L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads, Vol 24, No 14
Articles in this issue
- Reader letters to the editor including "Aged Lady Riders" (an elderly woman inviting debate on older women cycling), "The Right Side Was Wrong" (a cyclist lassoed by a coachman's whip), "We Blush" (a new member praising the Bulletin), "Something for His Dollar" (free wheel hire and easy Niagara customs via an L.A.W. ticket), "Several Topics" (Nantucket macadam and cycling as an asthma cure), and "A Bicycle Shed" (the American Waltham Watch Company's shed for employees' wheels).
- A recurring column noting recently received bicycle-trade catalogues, here from Geo. A. Clark & Co. of Utica (sundries) and W. C. Johnston of Boston (a two-speed attachment).
- Editor Sterling Elliott's leading editorial arguing that proper recreation is as essential as food, likening the bicycle to lubricating oil for the human machine and commending cycling as practical "medicine" for body and mind.
- A wry editorial replying to fears that the bicycle will make the horse useless, citing a Western man canning Indian-pony meat and an Oregon plant grinding horses into fertilizer, and concluding the horse will survive as a noble animal aided by good roads.
- An editorial rebuking The Rider and Driver for muddling the rule of the road, reaffirming the wheelman's rule "Meet to the right, pass to the left" against the false "always pass to the right."
- A letter from Chas. H. Geiger, Chief Consul of the West Virginia Division at Wheeling, reporting the arrest of "Lost Ticket Fraud" C. C. Caldwell (alias H. E. Carter) and seeking owners of an Outing wheel, Searchlight lamps and other goods found on him.
- F. J. MacBeath, Jr.'s poem (with apologies to Kipling) versifying the wheelmen's code of road courtesy, lamp laws, temperance and riding for pleasure rather than mileage or speed.
- "Gordon" describes a popular 28-mile run from Springfield, Mass., to Hartford, Conn., over good roads via Longmeadow, Thompsonville, Enfield and Warehouse Point, noting Charter Oak Park and the capitol dome.
- A detailed account of how Rochester, N.Y. wheelmen, aided by the Post-Express, built nearly 47 miles of side-paths across Monroe county for about $4,200, including paths to Fairport, Pittsford, the Sea Breeze and Scottsville.
- A puzzle offering $5 for the first correct answer, presenting a map of L.A.W. membership by state as of Oct. 1, 1896, and asking readers to find the railroad-fare-minimizing meeting point.
- Opening the paper's two-page free forum on the silver/gold money question, the editor reports receiving nearly two hundred articles and prints contributions including "One on the 'Gold Bugs,'" "A Human Man" (signed Sevir, for Bryan), and "A Prohibitionist's Opinion" by Daniel B. Luten.
- Continuing the money-question forum, San Francisco and other correspondents respond to the editor's "Value of a Dollar" editorials, with letters such as "A Virginia Opinion," "He Thought We Should Study It" (Ernest C. Marshall), and a quotation from Bryan's Boston Common speech.
- Reports that the Pennsylvania R.R. (per a letter from Geo. W. Boyd to Wm. R. Lansing of Rochester) still charges for bicycles as baggage, and reprints the full text of the Armstrong baggage law in force in New York State.
- The Good Roads department's lead, reporting cheerful messages from across the land that roads and town streets are better than ever, with related items "The Best Road Makers" on wide tires and "A Good Roads Preacher" on John H. Thomas's decorated Louisville wheel.
- The L.A.W. official roster listing President Sterling Elliott and other 1896-97 officers, standing committees, and the state-by-state division chief consuls and secretaries-treasurers, plus membership application and renewal blanks from Secretary Abbot Bassett.
- Official Racing Board notices listing riders suspended pending investigation and for unsanctioned races (including many at Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cheyenne and Gainesville), permanent suspensions, transfers to the professional class, and sanctions granted.
- Consolidated division business and notices, including the Kansas Division's tenth annual meeting at Salina (good-roads resolutions and finances), Tennessee, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Georgia, New Jersey, New York State and New Hampshire appointments and nominations, the Kentucky Division annual meeting (A. D. Ruff's $1,000 bequest), Rhode Island passing 1,000 members, and the Missouri Division's quarterly meeting and racing report.
- The weekly state-by-state list of 579 new membership applications received up to Oct. 2, 1896, published under Article III of the constitution, together with notices of new League clubs (Fremont Wheel Club and North Hudson County Cyclers) and "The Leading Six" state membership chart.
- The editor answers reader questions on baggage-car charges, speed-limit ordinances, Canadian customs ticket retention, the length of a kilometer, hotel and road information, and "State Roads," advising E. J. B. that only a state road law can fund highways.
- A correspondent from Wakefield, Mass., decries the two sandy, hilly "alleged thoroughfares" between Manchester and Concord, illustrating with a photograph and verse the need for good-roads work and state road legislation in New Hampshire.