The record-union., 1899-09-20
HOW THE LAW is IGNORED.
WHEELMEN AND DRIVERS OF
WAGONS AT FAULT.
Object Lessons Growing Out OF a
Common Incident of the
Street.

About half-past II yesterday fore
noon a stout and hearty youth was
leaning against a post at Eighth ana
j streets weeping and sobbing as IL
he had lost the last friend he had upon
the green earth. He was surrounded
by curious and sympathetic crowd.
When some wheelmen added to the in
creasing gathering they made inquiry
as to the cause of so much woe, anu
were informed that the lachrymose
youth had been snatched up by d
hard hearted policeman for speeding
up the street on a bicycle without his
hands touching the handlebars
The crowd was evidently in profound
sympathy with the youth until some
of the wheelmen, who understand what
the law is, asked why there should be
such expenditure of sentiment when the
plain letter of the law had been vio-
lated
why don't they take in men, then?'
but a man was arrested yesterday,
and he was promptly fined So" the
wheelmen replied. Besides, a boy rid
ing that way is just as dangerous to
others as a man, once awheel."
We'll, who knew that such was the
law?' chorused the crowd.
why, everybody who can read This
ordinance has been advertised day
after day for many months. ChleI
Dwyer has ordered it to public PRINT
on every occasion when he could do so.
Besides, it has been diagramed three
or four times in the Record Union,
and inside of a year dozen articles
have been printed in that paper setting
out Just what the law is, and scoring
the police for not enforcing it.
well, it's a beastly law cried sew
eral men in the crowd.
mo. it is not" responded the wheel
men. "It is the law in all well-ordered
cities A rider with both hands OH
the handlebar is a menace to every one
in the street. He can ride well only IN
a straight line. A slight obstruction
may throw him into collision with an
other rider, or with vehicle, and
human life may be lost"
But the people don't know it is the
law" was the response, land 1 didn't
know it," blubbered the prisoner.
THAT is your fault and the peoples
fault, then. Why, the Capital City
Wheelmen have thousands of cards
printed with the law in plain English
and distributed everywhere in the city
for months. Besides, it has been more
talked of in the papers than any other
ordinance"
And so the war of words went on until
one bystander offered to bet So that
the driver of the very first horse vehicle
to pass would be found to be offending
other provisions of the same ordinance.
No one offered to take the wager,
but the first team that passed ratified
by on the wrong side of the street
The next turned from J street into
Eighth by "diagonalling from the mid
die of the block on ] to the middle of
the block on Eighth, and fairly scrap
ing the curbstone at the corner, instead
of driving to the center of the inter
section and turning direct into Eighth
upon the right-hand side.
The next horse-drawn vehicle actu-
ally struck the corner curb, the next
repeated the performance of the first,
and the third came up out of Eighth
street into ] fairly cutting through the
crowd, on the wrong side of the
street Finally a bicyclist whirled
around the corner not three inches
from the curb, barely missing pedes'
trians on the crossing.
You see," shouted the wheelmen
mo one observes the law, and it is
simply providential that some one is
not killed every day in the week, be-
cause men are built so they cannot
look around corners. Why should any
body awheel or in a wagon take the
half of two blocks in which to pass
from one street into another?"
Then an elderly farmer spoke up
You are right, and the law is all
right! We all violate it, and we should
all be run in for it! 1t is just as
easy TO obey the law as to violate ii"
But suppose a fellow is in hurry ??
interposed youth.
We'll" replied the granger, "a hui
man life is worth more than anybody's
hurry, and so is a fellows team in a
collision"
Then the crowd dispersed, and most
of its units went away doing some
solid thinking about the law of the
road.