Harper's Round Table, September 10, 1895 Part 8

"Well, what have you got to say for yourself?" asked his brother-in-law, impatiently.

"Nothing."

"Neal dear, you must explain," said Hester.

"Why should I explain? I paid the debt. It doesn't make any difference to either of you how I did it."

"It makes a great deal of difference," exclaimed Mr. Franklin, who was rapidly growing angry. "In the first place, how did you come to be owing fifty dollars so soon after the other debt was paid? What did you do with the first fifty your sister gave you in the fall?"

"Spent it."

"Neal!" cried Hester. "Didn't you pay your debts then? Why didn't you?"

He said nothing.

"It is an abominable affair altogether," said Mr. Franklin. "You were in debt, which you had no business to be. You obtained money from Hester to pay the debt, and then, according to your own words, you spent it otherwise. You get into a bad sc.r.a.pe and are suspended. And now you obtain money in some peculiar way, and refuse to explain how."

"Hold on a minute, Mr. Franklin," said Neal, who was in a towering rage by this time. "You go a little too far. I don't consider that it is at all necessary for me to explain to you, but I am willing to do it on Hessie's account. I did not say that I spent her money otherwise. I merely said that I spent it, which was perfectly true. I spent it paying half my debt. I owed a hundred dollars at that time, instead of fifty as I told you. I paid half then, and the rest I paid a few days ago, and it doesn't make any difference to you or any one else how I got the money.

As for the sc.r.a.pe, I was not in it. You can believe my word or not, as you like. I've said all I am going to say, and if you don't mind I'll leave you. I've had enough of this."

He stalked out of the library, and went up to his own room. No one saw him again that evening.

"You are too hard on him, John," said Mrs. Franklin.

"Hard on him! It would have been better for the boy if some one had begun earlier to be hard on him. It is the most extraordinary thing where he got that money."

Nothing was said to the others about it all. They knew that Neal was in fresh disgrace, but Mr. and Mrs. Franklin withheld the details at present. Neal himself was dumb. Not even to his only confidante, Cynthia, did he unburden himself. He was too angry with her father to trust himself to speak to her on the subject, and his silence made Cynthia miserable.

Neal did not acknowledge for a moment that the stand taken by Mr.

Franklin was perfectly justifiable and natural, and he allowed his resentment to burn furiously, making no effort to overcome it.

His mistake from the beginning had been concealment, but this he had yet to realize. He fancied that it would be lowering to his pride to make any explanation whatever.

Let them think what they liked, he did not care, he said to himself again and again.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG OF IT.

There is perhaps a question as to what is the proper position for the best and healthiest bicycle riding. Some good riders sit in one position, have one length of pedal stride, and use one kind of ankle motion, and others--just as good riders--believe in something entirely different, and prove it by riding long distances or at great speed without either injury or discomfort to themselves. The suggestions given below must stand, therefore, only as suggestions, which can only be proved by you yourself to be correct after you have followed them for some time, and found them of benefit to yourself. They are followed by many good road riders and racers, and that is some recommendation, and for the practical pleasure of wheelman they are probably the best that can be had.

In the first place, it is taken for granted that you are riding a bicycle for pleasure, not as a business: that you ride of an afternoon say thirty miles or so, not much more, that occasionally you make a day's trip to some place and do fifty miles, and that perhaps you take a fortnights trip of five or six or seven hundred miles. In other words, the readers of the ROUND TABLE, both boys and girls, are the subject of this article. They do not ride five hundred miles in twenty-four hours on a track on thousand-dollar wagers, and they refrain from trying to do a mile in a minute and fifty seconds. They do not "train" for their trips, but they treat their wheels as they would cat-boats or horses or tennis, or any other healthy out-door sport.

For such people bicycle riding is not by any means the healthiest exercise that could be found. In the first place, it is an extraordinary stimulus to the heart. If you dismount after working up a bad hill you may very possibly find your pulse at 150--something unusual in almost any running game. Then again, while riding exercises certain muscles of the legs admirably, the shoulders and back muscles are not only not getting much training, but in certain too common positions they are actually being distorted. Still again there is a constant tendency to overdo the thing, to ride too much, and especially in the case of girls to tire yourself out, and bring a strain on the system that may result in something more or less permanent in the shape of injury.

All this is not set down at the beginning to scare any one away from bicycling. Imperfect exercise is better than none, and many people ride a wheel religiously who would not be persuaded to take any other regular exercise. The hours in the open air on a wheel are far better than nothing, therefore, and then, too, a good many other exercises which are far more general, are for one reason or another beyond the reach of some of us. Horseback riding, for example, is a much more general and temperate exercise, but we cannot all support a stable. Walking is no doubt better than bicycling; but few of us will walk regularly day after day ten miles in the proper form and costume, while just now we are all willing to do twice that amount on a wheel and in correct costume. So that bicycling, in spite of its drawbacks, is distinctly to be encouraged. There is, however, a right way and many wrong ones, and though people may disagree on some of the details, they do not fail to agree on general principles.

