling wheel. I felt that indeed the will is the wheel of the -mind—its perpetual motion having been learned when the morning stars -sang together. When the wheel of the mind went well then the rubber -wheel hummed merrily; but specters of the mind there are as well as of -the wheel. In the aggregate of perception concerning which we have -reflected and from which we have deduced our generalizations upon the -world without, within, above, there are so many ghastly and -fantastical images that they must obtrude themselves at certain -intervals, like filmy bits of glass in the turn of the kaleidoscope. -Probably every accident of which I had heard or read in my -half-century tinged the uncertainty that by the correlation of forces -passed over into the tremor that I felt when we began to round the -terminus bend of the broad Priory walk. And who shall say by what -original energy the mind forced itself at once from the contemplation -of disaster and thrust into the very movement of the foot on the pedal -a concept of vigor, safety, and success? I began to feel that myself -plus the bicycle equaled myself plus the world, upon whose -spinning-wheel we must all learn to ride, or fall into the sluiceways -of oblivion and despair. That which made me succeed with the bicycle -was precisely what had gained me a measure of success in life—it was -the hardihood of spirit that led me to begin, the persistence of will -that held me to my task, and the patience that was willing to begin -again when the last stroke had failed. And so I found high moral uses -in the bicycle and can commend it as a teacher without pulpit or -creed. He who succeeds, or, to be more exact in handing over my -experience, she who succeeds in gaining the mastery of such an animal -as Gladys, will gain the mastery of life, and by exactly the same -methods and characteristics. - -One of the first things I learned was that unless a forward impetus -were given within well-defined intervals, away we went into the -gutter, rider and steed. And I said to myself: “It is the same with -all reforms: sometimes they seem to lag, then they barely balance, -then they begin to oscillate as if they would lose the track and -tumble to one side; but all they need is a new impetus at the right -moment on the right angle, and away they go again as merrily as if -they had never threatened to stop at all.” - - [Illustration: EASTNOR CASTLE.] - -On the Castle terrace we went through a long, narrow curve in a turret -to seek a broader esplanade. As we approached it I felt wrought up in -my mind, a little uncertain in my motions; and for that reason, on a -small scale, my quick imagination put before me pictures of a -“standing from under” on the part of the machine and damaging bruises -against the pitiless walls. But with a little unobtrusive guiding by -one who knew better than I how to do it we soon came out of the dim -passage on to the broad, bright terrace we sought, and in an instant -my fears were as much left behind as if I had not had them. So it will -be, I think, I hope—nay, I believe—when, children that we are, we -tremble on the brink and fear to launch away; but we shall find that -death is only a bend in the river of life that sets the current -heavenward. - -One afternoon, on the terrace at Eastnor Castle—the most delightful -bicycle gallery I have found anywhere—I fell to talking with a young -companion about New-Year resolutions. It was just before Christmas, -but the sky was of that moist blue that England only knows, and the -earth almost steamy in the mild sunshine, while the soft outline of -the famous Malvern Hills was restful as the little lake just at our -feet, where swans were sailing or anchoring according to their fancy. - -One of us said: “I have already chosen my motto for 1894, and it is -this, from a teacher who so often said to her pupils, when meeting -them in corridor or recitation-room, ‘I have heard something nice -about you,’ that it passed into a proverb in the school. Now I have -determined that my mental attitude toward everybody shall be the same -that these words indicate. The meaning is identical with that of the -inscription on the fireplace in my den at home—‘Let something good be -said.’ I remember mentioning to a literary friend that this was what I -had chosen, and so far was he from perceiving my intention that he -sarcastically remarked, ‘Are you then afraid that people will say dull -things unless you set this rule before them?’ But my thought then was -as it is now, that we should apply in our discussions of people and -things the rule laid down by Coleridge, namely, ‘Look for the good in -everything that you behold and every person, but do not decline to see -the defects if they are there, and to refer to them.’” - -“That is an excellent motto,” brightly replied the other, “but if we -followed it life would not be nearly so amusing as it is now. I have -several friends whose rule is never to say any harm of anybody, and to -my mind this cripples their development, for the tendency of such a -method is to dull one’s powers of discrimination.” - -“But,” said the first speaker, “would not a medium course be -better?—such a one, for instance, as my motto suggests. This would not -involve keeping silence about the faults of persons and things, but -would develop that cheerful atmosphere which helps to smooth the -rough edges of life, and at the same time does not destroy the -critical faculty, because you are to tell the truth and the whole -truth concerning those around you, whereas the common custom is to -speak much of defects and little or not at all of merits.” - -“Yes,” was the reply, “but it is not half so entertaining to speak of -virtues as of faults, especially in this country; if you don’t -criticize you can hardly talk at all, because the English dwell a -great deal on what we in America call ‘the selvage side’ of things.” - -“Have you, then, noticed this as a national peculiarity after ten -years of observation?” - -“Yes; and I have often heard it remarked, not only by our own -countrymen, but by the people here.” - -“What