Bassett's Scrap Book, Vol 7, No 12
Articles in this issue
- A humorous poem riffing on Maud Muller, in which a judge speeds past on the highroad in a touring car at forty miles an hour.
- The February editorial leader recalls the month as the League's old "battle month" of internal contests, now peaceful, and notes the Boston Bi Club's dinner falls in February; the same notes column touches on Maurice Maeterlinck's enthusiasm for motorcycling, the Newton Bicycle Club (Mass.) nearing its 200th meeting, Boston dealer Brown's retirement from the bicycle trade, and Will Pitman's memories of League gatherings at Newport.
- Opens with quips on a proposed Virginia marriage law, the approaching Boston Bicycle Club dinner (Feb. 12), the Newton Bicycle Club nearing its 200th regular meeting, and Boston dealer Brown's retirement from the cycle trade; then, recalling the Peary-Cook controversy, flags a New Haven Register item on the New Haven Bicycle Club Veteran Association's resolve to ask Commander Peary about the fate of lost Arctic explorer and Yale wheelman John M. Verhoeff.
- Notes Verhoeff was a Yale undergraduate and an enthusiastic wheelman; then wonders whether Will Pitman will revisit Newport for the League's thirtieth birthday this year as he did five years earlier.
- A quip on Valentine's Day customs being obsolete; an obituary of Edward F. Tolman, League member No. 10 (Worcester, Mass., died Jan. 2, of Hill & Tolman auto-alarm-bell fame); and a member signing "C. H. G., No. 749" recalls founding the Press Wheelmen club in the winter of 1894-95 and his losing fight to require an L.A.W. card for membership.
- The writer takes pride in being the only one of his old crowd who never let his own League membership lapse; then an obituary of Dr. Andrew Jackson Davis, the "Poughkeepsie seer" and pioneering spiritualist author of "Divine Revelations" (died Watertown, Mass., Jan. 13, aged 84), covering his rudimentary education, clairvoyant reputation and medical degree.
- Davis's obituary concludes (survived by his second wife, no children); the New Haven Bicycle Club Veterans' January 24 reunion elects L. Burton Sperry president and A. G. Fisher secretary-treasurer (his 20th term) and launches a monument fund for the late F. N. Baker; the Boston Bi Club's January 12 annual meeting elects John B. Kelley president; and a reader offers to exchange his 50-inch Ordinary bicycle.
- Edward P. Burnham of Hemet, Cal., once of the Columbia racing team with Hendee and Rowe and a former L.A.W. handicapper, now grows oranges and sends a photo of himself on his 1885 Victor Ordinary; and a profile of John Quincy Kilby, the League's new Vice President, an actor and longtime Boston Theatre treasurer born in Eastport, Maine, in 1854.
- A feature listing famous people born in February, from Mendelssohn, Dickens and Edison to Lincoln, Darwin and Washington.
- Three members write in: 73-year-old W. M. G. says he still rides for fresh air and health; Boston exile S. C. P. appeals through the Scrap Book for old wheelmen to reconnect; and life member K., quoting poet Nixon Waterman, urges lifers and annual members alike to fund the League and "pension the veteran Secretary." The column then closes with a run of short miscellaneous quips and notes: a university professor's dollar-a-day remark, a wireless-telephone joke, a bit of summer-outing verse, and a note on members traveling abroad.