America 1870-1900 - CYCLING- America Goes A-Wheeling

I started my notes for this section with this - “Since I have decided I am only doing this writing for me, I am going to skip the section on cycling.” And then proceeded to write 4 longhand pages about it. 

Of course, in the double spread entitled “Florida Wheelmen on the Road Near Tallahassee” there is a young black man behind the 8 white “wheelmen”.  I assume he was a fellow wheelman, but I could be wrong. Is this the precursor to the biker gang?  There are 4 boater hats to the 5 brimmed caps in the picture so it’s hard to say. Mods? Rockers? Mockers?

What the cycle did for the ladies! “Skirts that rose scandalously above the ankle to make pedaling easier.”  And there was a Ladies’ North Shore Tricycle outing from Malden to Gloucester beginning October 6, 1887. You know that went right through Beverly! I must look that up in the Beverly paper as soon as I am able to get into the library itself. The couples sharing the tricycles remind me of my parents canoeing - with Daddy in the back providing the muscle power. We girls helped of course.  And mom was up front navigating. Those were fun times. I would canoe anew. Would you? Too bad we are in kayak country. I hate those things. I fear I would get stuck in them. 

Bicycling began spitting in God’s eye with unholy Sabbath day bike races. Charles Murphy broke the one minute mile on a bike in 1899. Don't know if those are related and if Charles Murphy was a minion of the devil. 

Miss Frances E. Willard of the Women’s Temperance movement is getting her first bike lesson. Let’s hope it loosens her up a bit. She was 53 when she decided to ride a bike. That’s about 85 in 2020 years!  Maybe it isn’t too late for me to learn to kayak.  Miss Willard says, “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.” For a 1892 temperance lady, she sounds a lot like the stoners I hung out with in college. [From A WHEEL WITHIN A WHEEL, 1895]

According to both Wikipedia and an adorable blog called Reading Rambo, Ms Willard was certainly at least adjacent. There are several quotes in her writing that make this supposition pretty believable. Go Frances!

TL looks at what the media has to say about cycling. Scribner's talks about “fat Germans and their fatter fraus”. Watch it Scribners! The British Medical Journal is singing the praises of bicycling for all manner of ailments. I hope it works on ennui. The Chicago Sun Herald says that “to the women of impure life the wheel may offer a convenient means for facilitating the execution of immoral designs.” That reminds me of Stacey Lee’s THE DOWNSTAIRS GIRL which I just procured from the library!

Next up - OCCUPATIONS!