do you think explains it?” - -“Well, I am inclined to apply the theory of M. Taine, the great French -critic, to most of the circumstances of life, and I should say it was -the climate; its uncertainty, its constant changes, the heaviness of -the atmosphere, the amount of fog, the real stress and strain to live -that results from trying physical conditions added to the razor-sharp -edge of business and social competition and the close contact that -comes of packing forty millions of people of pronounced individuality -on an island no bigger than the State of Georgia. To my mind the -wonder is that they behave so well!” - -Once, when I grew somewhat discouraged and said that I had made no -progress for a day or two, my teacher told me that it was just so when -she learned: there were growing days and stationary days, and she had -always noticed that just after one of these last dull, depressing, and -dubious intervals she seemed to get an uplift and went ahead better -than ever. It was like a spurt in rowing. This seems to be the law of -progress in everything we do; it moves along a spiral rather than a -perpendicular; we seem to be actually going out of the way, and yet -it turns out that we were really moving upward all the time. - -One day, when my most expert trainer twisted the truth a little that -she might encourage me, I was reminded of an anecdote. - -In this practical age an illustration of the workings of truthfulness -will often help a child more than any amount of exhortation concerning -the theory thereof. For instance, a father in that level-headed part -of the United States known as “out West” found that his little boy was -falling into the habit of telling what was not true; so he said to him -at the lunch-table, “Johnnie, I will come around with a horse and -carriage at four o’clock to take you and mama for a drive this -afternoon.” The boy was in high spirits, and watched for his father at -the gate; but the hours passed by until six o’clock, when that worthy -appeared walking up the street in the most unconcerned manner; and -when Johnnie, full of indignation and astonishment, asked him why he -did not come as he had promised, the father said, “Oh, my boy, I just -took it into my head that I would tell you a lie about the matter, -just as you have begun telling lies to me.” The boy began to cry with -mingled disappointment and shame to think his father would do a thing -like that; whereupon the father took the little fellow on his knee and -said: “This has all been done to show you what mischief comes from -telling what is not true. It spoils everybody’s good time. If you -cannot believe what I say and I cannot believe what you say, and -nobody can believe what anybody says, then the world cannot go on at -all; it would have to stop as the old eight-day clock did the other -day, making us all late to dinner. It is only because, as a rule, we -can believe in one another’s word that we are able to have homes, do -business, and enjoy life. Whoever goes straight on telling the truth -helps more by that than he could in any other one way to build up the -world into a beautiful and happy place; and every time anybody tells -what is not true he helps to weaken everybody’s confidence in -everybody else, and to spoil the good time, not of himself alone, but -of all those about him.” - - -MY TEACHERS - -I studied my various kind teachers with much care. One was so helpful -that but for my protest she would fairly have carried me in her arms, -and the bicycle to boot, the whole distance. This was because she had -not a scintilla of knowledge concerning the machine, and she did not -wish me to come to grief through any lack on her part. - -Another was too timorous; the very twitter of her face, swiftly -communicated to her arm and imparted to the quaking cross-bar, -convulsed me with an inward fear; therefore, for her sake and mine, I -speedily counted her out from the faculty in my bicycle college. - - [Illustration: “SO EASY—WHEN YOU KNOW HOW.”] - -Another (and she, like most of my teachers, was a Londoner) was -herself so capable, not to say adventurous, and withal so solicitous -for my best good, that she elicited my admiration by her ingenious -mixture of cheering me on and holding me back; the latter, however, -predominated, for she never relinquished her strong grasp on the -cross-bar. She was a fine, brave character, somewhat inclined to a -pessimistic view of life because of severe experience at home, which, -coming to her at a pitifully early period, when brain and fancy were -most impressionable, wrought an injustice to a nature large and -generous—one which under happier skies would have blossomed out into a -perfect flower of womanhood. My offhand thinkings aloud, to which I -have always been greatly given, especially when in genial company, she -seemed to “catch on the fly,” as a reporter impales an idea on his -pencil-point. We had no end of what we thought to be good talk of -things in heaven and earth and the waters under the earth; of the -mystery that lies so closely round this cradle of a world, and all -the varied and ingenious ways of which the bicycle, so slow to give -up its secret to a care-worn and inelastic pupil half a century old, -was just then our whimsical and favorite symbol. - -We rejoiced together greatly in perceiving the impetus that this -uncompromising but fascinating and inimitably capable machine would -give to that blessed “woman question” to which we were both devoted; -for we had earned our own bread many a year, and she, although more -than twenty years my junior, had accumulated an amount of experience -well-nigh as great, because she had lived in the world’s heart, or the -world’s carbuncle (just as one chooses to regard what has been called -in literary phrase the capital of humanity). We saw that the physical -development of humanity’s mother-half would be wonderfully advanced by -that universal introduction of the bicycle sure to come about within -the next few years, because it is for the interest of great -commercial monopolies that this should be