The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-21
BYCICLE NEWS NOTES.

Good Roads Follow Broad Tires as the
 Nnght the Day-A Recipe for Keep
 ing Cool on a Hot Day-Scheme for
 Lectures on Good Roads-The Na-
 tional Meet--Notes.
 Bicycles riders are usually strong ad- Nocates of wide tires. Of necessity, they are close students of road condi- tion, having to furnish all the motive power themselves. The pneumatic tire Is much broader than the old solid tiers, and is a vast improvement over them, not only because of it's greater resiliency, but in it's ability to ride over soft and sandy roads.
 There is scarcely a country road now that has not little path beside the wagon tracks, worn smooth by the bicycles with their comparatively wide tires.
 Those who rode the wheel before the advent of pneumatics well remember that the narrow tires then in vogue cut into soft earth and very rarely formed path.
 It is reasonable to suppose that wid- CT tires oh horse-drawn vehicles would have the same good effect on the roads. They would roll down dirt and gravel roads hard and smooth, while their ac- tion on macadam would be far less destructive than the narrow tires now are.
 This is not mere supposition, the truth of 1t has been proven beyond question by careful and extensive ex- periments. It has been proven, too, that wide tires are more economical under nearly all of the common road conditions, much heavier load can be drawn with given amount of power.
 POPULAR GOOD ROADS LEG
 TURES E. H. Wilkins, chairman of the high way improvement committe of the Connecticut division L. A. w. devoted some time, at the last meeting of the board of officers, to describing scheme of giving popular good roads lectures with lantern slide accom- plishmenet in connection with the state farmers institutes. The Rhode Is- land division highway improvement chairman, has written MT. Wilkins, ex plaining their modus operandi, and he read extracts from the letters. MT. Brooks volunteered his services and stereoptican to help along the scheme, which pleased the board greatly MT. Wilkins is going to work now to see what the farmers will do about it. The Rhode Island division has an outfit of slides that are floating out west some where. MT. Parsons says he can have them when he gets them back.
 TO KEEP COOL IN HOT WEATHER
 There may be evidences of the writ CTS growing old, and among them may be his idea of enjoying life on hot day early in July, but, he rests the case after stating it. His plan is about as follows: On the previous day see that your wheel is in perfect order, tie on it light hammock and good lunch, with dozen oranges, a revolver, and a few yards of mosquito net. Leave home on the said hot day not later than o'clock a. m., and either alone or with congenial companions, ride not faster than six miles an hour due north or to some cool and shady spot you may know of, away from crowds and noise of all kinds Having arrived there about sunrise in the coolest frame of mind and part of the day, camp out at once, beside running brook in shady nook, or by the lake, side, and keep on keeping cool all day. This can be done if you have left be- hind all care and worry, and have a supply of common sense and are a lover of nature. You will of course either have a good glass plate camera along, or sketch box, but you are out for comfort and will work the ham, mock more than anything else.
 As you can buy milk and cream and honey of the farmers, to go with your 1uncheons you need not fare half bad, for day or a week, for that matter, as by the use of rubber blanket over the hammock you can spend the nights out under the trees, safely.
 A little smoky camp fire down by the waters edge at night will add to the picturesqueness of the scene, and you could broil fish if you cared to bother with it. You should take along good microscope, so you can look into many of the open but unseen doors that are about you on every hand. Then there are the birds songs they are all for you, and you will be surprised at their volume and sweetness at the early hour of your starting out; they know a thing or two, these feathered midgets of woods ard fields, and sing best in the cool of the day. They are worth more to us than people often think, for they keep down the hordes of insects that, put IOF UIle DlTuSy WOulu Illdke life miserable.
 Follow some such plan as the fore going, and ride slowly home in the cool of evening. Then say if you were smofhered in coal gas and cinders in cars packed more than full of hot hu- 1nanity; hidden in clouds of road dust by 'hosses''; and rendered uncomfort- able in many other ways needless to mention.
 ROAD NOTES.
 Most expensive is the neglect of the macadam roads laid a year ago on Knapp's Hill, just west of Stamford on the old post road. In many places the foundation stones shows, and this proves that the job was half done, for the hill Is not steep, and should not wash out in year. There is too much robbery in road making, as in many other lines of work, the world over. In some of the state aid road work over west of Greenwich, they are cutting down the hills only about half enough, as is the case out of Stamford. It is short sighted policy to make the public climb hills through coming centuries, ,,aor1v as much as has been done in the