Sheet music:New York and Coney Island Cycle March Two-Step

E. T. Paul published the "New York and Coney Island Cycle March" in 1896, when the bicycle was all the rage and developers were building the first amusement parks at Coney Island. The appeal of both was immediately apparent. The bicycle's popularity surged in the 1890s after the development of the "safety" bicycle and the mass-production of inflatable tires. But with bikes priced at more than $50 in 1895, the joys of bicycling and the resulting increase in freedom and mobility tended to be reserved for middle-class Americans. Hailed by Susan B. Anthony in 1896 for giving women "a feeling of freedom and self-reliance," the bicycle changed the way women dressed and how they interacted with men. Reformers commended the liberation brought about with the introduction of bloomers and shorter skirts, while critics derided the potential for immorality. As suggested by the unchaperoned bicycling couple on the cover, the new amusement parks at Coney Island changed the popular weekend destination from seedy to respectable. Men and women could socialize more freely in a safe environment. This song celebrates the bicycle's popular appeal, offering pleasure "to all mankind," just when the Coney Island amusement parks were forging a new kind of mass entertainment for all Americans.