so, since if women -patronize the wheel the number of buyers will be twice as large. If -women ride they must, when riding, dress more rationally than they -have been wont to do. If they do this many prejudices as to what they -may be allowed to wear will melt away. Reason will gain upon -precedent, and ere long the comfortable, sensible, and artistic -wardrobe of the rider will make the conventional style of woman’s -dress absurd to the eye and unendurable to the understanding. A reform -often advances most rapidly by indirection. An ounce of practice is -worth a ton of theory; and the graceful and becoming costume of woman -on the bicycle will convince the world that has brushed aside the -theories, no matter how well constructed, and the arguments, no matter -how logical, of dress-reformers. - -A woman with bands hanging on her hips, and dress snug about the waist -and chokingly tight at the throat, with heavily trimmed skirts -dragging down the back and numerous folds heating the lower part of -the spine, and with tight shoes, ought to be in agony. She ought to be -as miserable as a stalwart man would be in the same plight. And the -fact that she can coolly and complacently assert that her clothing is -perfectly easy, and that she does not want anything more comfortable -or convenient, is the most conclusive proof that she is altogether -abnormal bodily, and not a little so in mind. - -We saw with satisfaction the great advantage in good fellowship and -mutual understanding between men and women who take the road together, -sharing its hardships and rejoicing in the poetry of motion through -landscapes breathing nature’s inexhaustible charm and skyscapes -lifting the heart from what is to what shall be hereafter. We -discoursed on the advantage to masculine character of comradeship with -women who were as skilled and ingenious in the manipulation of the -swift steed as they themselves. We contended that whatever diminishes -the sense of superiority in men makes them more manly, brotherly, and -pleasant to have about; we felt sure that the bluff, the swagger, the -bravado of young England in his teens would not outlive the complete -mastery of the outdoor arts in which his sister is now successfully -engaged. The old fables, myths, and follies associated with the idea -of woman’s incompetence to handle bat and oar, bridle and rein, and at -last the cross-bar of the bicycle, are passing into contempt in -presence of the nimbleness, agility, and skill of “that boy’s sister”; -indeed, we felt that if she continued to improve after the fashion of -the last decade her physical achievements will be such that it will -become the pride of many a ruddy youth to be known as “that girl’s -brother.” As we discoursed of life, death, and the judgment to come, -of “man’s inhumanity to man,” as well as to beasts, birds, and -creeping things, we frequently recurred to a phrase that has become -habitual with me in these later years when other worlds seem anchored -close alongside this, and when the telephone, the phonograph, and the -microphone begin to show us that every breath carries in itself not -only the power, but the scientific certainty of registration: “Well, -one thing is certain: we shall meet it in the ether.” - -One of my companions in the tribulation of learning the bicycle, and -the grace of its mastery, was a tall, bright-faced, vigorous-minded -young Celt who is devoted to every good word and work and has had much -experience with the “submerged tenth,” living among them and trying to -build character among those waste places of humanity. I set out to -teach this young woman the bicycle, and while she took her -lesson—which, as she is young, elastic, and long-limbed, was vastly -less difficult than mine—we talked of many things: American women, and -why they do not walk; the English lower class, and why they are less -vigorous than the Irish; the English girl of the slums, and why she is -less self-respecting than an Irish girl in the same station. “There -are many things for which we cannot account,” said my young friend; -whereupon, with the self-elected mentorship of my half-century, I -oracularly observed: “Cosmos has not a consequence without a cause; it -is the business of reason to seek for causes, and, if it cannot make -sure of them, to construct for itself theories as to what they are or -will turn out to be when found. But the trouble is, when we have -framed our theory, we come to look upon it as our child, that we have -brought into the world, nurtured, and trained up by hand. The curse of -life is that men will insist on holding their theories as true and -imposing them on others; this gives rise to creeds, customs, -constitutions, royalties, governments. Happy is he who knows that he -knows nothing, or next to nothing, and holds his opinions like a -bouquet of flowers in his hand, that sheds its fragrance everywhere, -and which he is willing to exchange at any moment for one fairer and -more sweet, instead of strapping them on like an armor of steel and -thrusting with his lance those who do not accept his notions.” - -My last teacher was—as ought to be the case on the principle of -climax—my best. I think she might have given many a pointer to folks -that bring up children, and I realized that no matter how one may -think himself accomplished, when he sets out to learn a new language, -science, or the bicycle he has entered a new realm as truly as if he -were a child newly born into the world, and “Except ye become as -little children” is the law by which he is governed. Whether he will -or not he must first creep, then walk, then run; and the wisest guide -he can have is the one who most studiously helps him to help himself. -This was a truism that I had heard all my life long, but never did a -realizing sense of it settle down upon my spirit so thoroughly as when -I learned the bicycle. It is not the teacher who holds you in place by -main strength that is going to help you win that elusive, reluctant, -inevitable prize we call success, but it is the one who, while -studiously keeping in the