L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads, Vol 24, No 17
Articles in this issue
- The reader-letters department opens with the ongoing "Hard and Soft Tires" debate (a New Brighton, S.I. member tying tire pressure to saddle and handlebar choice; Tom Wallace Jr. of Shelbyville, Ky. crediting 8,000 miles to full inflation), then "The Lame Knee Difficulty" (a one-legged Michigan City rider, a New York lady, and Clarence A. Farnum of Wellsville on cycling knee and sciatic pain) and "Safety for Cyclists" (J.C.G., No. 88,486, urging lights on all vehicles after the Fairmount Park tunnel collision in Philadelphia).
- Editor Sterling Elliott explains the mail-vote process by which the 1897 National Assembly (meeting at Albany, N.Y., Feb. 10th) will choose the site of next summer's national meet, with towns invited to file applications with Secretary Bassett and submit a page of promotional matter.
- The L.A.W. Executive Committee announces a poster-design competition advertising the League, appropriating $1,000 for printing and offering a $100 prize for the best design plus a separate $10 Bulletin prize for the best written suggestion received before December 1st.
- An editorial essay contrasting the bicycle with the horse during the unusually wet September and October weather, arguing the wheel costs nothing when idle while the horse "eats on forever," and closing with a couplet endorsing the bicycle as the all-weather steed.
- The L.A.W. Road Department offers Isaac B. Potter's two essays on country and macadam roads, whose copyrights the League has acquired, at one cent each to members, alongside an "L.A.W. Press Bureau" note announcing Otto Dorner of Milwaukee will systematically distribute road-improvement literature to the press.
- New York State Division Chief Consul Isaac B. Potter notifies members that the Pennsylvania Railroad is defying the Armstrong Baggage Law and announces the Division will bring the company before the courts and legislature at Albany, asking members to question Assembly candidates on bicycle-baggage legislation.
- An editorial replying to a Maryland correspondent argues that custom and consideration for neighbors, not strict law, should govern Sunday riding, advising wheelmen to ride but not to provoke churchgoers, and noting that every state except California has Sunday laws.
- An editorial answering a Brooklyn member who defends loud gongs over "toy bells" deplores the growing urban "noise nuisance" and calls for a society for the suppression of gongs; followed by "An Unappreciative Member" reprinting a complaint about a wheel-rental store holding an L.A.W. ticket as security.
- Willard Deane (No. 86,073) of New York narrates a multi-day tour by two ladies and a gentleman from New York to Boston and the North and South Shores, visiting Gloucester, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Salem, Marblehead, Lexington, Plymouth, the "Old Oaken Bucket" well and the John Alden house, returning via the Fall River steamer Priscilla.
- A report of Dr. E. B. Turner's paper "The Sanitary Aspect of Cycling for Ladies," read at a London conference, advising woolen innermost garments, loose clothing, an upright seat, gearing of 52 to 60 inches, milk and soda to drink, and "moderation" above all.
- Two pages set apart for the free-silver versus gold-standard debate, opening with "A Lumberman's Idea" (reprinted from the New York Lumber Trade Journal) and "A Conservative Opinion," then numbered reader answers from W. G. Simmons (No. 5,034) and others on the 16-to-1 ratio and the 53-cent dollar.
- Describes a novel New Jersey recruiting folder, ruled in ledger style, listing the benefits of L.A.W. membership (Road Book, hotel discounts, legal protection, theft insurance, road and side-path legislation) against a member's dues; followed by "A Defy to One-Legged Riders" and a note inviting contributions from amateur photographer "camera fiends."
- The full text of Judge Russell's Missouri decision in J. R. Bettis v. Missouri Pacific Railroad Company (brought in effect by the Missouri Division), holding that a bicycle carried for the rider's personal use is ordinary baggage that must be transported without extra charge under the common-law definition.
- A roundup of overseas cycling news: poor English roads from prolonged rain, debate over servant girls riding bicycles, bicyclists attached to every Austrian army brigade, a new African Cyclist paper at Johannesburg, a chainless gut-cord bicycle from England, a Spanish cycle-dealers' strike in Madrid over new taxes, and the French Touring Club's 42,000 members.
- Francis H. Knauff (No. 123,655) of Philadelphia recommends a two- or three-week midwinter cycling tour of Jamaica, praising the island's tropical scenery, toll-free roads, cheap hotels and hospitable people, and noting it is reached in five days from New York, Baltimore, Boston or Philadelphia.
- Notes a growing tendency of racing score-card publishers to print L.A.W. notices, quoting examples from Ridgeway, Pa. (Local Consul L. J. A. Lesser) and Haverhill, Mass.; followed by "A Strange Thing," Edward O. Chase of Newark describing a single bicycle rigged to carry two riders seen on a Long Island trip.
- C. W. Townsend of Sewickley, Pa. argues from long riding experience that wide-tired wagons would turn most of the nation's bad roads good, urging a strict wide-tire law plus proper drainage and maintenance, and calling on the 70,000 L.A.W. members to vote for such legislation.
- The League's official directory, listing the 1896–97 officers (President Sterling Elliott, Secretary Abbot Bassett, Treasurer E. S. Hartwell), the standing committees, and the Chief Consuls and Secretary-Treasurers for every state division, together with the application and renewal blanks and badge offers from Bassett.
- Minutes of the Oct. 16 meeting at the Astor House, New York, fixing the National Assembly at Albany with a "Good Roads Day" Feb. 10, 1897, appropriating $1,000 for Good Roads Day and $1,000 for posters, reporting a $14,495.93 cash balance and $7,214.20 rebated by publisher Elliott, and 69,879 members.
- Consolidated division reports and notices: A. Inglis Donnell's Oregon Division chief consul's report and nominations, Pennsylvania Division Road Book items, the Connecticut Division Tour Book, Illinois Division nominations and a recruiting drive toward 5,000 members, Louisiana and New York State Division appointments and meeting notices, and a free first-aid lecture offer to New York and Brooklyn members.
- The constitutionally required state-by-state list of membership applicants (total 522, bringing the count to 70,203), running over four pages from Arkansas and Colorado through Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin, interleaved with $25 stolen-wheel reward notices.
- The editor's reply department answers members on the minimum membership age of eighteen, removing lamps before checking a bicycle as baggage, and the League's royal-purple official color, and lists the dates of the coming winter cycle shows in London, Paris, Chicago, New York and other cities.