The American Bicycling Journal, Vol 1, No 10
Articles in this issue
- From the Boston "Transcript": the Fast-day meet of the bicyclists in the square opposite Trinity church and the Art Museum, escorted by ladies and gentlemen on horseback, and the independent forty-mile run of two B. Bi. C. members through a dozen Middlesex towns, one of whom outpaced the trotters on the Malden–Medford road. It closes with a survey of long-distance records: E. Elson's 105 miles over the Bath road in 8h 23m (Aug. 7, 1876), C. Walmesley's 100 miles in 1877, and David Stanton's 1,000 miles in six days.
- Three nursery-rhyme parodies for bicycling households — "Buy, oh! buy a bicycle," "Highty, tighty, my young man," and "Bicycle, bicycle, on the wheel-top," the last ending "Down comes bicycle, baby and all."
- On the portraits of eminent bicyclists carried by the English weeklies, noting a supplement to the "Bicycling Times" with full-page engravings of the Rt. Hon. Robert Lowe, M.P., President of the West Kent Bicycle Club, and of the Prince Imperial of France, an honorary member. It quotes Lowe's speech at the West Kent club races at the Crystal Palace, in which he claims to be an "ante-bicyclist" who rode a "dandy horse" in the reign of George the Fourth and beat the mail in a mile race.
- Part Second of Charles G. Leland's Hans Breitmann ballad in German-American dialect: Breitmann finally gets his machine to go, scatters the lager-drinking crowds lining the road, is flung a hundred feet by a bent branch, and is revived by a consultation of quack doctors — Schlinkenschlag the "Cafeopath," Cobus Shoepfskopf of the milky bath, Korschalitschky with slibovitz and Strobbich with pumpernickel pills.
- "Nemo" of the Boston Bicycle Club describes a wretched day's ride from Fitchburg — trained out by the B. & A. from Brighton station, then dismount after dismount through Leominster, Lancaster, Bolton and Stow, dinner at Col. Snow's hotel (the landlord's name proving to be White), spills in sand inches deep, and a retreat by rail from North Sudbury. He corrects the newspapers, which said he gave out at twenty-five miles, and complains that the Fitchburg Road charged thirty-five cents to carry his bicycle from Concord Junction to Waltham.
- The Young Men's Christian Association's athletic entertainment at Music Hall, where the horizontal-bar work, tumbling and the great ladder feat were the strong points. Mr. Booth rode both bicycle and old velocipede round the arena and made a one-mile run against time in three minutes twenty-four seconds — the editor noting the platform announcement of 5.34 was wrong.
- The "Herald" again retracts its claim that the Boston Bicycle Club came home by rail; Will. R. Pitman rides the forty-six miles from Fitchburg to Boston on the 19th and reports the roads ruined by farmers "working out" their taxes; the Sixth B. Bi. C. meet (April 13) diverts from Arlington to Milton via Mount Hope and Mattapan and the Seventh (April 20) runs by the Mill-dam and Watertown to West Newton; the Suffolk Bicycle Club is organized; G. W. Simmons & Son of "Oak Hall" are designing a hot-weather helmet; and members talk of riding New York to Philadelphia against the N. Y. Four-in-hand Club's coaches.
- Will. R. Pitman's card of thanks for his ride from Haverhill to Boston on a 52-inch "Stanley" — the roughest and muddiest route he ever attempted — acknowledging George Agassiz and Charles Parker who rode out to Medford, Alfred Chandler who accompanied him in, and Dr. Harold Williams for the loan of the machine. The editor adds that Pitman has joined the Pope Manufacturing Company at 87 Summer street as riding-school instructor and salesman.
- The London correspondent's letter of April 2, 1878: the Cambridge University Bicycle Club's Hilary Term races, where the Hon. I. Keith Falconer beat the newcomer A. Trotter by a yard in 6m 29s and won the ten miles in 34m 32s, but retired at 21 miles of the twenty-five, leaving J. F. Darrell the winner; H. Akers beating C. W. Fagan ("Sprig o' Shillelagh") over the demoralized gravel at Alexandra Park in the Temple Bicycle Club's 25-mile championship; a tricycle club forming at Coventry; H. E. Kearley's 52 miles from Winchester to Slough without a dismount; and the monster meet expected to draw two thousand riders to Hampton Court.
- An editorial clipped from the "Boston Post" contrasting the bicycle of to-day with the velocipede of ten years ago and predicting the up-town avenues and suburban roads alive with new club graduates, horses testifying their joy and boys and dogs in pursuit. The editor extends the right hand of fellowship to his brother editor.
