The Bearings, Vol 5, No 16
Articles in this issue
- The paper's comic front page: a Satan-and-Erebus sketch about a wheel-paper editor seeking photographs of dead scorchers for a 'Celebrated Hasbeens' column, plus light verse and squibs on headers, pavement defects, punctured pneumatics, and 'Cycling Astronomy.'
- Lead report on the Chicago-to-New York relay ride: General Nelson A. Miles hands his sealed military despatch for General Howard to Arthur Lumsden and E. C. Bode at the Pullman Building before a crowd of thousands, and the packet is carried through rain and mud across Indiana by Githens, Bliss, Hoagland, Barwise, young Bob Thorne (who walked eight miles through foot-deep mud in a hailstorm), Winship, Davis, Ballard, Nicolet, and Van Sicklen; the Tenth Division relay list (Albany to New York, 151½ miles) is printed in full.
- Editorial argues that the relay ride's most adverse conditions — weeks of flooding along the entire route — make its success all the more convincing as a demonstration of the bicycle's military utility and a catalyst for the national good-roads movement.
- Editorial explaining why this issue is 'laden' with military and road-reform news: the relay ride, the Pullman race, the Fort Sheridan cycling corps ordered by General Miles, and the formal adoption of bicycles in the French and Spanish armies all coincide.
- Editorial on the Pullman Road Race's record 389 entries and the planned complimentary banquet for L.A.W. president Colonel Burdett on May 31, with Mayor Washburne presiding and General Miles and Colonel Pope expected to speak on road reform and international racing.
- S. H. K. Prime of Dwight, Ill., accepts the secretaryship of the Illinois Road Improvement Association's executive committee; his network of 6,000 crop correspondents and his weekly Prime's Crop Bulletin will be enlisted to push road reform legislation through the next session.
- Editorial argues that the international cycle races planned for Chicago in 1893 must accept French and Australian entrants regardless of their cash-prize records, since international competition cannot fairly be governed by the narrow English-American amateur definition; addressed to L.A.W. committeemen Burdett, Gerould, and Raymond.
- Jockey Snapper Garrison, with access to the finest thoroughbreds, prefers the bicycle for training on Long Island roads, posing an acute embarrassment to those who champion horses over bicycles.
- Statistical feature on the Pullman Road Race: year-by-year growth of entries, starters, and prizes from 1887 to 1892; a club-by-club breakdown led by the Illinois C.C. (67), Chicago C.C. (47), Columbia Wheelmen (44), and Lincoln C.C. (32); the full $3,000 prize list with all donors named; and the complete entry rosters club by club with the race officials.
- Column of Pullman race briefs: the course now measures 144 miles; Terry Andrae not entering this year; Billy Rhodes said to want to start one minute behind scratch; Marshall Field donates a first-class cycling suit for the best time by a rider under twenty-one; and out-of-town entries growing yearly from Hamilton, Ont., to Denver, Colo.
- The full list of 106 entries for the New York Irvington-Milburn road race on Decoration Day, including Tom Roe, N. H. Van Sicklen, E. C. Bode, Geo. K. Barrett, C. M. Murphy, and Fred Allart.
- Following a progressive team race sandwiched into a Staten Island baseball match on May 7, representatives of New York, Brooklyn, and other clubs plan a second trial of the format on May 21 to become familiar with and improve the scheme.
- A London weekly contributor (reprinted from Sport and Play) argues that while home trainers maintain muscle tone over winter, they can depress overall health by confining the rider to vitiated basement air rather than wholesome country air, citing a friend who suffered from two months of indoor work.
- Detailed account of the May 31 Auditorium banquet honoring L.A.W. president Colonel Burdett: speakers include General Miles, Colonel Pope, R. P. Gormully, ex-Mayor Carter Harrison, Isaac B. Potter, A. H. Overman, and Rev. Arthur Edwards, with Mayor Washburne as toastmaster and speeches to be stenographically reported and given to the press the next morning.
- A rain-or-shine relay ride covering the 173½-mile Grand Rapids–Lansing–Ann Arbor–Detroit route on June 6, in three divisions under W. E. Metzger, Mr. Morgan, and P. S. Hunt; a full station-by-station timetable is printed.
