Bicycling

We think of bicycling as something relatively new. I rode a wonderful Schwinn when I was a kid, but my folks never talked about doing it themselves. What we don't often realize is that the bike is a development of the late 19th century and there was a bike craze in the 1890's that would match anything today.
         The first bikes were really awkward things and very hard to ride.

They were fairly popular and sometimes there were clubs of them.

It didn't take long, however, before somebody figured out that it worked better if you were closer to the ground (not as far to fall) and the wheels were parallel.

What is very interesting, though, is that the bicycle was not seen as only men's recreation. Women very early began riding.

There was a problem, however, with Victorian fashion. Women's dresses were usually ankle length and that made it difficult to straddle the center bar, modestly. It could be done., but it wasn't easy.

Until a woman magazine editor saw a fashion magazine picture and came up with an idea. Her name?

Amelia Bloomer.

Why not put pants on women, even if under the skirts?

Voila,  problem solved.

One historian said of this,  "What is surprising about the bicycle craze of the 1890's is the profound effect it had on the women's liberation movement. Cycling opened up a new world of freedom for upper- and middle-class women, who had been largely confined to the home. The so-called New Woman who rode bicycles and wore cycling costumes became a symbol of gender equality and redefined femininity going into the 20 century." This was not always popular with the menfolk!!

But they soon discovered that they could do this new fad together.

Sometimes in the most bizarre contraptions. (Didn't need bloomers here!)

One surprising spin off of the bicycle craze was the next consumer fad... the quadricycle. Hard to peddle but very stable.

The quadricycle gave another young man of the time a brilliant idea.

Why couldn't we attach one of these new-fangled gasoline engines to the quadricycle and not have to peddle, asked Henry Ford in 1896? The rest is history!

Flooding today and Yesterday. Today is truly history.

These past couple of days have indeed recreated history. I sit here, high and dry in Fort Collins, while just north of us the town of LaPorte is flooding.

That is interesting, because the original Fort Collins, a military base to protect the Overland Trail from Indian attacks was built where LaPorte is today. 

           On June 9, 1864, a devastating flood of the Poudre river, (you can see the river in the photo above) nearly wiped out the Fort, carrying tents, ammunition and some of the cabins downstream. The soldiers managed to retreat to the nearest bluff without lives being lost, but the morning presented a scene of desolation; a sea of muddy water and only the roofs of a few cabins visible.

           They decided that they needed a better location. A search began for a new location for the post. Living on a farm between the present North Shields and Wood Street was Joseph Mason. Mason pointed out land on the River in the vicinity of the present Willow Street. 

          On August 20, 1864, the regional commander, William Oliver Collins, gave the order for the camp to be reopened at that location, near Old Town today.

Col. Collins

Soon the new camp was ready and the Fort Collins camp was built, safe from flooding.

I guess the point is, that even today 140 years later, Fort Collins remains relatively untouched by the flood that nearly drowned LaPorte last week. Guess it sometimes takes a long time to learn lessons!

Tired of Governments Regulations? Here is a better time before them.

We hear everyday from someone how government regulation of products hurts sales, eliminates jobs and so on. Let's look at a time before the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906. Here are some products that were offered in the late 19th century.

Or how about for pain.

Got a cough?

Maybe  drinking problem.

Same thing worked for toothaches.

Instantaneous cure. I'll bet!! Or maybe your favorite. One glass contained up to 9 mg of cocaine.

Lung problems? Have a smoke. Unless you are under 6.

Want a good steak? These men could provide.

Then this book changed all that.

After reading it, Theodore Roosevelt pushed through the

Which had an immediate effect.

And is still around today. So the next time you hear someone complain about government regulation, remind them of a better time when they didn't exist.

Say it ain't so. One of the wonderful pictures that I always show when lecturing on the outbreak of World War I is the photo of a crowd cheering the Austrian announcement of their declaration of war against France. In the crowd is young Adolf Hitler cheering the announcement and waving his hat.

