L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads, Vol 24, No 19
Articles in this issue
- Reader letters, opening with Louis Rubenstein, Chief Consul of the C.W.A. in Montreal, rebutting a disparaging account of his city, and continuing with members' anecdotes and remedies covering squirrels and rabbits in the wheels, Æolian harps, sciatica cured by daily riding, lame-knee fixes, and saddle adjustment.
- Editor Sterling Elliott's philosophical leader urges readers to find happiness on whichever side of life's "imaginary river" they stand, concluding that a properly ridden bicycle is the best everyday joy-bringer yet discovered.
- Reports that Isaac B. Potter, New York chief consul and chairman of the National Highway Improvement Committee, is to marry Miss Cornelia Gilbert of Atlanta, breaking up the trio of bachelor L.A.W. leaders (with Chas. F. Cossum and ex-governor David B. Hill) facetiously known as "The Sutherland Sisters."
- The L.A.W. Executive Committee announces a competition for an 18×24-inch poster advertising the League's road-improvement mission, offering $10 for the best design suggestion and $100 for the finished design, with entries due before December 1st.
- The Wholesale Saddlery Association's president calls for a publicity campaign to counter bicycle manufacturers' press influence and reassert the horse's appeal, prompting the editor to note that the spokesman appears to be learning to ride a wheel himself.
- An L.A.W. member in West Medford, Mass., draws the associate editor's attention to streets left in deplorable condition after sewer work, contrasting them with a properly restored street in Arlington, and blaming indifferent elected officials for the disparity.
- The L.A.W. currently grants no sanctions for Sunday races following a National Assembly vote against them, but the question is expected to come before the Albany meeting again and members are urged to consider it carefully in advance.
- A well-travelled member, signing "Reformer," identifies a structural flaw in the L.A.W.: in smaller states chief consuls collect dues but spend them on unexplained expenses, leaving members with nothing but the Bulletin, and proposes consolidating consulate funds at the national level.
- Walter Leroy Smith of Salem, Mass., argues that saddle height is the single most important factor in preventing fatigue, recommending the heel-to-pedal test for the correct height and keeping the saddle just forward of the perpendicular post.
- A group calling themselves the "Chi-My-Dell-Harts" recount a seven-day, 319-mile tour from East New York along Long Island's south shore to Patchogue, by ferry to New London, through Rhode Island to Newport, and back via New Haven and the Connecticut shore, completed without a single puncture.
- George Appleton of Providence tells how his wife volunteered his mechanical services to twenty-six fellow guests at a New Hampshire summer hotel, making him the resort's unpaid bicycle repairer all vacation, until he later discovered the dapper man he'd most resented was a professional bicycle repairer in disguise.
- Reprinted from the London Evening Standard, this piece surveys global rubber supply, from Brazilian Para rubber to Central American Castillo elastica, and calculates that a 100-acre Nicaraguan plantation could yield a net profit of over £8,000 in its eighth year, with yields rising thereafter.
- The women's department, opening with Joe Lincoln's verse "Just a Word" dedicated to the Woman's Rescue League, the playful charter of the Unity Bicycle Club of Brooklyn, and notes on women cyclists and the spread of American machines in Australia.
- Reprinted from the New York Sun, this item tells how truckman Albert Faber, who deliberately forced a wheelman to dismount on the Brooklyn Bridge, was arrested by cycling Bridge policeman O'Connell, fined $5 by Magistrate Simms, and locked up in the Tombs.
- The highway-improvement department, led by "Autumn Road Making" urging supervisors to repair roads in dry weather, with notes on Bristol County, Mass., road questions from Charles Freeman Johnson of San Francisco, good-roads agitation in Maine and Texas, and assorted road verse.
- The L.A.W. official directory listing national officers (President Sterling Elliott, Secretary Abbot Bassett), standing committees, and the chief consuls and secretary-treasurers of every state division, together with the membership application and renewal blanks.
- Racing Board actions, including riders suspended pending investigation (largely Galveston, Tex.), suspensions and transfers to the professional class for unsanctioned and Sunday racing, sanctions granted, an accepted one-mile paced record by Amos B. Hughes of Denver, and division notices on elections and stolen wheels.
- The state-by-state list of membership applications published under Article III of the constitution, preceded by division news from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky and Oregon, all numbered over 135,000.
- The editor's brief replies to members' questions by League number, covering hotel rates and L.A.W. appointments, complaints requiring a signed name, two- versus three-point ball bearings, and right-of-way conduct toward a "road hog."