The Bicycling World, Vol 13, No 5
Articles in this issue
- One hundred wheelmen under Capt. Peck opened the Boston meet with a run to the Reservoir, followed by Mrs. Bassett's ladies' run of some thirty riders to Chestnut Hill and the rain-thinned Newton, Waltham, and Dedham runs. Dr. Kendall's 'Scorchers' run over the milldam to Brighton was won by W. A. Rhoades in 44.3, while a dog dislocated F. N. Perry's shoulder in the meet's worst accident.
- Before some five hundred spectators, George Weber on his Star set the hill-climbing record of 3m. 16 3/4s., young Harridon of Springfield on a Victor took 3m. 42s., and Horace Crocker won the tricycle class; John Williams fell short of his own standing tricycle record.
- With the Racing Board's action thinning the field to three, E. P. Burnham overhauled C. O. Danforth and John Williams of Dorchester and won the 18 1/2-mile course from Bailey's in a record 1h. 6m. on a Singer S. S.
- At an informal caucus at the Massachusetts Club House on 27 May, Mr. Gulick of New York took the secretaryship after Lawton of Springfield refused, and Abbot Bassett's attempt to have a vacancy declared in the secretary-editorship was voted down.
- Dr. Beckwith was re-elected L.A.W. president without dissent, with T. J. Kirkpatrick of Springfield, Ohio, vice-president and Sanford Lawton treasurer. The board confirmed National Board representatives, heard St. Louis bid for next year's meet, and set the autumn tour to leave Buffalo 6 September for a five days' ride down the Shenandoah valley.
- The expected storm never broke: the seventh annual business meeting accepted Chairman Bassett's report and unanimously sustained the Racing Board's expulsions, H. E. Ducker's lone protest being squelched. B. B. Ayers reported the Fitchburg railroad would carry wheels free, and officers will henceforth be elected by the members at the annual meeting.
- Seven hundred and four riders formed a line from Chester Park to Dartmouth Street behind chief marshal Dr. N. M. Beckwith, the Massachusetts Bicycle Club's eighty-five men at the right of the line and clubs from New Hampshire to New Orleans following; the absence of the Bostons, Newtons, and Lynn clubs cut a possible 1,200 in line.
- On a rough, badly rolled track and without the suspended cracks, Charles A. Steuken of Jersey City won the novice mile on a Star in 3.17 4-5, A. B. Rich of Brooklyn took both the one-mile bicycle and tricycle L.A.W. championships, and H. C. Getchell of Cambridge beat scratch man George Weber in the best race of the day, the one-mile handicap.
- On the evening of the 27th wheelmen filled the hall with band music and impromptu chorusing, cheering any well-known rider who crossed the floor, with beer, cigars, and cigarettes as light refreshments.
- Organ concerts by Frank Donahoe and H. P. Chelius, trick riding by Alden and Lester on a Star and George Hutchinson's upside-down mount and unicycle act, and the Salem Cadet Band's nightly concerts made the show the meet's leading attraction; in the Buffalo home trainer races C. G. Dresser of Hartford rang his mile bell in 1.35 3/4 to win the final heat.
- P. M. Harris's claimed 57 3/4-second home-trainer mile is exposed: the Ixion men mistook two gong strokes for a full mile on the Buffalo Home Trainer, leaving E. E. Arnold of East Hartford, Conn., with the best claimed figure of about 1.15 3/4.
- Over one hundred and fifty wheelmen dined at the Vendome with Charles E. Pratt as toastmaster; President Beckwith epitomized the League's history, Kirk Monroe of New York traced cycling through its hall, parade, and touring eras, and Col. Albert A. Pope told stories before the party broke up near Sunday morning.
- The new union was born 29 May at the Hotel Vendome, Boston, promoted by the Springfield, Lynn, and Newton clubs after the L.A.W.'s amateur rulings, with Henry E. Ducker chairman and A. O. McGarrett of Springfield secretary, and a liberal definition of the amateur.
- A stand-by-stand tour of the Boston Bicycle Club's exhibition at Mechanics' Hall: Pope's Columbias including Rowe's 22 1/2-pound racer, the Coventry Machinists' red-dais display, Victor, Gormully & Jeffery, W. W. Stall's Speedy Stars and the 48-pound Cripper built for his wife, plus Rudge, Royal Mail, Apollo, Quadrant, Beeston Humber, and Facile importers. The 'collection of antiques and horribles' was headed by the original 1863 Lallement bicycle and Boynton's hand-power tricycles.
- J. S. Dean, chairman, thanks the exhibitors who made the Cycleries possible, particularly the Pope Manufacturing Co., the Overman Wheel Co., E. R. Frost, and W. W. Stall for the show of antiques, and Bull & Bowen for the loan of home trainers.
- A column of meet observations: a boom in World subscriptions at the new dollar-a-year price, Colonel Pope betting Ned Hodges he could ride two consecutive blocks, F. F. Ives towed for two miles behind a freight train near Palmer, and Pope's parade count of 603 machines led by 283 Columbias and 116 Rudges.
- At the fifth annual meeting at Mechanics' Hall, Lynn, the quorum was cut from fifty to thirty and E. G. Gordon of Lynn was elected president by acclamation, with T. S. Webb of Lawrence vice-president; the members adjourned to Hill's Restaurant for a cold lunch.
- Brief paragraphs and trade notes: Jack Prince and his frog's legs, Stoddard, Lovering & Co.'s 'King of the Road' lamps, Fred Jenkins's revised Excelsior cyclometer, and Charles G. Leland's Derby article in the June Outing.
- Sketches to accompany the issue's cartoon plate of J. S. Prince and his manager, T. W. Eck: Prince's world fifty-mile record of 2.38.52 at Minneapolis, his 1,042 miles in the 72-hour race against Schock, and his defeat of Neilson at Lynn; Eck holds the world's quarter-mile professional tricycle record of 42 4/5s.
- The Racing Board declares Charles E. Kluge, George E. Weber, and Charles E. Whitten professionals for competing with professionals at Lynn on 31 May, and suspends eight more riders, including H. C. Getchell of Cambridge, from the race-track for sixty days; signed Abbot Bassett, chairman.
- Messrs. Potter and Boggis of Cleveland sue the Lynn Club for $500 and $300 for changing the conditions under which they entered, and Sheriff Merritt of Lynn seized about $500 in gate receipts at Monday's races by virtue of an attachment.
- Full report of the Lynn meeting, run partly under L.A.W. and partly A.C.U. rules: Rowe beat Weber in the mile in 3.18 3-5, Hendee landed in the ditch in the tricycle race won by Burnham, Whitten took the 3.20 class and the handicap after a four-man pile-up, and Prince beat Neilson by a length in 19.29 4-5 for the five-mile professional championship of America.
- At the New Castle Bicycle Club races of 20 May, Elder Moorhead of Beaver Falls won the novice mile in 3.16 3-5 and W. L. Wilhelm of Reading the 3.10 class; Moorhead generously gave first prize in the boys' race to plucky Ralph Bowers of Greenville on a 38-inch wheel.
- Programme of the fourth annual race meeting on the Shamrock Lacrosse Grounds, Montreal, 1 and 3 July 1886, including the one-, three-, and five-mile bicycle championships of Canada and a tricycle championship; entries close 24 June with the Race Committee, Montreal.