L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads, Vol 27, No 24
Articles in this issue
- Summarizes a new Ohio law letting county commissioners build and repair bicycle-paths, funded by a one-dollar annual license fee and a numbered metal tag affixed to each licensed machine's front fork.
- An illustrated technical explanation of two-point, three-point and four-point ball bearings, showing how cup and cone surfaces touch the balls and how each form maintains its adjustment.
- Editor Sterling Elliott jokes about receiving a new shirt from "an appreciative friend," comparing its short "train" to a homemade garment a young lady once sent a Union soldier.
- Notes a set of twelve pocket road maps of New Bedford, Mass., and vicinity published by the South Bristol League Club, showing each road's character, condition and grade in a leather case.
- An editorial leader arguing that the bicycle, by bringing thousands of pleasant riders together with a few who ride badly, acts as a "home missionary" that reforms wrong-doers through good example rather than separation.
- An editorial urging cyclists to guard against the reckless "fool moment"—walk down steep hills, wait for the car to pass, and always take the safe side—lest years of prudent riding end in injury.
- Citing the trade organ The Hub, this piece argues the bicycle craze hurt the carriage trade less than it ruined the makers of parts—drop forgings and bent woods—who extended reckless credit to failing cycle builders.
- A wry editorial on how Iowa curbs scorching indirectly, by barring handle-bars more than four inches below the saddle and requiring riders to keep a clear view of the street for 200 feet ahead.
- Reveals the answers to the April 29th contest to identify four complicated autographs—Herbert G. Streat, Willis Sharpe Kilmer, F. Weddigen and A. N. Damrell—noting no reader named more than one correctly.
- A long feature on early aviation, reviewing the ten problems of flight and the gliding and powered experiments of Otto Lilienthal, Octave Chanute, A. M. Herring, Hiram Maxim and Prof. S. P. Langley.
- Reports that the U.S. Government will admit the bicycles of touring Canadian Wheelmen's Association members duty-free, reciprocating the privilege long extended to L.A.W. members entering Canada.
- Notes that the mayor of Chelsea, Mass., has appointed 34 L.A.W. members as special police to prevent careless riding, alongside short news squibs including the marriage of Second Vice-President Edward N. Hines.
- The weekly advertising-criticism contest, announcing winners Miss Josephine Ludwig, D. Woolley and A. T. Cook for May 27, and promising prizes for lady competitors only the following week.
- An illustrated feature on pairing the camera with the wheel, advising moderation, congenial companions and small photo-cycling clubs, with reader snap-shots from Los Angeles, Long Beach, Wash., and Camden, N.J.
- A full-page comic poem by Joe Lincoln imagining that General Weyler's Spanish army, like American soldiers, would be hopelessly mired in the gluey mud of a "Yankee patent road."
- An editorial rebutting a tax-collector's plan to tax every bicycle a flat sum, arguing instead that all vehicles should be taxed on valuation and roads built from the general fund.
- A consolidated listing of 1898 bicycle and sundry catalogues received, from makers such as Frontenac, Greyhound, Gendron, Remington Arms, Rex, Union and the Winton Motor Carriage Co.
- Leading the Good Roads department, this essay blames the decay of New Jersey's stone roads on infrequent rain, excessive clay binding, insufficient rolling and neglected maintenance, urging constant care of macadam.
- Quotes the Lawrence, Kan., Journal that every country road is in better shape than the city's best south-side street, citing knee-deep mud on Massachusetts Street within a block of the business district.
- The League's official section under editor Abbot Bassett, listing 1898–99 officers (President Isaac B. Potter), standing committees, the Racing Board and chief consuls and secretary-treasurers for every division and state.
- A state-by-state tally of L.A.W. membership renewals received June 6–11, totaling 2,220, alongside the full Treasury Department circulars granting free border entry to touring Canadian wheelmen's bicycles.
- Consolidated division notices: Vermont names R. B. Denny secretary-treasurer, Oregon warns hotels against expired tickets, and Maryland, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Kentucky report recruiting, lapses and repair-shop lists.
- Chairman Albert Mott reports National Championship scores led by Gardiner, lists newly registered and suspended riders, and rules Thos. A. Hoey off all L.A.W. tracks for promoting unsanctioned races.
- The long state-by-state roster of membership applications received under Article III of the constitution, together with the Stolen Wheels list and notice of the 1898 Annual Meet at Indianapolis, Aug. 9–13.
- Replies to readers, including the history of the hour record (15 miles in 1876 to 32 miles in 1898) and the Touring Club de France's roughly 60,000 members.
- Pictures an L.A.W. repair-shop and George W. Crocker of Brockton, who won first prize in the grotesque parade at the Massachusetts Division Fall Meet riding a wooden wheel of his own construction.
- An illustrated dialect humor letter signed "Shure Shott Sandy" recounting how he and Gus hid in a hay mow at West Brimfield, Mass., while two drunken men drank, fought and made up below.