The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-06

Aid Sanborn is an expansionist.
He would have the bars against wheel
i, men on sidewalks erected to exclude them
from the territory between Dayton and
Summit with Victoria as the western
limit He would expand the sidewalk
ordinance.
Mr. Sanborn is unable to keep the pace
Of modern development. He lags super
fiuous on the board. He stopped at the
point which public sentiment had reached
3 in Its educational progress five years ago,
when the wheel burst upon society and
became what short-sighted folk then
termed a craze. He still has the tremors
of apprehension with which pedestrians
3 then viewed the silent steed." He still
{ jumps at the tinkle of the bell. He still
regards every rider as scorcher. He has
been exempt from the processes Of adj
justment that have gone on so rapidly
since.
Some one should have serious and
{; educative talk with Mr. Sanborn. He is
q well-meaning man, undoubtedly, but
he has not used his eyes and his reason.
and he has, consequently, got left in the
progressive movement Of the day. He
- does not seem to know, for instance, that
=. the scorcher disappeared three years ago.
He fails to comprehend the very impor-
tant fact-important to anyone who would
- keep abreast of the times-that no sooner
- did the wheel come than society began to
adjust itself to the new conditions, just
as it did when electricity superseded the
mule as the car motor. His sidewalk
: ordinance is as Anticipated and absurd as
3 are the regulations relating to the speed
of cars on the street. The electric car
now whirls along the streets at a speed
double that to which the cable cars were
restricted, and no accidents happen, be-
cause people have adjusted themselves
to the new conditions.
Just so with the wheel People no
longer imagine that every wheelman is
frantic in his desire and efforts to run
into them. They have learned that that
is the very thing the man or woman on
the wheel is most anxious to ssvoid. They
have learned that the person on the
wheel can dodge them far easier than
they can the wheel, and that they are
safest when they pursue their way and
let the wheelman do the avoiding Save
now and then some kid who delights in
noise, no wheelman rings his bell unless
the emergency is such that he cannot get
away or around. He knows that it Is
more apt to bring him into difficulty than
to avoid one. In sober truth foot folk are
in greater danger from the superior per-
sons who condescend to drive the car
riages Of residents in Mr. Sanborns ward
than they are from all the wheel folk in
the city. All these things have hap
pened within the four past years, and
although Mr.. Sanborn has lived and
moved in and among the changes, he
seems witless of them, which, of course,
IS bad for him.
But if there is reason for exclusion and
expansion, why this particular territory?
Are not those who live between Dayton
and University, between Summit and st.
Clair, quite as well entitled to have their
walks free from the wheel as are thu
folk within the limits of his expansion?
Can they and their children be ridden
down by the wheel with impunity while
the divinity of the sidewalk ordinance
must hedge about those within the limits
proposed? And what is there in the ex-
perience of wheels on sidewalks to Justify
the expansion? Who have been ridden
down. and when and where?
And what does the alderman propose to
give for the privilege denied? Dayton is
the only street leading downtownward,
and that is paved only as far as Avon:
it does not even reach Victoria. Summit
has paths" built by the city and the
Cycle Path association that are no bet
ter than the roadway. invaded and cut
up as they are by wagons and carriages
All the ether. streets are dirt in state
of mud or dust, except Selby, and that
discounts the ancient corduroy In rough