The Bearings, Vol 6, No 13
Articles in this issue
- Editorial observing that character is discernible among racing men at speed: some ride for love of victory, others purely for prize money, and it is the prize-greedy who will never pace, causing audiences to hiss winners and cheer losers.
- Describes the festive Columbus Week in Chicago, with brilliant pageants, military parades, booming cannon, blazing fireworks, and cycle racing at Washington Park thrilling both eastern visitors and Chicago Cycling Club members alike.
- Late Wednesday evening The Bearings staff prepared thousands of envelopes, each containing a souvenir collection of half-tone portraits of America's best riders and complimentary tickets, mailed to Chicago's social elite to give the Washington Park meet a prestige boost.
- Zimmerman told Parker Sercombe at the Chicago Club house he would not race for a thousand dollars, confirming that his physician had absolutely forbidden his riding; he sat playing cards, looking well-fed and happy.
- President Tuttle tried to take Zimmerman home on Tuesday night but the champion refused; six men drank twelve quarts of milk and consumed pounds of broiled steak at supper, then played cards—Zimmerman was beaten and thoroughly enjoyed himself.
- Sanger fell in the 2:20 mile after colliding with C. W. Davis on the back-stretch and later claimed a friend had overheard a conspiracy against him at the club house the night before; Davis denied foul play and apologized, noting he believed he had a length's lead before Sanger's wheel struck his.
- Parker Sercombe offered to back Sanger for a $500 trophy against the world; Zimmerman countered with a $1,000 side bet and eventually suggested Tyler vs. Sanger at Washington Park within a week might settle the matter first.
- Zimmerman was "literally kidnapped" by Van Sicklen's crowd onto a B. & O. train with no wheel or baggage; his young colored mascot John Backus contrived his own way from Manasquan to Chicago on the Nickel Plate line in three and a half days, spending only fifteen cents of his starting thirty.
- Trainer Harry Leeming quartered George Barrett and C. W. Davis at the Chicago Club house, feeding them broiled mutton, beef, and home-made beef tea before bedtime; despite hard work, Davis gained five pounds and Barrett six pounds in three weeks.
- The First Regiment Cycle Corps of Chicago (16 men) and the Toledo Cadets (25 men, all on Gendron cushion-tired wheels) attracted great attention in Friday's military parade; Chicago men excelled by climbing the World's Fair viaduct grade.
- Roster of prominent visitors in Chicago during the week, including the full L.A.W. Executive Committee and Racing Board, Colonel A. A. Pope, J. K. Starley of England, and representatives from Kansas City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Cleveland, Boston, and other cities.
- The constitution committee of the Century Road Club met in Chicago; a general meeting is called for November 3 to adopt bylaws and authorize a mail vote for national and state officers, including president, high centurion, and chief centurions for each state.
- Editorial on the third week of October 1892: praises General Roy Stone's Good Roads national convention as a historic step, while warning that the Racing Board's likely endorsement of makers' amateurism would be a retrograde move leaving the sport straddling an awkward situation.
- Humorous account of "Snaix," the white bull-dog mascot of the Lincoln Cycling Club, enrolled as an L.A.W. member by ten-cent club assessment; The Bearings praises him as more exemplary than many human members—he doesn't smoke, swear, or bore people with talk about pneumatic tires.
- Multi-part editorial: defends Good Roads magazine's finances (~$1,800 monthly advertising income) and Burdett's frugal administration (including a $76 lobbying expenditure that nearly secured a national highway commission), and calls for public reading of the Wheelman Company contract at the next National Assembly.
- Vice President G. Carleton Brown showed a sample gold badge—an eagle bearing an "Executive Committee" banner, with one, two, or three diamonds denoting rank—that was practically adopted by the Executive Committee for L.A.W. officers from president down to local consuls.
- A San Francisco correspondent charges that L.A.W. No. II George H. Strong, the regular-ticket candidate for Chief Consul of the California Division, is being "knifed" by the opposition, which has circulated a separate Southern California ballot listing E. W. Stuart of Los Angeles as Chief Consul.