Bicycling for boys is different in most details from bicycling for girls, and we must speak separately of these, as indeed the two should be enjoyed separately generally. A boy always has more endurance, and can tire out a girl in four miles. He should therefore either ride only in company of his own s.e.x, or he should, when riding with a girl, keep to her standard rather than try to bring her up to his. This is hard work for the boy, and needs his constant attention during the ride, so much so, indeed, that he will do better not to ride with girls at all.

To begin with, then, let us take the ordinary upright position, such a position as will correspond to the upright position a.s.sumed by any one who is walking, by a good horseman in the saddle, by a cross-country runner in his run. There are rules for all these, and they are relatively the same. You want to give yourself plenty of room to breathe in. The chest ought to be well out, therefore, the shoulders thrown back, and the head up, so that you will not be crowding all the veins that send blood into your head by letting your neck sink into your shoulders. This is the same in horseback riding, running, walking, and rowing. You can a.s.sume this position while sitting and reading this article by following this simple rule: Sit squarely on the chair. Then fix your mind on an imaginary spot in your chest bone or "sternum," just half-way between your pectorals and on a line with them. Then try to "lift" this point up as high as you can. Your abdomen will naturally be contracted, or will "go in," as you say. The small of your back will curve in, and the back of your neck at the base of the brain will press backwards, while your chin is brought in close to your neck in front, at the same time the shoulders are pressed back. When this position is exaggerated, it looks somewhat pompous and idiotic, but it is the correct position for the trunk of the body, and when it becomes natural it looks natural.

This is the position you should a.s.sume when you are in the saddle of a bicycle. Of course no one, man or boy, can keep up in this position all the time, but you should keep as near it as you comfortably can. Comfort is really the basis of all such positions, and while, to a certain extent, comfort is the result of habit, still a more upright position is more natural to one than to another rider.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CORRECT ROAD POSITION.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: INCORRECT ROAD POSITION.]

This upright seat is dependent on itself. That is to say, you should get in the habit of taking it so easily that, supposing you could ride with handles, you would sit thus nevertheless. In other words, you should not depend on your hands and the grip they have on the handles for support at all. The hands and arms are not needed as you sit in a chair, nor as you walk, nor as you ride a horse, except as guides in one case to guide the horse, in the other to keep your balance while walking, and finally on the bicycle to guide the wheel and keep yourself balanced on it. If you will examine the two cuts accompanying this article, ent.i.tled, respectively, "correct road position" and "incorrect road position," you will at once see the difference. The incorrect position shows a rider "leaning" on his hands and arms. The seat is a very common one, unfortunately, and if you examine the next twenty riders you meet, especially those who have ridden fifteen or twenty miles, you are likely to find most of them in this condition. The arms are rigid, the body is leaning on them. This thrusts the shoulders back until the shoulder-blades touch each other behind the shoulders. The lungs and neck are pushed forward, and every single muscle and nerve in the upper part of the trunk and neck is out of place. The result is that neither heart nor lungs get good opportunity for action, and the shape of your upper body is slowly but surely being deformed. In the other position, the correct one, the rider could at any moment take his hands from the handle-bar and not alter his position in any way. The two contrasted speak for themselves.

It may, of course, be said that when a rider becomes tired with riding, the incorrect position is a great rest. In the first place, this is not true if he has faithfully learned to ride in the upright seat. Then the other becomes uncomfortable. In the correct position the wheelman has his arms a trifle bent, at the elbow, so that when he goes over any unevenness in the road his arms give, and he avoids the shaking of his whole body by the jounce, to say nothing of the certainty of giving his wheel an unpleasant shaking up.

In the most modern wheels the position of the rider is almost that of a pedestrian--that is, the pedals are almost under the saddle, so that he treads directly up and down. This helps him in keeping his seat without the aid of hands and arms, and it makes all the muscles of the legs and thighs work in their proper places, and the whole action of his body thus becomes natural. All this can be seen in the "correct position,"

and there can hardly be a question that this is the natural position for a man to take when he mounts his wheel for a run of a few miles. It naturally brings part of the weight of the body on the pedals, relieves the very uncomfortable weight on the saddle, and helps a rider to balance himself without the use of handle-bars, thus avoiding the "wriggling" of the wheel, which is so tiresome and so deadening to a steady road gait.

The position of a man who is racing is, of course, quite different, and it has a parallel in horse-racing. A jockey when he is riding a racing horse in a big race rises in his stirrups, leans far forward, and crouches on the horse's neck: but because a jockey does this in a race--and advisedly so--is no reason for a gentleman to do the same when he is out for a jaunt on his cob of an afternoon. The two seats are both correct, but each belongs to its sphere. So it is with the bicycle. The racing or "scorching" position is a difficult one to represent in a photographic reproduction, because each man has his own particular ideas, and as most men who race make a study of the subject, the result is that there are many different ideas. The general principle is, however, to get a strong purchase on the handles in order to give yourself greater power in thrusting down on the pedals, and at the same time to curl up the body in order to give as little resistance to the air as possible. Any one who has ridden against the wind will realize what an enormous difference the air makes on his speed, and this is, of course, multiplied when the rider is going at a record-breaking speed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CORRECT SCORCHING.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: INCORRECT SCORCHING.]

