The Bicycling World, Vol 17, No 6
Articles in this issue
- The unheaded leader column reports the Maryland Finance Committee's prize-subscription scheme for the Baltimore meet has already raised over $1,000, presses wheelmen along the route to send $5 to A. G. Fisher of New Haven for the New Haven-New York cycle path, and names H. J. Crowther of Baltimore and N. L. Collamer of Washington as the World's correspondents at the League meet.
- The annual League tour starts from the Pennsylvania Club House, Philadelphia, on 11 June and runs by Paoli, Coatesville, Lancaster, Columbia, York, Gettysburg, Waynesboro, Hagerstown, Boonesboro, Frederick and Ellicott City to Baltimore on Sunday 17 June, about 240 miles.
- George Hagerty, chairman of the Baltimore reception committee, adds the Altamont (American plan, 75 guests) and Barnum's Hotel (300 guests) to the meet hotel list, both at $3.00 per day, noting all other hotels will accommodate guests' wheels.
- Frank W. Moulton reports the Capital Bicycle Club has resolved to extend the freedom of its club house to all wheelmen visiting Washington after the L. A. W. meet in Baltimore.
- Frank W. Moulton announces a $1.20 return fare, wheels free, on the Baltimore and Potomac R. R. from 17 to 22 June; cards entitling holders to the rate are issued by Chief Consul Atwater at 1206 Pennsylvania Avenue.
- "Senator" describes George Lacy Hillier's flaying of H. E. Ducker over the Springfield records, stakes his own credit on the bona fides of Rowe's times against Hillier's doubts, reports Howell, Fred and W. Wood, Allard and Oxborrow threatening to invade Ducker's Buffalo tournament, and notes Sam Miles launching an American Referee in Chicago on the lines of Henry Sampson's London paper.
- "Mentor" details a September wheeling tour from Kansas City to Denver under Chief Consul J. H. Everest and C. C. Candy of the Overman Wheel Co., running by Olathe, Topeka, Junction City, Great Bend, Lyons, Coolidge, Pueblo and Manitou Springs with a possible extension to Laramie and Cheyenne; also the Soldiers' Home prizes at Leavenworth for Fourth of July races.
- "Ariel" reports Captain Supplee's Pennsylvania Club run of 10 June for the visiting Hudson County Wheelmen, a Meriden Brittania challenge cup for five-mile club races, and a grim forty-two-man Wilmington-to-Newark, Delaware, run over clay ruts and foot-deep sand with the Wilmington Wheel Club.
- "Wing-Foot" corrects the new Flushing route with a left turn at the red fence a mile and a half from the Ridgewood car stables, records Corby failing to give Jones five and three-quarter minutes over seven and a half miles at Orange, and notes G. W. Kreger of the L. I. W. setting the mile record for the Queens track.
- "Vernon" reports the Minneapolis Club raising a baseball nine from Savage, Hale, Bell, Reid, Bartlett and Bowers to challenge the Standard Bicycle Club of St. Paul, the arrival of the members' L. A. W. suits, and a flat denial that any local rider put emery in a wheel during the Whittaker-McCurdy race.
- The news column argues for 30-to-36-inch safety drivers geared 52 to 56 inches, records the Kentucky Division meet at Covington on 4 July, Robert McClaren's win in the North Adams road race, C. C. Hopkins riding a 54-inch Apollo unicycle from Denver to Columbus, and Rowe's private trial mile in 2m. 33 2-5s.
- Rhodes and Van Sicklen claim their times in the previous week's Chicago race should stand two minutes faster; Van Sicklen's re-ride made 53m. 19 1-5s. against Winship's 53m. 20s., and Winship's challenge to Van Sicklen is so far unaccepted.
- Syracuse, Cortland, Binghamton and Elmira wheelmen gathered at Cortland for Decoration Day races and lantern parades; E. H. Budd of Elmira won the novice mile in 3m. 50s., H. C. Hersey of Elmira the half-mile and two-mile, and W. H. Loveland of Binghamton the boys' half-mile.
- At Cedar Falls on 29-30 May, Merner of Cedar Falls won the half-mile in two heats, Eckert of Dubuque the mile in straight heats, and McElwain of Cedar Falls both the championship half-mile and the two miles; Grinnell takes the next meet and R. L. Thompson will represent Iowa at Baltimore.
- Jno. Wells of Philadelphia and J. H. Shurman of Lynn will ride a Corey Hill match on 14 July under Capt. Kendall of the Boston Club; the World objects to Wells's specially built machine with extension levers and asks both men to use ordinary geared road wheels for the test to count.
- The subscription races at Roger Williams Park, Providence, on 30 May saw W. A. M. Scott win the three-mile state championship in 9.37, Weld of East Greenwich beat Van Wagoner of Newport in the one-mile tricycle in 3.25, and B. Taylor Bruce's Victor Safety run away from a field of ordinaries and Stars.
- A cable from Dublin dated 2 June reports Temple of Chicago winning the mile handicap from Woodside and also taking the mile race.
- John A. Wells climbed Fords Hill, Philadelphia, fourteen times without a dismount on Monday 4 June, doubling Shurman's record of seven.
- Fred Coningsby on a Victor Safety would have equalled Shurman's three ascents and descents of Eagle Rock but for a buggy driver forcing him off at the summit; he completed the other two trips, the last in 12 1-2 minutes, on the first crank machine ever up the hill.