- Roundup of Chicago club runs spoiled by flooded roads: the Illinois Club reached Wheaton via railway track; thirty Lincolns braved a mile of ankle-deep water to Pullman; Lake Views rode to the South Parks; Aeolus, Plzen, Minnette, Ravenswood, and Windsor clubs made shorter outings.
- The Columbia Wheelmen of Chicago laid the corner-stone of their new clubhouse at 311 West Division Street; sixty-five members paraded through the north-west side beforehand and President John Erickson hosted over 500 guests at the ceremony.
- The annual meeting of the Business Men's Bicycle Association of Minneapolis elects M. L. Knowlton president; Chief Consul Choate, a lawyer on the executive board, and speakers Prof. Downey, Rev. S. W. Sample, and Prof. Holmes are noted as members lending the association professional distinction.
- Over one hundred riders from nearly ten clubs formed an Indian file along the Valencia Street cable slot on the Bay City Wheelmen's San Francisco inter-club run to San Mateo, twenty miles, ending with sea-bathing on the beach; the party was photographed at start and finish.
- A Melbourne correspondent reports the close of the autumn season and that the pneumatic tire is now established in Australia; Geo. R. Broadbent holds out-and-home road records of 1:20:30 for 25 miles, 2:48:30 for 50 miles, and 6:04:30 for 100 miles; the Victorian Racing Men's Association operates under a cash prize system.
- The Century Cycling Club's L.A.W. spring circuit meet at Syracuse has secured a Liberty light roadster for the state championship mile and a marble clock from the Pope Company; an evening comedy, 'Married Life,' will be staged at the Wieting Opera House.
- The twelfth annual Ohio Division meet at Dayton on July 4–5 has secured half-fare railway rates on all roads entering the city; prizes include five high-grade wheels, a piano-box buggy, a $100 diamond medal, and a $100 silver cup, with the championship medals donated by the Dayton Bicycle Club.
- The Le Mars, Iowa city council has levied a dollar tax on bicycles; the local wheelmen, unable to refuse payment, resolve to boycott all celebrations, races, and meets within the corporate limits as retaliation.
- A wandering Bearings correspondent reports that Wilmington now has thirty to forty wheels under Chief Consul J. L. Yopp; the only good riding is the shell road to Wrightsville, where a stock company charges cyclists twenty-five cents return (ten cents for L.A.W. men) while equestrians pay only ten cents.
- Chief Consul Dyer, back from his wedding tour, is organizing the L.A.W. thirteenth annual meet in Washington; nineteen races are planned at Analostan Island, with a Potomac steamer excursion on the evening of the first day and a souvenir George Washington bas-relief medal for visitors.
- JEFFERIS WINS. THE PLUCKY LOUISVILLE MAN CAPTURES THE HUNDRED MILE SOUTHERN CHAMPIONSHIP AND RECORD.Thomas E. Jefferis of Louisville, riding a Niagara at a steady four-minute-mile gait, wins the 100-mile road championship of the South at Memphis on May 14 in 6:49:00, leading from start to finish over a seven-mile circuit after only six weeks of dumbbell and calisthenic training under Prof. Charles Bailey.
- Memphis correspondent reports that ten started but only five finished; Jefferis took an early lead of seventeen minutes on Gardner of Nashville, Whitehead of Memphis quit at forty miles, and the fast flat Raleigh road explains the record time; the club hosted a wine supper and lantern parade for visiting riders.
- Stephanie wins the great Bordeaux-to-Paris road race (May 14), covering 358 miles in twenty-five hours with fifty-two starters; if accurate, the time improves on Mills's previous record.
- G. Lacy Hillier's dispatch to Bi. News analyzes A. A. Zimmerman's defeat by E. Leitch at Nottingham on April 30, criticizing the American's poor track tactics and weak ankle use; after the races, Zimmerman, warned he was wanted to make a speech, fled the smoking concert by his own account 'chasing up the alley.'
- The Elizabeth Wheelmen and Elizabeth Athletic Club completed a 75-mile relay race over Union and Essex County macadam roads on May 14 in 4:16:00, with the Elizabeth A.C. (Bauer, Laggren, Blake, Saltonstall, Bowman) winning John C. Wetmore's handsome trophy.
- Forty-five riders contested the 100-mile Business Men's Cycle League road race on May 16 over roads flooded six to eight inches deep; Geo. W. Coffin finished first on handicap and F. M. Dampman took the time prize in 7:36:00 from scratch.