background, steers you to the fore. So -No. 12 had the wit and wisdom to retire to the rear of the saucy -steed, that I might form the habit of seeing no sign of aid or comfort -from any source except my own reaction on the treadles according to -law; yet cunningly contrived, by laying a skilled hand upon the saddle -without my observation, knowledge, or consent, to aid me in my -balancing. She diminished the weight thus set to my account as rapidly -as my own increasing courage and skill rendered this possible. - - [Illustration: “IT’S DOGGED AS DOES IT.” - _Yorkshire Proverb._] - -I have always observed—and not without a certain pleasure, remembering -my brother’s hardihood—that wherever a woman goes some man has reached -the place before her; and it did not dim the verdure of my laurels or -the fullness of my content when I had mastered Gladys to ascertain, -from a letter sent me by the wife of a man sixty-four years of age -who had just learned, that I was “No. 2” instead of “No. 1,” thus -obliging me to rectify the frontier of chronology as I had constructed -it in relation to the conquest of the bicycle; for I vainly thought -that I had fought the antics of Gladys as a sentry on duty away out on -the extreme frontier of time. - -But at last (which means in two months or thereabouts, at ten or -twenty minutes’ practice off and on daily) I reached the goal, and -could mount the bicycle without the slightest foreign interference or -even the moral support of a sympathetic onlooker. In doing this I -realized that the totality of what I had learned entered into the -action. Every added increment of power that I had gained in balancing, -pedaling, steering, taking advantage of the surfaces, adjusting my -weight according to my own peculiarities, and so on, was set to my -account when I began to manage the bulky steed that behaves worst of -all when a novice seeks the saddle and strikes out alone. Just so, I -felt, it had been all my life and will be, doubtless, in all worlds -and with us all. The totality of native forces and acquired discipline -and expert knowledge stands us in good stead for each crisis that we -have to meet. There is a momentum, a cumulative power on which we can -count in every new circumstance, as a capitalist counts upon his -credit at the bank. It is not only a divine declaration, it is one of -the basic laws of being, that “all things work _together_ for good to -them that love God”—that is, to them that are in love with God; and he -who loves a law of God and makes himself obedient to that law has by -that much loved God, only he does not always have the wit to know it. - -The one who has learned latest and yet has really learned the mastery -of the bicycle is the best teacher. Many a time I have heard boys in -college say that it was not the famed mathematician who could teach -them anything—he knew too much, he was too far ahead for them to hear -his voice, he was impatient of their halting steps; but the tutor who -had left college only the year before, and remembering his own -failures and stupidity, had still that fellow-feeling that made him -wondrous kind. - -As has been stated, my last epoch consisted of learning to mount; that -is the _pons asinorum_ of the whole mathematical undertaking, for -mathematical it is to a nicety. You have to balance your system more -carefully than you ever did your accounts; not the smallest fraction -can be out of the way, or away you go, the treacherous steed forming -one half of an equation and yourself with a bruised knee forming the -other. You must add a stroke at just the right angle to mount, -subtract one to descend, divide them equally to hold your seat, and -multiply all these movements in definite ratio and true proportion by -the swiftest of all roots, or you will become the most minus of -quantities. You must foot up your accounts with the strictest -regularity; there can be no partial payments in a business enterprise -like this. - -Although I could now mount and descend, turn corners and get over the -ground all by myself, I still felt a lack of complete faith in Gladys, -although she had never harmed me but once, and then it was my own -fault in letting go the gleaming cross-bar, which is equivalent to -dropping the bridle of a spirited steed. Let it be carefully -remembered by every “beginning” bicycler that, whatever she forgets, -she must forever keep her “main hold,” else her horse is not bitted -and will shy to a dead certainty. - -As we grew better acquainted I thought how perfectly analogous were -our relations to those of friends who became slowly seasoned one to -the other: they have endured the vicissitudes of every kind of -climate, of the changing seasons; they have known the heavy, -water-logged conditions of spring, the shrinkage of summer’s trying -heat, the happy medium of autumn, and the contracting cold that -winter brings; they are like the bits of wood, exactly apportioned and -attuned, that go to make up a Stradivarius violin. They can count upon -one another and not disagree, because the stress of life has molded -them to harmony. They are like the well-worn robe, the easy shoe. -There is no short road to this adjustment, so much to be desired; not -any will win it short of “patient continuance in well-doing.” - -I noticed that the great law which I believe to be potential -throughout the universe made no exception here: “According to thy -faith be it unto thee” was the only law of success. When I felt sure -that I should do my pedaling with judicial accuracy, and did not -permit myself to dread the swift motion round a bend; when I formed in -my mind the image of a successful ascent of the “Priory Rise”; when I -fully purposed in my mind that I should not run into the hedge on the -one side or the iron fence on the other, these prophecies were -fulfilled with practical certainty. I fell into the habit of varying -my experience by placing before myself the image—so germane to the -work in which I am engaged—of an inebriate in action, and accompanied -this mental panorama by an orchestral effect of my own producing: -“They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man;” but could -never go through this three consecutive times without lurching off the -saddle. But when I put before me, as distinctly as my powers of -concentration would permit, the image of my mother holding steadily -above me a pair of balances, and looking at me with that quizzical -expectant glance I knew so well, and saying: “Do it? Of course you’ll -do it; what else should you do?” I found that it was palpably helpful -in enabling me to “sit straight and hold my own” on my uncertain -steed. She always maintained, in the long talks we had concerning -immortality, that the law I mention was conclusive, and was wont to -close our conversations on that subject (in which I held the -interrogative position) with some such remark as this: “If Professor -—— thinks he is not immortal he probably is not; if I think I am I may -be sure I shall be, for is it not written in the law, ‘According to -thy faith be it unto thee’?” - -Gradually I realized a consoling degree of mastery over Gladys; but -nothing was more apparent to me than that we were not yet thoroughly -acquainted—we had not summered and wintered together. I had not -learned her kinks, and she was as full of them as the most spirited -mare that sweeps the course on a Kentucky race-track. Although I have -seen a race but once (and that was in the Champs Élysées, Paris, a -quarter of a century ago), I am yet so much interested in the fact -that it is a Flora Temple, a Goldsmith Maid, a Maud S., a Sunol, a -California Maid that often stands first on the record, that I would -fain have named my shying steed after one of these; but as she was a -gift from Lady Henry Somerset this seemed invidious in me as a Yankee -woman, and so I called her _Gladys_, having in view the bright spirit -of the donor, the exhilarating motion of the machine, and the -gladdening effect of its acquaintance and use on my health and -disposition. - -As I have said, I found from first to last that the process of -acquisition exactly coincided with that which had given me everything -I possessed of physical, mental, or moral success—that is, skill, -knowledge, character. I was learning the bicycle precisely as I -learned the a-b-c. When I set myself, as a stint, to mount and descend -in regular succession anywhere from twenty to fifty times, it was on -the principle that we do a thing more easily the second time than the -first, the third time than the second, and so on in a rapidly -increasing ratio, until it is done without any conscious effort -whatever. This was precisely the way in which my mother trained me to -tell the truth, and my music-teacher taught me that mastership of the -piano keyboard which I have lost by disuse. Falling from grace may -mean falling from a habit formed—how do we know? This opens a -boundless field of ethical speculation which I would gladly have -followed, but just then the steel steed gave a lurch as if to say, -“Tend to your knitting”—the favorite expression of a Rocky Mountain -stage-driver when tourists taxed him with questions while he was -turning round a bend two thousand feet above the valley. - -And now comes the question “What do the doctors say?” Here follow -several testimonies: - -“The question now of great interest to girls is in regard to the -healthfulness of the wheel. Many are prophesying dire results from -this fascinating exercise, and fond parents are refusing to allow -their daughters to ride because they are girls. It will be a delight -to girls to learn that the fact of their sex is, in itself, not a bar -to riding a wheel. If the girl is normally constituted and is dressed -hygienically, and if she will use judgment and not overtax herself in -learning to ride, and in measuring the length of rides after she has -learned, she is in no more danger from riding a wheel than is the -young man. But if she persists in riding in a tight dress, and uses no -judgment in deciding the amount of exercise she is capable of safely -taking, it will be quite possible for her to injure herself, and then -it is she, and not the wheel, that is to blame. Many physicians are -now coming to regard the ‘wheel’ as beneficial to the health of women -as well as of men.” - -Dr. Seneca Egbert says: “As an exercise bicycling is superior to most, -if not all, others at our command. It takes one into the outdoor air; -it is entirely under control; can be made gentle or vigorous as one -desires; is active and not passive; takes the rider outside of himself -and the thoughts and cares of his daily work; develops his will, his -attention, his courage and independence, and makes pleasant what is -otherwise most irksome. Moreover, the exercise is well and equally -distributed over almost the whole body, and, as Parker says, when all -the muscles are exercised no muscle is likely to be over-exercised.” - -He advocates cycling as a remedy for dyspepsia, torpid liver, -incipient consumption, nervous exhaustion, rheumatism, and -melancholia. In regard to the exercise for women he says: “It gets -them out of doors, gives them a form of exercise adapted to their -needs, that they may enjoy in company with others or alone, and one -that goes to the root of their nervous troubles.” - -He instances two cases, of girls fourteen and eighteen years of age, -where a decided increase in height could be fairly attributed to -cycling. - - [Illustration: “LET GO—BUT STAND BY.”] - -The question is often asked if riding a wheel is not the same as -running a sewing-machine. Let the same doctor answer: “Not at all. -Women, at least, sit erect on a wheel, and consequently the thighs -never make even a right angle with the trunk, and there is no stasis -of blood in the lower limbs and genitalia. Moreover, the work itself -makes the rider breathe in oceans of fresh air; while the woman at the -sewing-machine works indoors, stoops over her work, contracting the -chest and almost completely checking the flow of blood to and from the -lower half of her body, where at the same time she is increasing the -demand for it, finally aggravating