L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads, Vol 27, No 19
Articles in this issue
- Editor Sterling Elliott's humorous editorial leader proposes a 'Society for the Suppression of Public Nuisances' whose members would hand road-hogs and other offenders printed protest cards signed by one Sullivan Sandow Fitzsimmons, joking that the pioneers in this work would do most of their riding in ambulances.
- An essay urging fathers to see that children's bicycles are properly sized and equipped, warning that oversized machines, low bars, and high gears cause lasting physical injury to growing bodies and that long rides and century runs should be absolutely prohibited for the young.
- Prompted by a League member's complaint that a weaker rider beats him uphill daily, this practical article argues hill-climbing depends on technique — good ankle action, steady pace, a saddle forward over the crank-hanger, and moderate gears under seventy-two — rather than brute strength.
- The first installment of a series, 'Exercise versus Work,' distinguishing recreative exercise from toil and quoting Dr. Stables on taking cycling in moderation, with daily regularity, as a remedy for the sedentary life and dyspepsia of the age.
- Reprinted from the English Cyclist, an account of the American cycling press organizing trial, semi-final, and final race meets to fund a team for the World's Championships at Vienna, after the L.A.W., lacking funds, advanced $250 and accepted the pressmen's offer to run the campaign.
- A detailed how-to on truing bicycle wheels by tightening and loosening spokes against fork and chalk-mark guides, building a wooden test frame for wheels removed from the machine, and ensuring a circular rim and centred hub, with practical suggestions credited to Harry Newman.
- A Good Roads essay arguing that farmers, while seeking hard roads to town and the railroad station, suffer most from the rutted, stony tracks about their own farms, which strain teams and wagons, and that small farm stones topped with gravel can make them permanent.
- A proposal that the L.A.W. retain in good standing, pending safe return, any member whose membership expires while in active service in the war with Spain, noting that local clubs in Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania towns are passing similar resolutions.
- A dialect poem by Joe Lincoln about Elnathan Batkins, a shrewd money-lender who foreclosed on widows, finally swindled out of five thousand dollars by two bunco men with gold-brick bricks of brass — proof that 'it takes a thief ter ketch a thief.'
- A signed correspondence from member No. 27,873 recalling a punctured tour over the plank-road from Glens Falls to Lake George in June 1896, when a resident of Sandy Hill lent the writer his own inner tube with the words 'Return it when you reach home.'
- An essay counselling moderation on beginners, women, and children, quoting Bishop Hall and Euripides, and condemning the veteran rider who urges a novice to attempt a century run on a hot day as 'little better than a brute in feeling and a clam in intellect.'
- A satirical poem by Nixon Waterman mocking the vogue for Kipling-style 'a rag and a bone and a hank of hair' verse at the expense of Shelley, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Longfellow, and Whittier's songs of love and home.
- A miscellany of short cycling items — on the harm of overtaxing women riders, doctors taking to the wheel especially at Coventry, unpopular automatic cycle racks, a Manchester patent for locating tube punctures with aniline dye, and bicycle polo at Sheen House.
- A Good Roads piece drawing on General Stone and D. F. Magee's articles in the Lancaster Examiner, proposing portable iron-fenced quarry camps where convicts break road metal without competing with free labor; paired with a note that Massachusetts has passed a bill permitting prison labor for road material.
- Abbot Bassett's official department listing the L.A.W. officers for 1897-98 (President Isaac B. Potter, Secretary Abbot Bassett), the standing committees, and the full roster of division chief consuls and secretary-treasurers from Alabama to Wisconsin, with application and renewal blanks.
- The state-by-state count of renewals from May 2-7 (New York 322, Massachusetts 253, Minnesota 101) followed by division notices — Massachusetts honor certificates, Maryland's summer and fall meets at Frederick and Baltimore, the new dated cap pin, and Ohio and Indiana membership tables.
- Chairman Albert Mott's Racing Board notices from Baltimore approving track contracts (St. Onge, Gardiner, Tonaselli), listing newly registered racing men, recording suspensions and a transfer of H. D. Foster to the professional class, and accepting Indianapolis national circuit dates; followed by stolen-wheel and L.A.W. supply listings.
- The long state-by-state list of 617 new membership applications (total 93,426) received up to Monday, published under Article III of the Constitution and running through Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the other divisions.
- The reader-query department answering H. H. T., A. H. S., and H. L. C. on tire size, foot-rests or coasters, and roller chains; followed by 'Deer Uncle Bulatin,' a comic dialect letter from Shure Shott Sandy recounting how he and Gus recovered their stolen wheels from two drunken tramps.