- Over 1,500 wheelmen—the largest body of cyclists ever in a parade, viewed by the largest crowd ever gathered at one time in New York City—marched in the Columbus Celebration parade; the Riverside Wheelmen's 200-strong contingent earned the most applause and over 100 letters of congratulation.
- Chief Consul C. A. Emise, T. O. Angell, T. O. Angell Jr., and A. W. Caine of the Social Wheel Club, Salt Lake City, rode the first century ever completed in Utah on October 16, covering the first fifty miles in 4:00:10.
- The Lincoln Cycling Club of Chicago published its winter 1892-93 programme, featuring a Japanese smoker with a rice-eating contest, Essen und Rauchen evenings, a pumpkin smoker in hayseed costume with a pie-eating prize, a stag donation party, and a year-end banquet.
- General Roy Stone organized the founding convention of The National League for Good Roads at Central Music Hall, Chicago; Charles F. Manderson of Philadelphia was elected president and Stone vice-president, with Colonel Pope's railway company initiative highlighted as a powerful allied force for road reform.
- The Racing Board's closed Chicago meeting likely recommended allowing makers' amateurism at the next constitutional convention; it accepted Windle's records (one-mile flying start 2:02 3-5, five-mile 11:41), returned J. S. Johnson's kite-track record on technical grounds, and suspended J. P. Bliss for 60 days for false entry and Roy Keator pending investigation.
- The joint Executive Committee and Racing Board voted to hold the 1893 international championships in Chicago, with Colonel Burdett likely sent to Europe to recruit foreign riders and negotiate an international alliance; a half-mile or one-third mile track at the Chicago Baseball Park is under consideration.
- Representatives from Evansville, Louisville, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Peoria, and Chicago met to plan the 1893 western race circuit; Chicago's national meet is set for the first week of August, followed by the international races and a circuit going East with blank-date applications accepted by the Racing Board.
- A well-defined rumor circulates that prominent racing men, tired of racing under rules made by officials who know little about racing, are forming their own association—particularly as cash prizes and competition for their patronage become imminent.
- A charity match race between Arthur Lumsden and John S. Johnson at Jacksonville, Ill., meant to bail out the Lockwood Cycling Club, was ruined when the hired track sprinkler—finding rain already pouring—conscientiously sprinkled the saturated track five consecutive times before going home wet but proud.
- Dayton's R. O. Baumann writes to The Bearings that he entered the 2:45 mile believing his 2:49 record made him eligible, withdrew immediately when told by the handicapper that his half-mile time of 1:15 barred him, and was subsequently suspended despite never competing.
- Drawing on Prof. Nipher of Washington University's mathematical tables—which predicted Nancy Hanks' 2:04 mile a decade in advance—this article projects that by year 2141 the trotting horse will have equaled the runner, achieving a mile in 1:41.
- Full two-day race report from Washington Park, October 21-22: 15,000 attended Friday; W. A. Rhodes averaged the highest results and won the $650 Conover piano in the dedication race; Sanger beat Tyler, Barrett, Lumsden, and Johnson in the two-mile open despite a bruised hip; the Chicago Club cleared $1,500 profit after sharing with Washington Park Club.
- The Licking Cycling Club's first tournament at Newark, O., drew 2,000 spectators; Arthur French of Columbus won all open events—half-mile, mile, and two-mile lap race—earning two gold watches and a diamond pin.
- Under manager T. W. Eck, J. S. Johnson and W. A. Rhodes raced at Nashville under the Capital City C. C. at Cumberland Park; Johnson captured the five-mile handicap from scratch in 13:28, while Rhodes rode poorly and failed to place.
- The Piqua Wheelmen's meet at Piqua, O., drew 2,000 spectators; Conn Baker of Columbus dominated the open events and C. C. Van Tine of Findlay won the two-mile open and 2:40 class mile.