- W. M. Haradon, on a 48-inch New Mail, climbed Union Hill, Springfield, fifteen times without a dismount and back-pedalled every descent, the final ascent taking 29 seconds; the 350-foot hill gave him 5,250 feet of climbing inside 20 minutes.
- In a ten-mile match for £50 a side at the Ayleston Grounds on 19 May, Richard Howell warded off Fred Wood's neck-and-neck challenge down the hill side and won all out by two yards in 34m. 45s.
- New Bedford's team took the Decoration Day road race and cup 30 points to Taunton's 22 by finishing together behind the leader; E. C. Anthony of Taunton led on a 54-inch Apollo, covering 20 miles in 1h. 17m., after Fred Smith was fouled out with a damaged machine.
- Capt. N. R. Jessup reports the Stamford Wheel Club's Armory athletic meeting of 30 May on a 22-lap track, with George Maurer's 25-yard dash, John Looney's mile walk and Wm. A. Clark winning the slow race, the mile bicycle race and applause for fancy riding on the "Eagle".
- At the Long Island Wheelmen's meet Kluge of the Hudson County Wheelmen led the two-mile national championship home in 6.51, Kreger won the L. I. W. club championship in 6.41 4-5, Baggot took the mile handicap final and the three-mile, and Schoeffer of the Brooklyns won the two-mile team race in 6.49 with the K. C. W. taking the banner.
- In the Decoration Day 25-mile road race C. E. Kluge of the Hudson County Wheelmen took the time at five, fifteen and twenty-five miles and beat Baggott by a quarter second in record time despite a header on the last turn; Stenken collapsed with nausea on the fourteenth mile but rode on, and the Kings County and Hudson County clubs tied on 38 points.
- The five-mile handicap started from East Haven Four Corners on 30 May: Verhorp won off three minutes in 21.35, Field second in 21.49, and Backus, the only scratch man, made the best time of 19.12 over heavy roads; a frightened horse upset a carriage during the race.
- Horace J. Crocker beat Lees and Fred Wood from scratch by three yards in a five-mile handicap at Leicester on 21 May; at Coventry W. E. Crist finished third behind Synyer and Osmond in the mile championship, and L. O. Barber of Washington won a mile handicap off 160 yards in 2m. 36 4-5s.
- At the Albany races of 2 June, seventeen-year-old F. A. Shields on a roadster beat Edmons of Troy, mounted on a racer, in the open two-mile in 6m. 51 1-2s.; MacN. Miller won the boys' half-mile in 1m. 40 3-4s.
- The Terre Haute Bicycle Club's Decoration Day meet gave Ed. Hulman and W. Rideuour of Terre Haute most of the prizes, A. J. Lee of Crawfordsville the two-mile state championship in 6.11, and a collision between Lee and Smith in the half-mile state championship that demolished both machines; a lantern parade preceded the races.
- The trade department opens with the editors' account of their day at the Overman works and carries notes on E. J. Dorbet's thirty miles from "The Square" to Painesville Centre in 2h. 20m. and the Weed Sewing Machine Co. employees' new Columbia club at Hartford.
- The editors describe their visit to A. H. Overman's Victor works at Chicopee Falls: a three-gauge inspection system that makes every part interchangeable, over 200 men in day and night gangs turning out twenty safeties a day, sword-metal spring forks tempered by a former sword temperer, and Prof. Woodward's compressed-tire ovens.
- Minutes of the Iowa Division meeting at Y. M. C. A. Hall, Cedar Falls, on 29 May: Chief Consul R. L. Thompson reported the division prosperous, a committee was named to revise the constitution, and Grinnell was chosen over Dubuque and Osceola for the fall meet with a tour to start from there.
- J. F. Rall's Iowa Division financial statement to 29 May 1888 shows $129.65 received from badge sales, applications and dues against orders for printing, postage and the meet programme, leaving $80.30 on hand.
- Chief Consul Geo. S. Atwater invites members attending the Baltimore meet to visit Washington on Thursday 21 June, forty miles away at reduced B. & O. and Pennsylvania rates, for the Capitol with both Houses sitting, the White House and the city's concrete streets.
- The Baltimore meet committee roster with badge colours: A. E. Mealy chairman (purple), Jos. Chism local transportation (red), B. B. Ayres national transportation (olive), Geo. C. Hagerty reception (white), Albert Mott entertainment, Sam'l T. Clark races (orange) and C. R. Eisenbrandt press.
- Fares to the Baltimore meet from territory east of the Chicago-Peoria-St. Louis-New Orleans line are one and one-third first class: buy a full-fare one-way ticket with an agent's certificate, countersigned in Baltimore by J. T. Chism, for a one-third return.
- Rail schedules for parties travelling to Baltimore, leaving Chicago 3.20 Saturday afternoon 16 June by the B. & O., St. Louis and Peoria by Wabash and O. & M., and Indianapolis by the P. C. & St. L., with connections at Grafton, W. Va., Cumberland and Harper's Ferry.
- Steamer routes to the meet: the M. & M. Transportation Co. from Central wharf, Boston, via Norfolk; the Ericsson Line from Philadelphia at $2.00 round trip with wheels free and the option of wheeling the sixteen-mile Delaware City to Chesapeake City tow-path; and the Bay Line from Norfolk at $4.00.
- List 142 publishes 108 new League applicants, bringing the total to 9,994, with names from the California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia Divisions.