From 1907: Italian Feast Day Celebrated, Bicycle Lantern Law

The following is an extract from an article from 104 years ago, published in the Hartford Courant on May 6, 1907.
The celebration of the Feast of St. Sebastian, concluding today, began long before the construction of St. Sebastian's church in 1931. The tradition came to Middletown in the late 1800s with the immigrants, who continued to celebrate the patron saint of Melilli, Sicily. The feast day in Melilli is May 4th, in Middletown it is the 3rd Sunday in May. It was originally called the Ferry Street Festa of St. Sebastiano. The Eisenhuth Horseless Vehicle factory, where fireworks were held in 1907, is what we now know as the Remington Rand Building, at the end of north end of High Street. The photo is of the building in 1903.

Many cities had laws about bicycle lighting, bells, and speed limits. The advert for a bicycle lamp is from The Bicycle and the West.
----------------------
Fireworks and Band Concert at Middletown

Local Italians celebrated St. Sebastian's Day Saturday evening and yesterday with elaborate ceremonies. Saturday night an Italian band from New Haven gave a concert in front of the municipal building, that attracted a large crowd. After the concert, there was a fine display of fireworks near the factory of the Eisenhuth Horseless Vehicle Company. Sunday morning the three Italian secret societies headed by a band and fifteen or twenty young Italian girls, dressed in white, had a big parade Main Street, to St. John's Church, where high mass was celebrated. The members of the societies were dressed in uniform and carried the Italian and United States flags.

Twelve More Arrests

Despite widespread notice of Mayor Fisher's intention of seeing that the law concerning carrying lighted lanterns on bicycles after dark, is enforced, twelve more unfortunates were nabbed by the police Saturday evening. Some, hoever, were arrested for not having bells. The police station is rapidly assuming the appearance of a bicycle repository.

Wages to be Raised
After May 15 the local carpenters will receive a uniform schedule of wages, $3 a day. This move has been agitated for some time and was finally decided upon at a meeting of the carpenters last week.