But there are correct and incorrect racing positions, and the two ill.u.s.trations on the subject will give you a suggestion of these. A "scorching" position cannot be taken on a bicycle where the saddle and handle-bars have been arranged for the upright road position. This can be easily seen by referring to the ill.u.s.trations again. In the correct scorching position the handles are very low down, and the seat is raised and tipped forward, so that the rider, while pulling up strongly on the handles, is practically only leaning against the saddle, and putting all his weight on the pedals. The back is curved rather than straight, because a much greater purchase can be obtained in this way; and indeed the curved back makes a much more vigorous and symmetrical att.i.tude.

The important point to remember is, however, that you cannot a.s.sume the scorching position and the upright road position on the same bicycle without putting on different handle-bars. Hence, when you see a man trying this portion with high handles you know he is wrong. On the other hand, to start out for a pleasant afternoon run through the country for twenty-five miles in a scorching position is just as absurd as it would be if a man riding a horse in the Park for pleasure should a.s.sume the jockey seat. There is neither rhyme nor reason in it. Finally, a half-way position--one between the upright and the scorching positions--is worst of all.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CORRECT LENGTH OF REACH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOO LONG A REACH.]

Another important point in road-riding is the height of the saddle above the lowest point in the arc described by the pedals. Experience has shown that when the pedal is at its lowest and you are sitting squarely on the saddle, your heel should be on a level with the toe of the boot and your knee a trifle bent. Or, to put it differently, it should be possible for you to place the ball of your foot on the pedal and follow it around in its circle without absolutely straightening your leg to its utmost. Or, still again, as other people describe it, you should be able to put the toe of your shoe _under_ the pedal and keep it there all the way round, the leg being straightened at the longest stretch. The ill.u.s.tration representing this shows the correct length of stride, and by referring to another cut you will see what results when the rider has raised his seat so high that he is obliged to let his toes point down with a straight leg in order to follow the pedal around. This ill.u.s.tration, representing too long a stride, shows by the wrinkles in the rider's trousers and s.h.i.+rt that he is compelled to lower not only his hips but his whole side and shoulder, and, of course, the same is repeated alternately on the other side. As these photographs were taken by an instantaneous slide, and the riders were in motion, they are all actual positions during riding, and as such ill.u.s.trate exactly what happens in each case.

In this case of too long a stride there is real danger to health in the long-run. The wheelman makes many thousand revolutions in a week, and rides throughout a good part of the year, and any one can see in a moment that this constant working of all the vital parts of the body must be anything but healthy. Furthermore, aside from the question of health altogether, a wheelman becomes quickly tired out with this continual s.h.i.+fting. He may not know what is the cause of his weariness, but it is sure to be partly due to it if he rides in that way. There is no reason why a rider should want to have a long stride. It does not make any greater speed, and it actually detracts from the power of his stroke.

Now a word as to the ankle movement. Of course the force applied through the foot to the pedal at the moment when the latter is one-quarter way round the circle from the top, or, in other words, half-way "down," is the most valuable and powerful. Just as in rowing, the strength put into the oar when it is exactly at right angles with the boat is the most valuable. And, furthermore, the earlier or later the strength is applied to the pedals the less and less powerful it becomes so far as sending the wheel ahead goes. If you press down hard when the pedal is nearly or fully down to its lowest point you are scarcely sending the wheel ahead at all, and all your exertion goes for nothing therefore. Practically speaking, in order to get the best of your strength in at the quarter-circle point you should begin to push, and push vigorously, the moment the pedal has pa.s.sed by its highest point. The push should be quick and short, and should stop as soon as possible after the quarter-circle point has been pa.s.sed. There is an instant of rest there, and then the heel should be raised a little and a sharp upward and backward pull made on this same pedal at the same instant that the downward push is being made on the other pedal with the other foot. As a result, the rider is pulling up with one foot while he is pus.h.i.+ng down with the other, and there are therefore two distinct motions with each leg during a single revolution of the pedal. Many riders only push downward, and allow the pedals to rise of their own accord, so to speak, but they waste a part of the force of each revolution by this--not a half, but fully one-third of what they might easily put into it.

As a result of this the heel takes a different position relative to the toe at different parts of one revolution. At the top and bottom the two are on the same level, but the heel goes down quicker than the toe and comes up quicker. This is very tiresome for the beginner, and he soon finds the calves of his legs aching sharply, but in time he will become accustomed to it, and the added amount of speed which he gets out of his machine is surprising even to himself.

There is not s.p.a.ce enough left to say anything of girls' riding, but some time in the future this should have a short article by itself.

MAY BE SO.

BY RUTH McENERY STUART.