Vol 5, No 6

Articles in this issue

• A Winter in Sonora (opens in a new tab)

  Sylvester Baxter describes winter travel in Sonora, Mexico: the Sonora Railway from Benson to Guaymas, the Yaqui water-carriers, the steam-pumped irrigation at La Laurita near San José de Guaymas, and the orange orchards and Bacochibampo well at Hermosillo.
• The Evolution of Canoeing (opens in a new tab)

  Frederick G. Mather traces canoe design from the dugout and birch-bark through Macgregor's Rob Roy and the American Canoe Association's models (Stella Maris, Diamond, Shadow, St. Lawrence, Nautilus, Princess, Sinageewen), arguing that river-paddling and lake-sailing canoes should be separate craft.
• The Tricycle for American Women (opens in a new tab)

  Minna Caroline Smith advises women on tricycling for health and practical errands: riding in groups, the princesse robe and knickerbockers, dark gloves, sitting and pedalling correctly, and oiling and caring for the machine with its tool-bag.
• Sword-Fishing off Martha's Vineyard (opens in a new tab)

  Alexander Young sails from Edgartown in August on the sword-fishing boat Gipsy under the veteran skipper 'Sword-fish Dan', watching the harpooner strike from the perch, taking six fish, and hearing of a sword that pierced the Melinda Jane's planking.
• The Winged Builders (opens in a new tab)

  A poem by Emily S. Oakey calling the birds of spring to build their nests, comparing their tapestried dwellings with the work of kings and noting that the world is gladder for them.
• The New House of the Massachusetts Bicycle Club (opens in a new tab)

  S. H. Day, illustrated by club members, describes the Massachusetts Bicycle Club's Gothic clubhouse on Newbury Street in Boston's Back Bay (architect George F. Meacham), from the wheel-room and locker-room to the gymnasium, bowling alley and ladies' room, and the 1884 committee led by Colonel Albert A. Pope.
• Light-Draught Yachts (opens in a new tab)

  Thomas Clapham argues that sixty-foot sailing yachts drawing about two feet can be as seaworthy as deep-keeled cutters if they have narrow beams, flared sides and correct ballast, citing five such yachts that sailed from New York to Florida.
• A Wheelman's Picture-Gallery (opens in a new tab)

  A poem by Greylock on the memories a wheelman keeps: hill and stream by moonlight, autumn woods, a valley fair, a rocky shore and sea, and a face that hangs in memory's hall.
• On Two Wheels to Lorette (opens in a new tab)

  Sara Duncan describes a caléche drive with the Minstrel and their cousin Jack from Quebec to Jeune Lorette: the Grand Allée, the French-Canadian village, the paper-mill above the falls and the gorge, and the return past the St. Charles valley.
• Tangle-Leaf Papers. IV (opens in a new tab)

  Maurice Thompson's notes from a tricycle run of 2 May 1884 through Indiana countryside: meadowlarks and woodpeckers, a tulip-poplar log, a bass fisherman on the river, a cat-bird and an oriole, a bog crossed on a corduroy bridge, and a farm on the way back to town.
• Two Days' Canoeing in the Drowned Lands (opens in a new tab)

  Robert Shaw Oliver and four companions, who are put off at the wrong station and walk to Hamburgh, New Jersey, launch on the Wallkill river and fight log-jams, a mud carry, a prairie fire, and rapids through the Drowned Lands to Phillipsburgh.
• Ballade of the Merry Men of Robin Hood (opens in a new tab)

  A ballade by Clinton Scollard lamenting that modern men no longer hunt with bow and hound as Robin Hood's merry men did, and envoying their vanished strength and shafts.
• A Pair of Oars (opens in a new tab)

  Sophie Swett's story of the lawyer Osborne, his sprained wrist and his bicycle at Blue Bend, the moonlight row down the Pamunky with the sun-bonnetted Elviry, and the silver oar pin that unmasks Kate Endicott in disguise.
• Editor's Open Window (opens in a new tab)

  The editor's column on the bill before the New York Legislature to save Niagara and buy the Goat Island reservation (awards of $1,433,429.50), on the challenge for the America's Cup from the Genesta, on tricycles for artists and photographers, and on the American Canoe Association's proposed cruise logs and 'pilot' system.
• Glances at Our Letter-File (opens in a new tab)

  Readers' letters: the Philadelphia 'Tavern Talkers' cycling-social club, the Knickerbocker Yacht Club house at Port Morris (with a Dec. 1884 visit), Karl Kron's 'Bermuda case' over a bicycle's custom-house entry and the Treasury ruling that followed, and 'Dots on Canoeing', twenty tongue-in-cheek rules from 'Doe'.
• Among the Books (opens in a new tab)

  Book notices on Lady Brassey's cruise of the Sunbeam and Julia C. R. Dorr's Bermuda, S. G. W. Benjamin's Cruise of the Alice May, William H. Rideing's Boys Coastwise, poems by Edith M. Thomas and Mary Barker Dodge, F. R. Guernsey's A.B.C. Spanish Phrase-Book, W. P. Stephens's Canoe and Boat Building, Reynolds's Old St. Augustine and La Marchesa Colombi's The Wane of an Ideal.
• Our Monthly Record (opens in a new tab)

  A round-up of bicycle club news (the Massachusetts Bicycle Club's 104,451 miles in 1884, the Baltimore Cycle Club's dinner and medal, the Hermes Club races in Chicago), then fishing, general athletics (Dr. Sargent's Boston lecture), natural history, shooting, tennis, yachting news from New York and New England clubs, and the A.C.A. 1885 regatta programme under canoeing.
• Amenities (opens in a new tab)

  The humour department: N. A. Lindsey's poem 'Here's a Measure', a verse in praise of the cyclist's pleasures, with the plate 'Cricket on the Hearth' on the page.
• The Publisher's Basket (opens in a new tab)

  Publisher's notices: subscription terms, the change of title from Outing and the Wheelman to Outing with fifty added pages from April 1885 at three dollars a year, forthcoming serials by Julian Hawthorne, Gottfried Keller, Thomas Stevens and E. C. Gardner, Karl Kron's book subscription drive, and framed engravings for sale.