L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads, Vol 24, No 21
Articles in this issue
- Reader letters open with Frank W. Weston (No. 106) correcting Louis Rubenstein's claim and naming the Boston Bicycle Club (founded Feb. 11, 1878) as America's oldest, ahead of the Suffolk, Bangor, San Francisco, and Montreal clubs, followed by a Quincy member's account of a lumber-team horse kicking and wrecking his front wheel.
- At a pre-election bicycle parade in Binghamton of over 12,000 wheelmen, malicious persons scattered card-mounted tacks point-up along the route; B.A.A. member Campbell knocked down one tack-thrower and gave him a thorough thrashing, and prosecutions are promised.
- A Washington, D.C. clerk (No. 93,062) argues that condemning Sunday cycling is unfair to working people who have no other free day, contrasting them with leisured wheelwomen who call Sunday riding 'bad form.'
- Editor Sterling Elliott draws a lesson from the human heart's habit of resting between beats, urging cyclists to take short daily rides rather than waiting for a grand thousand-mile journey, and to make the most of small opportunities.
- League members with unsettled claims against the American Wheelmen's Protective Association of Chicago are directed to send them to R. C. Bassett, Room 40, Montauk Block, Chicago, for adjustment, with their League numbers attached.
- Caldwell, who defrauded L.A.W. members by falsely claiming League membership, has been sentenced at Cumberland to four years in the Maryland penitentiary after the Maryland Division and State Attorney Pearce pressed the prosecution.
- The editors comment on a relay ride from Indianapolis to Canton, Ohio, carrying a Good Roads message to president-elect McKinley; extracts from riders such as Geo. Rubens, Wheeler, and Grady Clary reveal stretches of impassable fresh gravel, mud, and a ten-foot embankment fall.
- F. F. Howe of Pittsburg decorated his bicycle for an evening cycle parade with twelve colored electric lamps on the spokes, a ruby-lit 'Crafton, L.A.W.' globe on the handlebars, a 200-candle-power searchlight, and an electric bell under the saddle, all powered by a small storage battery.
- A satirical verse by Joe Lincoln in which a hidebound preacher refuses to let a liberal congregation, burned out of their own church, use his vestry, then takes as his text 'the greatest of these is charity.'
- Several correspondents share conflicting experiences: W. B. Sutphin of Laramie finds the wheel a preventive and cure, a Chicago member (No. 18,627) finds riding worsens his attacks, and John L. Misner of Peoria mocks the contradictory saddle-and-liniment advice in the correspondence.
- Writing to the Bulletin's new 'Camera Fiends' department, a beginner cyclist-photographer ('Hypo') asks for advice on the best 4x5 camera for a day's outing on the wheel, arguing for a magazine-plate camera over roll films, folding cameras, and loose plate holders.
- C. H. Davis (No. 122,512) of Washington argues that maps are far superior to road books for touring cyclists and proposes that the L.A.W. adopt a uniform national map system surveyed with bicycle-mounted cyclometers and pocket compasses.
- C. H. (No. 1,844) lays out a detailed standard for L.A.W. road maps using colored lines (red for hard stone roads, blue for soft dirt roads), arrows for grades, and pocket-sized section maps indexed by a general State map.
- Trade items note that C. Edward Wood has resigned as advertising writer for the Syracuse Cycle Co., and that the Pope Mfg. Co. announces 'Columbia' bicycles will again be priced at $100.00 for next year with improvements promised.
- A Good Roads editorial argues that public roads should be held to the same legal standard as railroads and sidewalks, with county governments liable for accidents caused by defective roads, predicting changing law will end the 'reign of King Mud.'
- Drawing on Queens County, New York, the article documents the economic benefits of macadamized roads — over $1,500,000 in road bonds, hotel and club investment, extended market-garden regions, and farmers at Valley Stream and Springfield hauling produce directly to Wallabout market.
- Ex-Governor Crittenden, U.S. consul general to Mexico, reports that Mexico City's ancient stone causeways and asphalt drives put American roads to shame, and that weekly bicycle races at Colonel Bob Pate's Indianilla track draw large crowds.
- A verse by Joe Lincoln in which Brown fixes his stretch of road, prompting neighbors Jones, Smith, and Robinson to compete in repairing theirs, illustrating how Good Roads reform spreads once someone sets it going.
- The official department lists the L.A.W. officers for 1896-97 (President Sterling Elliott, Secretary Abbot Bassett, Treasurer E. S. Hartwell), the standing committees including the Racing Board and Highway Improvement, and the chief consuls and secretary-treasurers of every State division.
- The Racing Board reports records accepted (Clinton R. Coulter's 1.59 1-5 mile at Denver), riders declared professionals and suspended (including M. C. Lawrence of Memphis, placed on the permanent suspension list), suspensions raised, and sanctions granted for meets in Washington, Texarkana, and El Paso.
- Balloting results for chief consuls and secretary-treasurers across the sub-divisions and consulates are tabulated, with winners such as Alex. McLeod (Alabama), Douglas S. Wright (Mississippi), M. J. Hirsch (Georgia), and W. N. White (Virginia).
- The Election Committee reports J. Emery Tippett elected Chief Consul, D. Edward Miller Vice Consul, and Alonzo D. Peck Secretary-Treasurer, lists the full slate of division representatives, and tallies 2,439 counted ballots out of 2,522 received.
- Chief Consul Isaac B. Potter publishes the division's newly appointed official repair shops across the State, certificates of election of League club representatives filed by Sec.-Treas. W. S. Bell, a $25 reward for bicycle thieves, and several stolen-wheel notices.
- Chief Consul Wallace Sherwood announces a '97 'Badge of Honor' for members securing ten or more applications (W. L. Johnson of Seymour heads the Honor Roll) and urges every consulate to double its membership; the surrounding section carries election and notice items from the Ohio, Louisiana, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and other divisions.
- The Business Men's League of Columbus, Ohio, through President W. G. Bowland and Asst. Sec. S. N. Cook, formally applies to Secretary Abbot Bassett to host the 1897 L.A.W. national meet, citing the city's hospitality and G.A.R. Encampment experience.
- Per Article III of the constitution, the secretary publishes the week's State-by-State list of 437 new membership applications (total 71,845), with rules for protests and a fourteen-day waiting period before tickets are issued.
- The editors answer readers' questions, advising No. 47,009 on crank length and gearing for all-round riding, replying to No. 92,045 about the paper 'grating' on his nerves, and noting the North Hudson County Cyclers' annual bicycle drawing and calls for short letters on general topics.