L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads, Vol 24, No 11
Articles in this issue
- Signed reader letters running across several pages, including a physician's warning against aromatic sulphuric acid (J. D. Albright, Akron), a defence of the bicycle in church (T. G. B.), and notes on thorny Delaware roads and hard versus soft tires.
- A fifteen-year rider (No. 74,051) defends the forward-leaning, ram's-horn-handlebar position as mechanically superior on hills and against head-winds, refuting critics of the bicycle stoop.
- Editorial leader by Sterling Elliott denying that the Racing Board bars any maker's wheels, explaining the amateur/professional divide, and answering threats of a 'formidable rival' to League control of racing.
- A Good Roads essay reprinting the petition circulated by Fort Madison, Iowa, L. A. W. members urging the mayor and council to make permanent street improvements, and exhorting wheelmen everywhere to test public support.
- A satirical editorial proposing that Congress make a one-cent appropriation for a new post-office pen, lampooning the worn-out public pen and the rush for federal money.
- Reprinted from the San Jose Mercury, praising Santa Clara county's sprinkled macadam-and-gravel roads from San Mateo to San Benito as the best on the Coast and cheaper to maintain than poor ones.
- A touring-correspondence department with signed route letters: New York to Washington via Gettysburg and Antietam, Philadelphia to Luray, Port Jervis to Philadelphia, and Port Byron to Clyde.
- A long editorial essay on money per capita arguing that redistributing currency would not cure hard times, defending capital and thrift amid the 1896 free-silver campaign.
- A signed protest by A. B. Choate and a letter from Celsus P. Link (Fairplay, Colo.) objecting to President Elliott turning the official organ into a gold-standard organ, answered at length by the editor.
- Drawing on Isaac B. Potter's Century article 'The Bicycle Outlook,' discussing the revival of roadside inns, the 7,000 official League hotels, and cycle-path construction at $75-$150 per mile.
- A member (No. 106,983) recounts how Oil City, Pa., wheelmen, backed by Pennsylvania Chief Consul S. A. Boyle, organized to get a harsh bicycle-tag ordinance voted down entirely.
- Short trade items including United States Cycle Fittings Company's agent offer, F. W. Whitcher & Co.'s baggage-car bicycle brackets, and National Meet souvenirs from the Louisville '96 club.
- An essay in the Good Roads department arguing that inland and Southern resort towns must provide smooth roads for bicycles or lose their boarders, plus a signed appeal (F. Storrs Hansell) to employ convicts in road-building.
- Reprinted from the Philadelphia Inquirer, citing Pennsylvania Deputy-Secretary John Hamilton's figures of 80,000 miles of roads costing $48.73 per mile and his case for a state road law and broad tires.
- League headquarters listing 1896-97 officers (President Sterling Elliott, Secretary Abbot Bassett), standing committees, and the full roster of division chief consuls and secretary-treasurers, with membership application and renewal blanks.
- Racing Board notices listing riders suspended pending investigation, declared and suspended professionals, suspensions removed and reduced, and sanctions granted, including the Buffalo and St. Louis cases and accepted San Jose tandem records.
- Division news anchored at the New York State Division's representative nominations by district (signed W. S. Bull, Sec.-Treas.), with Nebraska Division nominations and a Massachusetts club representative.
- The state-by-state list of L. A. W. membership applications received up to September 11, 1896, totalling 619 for a membership of 66,630, plus new League clubs in Mt. Vernon, Ind. and Racine, Wis.
- The editor answers reader questions on buying a wheel, ladies on tandems, rules of the road, and learning to ride at sixty, alongside notes on the 1897 Scotland championships and the danger of elastic stirrups.