The Bearings, Vol 5, No 18
Articles in this issue
- Opening humor column of short cycling witticisms and comic squibs, covering subjects from saddle-lending and punctures to the deceased solid tire and a manufacturer who spelled "Psyche" too poetically for his agents.
- Full report of the landmark L.A.W. banquet honoring Illinois Division President Charles L. Burdett at Chicago, attended by 128 guests, featuring speeches by General Nelson A. Miles on cycling from a military standpoint, Col. Albert A. Pope on the development of the bicycle, Rev. H.W. Thomas on Sunday riding, ex-Mayor Carter Harrison on wheelmen and graceful riding, and Isaac B. Potter on the economic case for highway improvement.
- Editorial urging that future Pullman road races limit entries below 300 or run in heats of about 100 riders, secure a special officials' engine, and deploy a trained corps of scorers separate from the timers.
- Editorial on the military potential of bicycles in the U.S. Army, noting the lone ten-man detachment at Fort Sheridan and France's recent formal army adoption of cycling for map revision, predicting the cycling drill will soon be declared indispensable in American militia service.
- Editorial on the impending challenge to the Bicycling World's monopoly over printing L.A.W. membership applicants' addresses, citing apparent unanimous opposition among chief consuls to the arrangement.
- Announcement that the Chicago cycle trade will back The Bearings in staging a lantern parade on Michigan Avenue, Saturday June 25, with two lanterns, candles, and a bamboo stick furnished to each rider and prizes for the best individual lantern displays.
- Comprehensive race report on the 1892 Irvington-Milburn 25-mile Decoration Day road race in New Jersey, won by R.W. Steves (Humber), with Hoyland Smith (Columbia) shattering his own world road record with a time of 1:17:11, and the Chicago contingent of Van Sicklen and Munger outclassed on the hilly New Jersey macadam course before 5,000 spectators.
- F.C. Graves of Springfield, Mass., broke Hoyland Smith's 25-mile world road record at the Decoration Day Martin race in Buffalo, reducing it from 1:19:46 to 1:15:14, while Nick Mader won the race itself in 1:24:06.
- The Denver Cyclists' Union Decoration Day road race was won by J.A. McGuire, with Collier taking the time prize in 1:58:33 before the largest crowd ever at a Colorado road race; scratch man Fred Dolson was drugged by a bottle of liquid at Lupton and ran into a fence.
- N.H. Van Sicklen has challenged the Riverside Wheelmen of New York to a 20-mile five-man team race on the Poorman course, Hamilton to Cincinnati, on June 18, with the Chicago squad drawn from Munger, Lumsden, Tuttle, Bode, Winship, and others.
- London dispatch by C.W. Hartung from the London County Cycling and Athletic Club spring meeting at Herne Hill on May 21, where Zimmerman was beaten in his invitation heat and placed third in a half-mile round, while the Birmingham phenomenon J.W. Schofield rode an astonishing record half-mile of 1:07 without pacemakers before a crowd of 6,000.
- Alexander Winton won the Cleveland Wheel Club's second annual 23-mile Decoration Day road race; the surprise time-prize went to seven-minute man F.G. Turner in 1:19:30, beating fast visitors from Detroit, Buffalo, Columbus, and Youngstown.
- The Louisville Cycle Club's ten-mile Decoration Day handicap was run through near-knee-deep mud; Hobson (10-minute handicap) won while scratch man Tom Jefferis secured the gold-watch time prize in 34:37 — first, second, and time men all rode Niagaras.
- Comic poem by C.T. Tupper in which an older man finds cycling the remedy for aging, resolving to fool those waiting to inherit from him by staying fit and youthful on the wheel.
- Department column of short racing and cycling news: Edward Bald rated Buffalo's fastest rider behind Charley Dorntge; $3,000 in prizes at the New York Division meet in Buffalo; A.N. French won the Ohio State University mile handicap in 2:42 4-5; C.E. Wood won the Syracuse Century C.C. ten-mile road handicap on a Royal Scorcher.
- Major weekly department covering: the stormy admission of the Minnette Cycling Corps to the Chicago Associated Cycling Clubs (Cook County and Washington clubs challenged on unpaid dues); the first U.S. Army bicycle march, ten men under Lt. Hunt from Pullman to Chicago headquarters in 1:25:00 carrying full marching order; cycling news-couriers of the Le Mars (Ia.) Wheelmen who first reported Floyd valley flood damage; the Illinois Division Meet at Springfield July 4-5; the Wisconsin Division Meet at Oshkosh July 7-8; the Columbus-to-Indianapolis relay ride with governor messages; Milwaukee's Decoration Day union run; Chicago's new bell-and-lamp enforcement; the Washington-New York relay ride stalled until later in the season; and Republican convention hospitality for cyclists at Minneapolis.
- Extended feature on the 1892 Pullman Decoration Day road race, won by J.B. Woolas of Lake View C.C. with H.R. Winship taking the time medal for the third time; railway delays stranded officials, emergency Pullman scorers appointed by president Randall saved the results, disputed positions generated protests, and a detailed narrative covers the chaos of 248 starters, the mud-soaked route, Lumsden's and Rhodes's punctures, and George Thorne finishing on three borrowed machines.
- Correspondent's letter reporting on cycling conditions across Charlotte, N.C. (fine macadam roads, ribbon-decorated handlebars on a young club) and Columbia, Orangeburg, Charleston, and Florence, S.C., noting the Columbia Wheelmen as the South's oldest club (organized by D.A. Childs in 1881) and the rise of pneumatics throughout the region.
- Legal column by Grant Newell addressing when a railway damage-release signed by a cyclist is valid (reducing the carrier to ordinary-care liability only), whether a railroad may refuse a crowded baggage car, and when a bicycle does or does not qualify as passenger baggage under law.
- Trade Supplement editorial defending The Bearings' policy of appealing to the general public through illustrated and engaging journalism rather than dry trade reporting, arguing that the medium that builds warm public interest in cycling most benefits the trade and the road-reform movement.
- Trade Supplement featuring congratulatory letters from Toledo Bicycle Co., Garford Mfg. Co., Hartford Cycle Co., Hibbard Spencer Bartlett & Co., New York Belting & Packing Co., George R. Bidwell Cycle Co., Central Cycle Mfg. Co., Luthy & Co., Kingman & Co., and Warwick Cycle Mfg. Co., all praising The Bearings for conceiving and managing the Chicago-to-New York relay ride and crediting it with boosting public demand for cycling and better roads.