“Being a member of the L. A. W., I naturally see the _World_, and I have beside me a copy of your paper, in which I notice an article on ‘Why a woman should ride.’ I agree with the writer in that the ladies should ride, and from my own experience I have found it improves my ‘health and complexion’ very much. I have only been riding since last June, but I am stronger now, and enjoy living much better than I ever did before that time. The pains and the doctors have both gone, where, I don’t know and care less, so long as they _have_ gone and so long as I still have my bicycle and can take my ride every day. It seems to give me life, and I feel the life-giving exhilaration born of this splendid exercise after I take a five-mile run around the city, or, perchance, the country. It is such sport to leave far behind fast-trotting horses, and men and women who are obliged to take the street-car every place they go. And what could be more amusing than to see some or all in a car rush to that side to see a ‘lady riding a bicycle.’ I sometimes get just a trifle angry when I hear some old feminine fuss and feathers say, ‘Oh, isn’t that _disgraceful_ to see a _woman_ riding a _man’s_ bicycle!’ They, I suppose, never read the papers, as they would scarcely ever have time after working, worrying, and scolding their husbands (if they are lucky enough to have one). If they could just for an hour have the pleasure of riding as I do, I think the cross, fretful, and worrying fits would be few and far between. I could not do without my bicycle now. Sometimes when I have been out I come home laughing, and as I trot my five-year-old baby on my knee, she sometimes says, ‘What’s happened that’s so funny? tell me.’ And as I take her little hands and we fly around the room together, I feel that no woman on earth is as happy as I. Even after riding ten miles I do not feel tired, but come home feeling better than when I started. My husband is very much pleased that I ride, and here I will mention that the advantage in having a lady’s Safety is that either can ride. I actually think sometimes that my bicycle is keeping me too young in actions, and that I am not growing old gracefully as I ought to. “Now I don’t want any one to infer from this that I am one of those strong-minded women that want to vote, and keep the men in petticoats. Oh, no, indeed! I am very well satisfied to let the men run this government as it is, or as it will be after March next. “+Grace E. S.+” CHAPTER XVII. TANDEMS AND THE RATIONAL. The Tandem is a cycle in which two riders are mounted, one in front of the other, upon the same machine. We have the tandem tricycle, which is a two- or three-track machine on the tricycle principle, and the tandem bicycle, or single-track machine with two wheels.