the whole trouble by the pressure -of the lower edge of the corset against the abdomen, so that the -customary congestions and displacements have good cause for their -existence.” - -“The great desideratum in all recreations is pure air, plenty of it, -and lungs free to absorb it.” (Dr. Lyman B. Sperry.) - -“Let go, but stand by”—this is the golden rule for parent and pastor, -teacher and friend; the only rule that at once respects the -individuality of another and yet adds one’s own, so far as may be, to -another’s momentum in the struggle of life. - -How difficult it is for the trainer to judge exactly how much force -to exercise in helping to steer the wheel and start the wheeler along -the macadamized highway! In this the point of view makes all the -difference. The trainer is tall, the rider short; the first can poise -on the off-treadle while one foot is on the ground, but the last must -learn to balance while one foot is in the air. For one of these -perfectly to comprehend the other’s relation to the vehicle is -practically impossible; the degree to which he may attain this depends -upon the amount of imagination to the square inch with which he has -been fitted out. The opacity of the mind, its inability to project -itself into the realm of another’s personality, goes a long way to -explain the friction of life. If we would set down other people’s -errors to this rather than to malice prepense we should not only get -more good out of life and feel more kindly toward our fellows, but -doubtless the rectitude of our intellects would increase, and the -justice of our judgments. For instance, it is my purpose, so far as I -understand myself, to be considerate toward those about me; but my -pursuits have been almost purely mental, and to perceive what would -seem just to one whose pursuits have been almost purely mechanical -would require an act of imagination of which I am wholly incapable. We -are so shut away from one another that none tells those about him what -he considers ideal treatment on their part toward him. He thinks about -it all the same, mumbles about it to himself, mutters about it to -those of his own guild, and these mutterings make the discontent that -finally breaks out in reforms whose tendency is to distribute the good -things of this life more equally among the living. But nothing will -probe to the core of this the greatest disadvantage under which we -labor—that is, mutual non-comprehension—except a basis of society and -government which would make it easy for each to put himself in -another’s place because his place is so much like another’s. We shall -be less imaginative, perhaps, in those days—the critics say this is -inevitable; but it will only be because we need less imagination in -order to do that which is just and kind to every one about us. - -In my early home my father always set us children to work by -stints—that is, he measured off a certain part of the garden to be -weeded, or other work to be done, and when we had accomplished it our -working-hours were over. With this deeply ingrained habit in full -force I set myself stints with the bicycle. In the later part of my -novitiate fifty attempts a day were allotted to that most difficult of -all achievements, learning to mount, and I calculate that five hundred -such efforts well put in will solve that most intricate problem of -specific gravity. - -Now concerning falls: I set out with the determination not to have -any. Though mentally adventurous I have always been physically -cautious; a student of physiology in my youth, I knew the reason why -I brought so much less elasticity to my task than did my young and -agile trainers. I knew the penalty of broken bones, for these a -tricycle had cost me some years before. My trainers were kind enough -to encourage me by saying that if I became an expert in slow riding I -should take the rapid wheel as a matter of course and thus be really -more accomplished (in the long run as well as the short) than by any -other process. So I have had but one real downfall to record as the -result of my three months’ practice, and it illustrates the old saying -that “pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a -fall”; for I was not a little lifted up by having learned to dismount -with confidence and ease—I will not say with grace, for at fifty-three -that would be an affectation—so one bright morning I bowled on down -the Priory drive waving my hand to my most adventurous aide-de-camp, -and calling out as I left her behind, “Now you will see how nicely I -can do it—watch!” when behold! that timid left foot turned traitor, -and I came down solidly on my knee, and the knee on a pebble as -relentless as prejudice and as opinionated as ignorance. The nervous -shock made me well-nigh faint, the bicycle tumbled over on my prone -figure, and I wished I had never heard of Gladys or of any wheel save - - “Fly swiftly round, ye wheels of time, - And bring the welcome day—” - -of my release into the ether. - -Let me remark to any young woman who reads this page that for her to -tumble off her bike is inexcusable. The lightsome elasticity of every -muscle, the quickness of the eye, the agility of motion, ought to -preserve her from such a catastrophe. I have had no more falls simply -because I would not. I have proceeded on a basis of the utmost -caution, and aside from that one pitiful performance the bicycle has -cost me hardly a single bruise. - - -AN ETHEREAL EPISODE - -They that know nothing fear nothing. Away back in 1886 my alert young -friend, Miss Anna Gordon, and my ingenious young niece, Miss Katharine -Willard, took to the tricycle as naturally as ducks take to water. The -very first time they mounted they went spinning down the long shady -street, with its pleasant elms, in front of Rest Cottage, where for -nearly a generation mother and I had had our home. Even as the -war-horse snuffeth the battle from afar, I longed to go and do -likewise. Remembering my country bringing-up and various exploits in -running, climbing, horseback-riding, to say nothing of my tame heifer -that