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Subject: [NY-TROY-IRISH-GENSOC] Burns, Goerold, Schesinger, Wheeler, Keene,Ashdown
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:02:24 EDT

Wednesday August 26,2009 TroyRecord Article 100yearsago Thursday, Aug. 26,
1909“A man discovering America on a motorcycle is a sight we might expect
to see sometime in the 1950s or later, but just such a man is visiting
Troy this morning in 1909, The Record reports.Our visitor is Officer William
E. BURNS of the Buffalo police motorcycle squad. “He is spending his
vacation cycling through the land, and he said as he rested at the central police
station and visited with his brother officers that he had been in five
states beside this since he left home about three weeks ago,” our reporter
writes.BURNS estimates that he will have covered about 3,500 miles by the time
he returns to Buffalo. He rode through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and
Pennsylvania before heading east for Massachusetts. He’s heading westward now,
having left Boston yesterday morning.After having lunch at the Shaker colony in
New Lebanon, he arrived in Troy around 7:00 last night.What are the roads
like for a motorcycle tourist in the early 20th century? BURNS tells our
writer that “he has traveled over some territory since he started on the run
which would make the
famous Rocky Road to Dublin seem like a roller skating rink by comparison.”
On the other hand, “he has also traveled over a great many miles of
splendid highway.”“I met almost all kinds of people on the way,” he says,“most
of them I’m glad to say pleasant and ready to extend courtesy, but I also
ran across some of the hogs of the highway, too.“I had a narrow escape in
one place on the road in this state from being run down by a big touring
car. “It came so close to me that it almost brushed me off my wheel, and the
people in the
car never stopped to see if I was hurt or not. On another occasion BURNS
had to ask passing vehicles for
oil for his machine. “A big touring car came along,” he relates, “I gave
the signal of distress and it slowed
down. “I asked for oil enough to carry me to the next supply place and the
driver, who was evidently the owner of the car, swore at me and told me to
go to a hotter place than Buffalo policemen care to spend their
vacation in.“Right away, however, along came another party and when I
asked for help they not only
gave it but wanted to supply me with more oil than I needed. But that’s
life on and off the highway.”
Burns departs for Saratoga this morning. He plans to visit Schenectady and
Syracuse before returning home."
Photo of the day Troy Record Thursday August 12 2009 1948 The annual
Valentine Ball of Lansingburgh High School Girls Athletic Association. Sibyl
GOEROLD,Audrey SCHLESINGER,Evah WHEELER queen, Audrey KEENE, Shirley
ASHDOWN.

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