The Bicycling World, Vol 12, No 22
Articles in this issue
- Announcement that The Bicycling World, hitherto published by E. C. Hodges & Co., will hereafter be issued every Friday by the Bicycling World Company, Abbot Bassett having retired from the editorship, with business management in the hands of C. W. Fourdrinier and the editorial department under Fourdrinier, J. S. Dean, and Frank W. Weston.
- The publishers introduce the new editorial team: C. W. Fourdrinier, once a contributor as 'Handy Andy'; J. S. Dean, known to readers as 'London W.' for his descriptive and critical machine articles; and Frank W. Weston, the paper's founder and first editor, with A. J. Wilson ('Faed') of London continuing to report on the trade abroad.
- The incoming editors address their readers directly, promising to take the World upon their shoulders from 'Atlas', to serve the solid and the light in palatable proportions, and to utter fearless but just opinions while denouncing all unhallowed things.
- The new management defines its attitude: hearty support for the L.A.W. and the C.T.C., open-minded treatment of the amateur question, and impartial reporting of the legal war between prominent trade houses. Unheaded notes follow on the petition against railroad use of Beacon Street, the controversy stirred by the Racing Board, the 'lost' Crescent Bicycle Club, and the thirty-three tricycle riders counted at the Boston Club.
- A humorous piece purporting to be the office boy's phonetically spelled letter to his chum describing the change of management, with Mr. Bassett bidding him goodbye to start a new paper and 'London W.' arriving in his plug hat to take charge.
- A gossip column reporting that Jack Prince's racing stud will comprise a 22-pound racer, 28-pound semi-racer, and 32-pound tricycle all built by Singer & Co.; that the new Columbia Racer has the 'Rapid' spoke arrangement; that Kirkpatrick and Burley B. Ayers are talked of for the L.A.W. presidency with opposition to Ducker growing; and that A. G. Spalding & Bros. lost a consignment of Spalding, Humber, and Premier machines on the ill-fated 'Oregon'.
- J. S. Dean defends the L.A.W. Racing Board's procedure against the makers' amateurs, citing the English club-expulsion precedent of Dawkins v. Antrobus and the New York Union Club case of Loubat v. Le Roy to argue that a voluntary association's committee may act on notorious facts and throw the burden of proof on the accused.
- A Brooklyn correspondent complains the city has too many bicycle clubs, corrects reports that A. B. Rich will not race — he will ride under the Kings County Wheelmen's colors — and praises the Ilderan Club's races and the growing friendship between the B.A.A. and the K.C.W.
- Report of McLean v. Atwood, an action to recover $300 for a bicycle and personal injuries after the plaintiff was run into by the defendant's team at Clarendon and Appleton streets on 30 June 1884; the jury held it a pure accident and found for the defendant.
- Prince and Neilson meet at the Globe office and arrange a best-two-in-three match for the championship of America and $300 a side, with Abbott Bassett as referee, the first five-mile race probably on the new Lynn track on 31 May; the Lynn Cycle Club Track Association also incorporates, promising a dead-level three-lap track with raised turns.
- The long-running epistolary column by 'Jack Easy' returns after an absence to deliver a self-described 'good blowing up' of the cycling world, covering the Kilkenny cat business among rival cycling papers, the power behind the L.A.W. throne, what a cow knows about cycling, Papa Weston's anti-sociable position, and various conclusions and facts about the current season.
- Faed's special report from the Speedwell Bicycle Club's fifth annual exhibition at Bingley Hall, Birmingham, describing Rudge's 'Crescent' tandem convertible for one, two, or three riders, the Quadrant Tricycle Co.'s first bicycle, Goodby's ball-bearing head, the improved Cunard tandem with sliding tubes, Lamplugh's folding luggage carrier, and W. Morgan's joining-up chain link.
- A column of brief notes announcing the birth of Bassett's new paper The Cycle, the triangular fight between Welch, Mohrig, and Greene for Chief Consul of California, a Sporting and Theatrical Journal excerpt predicting revolt against the Racing Board, the reorganization of the Suffolk Wheel Club of South Boston, and Henry E. Ducker's sole ownership of the renamed Wheelman's Gazette.
- The editors report that the Overman Wheel Company placed an injunction on undelivered copies of the Springfield Wheelmen's Gazette over a disputed front-page advertisement, and correct newspaper claims that Overman had given a bond dissolving attachments or was petitioned into insolvency, stating neither report was true; the pending Pope Manufacturing Company v. St. Nicholas Toy Company equity suit is also epitomized.
- Edward J. Shriver, secretary of the New York Bicycle Club, appeals to League members not to vote for the proposed amendment to Article V abolishing the annual business meeting, calling it a useful safety-valve and suggesting the League retrench instead by dropping the nonsensical flummery of the parade.
- W. G. Kendall writes that W. M. Pratt of Brockton was left off the representatives' ticket through a misapprehension and urges voters to restore him, recalling how the Brockton City Club met a Boston Sunday touring party five miles out, escorted them to dinner at the best hotel, and entertained them at their clubhouse.
- A Buffalo correspondent ('R.R.') reports the Big Four Tour association has disbanded in favour of an annual tour under L.A.W. auspices, and gives the September programme: by rail to Canandaigua, awheel to Geneva and Watkins Glen, through New Jersey to New York, by steamer to Old Point Comfort, Virginia, then down the Shenandoah Valley past Luray Cave to end at Harper's Ferry.
- J. S. Prince, back from England with blood in his eye, tells the World he deposited $50 at the Globe office to answer Neilson's championship claim, attributes his Springfield failure to a fall at Cleveland, notes his 2.37 mile against Neilson's 2.44, and announces the $100-a-side match now made between them.
- Club news and election returns: the Citizens Club (president John C. Gulick) is house hunting, with new officers also listed for the Kings County Wheelmen, Harlem Wheelmen, Ottawa Bicycle Club, Binghamton Bicycle Club, the Atalanta Wheelmen of Newark, and the Roselle Ramblers, while the Gloucester Bicycle Club is to be revivified.
- Overman publishes a detailed account of their tricycle manufacturing history from 1883, explaining why they took a license from the parties claiming control, why they surrendered it in May 1884, how Pope's subsequent injunction petition was denied by Judge Colburn, and the terms of their 1885 contract with Pope under the Bown adjustable ball bearing patent.
- A short note reports the Chelsea Club is no more and a new one will be formed, followed by brief replies to correspondents including Gormully and Jeffery (congratulated), a subscriber advised to read the next issue, a Makers' Amateur told the Racing Board demands proof, and E.H. Carson notified that Health on Wheels has been sent.
- The official C.T.C. column from Acting Chief Consul C. H. Potter of Cleveland lists dues, the State consuls from Connecticut to Wyoming Territory, provisionally elected members and new consul appointments, and carries a special notice that the bulk of the March Gazettes and C.T.C. mail went down with the 'Oregon', sunk by collision off Fire Island.
- The Pope Manufacturing Company's signed card giving its side of the Overman litigation: the broken 1883 license, alleged infringement of the Buzzell, Hanlon, Serrell, Pickering, Whitehead, and Peters patents, the twelve suits now pending, and the $73,000 of attachments the court refused to reduce.