The Bearings, Vol 6, No 12
Articles in this issue
- Front-page editorial column of short satirical squibs commenting on Tom Eck's pledge to quit fakes, Zimmerman's $35,000 amateur winnings, the LAW 'color line' controversy with Chief Consul Perkins, Johnson's records, English cycling press blunders, and cycle-thievery in Chicago.
- William Twinkle's column recounts the Jacksonville, Illinois tournament at Morgan County fair grounds with Johnson and Eck, praising the town's hospitality except the Dunlap House hotel, and noting Johnson's loss to Lumsden after eating prunes before the mile race.
- Comprehensive tables of American cycling records in competition and against-time categories covering standing and flying starts from a quarter-mile to ten miles, with Zimmerman, Windle, Taylor, Johnson, Munger, and Smith; includes separate kite track records set by Johnson at Independence, Iowa.
- London correspondent C. W. Hartung covers the Society of Cyclists' seventh annual congress at Rochester, F. T. Bidlake's new London-to-York tricycle record of 13:19:00, Bath Road club's 50-mile handicap won by F. Cole in 2:39:48, and English press tentative acceptance of Johnson's 1:56 3-5 mile.
- Editorial defending Isaac B. Potter, editor of Good Roads, against a hostile Chicago cycling paper's insinuations about his law firm name and Brooklyn real estate dealings, arguing the League should give him full editorial and advisory control of the journal.
- Editorial mocking British cycling press for accepting Springfield records but balking at Johnson's 1:56 3-5 kite-track mile, likening English stubbornness to John L. Sullivan tearfully asking 'Am I licked, and by that youngster?' after his New Orleans defeat.
- Chief Consul Choate's letter to the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce prompts a committee to plan a December state roads convention; the same committee reports St. Paul has 43 miles of paved streets, mostly cedar blocks on plank foundations.
- Harry Hilliard Wylie is cycling from New York to Chicago with no money, presenting printed cards at each stop requesting 'one good square meal or a night's lodging, charged to account of Human Hospitality,' his trunk forwarded care of The Bearings.
- Milwaukee wheelmen, led by their chief consul, win a major concession from the Northwestern railroad allowing cyclists to check bicycles as baggage without signing a release, defeating express companies' attempts to impose express rates.
- LAW election heats up in Washington with five candidates for chief consul including incumbent Frank Dyer; the Crescent Century Wheelmen's semi-annual century run attracted only five riders; the Columbia C.C. has moved to new 806 E Street quarters.
- Racing column: the LAW Racing Board's Chicago meeting is expected to be routine rather than produce wholesale suspensions; the Chicago Base Ball Club proposes a permanent cement track near the South Side grounds; Willis Troy has signed Johnson and Rhodes for a southern tour; Le Cycliste Belge's mangled Springfield translation and the Irish Cyclist's false Johnson-beats-Zimmerman story are corrected.
- Anecdote claiming French racing agent Fournier persuaded Zimmerman to skip France and remain amateur by describing the prizes — pianos, horses, gold — he could still win in America, concluding with the Gallic appeal 'Ne fait pas le porc' ('Don't be a hog').
- J. S. Johnson and manager T. W. Eck are banqueted by 200 Minneapolis well-wishers including the mayor; Johnson tells a reporter that Chicago club men pocketed him three-to-one in races and that he stands by his Independence kite-track records.
- Statistical feature comparing bicycle and trotting horse mile records from Lady Suffolk's 2:28 in 1844 to Nancy Hanks' 2:04 in 1892, showing Johnson's kite-track 1:56 3-5 has surpassed the horse — six years of cycling against half a century of harness racing.
- Profile of General Roy Stone, road improvement advocate at Chicago's Great Northern Hotel, who studied European roads, lobbied Congress alongside Potter and Gerould for a highway commission bill, and is in Chicago to support the national roads convention.
- Pre-meet coverage of the Chicago Cycling Club's October 21-22 tournament: Zimmerman, Tyler, Dorntge, Wheeler, Hess, and Culver have arrived; Davis rode a half in :59 1-5, Barrett a half in 1:01 1-5, and M. B. Fowler has lowered Osmond's two- through five-mile English records.
- At Providence, R.I.'s interstate meet, A. W. Warren of Hartford beats P. J. Berlo in the mile open in 2:49; a novel feature has cyclist George Herrick defeat a horse in a mile race by a length in 2:43; Windle rides an exhibition quarter in :30 1-5.
- Race meet results from Aurora, Ill.: Lumsden wins all his events on a clay track; Keator shows improvement; full summaries for mile open (3:21), half-mile handicap, quarter-mile scratch, two-mile handicap, and five-mile handicap (Webb, 880 yards, first in 12:47).
- Century Road Club resolutions establishing that road speed records must be submitted with certified surveyor distances and statements from at least three timekeepers within twenty days of the event; records without these are not recognized.
- Editorial arguing that American manufacturers are missing a large market among those unable or unwilling to ride a safety bicycle, warning that English makers may establish themselves before U.S. producers act; cites Holbein's 350-mile 24-hour tricycle road record as proof of the machine's capability.
- Preview of the English Stanley cycle show opening November 18 with 290 exhibitors; Cyclist voices trade concern that having two competing shows this season will delay buyer orders until the later National exhibition, squeezing manufacturers' production schedules for the Easter trade.
- Review of E. C. Sterns & Co.'s bicycle from Syracuse, N.Y., featuring a one-piece frame tube, concealed brake rod inside the handlebar post, a device that simultaneously adjusts chain tension and aligns the rear wheel, and a 35-pound roadster weight; 2,000 wheels planned for 1893.
- Notes on two electric bicycle lamps: a London battery lamp weighing 1 lb. 5.5 oz. with a 7-hour life at $8, and Arthur McMillan of Chicago's new 8-candle-power headlight at 4 lbs. 2 oz. running on a gravity battery for fifty cents a year and covering a 20-foot radius.
- Profile of Alfred Linder Pope, 21-year-old son of Colonel Albert Pope, who worked on the factory floor at Hartford before joining the Boston Columbia salesroom, described as energetic, fond of cycling and yachting, and 'a true chip of the old block.'
- Trade column: pneumatic sulkies at $225; Bayliss & Thomas seeking a Chicago agent; Miss Lucy Porter's five centuries on a Quadrant ladies' wheel is a ladies' record; Rouse Hazard & Co. ship to Java, England, and South America; Springfield factory's new Pilgrim model expected to lead the 1893 trade; two Imperial bicycles stolen from Boston and Chicago with $50 rewards each.