Courtesy of the @ClassicStrips Twitter and my husband, who pointed it out to me, here is another episode of The Outbursts of Everett True about bum walks.

According to @ClassicStrips, this comic ran October 13, 1917. So-called artificial stone sidewalks were plentiful in my part of Lansing by then. I’ve found walks dated back to 1907, and 1910-1911 stamps (mostly Minnis & Ewer) are common around my neighborhood.

The previous Everett True strip I talked about was from 1908 and the drawing made it clear that the sidewalk in question was a boardwalk. I would have thought that by 1917, True’s city would have installed artificial stone walks, but I’m not so sure. Six hours isn’t very much time to get concrete poured and finished. It feels more plausible as a span of time for getting loose boards replaced.

While neither strip is an exemplar of subtle wit, I think the earlier one is superior. The silent second panel is a better punchline and a funnier drawing.

I have no sidewalks to share with you today, so instead I’ll share a comic with you that my husband shared with me. He follows the Classic Comic Strips Twitter, and pointed out to me that they had shared the following “Outbursts of Everett True” comic.

My husband occasionally likes to share examples of “The Outbursts of Everett True” with me and from these encounters I think I have gotten a feel for what it’s about. It always starts with Mr. True getting riled up about someone’s rude, obnoxious, or otherwise antisocial behavior, and then ends with him pummeling the offender. I think the point is to allow the readers to vicariously live out their fantasies of setting ne’er-do-wells straight.

According to Classic Comic Strips, this strip is dated 6/10/08, making it a touch younger than the oldest sidewalk markings I’ve found in Lansing. One imagines that so-called “artificial stone sidewalks” were coming to Everett True’s neighborhood soon enough. In Lansing, the installation and maintenance of sidewalks is the responsibility of a property owner, and in the old days, the City Council did formally compel owners to have sidewalks constructed. As is true in many cities, it is still technically the homeowner’s responsibility to pay for sidewalk repairs in front of their house in Lansing, but in practice it appears that they have not been charging homeowners for sidewalk work in recent years.