- The West Park commissioners are building a first-class one-mile cinder-and-loam bicycle track, forty feet wide, on the Garfield Park frontage; all clubs will have exclusive racing privileges at stated times subject to park board rules; plans are on view at the Union Park office.
- Racing column: Birdie Munger back in Chicago; W. F. Murphy to attempt five-through-twenty-five-mile road records at Crawford, N.J. on May 25; Frank Bodach (Eolus C.C.) and Emil Ulbrecht (Columbia Wheelmen) matched for twenty-five miles within sixty days for a $200 trophy; the Pennsylvania Division Scranton meet promises $5,000 in prizes; William Campbell will try to smash road records on the final relay leg into New York; and George C. Smith swept three firsts at Spring Valley despite losing a pedal near the tape. Also folds short track-and-meet notes on the Baltimore News team-race cup, the Poorman Road Race at Cincinnati, the Tioga track Philadelphia schedule, St. Louis Forest Park race, the Detroit road race proposal, and 'Peculiar Training' (Chicago racers training on bock beer and cigarettes).
- Feature profile of the Chicago Cycling Club (the Three C's), a union of the Owl, Fort Dearborn, and Kenwood clubs with some 325 members including Governor McKinley of Ohio; a $30,000 clubhouse is under construction on Washington Avenue for the World's Fair season, and the racing roster includes Lumsden, Barrett, Roe, Bode, Van Sicklen, the Thornes, Davis, Bliss, and Ballard.
- Humorous story (from Sports and Amusements): Minneapolis bicycle salesman and crack rider Colie Bell overhears a Boston professor and a colleague discussing 'cycles' and assumes they are rival drummers, only to discover they are debating the transmigration of souls.
- Full translation (from Veloce-Sport) of war minister Ch. de Freycinet's circular formally adopting the velocipede in the French army for couriers, scouts, and combatants; includes the table of cyclists allotted to each army corps and division, their pay of fifty cents per day, and the arms issued (revolver and cavalry carbine).
- On Decoration Day, five to ten soldiers of the Fifteenth Infantry at Fort Sheridan, under Lieut. Henry J. Hunt, are ordered by General Miles to march awheel from Pullman to Chicago bearing twenty-five pounds of full kit including rifle, rations, and shelter tent, as a test of the bicycle's military utility.
- C. E. Duryea of the Rouse-Duryea Cycle Co. recalls an 1883 pioneer ride with Cola Stone and Hal Greenwood from St. Louis over fifteen miles of unrideable mule-path toward De Soto, on 60-inch ordinaries; the party lost their way, borrowed a needle and thread from a farmhouse, and spent the night at Bulltown after walking most of the cross-road section.
- Miscellany column of short cycling notes: Ex-Chief Consul Bull to referee the Lockport tournament; the Willow Grove pike macadamized; Col. Buffington refuses Rock Island cyclists access to the government island bridges; the Sercombe-Bolte Mfg. Co. enameling Telegram cycles in blue, red, yellow, and green; and Rochester sidewalk riders arrested with only a warning.
- Equipment column signed 'Phoenix': the Eagle high-wheel bicycle with Thomas pneumatic tires (claimed by its maker to outperform chain-drivers on hard all-day rides); the reviving geared ordinary, praised by Memphis chief consul Deupree and to be tried by Van Sicklen, Rands, and Thorne; and extremely light wheels — a 175-pound Chicago rider uses them persistently and a 28-pounder's rear spokes snapped on reaching the boulevards while his companion's 39-pound machine held.
- Personal notes: Frank Lenz departs Pittsburgh on May 15 for his around-the-world ride for Outing; C. A. Boyle reports terrible Nebraska roads; W. H. Seaver of the Alameda County Wheelmen claims a new California century record of 10:08:00 on a Gendron pneumatic; Messrs. Landon, Robbins, and G. H. Bell return from a wheel trip to the Yosemite over rough, snow-covered roads.
- Letter from Mortimer P. Reed of Springfield, Ill., defending the Springfield wheelmen at the Pike County tour: they arrived at 2 a.m. and retired at once, and Reed believes Missouri members rather than Illinois men were responsible for the disturbance reported in the previous week's issue.
