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This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our maps and tours contain many valuable data kindly supplied from the official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen. Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L.A.W., the Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership blanks and information so far as possible.
A woman on a bicycle, whatever the laws may be, always has the right of way. If you meet her in a small side-path in the country, the path belongs to her. It is your duty to turn out. If this path happens to be on your side of the road—that, is, if the woman is approaching on the left side of the road, facing the direction in which she is moving—it is just as much your duty to turn out.
If in the country you come upon a woman who has in any way broken her bicycle or punctured a tire, it is perfectly proper, and a gentleman's duty, to offer to help her. It would be distinctly impolite to offer similar help in a city. The city is full of repair shops, there are cabs at any corner, and a woman can easily help herself there. In the country the case is very different. In fact, the rules of etiquette between men and women on bicycles are precisely the same as they are between men and women in carriages or in any other ordinary circumstances.
The question of costume is an important one also. Every bicyclist, especially men, should remember that, starting with a perfectly clean suit of clothing, after an hour's ride, no matter how expensive and perfect the costume may have been at the start, he is in no condition to go among other people to any extent. A bicyclist, therefore, should never attempt, especially in the city, to go into the main dining-room of a hotel in bicycle costume. An ordinary bicycle or golf suit—that is, a suit precisely like an ordinary business suit except for knickers and long stockings—may be suitable enough before one goes out bicycling for the day, but even at its best a sweater has no place in the parlor or the dining-room. Except at a regular bicycle resort, a small country inn where there are few people, or some athletic club, the bicyclist should change his costume before dining, or, in fact, entering the parlor or dining-room of any public-house.
Most of the railroads in the United States now have certain regulations regarding the carrying of bicycles. Where a certain fee is charged the bicyclist has nothing to do except to hand his wheel in to the baggage-master on the train, and to take it again when the train stops at the station where he wishes to leave it. Where no charge is made by the railroad, it is only fair and right to give the baggage-master ten cents or so for his trouble, and to be of whatever assistance to him that you can in handing in the bicycle and taking it from him. This of course applies to bicycles that are not crated.
When a machine is crated it comes under the rules of ordinary parcels, and requires no more attention than any other parcel. The average wheelman who has been riding some distance on his wheel belongs in the smoking-car. When men and women riding together enter a train they of course go into the regular cars, but they should carry themselves as they would if they were travelling like other passengers—and, strange as it may seem, that is not always the case.