L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads, Vol 24, No 18
Articles in this issue
- Readers' letters open the issue, including a description of bicycle hare-and-hounds rules used at Vevay, Switzerland (No. 85,507), a Haverhill, Mass. defence of rubber-band aeolian harps against the charge of frightening horses (No. 130,008), and M. S. Harrison's argument on the 'rule of the road.'
- Mrs. W. R. L. (No. 100,270) of Rochester recounts meeting a non-member wearing the League's royal-purple ribbon merely because she liked it, and argues the ribbon should bear the member's number as proof of L.A.W. standing.
- A Memphis Scimitar columnist describes the Southland wheelman's response to a reckless driver: keep right, and if run down, plant a round stone in the offender's features before having him arrested for assault.
- Editor Sterling Elliott's leader praises the bicycle for freeing women from domestic and social bondage into the freedom of all-out-doors, rebukes those who predicted cycling would disgrace womankind, and credits women with the wheel's exalted place in public esteem.
- A requested table of L.A.W. membership as a percentage of population across cities in New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, showing that no city (from Albany at .48% to Lawrence at .12%) reaches one per cent League membership.
- Over five hundred Lowell, Mass. wheelmen, led by real-estate dealer T. P. Hall as president and local consul Geo. H. Stevens as secretary, form a Good Roads League pledging to withhold support from any candidate who will not work for good streets and roads.
- The trade department notices recently issued catalogues and flyers from makers including Boggis & Co. (grips), John Harriott (club pins), Queen City Cycle Co. (the 'Erie'), Acme Cycle Co., McElwaine-Richards ('J. & R.' gear), Davis & Stevens ('Cyclone' pumps) and the Wheeler Saddle Co.
- A symposium of members' letters debating tire inflation, with E. W. Blossom of Concord Junction, Mass. and W. C. Shallcross of Lansford, Pa. weighing the comfort and puncture-resistance of soft versus hard pneumatic tires over various road surfaces.
- A symposium of members' answers (F. N. Bradley of Jackson, Mich., Wilson S. Howell of Harrison, N. J., Charles W. Smith of Vailsburg, N. J. and others) on whether the lady should occupy the front or rear seat of a tandem, most agreeing the heavier rider should be in the rear.
- A lengthy editorial essay defending the Bulletin's earlier anti-free-silver advocacy during the Bryan campaign, with sections 'The Crime of '73,' 'The Value of a Dollar' and 'The Laboring Man' arguing against the free coinage of silver and for sound money.
- Brief endorsements of pro-good-roads candidates James E. Gorman, senatorial candidate in Pennsylvania's Fifth District, and Bela D. Eisler of Mount Vernon, delegate for the Assembly from Westchester County's First District.
- A Good Roads feature on building side-paths, quoting Edward B. Linsley of Three Rivers, Mich. on the difficulties, describing H. B. Huntington's $132 half-mile cinder path at Benton Harbor, and a correspondent (Geo. Hayes, No. 108,627) arguing for centre paths over side-paths.
- A feature on the rapid growth of the Oregon Division from eight members at the start of 1896 to 287 by October, with Chief Consul A. Inglis Donnell predicting a thousand members by the end of 1897 and a Road Book in preparation.
- A satirical column by Myrtle Reed mocking bad cycling manners by ironically advising riders to revile every road, never slacken pace for a lady, run over dogs and frighten horses, and insult unescorted women riders at night.
- The Good Roads department, with 'Good Roads Ballots' urging wheelmen to elect road-minded officials and 'A Good Roads Plank' adopted by Lowell, Mass. citizens calling for a road commission free of petty politicians, plus a sandy-road illustration near East Lee, Mass.
- The League's official directory listing the 1896-97 national officers (President Sterling Elliott, Secretary Abbot Bassett), the standing committees, and the chief consuls and secretary-treasurers of every state and territorial division, with application and renewal blanks.
- Racing Board notices listing suspensions, denied sanctions (La Crosse County Agricultural Society and Dowagiac County Fair) and dozens of riders declared professionals or suspended for competing in unsanctioned races across Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin, Illinois and elsewhere.
- Consolidated division notices, including the Colorado, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, North California, Florida and Oklahoma divisions reporting officer nominations, returning-board appointments, local-consul lists and election-ballot reminders.
- The constitutionally required state-by-state lists of membership applications and renewals received up to the preceding Monday, totalling 686 applications (Boston, Oct. 30, 1896) and spanning every division from Alabama to Belgium.
- The Q&A department answers members on touring in Britain via the Cyclists' Touring Club, preventing spoke rust, carrying a revolver awheel, and the uniform $2.50 rate adopted by seventeen Atlantic steamship lines for carrying bicycles to Europe.
- A column of practical riding notes on reducing flesh by riding (and smoking) thirty miles a day, keeping handle-bars no wider than the body, polishing the wheel like a groomed horse, and George Appleton's caution on passing a runaway horse driven by a nervous woman.