I trained for a Bucephalus, I said to myself, “If those girls can -ride without learning so can I!” Taking out my watch I timed them as -they, at my suggestion, set out to make a record in going round the -square. Two and a half minutes was the result. I then started with all -my forces well in hand, and flew around in two and a quarter minutes. -Not contented with this, but puffed up with foolish vanity, I declared -that I would go around in two minutes; and, encouraged by their -cheers, away I went without a fear till the third turning-post was -reached, when the left hand played me false, and turning at an acute -angle, away I went sidelong, machine and all, into the gutter, falling -on my right elbow, which felt like a glassful of chopped ice, and I -knew that for the first time in a life full of vicissitudes I had been -really hurt. Anna Gordon’s white face as she ran toward me caused me -to wave my uninjured hand and call out, “Never mind!” and with her -help I rose and walked into the house, wishing above all things to go -straight to my own room and lie on my own bed, and thinking as I did -so how pathetic is that instinct that makes “the stricken deer go -weep,” the harmed hare seek the covert. - -Two physicians were soon at my side, and my mother, then over eighty -years of age, came in with much controlled agitation and seated -herself beside my bed, taking my hand and saying, “O Frank! you were -always too adventurous.” - -Our family physician was out of town, and the two gentlemen were -well-nigh strangers. It was a kind face, that of the tall, thin man -who looked down upon me in my humiliation, put his ear against my -heart to see if there would be any harm in administering ether, -handled my elbow with a woman’s gentleness, and then said to his -assistant, “Now let us begin.” And to me who had been always well, and -knew nothing of such unnatural proceedings, he remarked, “Breathe into -the funnel—full, natural breaths; that is all you have to do.” - -I set myself to my task, as has been my wont always, and soon my -mother and my friend, Anna Gordon, who were fanning me with big -“palm-leaves,” became grotesque and then ridiculous, and I remember -saying (or at least I remember that I once remembered), “You are a -couple of enormous crickets standing on your hind legs, and you have -each a spear of dry grass, and you look as if you were paralyzed; and -you wave your withered spears of grass, and you call that fanning a -poor woman who is suffocating before your eyes.” I labored with them, -entreated them, and dealt with them in great plainness—so much so that -my mother could not bear to hear me talk in such a foolish fashion, -and quietly withdrew to her own room, closed the door, and sat down to -possess her soul in patience until the operation should be over. - -Then the scene changed, and as they put on the splints pain was -involved, and I heard those about me laughing in the most unfeeling -manner while I murmured: “She always believed in humanity—she always -said she did and would; and she has lived in this town thirty years, -and they are hurting her—they are hurting her dreadfully; and if they -keep on she will lose her faith in human nature, and if she should it -will be the greatest calamity that can happen to a human being.” - -Now the scene changed once more—I was in the starry heavens, and said -to the young friends who had come in and stood beside me: “Here are -stars as thick as apples on a bough, and if you are good you shall -each have one. And, Anna, because you _are_ good, and always have -been, you shall be given a whole solar system to manage just as you -like. The Heavenly Father has no end of them; He tosses them out of -His hand as a boy does marbles; He spins them like a cocoon; He has -just as many after He has given them away as He had before He began.” - -Then there settled down upon me the most vivid and pervading sense of -the love of God that I have ever known. I can give no adequate -conception of it, and what I said, as my comrades repeated it to me, -was something after this order: - -“We are like blood-drops floating through the great heart of our -Heavenly Father. We are infinitely safe, and cared for as tenderly as -a baby in its mother’s arms. No harm can come anywhere near us; what -we call harm will turn out to be the very best and kindest way of -leading us to be our best selves. There is no terror in the universe, -for God is always at the center of everything. He is love, as we read -in the good book, and He has but one wish—that we should love one -another; in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” - -Little by little, freeing my mind of all sorts of queer notions, I -came back out of the only experience of the kind that I have ever -known; but I must say that had I not learned the great evils that -result from using anesthetics I should have wished to try ether again, -just for the ethical and spiritual help that came to me. It let me out -into a new world, greater, more mellow, more godlike, and it did me no -harm at all. - -During the time my arm was in a sling I “sat about”—something not -easy to do for one of active mind and life. I learned to write with my -left hand—for this was before the happy days of the many -stenographers—and my hieroglyphics went out to all the leading -temperance women of this country. One morning the bell, distant and -musical, tolled in the steeple of the university. We knew it meant -that General Grant was dead, for the newspapers and despatches of the -previous evening had prepared us. Somehow a deep chord in my soul -vibrated to the tone of the bell—a chord of patriotism—and I went away -to the vine-covered piazza, where I was wont to sit, and in twenty -minutes (which fact is my apology for their limping feet) wrote out my -heart in the following lines. They had at least the merit of sincere -devotion, and were telephoned to Chicago, eleven miles away, by Anna -Gordon, and appearing in the daily _Inter-Ocean_ were read at their -breakfast-tables by many other patriots next morning. I do not know -when