I just came across an article that claims that this photo is a doctored fake, done by the Nazis later as propaganda. I should have known better, because I have also seen pictures of young Hitler with his comrades as he prepared to go to the front. Notice the mustache. Hitler is on the left.

Or this one.

Or later in the war with him comrades.

Not the same age as the Hitler in the Vienna photo.

Also notice in a close up, that the arm waving the hat, which they claim is Hitler's actually seems to belong to the guy next to him. 

How we believe anything they tell us about history?

Wondering where the Federal debt came from? Welfare? Safety net? Social Security? Here are some interesting figures. (Figures are from the Federal Bureau of the budget)

Year             Federal debt
1791              $  75,463,476.52      (yes, that is indeed, 75 million)
1817              $123,491,965.16      (war of 1812 ends)
1835              $         33,733.05     (that is indeed 33 thousand dollars)
1846             $   15,550,202.97         (start of Mexican War)
1851             $   68,304,796.02         (Mexican War Over)
1860             $   64,842,287.88         (Civil War begins)
1866           $2,773,236,173.69         (Civil War ends. that is 2 billion)
1912           $2,868,373,874.16         (haven't added much, but have not reduced it either)
1919         $27,390,970,113.12          (World War I over)
1932         $19,487,002,444.13          (the prosperity of the 20's didn't do a whole lot)
1941         $48,961,443,535.71           (Depression and the New Deal. welfare? yes)
1946       $269,422,099,173.26           (World War II ends)
1962       $298,200,822,720.87           (Cold War didn't add much, even with Korea)
1974       $475,059,815,731.55           (guns and butter. Vietnam War and War on Poverty)
1980       $907,701,000,000.00           (recession of the 70's and oil embargo.
1988    $2,602,337,712,041.16          (eight years of military build up, and fiscal soundness.
1993    $4,411,488,883,139.38          (four more years of military build up)
2001    $5,807,463,412,200.06          (eight years of Democratic wild spending.)
2009   $11.909,829,003,511.75         (War on Terror)
2012   $16,737,246,099,998.00         (Still war on terror)

The only time the budget was ever reduced to nothing was during the administration of Andrew Jackson. How did he do it? He removed the Creek and Cherokee Indians and sold their land. This advice might work today. Our government just needs to grab somebody's land and sell it to pay off the debt.

Who has a solution to this? A founding Father, of course.

George Washington in his Farewell Address in said "As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear."                                                                                                                              In other words, pay off your war debts as quickly as possible. We haven't followed his advice very well over the past 210 years. How to reduce the national debt? Don't spend so much on war and preparation for war.

Ah, the good old days. Times were so much better then. Or were they?
Read these statistics from 100 years ago and realize how good you've got it.

In 1910

The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower !

The average US wage in 1910 was 22 cents per hour.

The average US worker made between $200 and $400 per year ..

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical   engineer             about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME .

Ninety percent of all Doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!

            Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which

           were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard.'

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

The Five leading causes of death were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars ....

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada , was only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write and 

            only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school..

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores.

Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the            stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health'

Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help ....

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A. ! 

   

An update and continuation on an earlier post.

I posted two maps which showed the correlation between slavery in the antebellum South and the black population in the United States in 2000.

Just out of curiosity, I checked a map of poverty in the United States and found another correlation.

This is not an exact correlation because it makes no ethnic distinctions. What it does show is that the South never really recovered from the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Both blacks and whites in the old South still fight poverty. Another interesting observation on this map is to note that there are pockets of poverty in counties where there are American Indian reservations.

And yet another correlation, poverty and diet. It is often noted that people living in poverty cannot eat healthy diets and are thus prone to obesity. The next maps shows this very well. People who keep telling us that obesity is a national health problem need to look at both of these maps.

Note again that the problem is not just in the south, but also on reservations. Amazing how so many things are interconnected, but we too often overlook them because we don't know history.