- Club-news column: the Oglesby Cycling Club incorporated in Chicago; New York's Afro-American Cyclers has a large membership; eighteen Chicago clubs (some 600 riders) to join the May 29 union run; the Minnette Cycling Corps contracting for a gymnasium under John T. West; five Montreal C.C. men ride into Chicago on Stars and ordinaries; and the Celestial City Cycle Club organized at Pekin, Ill., with fifteen members.
- A Tennessee scientist argues the bicycle is kept upright by centrifugal force, not intuitive balancing; a pencil-on-buggy-wheel experiment demonstrates that the upper half of the rim traces about seven times the forward distance of the lower half in each revolution, generating the force that maintains equilibrium.
- Letter from John G. Hartel of Keokuk, Iowa, thanking The Bearings for the framed sketch sent as his word-finding prize, calling the paper 'the best and only strictly cycling paper in existence' and asking whether winning bars him from future contests.
- John W. Drown, secretary of the Springfield (Mass.) Bicycle Club, wins the framed India-ink prize in the closed word-finding contest by identifying the misspelled word 'so' in the Humber-Rover advertisement; a new contest is announced for June 4.
- Reprint from Wheeling of a letter giving fifteen numbered comparative points on the geared ordinary versus the safety bicycle — covering pace, safety, slipping, hill-climbing, mud-throwing, comfort, luggage, the Crypto gear, tires, rake, and racing prospects — concluding it is faster on the road with a tail-wind but likely inferior to the safety as a track racer.
- Portrait gallery of Milwaukee's leading racing cyclists: Fred C. Prachthaeuser, Fred Kasten, Phil Nickel, Harry Kroker, E. H. Paige of Waukesha, Wm. C. Breckenridge, Fred W. Schmitz, Martin Patitz, F. Terry Andrae, Charles W. Price, John C. Schmidtbouer, Wallace C. Sanger, and Wm. C. Price.
- Comic courtroom sketch in which witness Namem, asked to describe his cycling accident, cannot stop endorsing the fictional dealer Fast & Blowem's wheels, lamps, sundries, and clothing at every turn; the jury finds the butcher boy not responsible, yet Namem profits $13.98 net from covert payments by the dealer. Followed by satirical 'That...' predictions on Chicago club and racing life.
- Philosophical essay, reprinted from Bi. News, on the mysterious 'life' quality that makes some bicycles feel alive while factory twins feel dead; suggests perfect alignment, moderately loose bearings, large balls, big gear wheels, and chain drive are conducive to liveliness, but the true cause is still unsolved.
- The Bearings solicits trade opinion on forming a national cycle trade body; letters from L. T. Wilmarth of the Grand Rapids Cycle Co. and J. A. Hunt & Co. advocate for annual exhibits, combating price-cutting by dry-goods houses, and securing better collective freight rates, while warning that past trade associations have been undermined by secret rebates.
- Trade items and city letters: the Laing Cycle Co. appointed Imperial agents; the Garford Mfg. Co. fire at Elyria and subsequent resumed shipments; the Scanlan Co.'s new Puritan safety at $100–$115; George R. Bidwell on Thomas tire canvas construction; L. F. Korns of Wahoo, Neb. on Nebraska's promising cycling terrain versus Iowa's sea of mud; Lindsay Brothers of Milwaukee taking the Sylph spring-frame and Western Wheel Works agencies.
- Trade supplement: Chicago retail is slow due to persistent rain; the Quadrant Company's new sub-thirty-pound road racers are all pre-sold; the Pope Company is handling Hickory wheels; Moffat Cycle Co. is clearing its back-orders with a night-and-day staff; and Billy Rhodes is assembling wheels at the Moffat factory.
- Feature, reprinted from Railway Age, previewing the vehicle exhibit at the Columbian Exposition's transportation department: traces wheeled transport from Egyptian sledges and a first Theban sculpture through the Russian imperial carriages of Catherine the Great to the Conestoga wagon and the first Philadelphia-to-New York stage coach.
- Calendar of forthcoming race meets, road races, relay rides, division meets, and tours from May 21 through September, including the Pullman and Irvington-Milburn road races on May 30, the De Soto trip June 5, the Ohio Division meet at Dayton July 4–6, and the National L.A.W. meet at Washington July 18–20; plus a list of Chicago club runs for the coming weeks.