Bassett's Scrap Book, Vol 9, No 11
Articles in this issue
- Bassett's own reflective leader marking his Silver Jubilee as L.A.W. Secretary-Treasurer, recalling his first election on Jan. 17, 1887 at the Grand Union Hotel in New York (beating John A. Wells 85 votes to 51) and paying tribute to early League figures including Charles E. Pratt, T. J. Kirkpatrick, James R. Dunn, Isaac B. Potter and George R. Bidwell. He notes League membership growing from 10,000 in 1887 to 103,000, and that a new grandson arrived just before the anniversary.
- A wistful poem in which two old wheelmen, Charley and the narrator, reminisce over a warm drink about their racing days on the track while their bicycles sit stored for winter. The same page notes the Newton Bicycle Club's dinner planned in honor of its long-time secretary-treasurer's Silver Jubilee, and jokes that, unlike a horse, a stored bicycle needs no oats.
- Notes on London suburban "paper chases," a reminder that League members can subscribe to periodicals at club rates, a Toledo Blade joke about learning to drive an automobile, Scribner's Magazine's 25th anniversary, a Lancet tip against licking stamps, and a reprinted cockney joke about a tract pinched from a bookshop; then James G. Peck of East Providence, R.I., closes the 1911 season with a 50-mile ride without dismounting in 4 hours, 59.5 minutes (beating his own five-hour "bogey" by thirty seconds) at 68 years old, packing his bicycle in vaseline for cold storage -- prompting Bassett's "Ride, not store" aside.
- A constable-and-motorcyclist joke about a "gas-meter," thanks for Christmas cards received, and news that Dr. L. C. Le Roy's insured automobile burned up (bicycles don't) lead into the Federation of American Motorcyclists amending its by-laws so the national treasurer keeps all membership fees and pays all bills -- matching the C.T.C.'s practice and avoiding the losses the L.A.W. suffered from unbonded division treasurers.
- A New Year's musing on resolutions, and a note that C. J. Obermayer and R. H. Fiero, with their wives, are back from a trip abroad; then the newly formed United Cyclists of New York, led by president J. A. Hall, announce a drive to raise $4,500 to send 12 riders to the Olympic Bicycle Road Race in Stockholm next July, with donations to treasurer R. F. Kelsey.
- The United Cyclists' Olympic-team fundraising drive continues, with a fundraising dinner planned for Jan. 10 at the Hotel Earlington (jointly with the Motorcycle Dealers' Association of Greater New York) expected to draw Governors Dix and Wilson, Mayor Gaynor, and Brooklyn Borough President Steers, with L.A.W. members particularly invited.
- A descriptive vignette on the changing coloration of the year through the seasons, a leap-year quip, and a note that Joseph G. Goodman, former president of the Bicycling World Co., has joined the Frank Presbrey advertising agency to open its Hartford, Conn. branch office; then a reprinted essay by "The Tramp" in the Irish Cyclist begins arguing that cycling as a pastime is not tiring but refreshing when the machine suits the rider.
- The Irish Cyclist essay concludes, with Bassett adding that walking demands six times the strength of cycling; then the Irish Cyclist's editor recounts being driven through Coventry in a Daimler by its inventor Mr. Knight, alongside Colonel Pope on his first visit to England, discussing the American bicycle invasion of about 1896 when Pope's Columbia and other American makes like the Cleveland and G. and J. ranked among the world's finest.
- Bassett notes there were two Colonel Popes, clarifying the Coventry visitor was Colonel George Pope; closing notes include Bassett's wary take on the United Cyclists' plan to "boost" racing, a New Year's reflection on gradual self-improvement, and a London Globe item on German motorists carrying whips to move animals off the road since horns don't work.
- Abbot Bassett's club-price subscription listing offering members reduced rates on dozens of American and foreign periodicals -- from Scribner's and Harper's to Bicycling World and Motor Age -- with orders addressed to him at 105 Central Avenue, Newtonville, Mass.