The Bicycling World, Vol 1, No 16
Articles in this issue
- A detailed account of the first national gathering of American wheelmen at Newport, Rhode Island on 31 May 1880, covering the preliminary days, the convention of 150 riders from 32 clubs, and the founding of the League of American Wheelmen.
- Parts III and IV of Kol Kron's touring narrative: west from Springfield toward Westfield, then east along the railroad tracks past Indian Orchard to West Brimfield, and on via Worcester, Grafton and South Framingham to Boston.
- An account of a pre-dawn bicycle ride, describing the experience of riding through quiet roads in the early morning hours.
- The Chicago meet of 29 May, ridden by twenty-three wheelmen in a downpour along Wabash Avenue and the Grand and Drexel Boulevards, was christened the 'Huddle Around the Corner' and ended with supper courtesy of John M. Fairfield.
- Five Crescent Club riders make a day run via Dedham, Walpole and North Attleboro', footing it through five miles of sand near Wrentham Centre before being met at Pawtucket and escorted into Providence by the Providence Club.
- Reports of newly formed clubs: the Aquilo Bi. C. of Prospect Park, Brooklyn; the Essex Bi. C. of Newark; the Milwaukee Bi. C. under Andrew A. Hathaway; the Peoria Bicycle and Athletic Club; the first bicycle club in Virginia; the Portland (Maine) Bi. C.; and the Wilkesbarre Bi. C. of Pennsylvania.
- The formal opening of the New Haven bicycle track, where C. P. Wurts of Yale won the five-mile race; results from Mott Haven, Baltimore and Detroit; the City of Boston's 5 July races on Commonwealth Avenue with a Special Columbia Racer as first prize; and H. B. Thompson's announcement of a $500 Bicycle Trophy Club Cup at the Erie County fair.
- Letters on the best road from Taunton to Fall River via Somerset, Springfield's new bicycle-bell ordinance, an invitation to tour France instead of England, and a Kentucky Military Institute professor's ecstatic account of learning to ride his new Columbia, plus notes from A. S. Parsons, Troy and Yonkers correspondents.
- A technical discussion of the accuracy of cyclometers — early odometers attached to bicycle wheels — comparing measured distances against known road distances.
- Leader columns on the quiet success of the first grand meet of American bicyclers, thanks to the hospitality of the people of Newport, and the auspicious launch of the League of American Wheelmen, whose Corresponding Secretary expects a thousand membership applications before July.
- An editorial arguing that the N.A.A.'s cash prizes — about $1,100 competed for at the last grand annual meeting — make its competitors professionals under accepted athletic law, imperilling their amateur standing in tennis, bicycle and athletic clubs before the Buffalo tournament.
- A lady correspondent's advice on archery dress — white or brown material trimmed with myrtle-green, the Princesse style, small round hats and long gauntlet gloves — with a parting jab at gentlemen who would rather shoot in their shirt-sleeves.
- Reviews of the enlarged second edition of Maurice and Will H. Thompson's 'How to Train in Archery', H. B. Hart's beginner's pamphlet 'The A B C of Bicycling', the Harvard collection 'Students' Songs', and the June number of St. Nicholas.
- A free-verse parody credited to 'Walt Whitman, et al.' celebrating the bicycle — 'Mine is the wheel of the most high, a sixty-incher' — in ten mock-Whitmanesque sections.
- The Hampton Court meet of 22 May 1880 drew 1,745 riders from 137 clubs, led by the veteran Pickwick Club with the Temple Club making the largest showing, with The Cyclist's editorial criticism of the procession's want of drill.
- Veloce reviews French racing in 1879 — thirty-four race meetings with money prizes open to amateurs — and the exploits of Charles and Jules Terront, Hommey and Viltard at Versailles, Vincennes, La Garenne and Neuilly.
- The list of candidates for membership of the newly founded League of American Wheelmen, with communications directed to Corresponding Secretary A. S. Parsons care of the Bicycling World, 40 Water St., Boston.