my-ear-trumpet: metabiblio: my-ear-trumpet: From the London Transport Museum: Why bother about the Germans invading the country, by The Brothers Warbis, 1915 * Published by Underground Electric Railway Company Ltd, 1915 * Printed by Spottiswoode & Company Ltd, * Format: Double royal * Dimensions: Width: 635mm, Height: 1016mm * Reference number: 1983/4/601 And that’s exactly what happened (if you just add “car” to that list).  Welcome to America. In Bill Kauffman’s Look homeward, America : In search of reactionary radicals and front-porch anarchists includes a number of quotes from people who hated the automobile (especially for its destruction of local regional cultures). Such as Jay G. Sigmund, forgotten poet of Iowa (and insurance salesman): Death used to ride a white-maned horse/ Before these gray roads lined the sod/ But now he travels on his course/ Astride a sleek thing, rubber-shod. Interesting.  At the turn of the century many of the roads were built and maintained for the bicycle — via the influence of the LAW (League of American Wheelmen) lobby.  As a cruel irony, those very roads paved (no pun intended, as these early roads weren’t paved anyway) the way for the automobile to explode (again, no punny reference to internal combustion) on the scene. When I die, I want my epitaph to read: “Insurance Salesman and Forgotten Poet of Iowa” In fact I love it so much it has become my Facebook “about me” blurb.

my-ear-trumpet:

metabiblio:

my-ear-trumpet:

From the London Transport Museum:

Why bother about the Germans invading the country, by The Brothers Warbis, 1915 * Published by Underground Electric Railway Company Ltd, 1915 * Printed by Spottiswoode & Company Ltd, * Format: Double royal * Dimensions: Width: 635mm, Height: 1016mm * Reference number: 1983/4/601

And that’s exactly what happened (if you just add “car” to that list).  Welcome to America.

In Bill Kauffman’s Look homeward, America : In search of reactionary radicals and front-porch anarchists includes a number of quotes from people who hated the automobile (especially for its destruction of local regional cultures).

Such as Jay G. Sigmund, forgotten poet of Iowa (and insurance salesman):

Death used to ride a white-maned horse/ Before these gray roads lined the sod/ But now he travels on his course/ Astride a sleek thing, rubber-shod.

Interesting.  At the turn of the century many of the roads were built and maintained for the bicycle — via the influence of the LAW (League of American Wheelmen) lobby.  As a cruel irony, those very roads paved (no pun intended, as these early roads weren’t paved anyway) the way for the automobile to explode (again, no punny reference to internal combustion) on the scene.

When I die, I want my epitaph to read: “Insurance Salesman and Forgotten Poet of Iowa” In fact I love it so much it has become my Facebook “about me” blurb.