Show A million bicy bicycles les the hist historian orlan who will write the true history ot of the closing years of the nineteenth century will be compelled to say a great deal about the growth influence and effects of the bicycle habit during that period the points which he will feel obliged to cover are as aa numerous as they are interesting the bicycle as the legitimate successor of the velocipede of a quarter ot of a century ago was taken take n up as an appliance for exercise and pleasure these it has furnished to an extent not anticipated by its most enthusiastic devotees in addition it has passed beyond any limits of mere plea bure or exercise it has forced itself on the attention of the great war powers of the earth it remains to be seen what warlike purposes it may serve but it Is safe to say that in the next european war the first man of the invading force in the country coun try will be mounted on oil a wheel it has conquered society aristocracy in england and france as well as in this country has recognized its worth in adopting atthe idle and luxurious classes have rendered a service by enormously increasing its popularity the hundreds of thousands who might have hesitated between desire and dread in the uncertainty as to whether it was the proper thing have had their doubts cleared away A custom which has the sanction of the faubourg Fau bourg st germain of the british peerage of tile the Illi michaux chaux club of newport and of the local four hundred in each one of our great cities is as firmly established as the constitution with its subsequent amendments in this country it is creating as aa we have said social and econome economical C al conditions worthy of the attention of the histo ilan it II may not be true as mrs anthony says that woman Is riding to suffrage on the bicycle but it Is undoubtedly true that bhe is riding to greater freedom to a nearer equality with man to the habit of taking care ot of herself and to new views on the subject of clothes philosophy the woman on the wheel is altogether a novelty and Is essentially a product of the last decade of the century in this country alone the sales of bicycles tor for this year are estimated at half a million the total number of bicycles in use Is estimated at a million these figures are mere guesses but there Is nothing incredible or improbable about them it is certain that we are only at the beginning of what Is called the bicycle craze and the indications are that the craze Is not getting ready to disappear di s appear een e in it it is not getting ready as is more likely to supersede all other methods of locomotion |