- The editor culls extracts from the congratulatory letters received since the last issue — from New York, Portland (Me.), Washington, Jacksonville, two English bicycle clubs praising the paper and the club rules in No. 4, and San Francisco. The longest is from "Ralph de C.", who enclosed $7.50 for three subscriptions, having ordered a steel-and-rubber spider-wheel bicycle made in Paris by one Guitan, claims to be the first owner and rider of the new bicycle on the Pacific coast, and has four Coventry machines on the way for friends with whom he means to form a club.
- A dialogue sketch dated March 17th, 1878, on Columbus avenue near Dartmouth street: a policeman asks two small boys what the crowd is waiting for, mishears "Bicycles" as "Icicles! Icycles!" and is set right with "Ferloserfeeds!" before the riders come into sight.
- The leading editorial on the order passed by the Boston Board of Aldermen on April 22, 1878, at the instance of Alderman Harris, directing the Committee on Police to report whether measures are needed to regulate the passage of bicycles through the streets. The Journal argues no legislation is necessary at present, invites the aldermen to watch the club meet on Boylston street opposite Trinity church before the run to Quincy, and notes that not all their names are yet on its subscription list.
- More than a dozen young men from the "new land," Brookline and Cambridge met at Mr. Sharp's house on Commonwealth avenue on April 13th to form the Suffolk Bicycle Club, electing T. C. Sharp, Jr. captain, C. A. Parker sub-captain, L. Prescott road master, F. E. Cabot secretary and treasurer and T. H. Storer recording secretary. The first run of about twenty-eight miles went by Blue Hill avenue and Brush Hill turnpike to Readville, then by Forest Hills and Chestnut Hill reservoirs home, every member riding the whole distance.
- G. L. Clarke & Co. have perfected a simple arrangement for photographing a rider mounted on his machine with life-like fidelity and all the spirit and motion of the real thing — so that, the editor adds, no family album will in future be complete without a photograph of at least one bicyclist.
- The Paris correspondent of the "London Bicycling Journal" lists the rendezvous of the French bicyclists for touring visitors: the Cafe Vercingetorix, 47 Rue de Rennes, Friday evenings at nine; the Velo Sport de Paris at 59 bis Rue de Vaugirard on the first Friday of each month; and the Union Velocipedique Parisienne at 103 Boulevard St. Michel every Saturday evening.
- C. U. Littleton writes from Boston that the Journal's "span of jackasses" and its scarification of the "Scientific American" have caused much merriment, and offers a mock sworn deposition in the paper's defence. "Coke Upon Littleton," a short, fat, sedentary lawyer of five feet six and 156 pounds, deposes that since January 10th, 1878 the bicycle has renewed his youth — he rides his 48-inch "Tension" the three and a half miles to business in twenty minutes and twenty miles in two hours with less fatigue than walking three, and works out the mechanics to prove it.
- A letter signed "Amos," Boston, April 7, 1878, on the proper use of Sunday: England and Ireland have more to teach Boston than the writer supposes, no club could more surely sign its own death-warrant than by dictating a member's conduct outside the club-room, and while advertised club runs are inadvisable, a Sunday spent in the woods and fields is the best use of the day.
- The correspondent who wrote over the signature "Young Man Afraid of His Bicycle" claims credit for coining the word "locomotory" in the "Boston Transcript" and is glad the Journal has adopted it, arguing that "locomotive" as an adjective will not serve. He suggests two further words for the paper's use — "bicyphites" for the wheel's supporters and "bicyphobes" for its opponents — and signs himself "Young Man still less afraid of a Duplex Excelsior Bicycle."
- A yarn from "Hunt's Yachting Magazine": an old sailor of the cotton ship Rappahannock, Captain Drummond, tells how the mate hooked a great shark off Orange Kays and cut a live three-year-old boy out of it. The child had been thrown overboard from the New Orleans packet Memphis by his uncle Nat Babcock, who was tried for murder and sent to Baton Rouge after a hand named Crafts, aloft on the mizen-royal yard, gave the alarm.
- Brief replies to "C. W. L." (late of N. Y.), to "T. C. W." of Norfolk — who is taught to lean back going down-hill and forward going up, keep upright on the level, use the handles as little as possible and set the seat about three inches from the front — and to "Capt. Worcester" of an English B.C., whose club has adopted the Journal's rules with some alterations.