anything has given me more real pleasure than to be told that a -stalwart soldier belonging to the Grand Army of the Republic read my -crude but heartfelt lines aloud to his wife and daughter, and at the -close brushed away a manly tear. - - -GRANT IS DEAD. - -_On Hearing the University Bell at Evanston, Ill., Toll for the Death -of General Grant at Nine O’clock A.M., July 23, 1885._ - - Toll, bells, from every steeple, - Tell the sorrow of the people; - Moan, sullen guns, and sigh - For the greatest who could die. - Grant is dead. - - Never so firm were set those moveless lips as now, - Never so dauntless shone that massive brow; - The silent man has passed into the silent tomb. - Ring out our grief, sweet bell, - The people’s sorrow tell - For the greatest who could die. - Grant is dead. - - “Let us have peace!” Great heart, - That peace has come to thee; - Thy sword for freedom wrought, - And now thy soul is free, - While a rescued nation stands - Mourning its fallen chief— - The Southern with the Northern lands, - Akin in honest grief. - The hands of black and white - Shall clasp above thy grave, - Children of the Republic all, - No master and no slave. - Almost “all summer on this line” - Thou steadily didst “fight it out”; - But Death, the silent, - Matched at last our silent chief, - And put to rout his brave defense. - Moan, sullen guns, and sigh - For the bravest who could die. - Grant is dead. - - The huge world holds to-day - No fame so great, so wide, - As his whose steady eyes grew dim - On Mount McGregor’s side - Only an hour ago, and yet - The whole great world has learned - That Grant is dead. - - O heart of Christ! what joy - Brings earth’s new brotherhood! - All lands as one, - Buckner, Grant’s bed beside, - The priest and Protestant in converse kind; - Prayers from all hearts, and Grant - Praying “we all might meet in better worlds.” - Toll, bells, from every steeple, - Tell the sorrow of the people; - So true in life, so calm and strong, - Bravest of all, in death suffering so long - And without one complaint! - Moan, sullen guns, and sigh - For the greatest who could die; - Salute the nation’s head. - Our Grant is dead. - - -IN CONCLUSION - -If I am asked to explain why I learned the bicycle I should say I did -it as an act of grace, if not of actual religion. The cardinal -doctrine laid down by my physician was, “Live out of doors and take -congenial exercise;” but from the day when, at sixteen years of age, I -was enwrapped in the long skirts that impeded every footstep, I have -detested walking and felt with a certain noble disdain that the -conventions of life had cut me off from what in the freedom of my -prairie home had been one of life’s sweetest joys. Driving is not real -exercise; it does not renovate the river of blood that flows so -sluggishly in the veins of those who from any cause have lost the -natural adjustment of brain to brawn. Horseback-riding, which does -promise vigorous exercise, is expensive. The bicycle meets all the -conditions and will ere long come within the reach of all. Therefore, -in obedience to the laws of health, I learned to ride. I also wanted -to help women to a wider world, for I hold that the more interests -women and men can have in common, in thought, word, and deed, the -happier will it be for the home. Besides, there was a special value to -women in the conquest of the bicycle by a woman in her fifty-third -year, and one who had so many comrades in the white-ribbon army that -her action would be widely influential. Then there were three minor -reasons: - - [Illustration: “AT LAST.”] - -I did it from pure natural love of adventure—a love long hampered and -impeded, like a brook that runs underground, but in this enterprise -bubbling up again with somewhat of its pristine freshness and taking -its merry course as of old. - -Second, from a love of acquiring this new implement of power and -literally putting it underfoot. - -Last, but not least, because a good many people thought I could not do -it at my age. - -It is needless to say that a bicycling costume was a prerequisite. -This consisted of a skirt and blouse of tweed, with belt, rolling -collar, and loose cravat, the skirt three inches from the ground; a -round straw hat, and walking-shoes with gaiters. It was a simple, -modest suit, to which no person of common sense could take exception. - -As nearly as I can make out, reducing the problem to actual figures, -it took me about three months, with an average of fifteen minutes’ -practice daily, to learn, first, to pedal; second, to turn; third, to -dismount; and fourth, to mount independently this most mysterious -animal. January 20th will always be a red-letter bicycle day, because -although I had already mounted several times with no hand on the -rudder, some good friend had always stood by to lend moral support; -but summoning all my force, and, most forcible of all, what Sir -Benjamin Ward Richardson declares to be the two essential -elements—decision and precision—I mounted and started off alone. From -that hour the spell was broken; Gladys was no more a mystery: I had -learned all her kinks, had put a bridle in her teeth, and touched her -smartly with the whip of victory. Consider, ye who are of a -considerable chronology: in about thirteen hundred minutes, or, to put -it more mildly, in twenty-two hours, or, to put it most mildly of all, -in less than a single day as the almanac reckons time—but practically -in two days of actual practice—amid the delightful surroundings of the -great outdoors, and inspired by the bird-songs, the color and -fragrance of an English posy-garden, in the company of devoted and -pleasant comrades, I had made myself master of the most remarkable, -ingenious, and inspiring motor ever yet devised upon this planet. - -Moral: _Go thou and do likewise!_ - - - - -Transcriber’s Note - - -Inconsistent hyphenation (horseback-riding/horseback riding) has been -retained as printed. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's A Wheel Within a Wheel, by Frances E. 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