- A meet at the Tioga track in Philadelphia drew over 800 spectators; H. Butscher won both the mile handicap (2:32 2-5) and two-mile handicap (4:22 4-5), and Gracey and Wunder took the tandem handicap in 2:28 2-5.
- At the West Lynn Rovers' meet on the Glenmere track in Lynn, Mass., F. S. Elliott of M.A.C. broke the two-mile Howard college record after the regular races with a time of 5:28.
- The first bicycle races ever held in Milan, Mich., took place on the Milan Trotting Association Grounds; Detroit riders P. Phillips, Walter Steuber, and E. C. Bloeden dominated the half-mile open, mile club handicap, and mile open events.
- At the South End Wheelmen's club races in Philadelphia on Columbus Day, W. H. Marriott—age 56, father of racing man F. B. Marriott and a club Board member—collapsed and died suddenly from heart failure after competing in the team race.
- A. F. Wesner of South Natick won the Columbia B.C.'s twelve-mile road race at North Attleboro from 28 starters in 36:42; Kelly won the Mt. Washington B.C.'s ten-mile road race in Boston from scratch in 28:50.
- London dispatch: Dr. E. B. Turner and Robert Hall are pushing the N.C.U. to bar cycle trade employees from amateur racing; the Stanley Show has over 300 exhibitors and 13 excursion trains arranged; H. P. Sisley is reportedly parting with Cycling magazine's proprietor Dangerfield to launch an independent paper run on circulation.
- Feature interview with I. B. Potter at his New York office, recounting how he drafted the Liberty Bill on a Sunday, steered it through the Albany legislature before opponents discovered its purpose, and outmaneuvered Union League Club-connected horsemen before Governor Hill to secure cyclists' rights on New York highways and park drives.
- The Maryland Bicycle Club house operates on an honor system with no formal rules, admitting members very conservatively; its sole unwritten rule forbids treating in the smoking room, resulting in members not drinking more than they actually want.
- Miscellaneous column: a Munich company has capitalized on cogged electric-rail cycles for Alpine ascents on the Rigi; a doctor at an English hill-climb dinner warned that the exertion causes dangerous dilation of the heart cavities; Thomas Stevens is lecturing in England on his bicycle ride across Asia; the Milwaukee Wheelmen completed their 1892 century to Watertown with 15 of 17 finishers, including Japanese cyclist T. C. Nogaye.
- Editorial advising cycle trade firms not to drop advertising in winter: riders, retailers, and wholesalers use the closed season to plan for next season, and the continuous advertiser—not the one who closes his shutters—catches the early-season buyer.
- Gormully & Jeffery's Mr. Jeffery has succeeded in brazing aluminum rim ends after over 100 pounds of experimentation, raising the prospect of aluminum-rimmed racing wheels; spoke-pull resistance may be solved by washers, and tempering the metal may soon obviate even that problem.
- Frederick D. Owens of Washington claims his 1887 patents—covering an inner elastic rubber layer and a removable tough outer rubber cover seated independently in a grooved rim—anticipate the broad principle of the Dunlop pneumatic tire by two to three years.
- A Bearings writer visited the Overman Company's near-complete factory addition and found a large floor dedicated to employee social functions and band rehearsals, plus daily crackers-and-tea service for office staff—all initiatives of President A. H. Overman.
- A fire at the Indiana Bicycle Co. in Indianapolis destroyed a large part of the factory buildings and machinery; the company estimates a loss of about $60,000 partially covered by insurance but states the best machinery had been moved to new buildings and production will resume with little delay.
- Ex-trick rider Prince Wells, reinstated to the L.A.W. through friends' help, now runs a thriving cycle store in Louisville employing three men, a bookkeeper, salesman, and stenographer, and proudly wears his L.A.W. pin.
- Reprinted from the Scottish Cyclist: the story of Dr. Tyler, who—needing to harden a new quarter-mile clay track cheaply—advertised a twenty-four-hour go-as-you-please pedestrian race and used the walkers' feet to pack and smooth the surface at no extra cost.