whataboutbobbed
Feb. 29, 1928: Juanita Petty, a vaudeville actress and a long-distance horse rider, sat on an electric horse, apparently as a “lesson for future Presidents who ride electric steeds” — a reference to the outgoing commander in chief, Calvin Coolidge, whose presidential stamina was famously attributed to thrice-daily rides on the contraption. Ms. Petty had recently completed a lengthy ride on a real horse from Spokane, Wash., to Chicago, and she wrote a first-person account of it for The Ogden Standard-Examiner, in Ogden, Utah. “The heaviest thing about my equipment was a forty-five automatic,” she wrote. “It’s not exactly a delicate instrument for a lady’s boudoir, but it’s a mighty comforting companion out on the range or along some lonesome mountain trail.” Photo: The New York Times