The Bicycling World, Vol 1, No 6
Articles in this issue
- January 1880 editorial notes including a Hempstead, Long Island ordinance banning bicycles, commentary on iron prices and machine costs, a satirical poem on the bicycler's dual motto of riding and mirth, and the editor's insider remarks on Scribner's 'A Wheel Around the Hub' crediting art editor A. W. Drake.
- History of the Philadelphia Bicycle Club, founded May 1879 with eight members, covering their use of Fairmount Park for riding and their efforts to gain park access from the authorities.
- Practical guidance urging every bicyclist to understand the mechanics of their machine, with advice on adjusting bearings, straightening spokes, and when to seek a professional repairer.
- Letters from L. B. Packard of South Salem, who logged over 1,200 business trips by bicycle in fifteen months and recommends the road from Lynn through Salem and Beverly to Wenham, and from E. T. Ide of the newly founded Elgin, Illinois Bicycle Club describing its New Year's Day calls by wheel.
- Jack Easy's fourth letter recounts an incident of two companions frightening a horse with bell and whistle, muses on the bicycle as an all-consuming topic ('bicycle earache'), hopes Edison's electric light will make evening races possible, and looks forward to the Boston Bicycle Club's second annual dinner on 2 February.
- Reports of the First Tournament at the American Institute Building, New York, where Belard won the 25-mile professional race and L. H. Johnson rode America's fastest two miles (6.44), plus races at the Twenty-third Regiment armory won by R. A. Maxwell and the Columbia College Boat Club winter games.
- 'Spokesman' recounts autumn 1879 races at Woodstown and Ambler Park, New Jersey, Pittsburg, Mount Holly, Belmont Park and Stenton, Pennsylvania, featuring Jabez Holman of Cleveland, A. J. Briggs (who won the Championship of Philadelphia), Harry Longstreth and L. H. Johnson.
- Notes that the withheld prizes from the Huntington avenue five-mile handicap in Boston were finally awarded to W. M. Stall and W. S. Tufts after Mr. Allen's protest was overruled, and questions how English bicycler David Stanton could be reported landing in England while still in New York.
- Club news including officer elections at the Cleveland Bicycle Club (T. H. Stevens president) and Detroit Bicycle Club (Louis J. Bates president), the founding of the Elgin Bi. C. in Illinois, and the Yonkers club's gold-medal five-mile race and New Year's run to Tuckahoe.
- Foreign notes on bicycling in Adelaide, Calcutta and Russia, the Six Days' Contest at Hull won by G. W. Waller with 950 miles, and the testimonial presented to Stanley J. A. Cotterell of the Bicycle Touring Club at Newcastle-on-Tyne.
- Directory of American bicycle clubs from Boston to Chicago with the name and address of each club's secretary, including the newly added Elgin Bi. C. of Illinois.
- Editorial declaring the paper's policy of opening its columns to free expression of readers' opinions and criticism, while endorsing only what appears explicitly as editorial matter.
- A notice regarding subscribers to the predecessor publication, The American Bicycling Journal, and their transition to The Bicycling World.
- Editorial rebutting the notion that bicyclers are 'reckless boys', citing club rosters full of lawyers, physicians and clergymen, average member ages over thirty in the Boston and Massachusetts clubs, and an estimated average age above twenty-five among America's three thousand riders.
- Column of puns and jokes clipped from the Boston Home Journal, Evening Telegram and elsewhere, including Murphy's 'byes-sickle' gag and quips on bicycles resembling bank accounts.
- A humorous piece about the difficulties of lending a bicycle to others and the condition in which it is inevitably returned.
- Archery department with a Boston indoor-range report by 'Lance Wood', notice of the National Archery Association's annual meeting at Henry C. Carver's Chicago office on 28 January, Northside Archers and Wabash Merry Bowmen scores, and the New York Archery Club's visit to the Ascham Archers.
- 'Capt. Jack' argues against American tinkering with English archery models and rejects Mr. Brownell's proposed target-scoring change, defending the traditional nine-for-gold system on mathematical grounds.
- Letter from W. Holberton, president of the Oritani Archers, endorsing Indian names for archery clubs and explaining that Oritani was a chief of the Hackensack valley in New Jersey.
- Replies to readers, including a ruling that a rider who won a ten-dollar wager that he could ride to a certain town within a set time did not thereby forfeit his amateur status, with a caution against betting on bicycling.
- Reviews of the February Popular Science Monthly (Charles P. Daly on maps before Mercator), Lippincott's Magazine, Brentano's Monthly, the Columbia Spectator, and the Christmas number of The Bicycling Times.
- Press notices of The Bicycling World and editor Charles E. Pratt reprinted from Forest and Stream, the Chicago Field, the Spirit of the Times and the London Athletic and Bicycling World, with items on hare-and-hounds and the growth of amateur athletics.