The Bicycling World, Vol 20, No 8
Articles in this issue
- The leader column apologises for a late Christmas number, welcomes the decision in the Bown ball-bearing patent case, praises Governor Beaver of Pennsylvania for advocating cash road taxation, urges the Racing Board to raise handicappers' fees above the present figure, and notes the Queens County farmers' invitation to President Luscomb and Mr. Atwater's withdrawal in favour of George R. Bidwell.
- "Hawkshaw" sides with "Nostaw" against Arthur Allen Dean over Connecticut sign-boards, arguing that no road book can replace them; complains that Mr. Merseles's Hudson County Wheelmen fair paper reprinted three of his columns without crediting the Bicycling World; and contrasts the club "man who works" with the grumbler.
- "Cyclops" reports Chas. E. Duryea of the Duryea Wheel Co. visiting Peoria and Chas. Hansel of Springfield in town, offers $25 toward a prize for a Myers-Winship match at the Peoria tournament while disputing "Stroller's" account of Myers' header in the Illinois and Chicago road race, and notes H. G. Rouse leaving for California.
- "Vindex" reports base ball magnates laying out a park near the city centre with a quarter-mile bicycle track, thanks Ed. B. Tufts for the move, and expects the Los Angeles Wheelmen's annual tournament on the Fourth of July now that riders need not travel the four miles to Agricultural Park.
- "Ariel" excuses J. H. Draper for missing McDaniel, Dimon and Kolb's 24-hour record attempt, records Van Wagoner's 1.38.24 1-5 for 25 miles on the Lancaster Pike with the last ten in 33.25 (beating Frank Kohler's 34.06), and announces that the Pennsylvania road book is finally out.
- "Nitram" describes the Plainfield Bicycle Club's first winter Saturday-night "jubilee," at which every member had to "ride the goat" before boxing, tug-of-war and clam chowder, and notes the Atalanta Wheelmen of Newark beating the Brooklyn Bi. Club 1367 to 1309 to lead the wheelmen's bowling league.
- Club social notes covering the Bridgeport, Conn., Wheel Club's first reception of the season, the Buffalo Ramblers' 150-couple dance at Concert Hall, the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club's annual dinner at the Colonnade Hotel where T. J. Byrne won a gold stop watch, and the Rovers' Cycle Club dinner at Young's Hotel attended by James R. Dunn and Abbot Bassett.
- General news paragraphs: the Buffalo Bicycle Club's first printed-ballot election, re-electing Chas. F. Hotchkiss; work begun on the $20,000 Kirkwood Driving Park at Syracuse, N. Y.; the Fort Worth Gazette's roads campaign; Ned Oliver's pneumonia; and doubts cast on George Hendee's claimed 2.27 2-5 mile of 1886.
- Geo. L. Hain of the Grand Rapids, Mich., Bicycle Club died on Wednesday, 4 December, after being taken sick while away on a large contract; the club sent a floral piece in the shape of a broken wheel and accompanied the remains to Fremont, Mich.
- Helen Grey's column prints "Dolly B.'s" critique of a Philadelphia lady's dark-green cycling costume - full skirts wind round the pedal crank and a stout leather belt is unhealthy - and mileage letters from Mrs. B. (1300 miles since April) and Miss Mary C. (900 on the cyclometer).
- Interview from the Philadelphia Record in which Governor Beaver blames Pennsylvania's poor roads on supervisors failing to carry out existing law, cites the roads made in Montgomery county by William M. Singerly and A. J. Cassett, and urges one supervisor per township with all road taxes paid in cash.
- Town committees met in Queens County to plan three macadam roads - through Roslyn and Flushing, through Jericho, Jamaica and Newtown, and through Amityville, Rockville Centre and Springfield - and invited President Luscomb to address them and confer with their counsel on the necessary legislation.
- "Serom" reports that a search of the Patent records at Washington found nothing to restrain anyone from using the pen-name "Hawkshaw," and that the Grand Rapids writer would have dropped it out of newspaper courtesy had the New York "Hawkshaw" not called him "idiot," "fool" and "nuisance."
- Standing head over the paper's letters department, carrying the editor's note that he is not responsible for opinions expressed in it and reserves the right to expunge any matter he considers improper.
- C. C. Alden of Brooklyn answers the anonymous "Rural," defending his election as a New York Division National Delegate as one of the eleven highest polling, and blaming the Buffalo representatives' privately circulated "ticket" for the wrangle at that meeting.
- Argus, Jr., of Baltimore replies to Ohio Secretary-Treasurer William D. Kempton, M. D., insisting the Maryland Division is educating public sentiment on highways as well as working the political end - one county road official toured the Orange district of New Jersey to study its roads and road laws.
- Chas. E. Gates of Buffalo answers C. C. Alden's letter in the Wheel supporting Luscomb, claims the majority of the New York Division lies outside New York and Brooklyn, and says Buffalo would much have preferred Mr. Mott for President of the L. A. W.
- Gates rebuts an anonymous attack signed with L. A. W. number 2719, citing Bulletin figures for the Ohio Division under Dunn (847 members in 1886, 946 in spring 1888, 794 that June) and denying that St. Louis represents the South; an editor's note supplies corrected figures.
- L. A. W. 25,029 of Sharon, Conn., asks that every applicant be given a copy of the League's Rules and Regulations, since no member in his place has seen one; the editor sends him the Constitution and By-Laws and outlines the League's turn to Roads Improvements.
- C. S. Plumb (6755) of Knoxville, Tenn., offers his nearly complete unbound file of the L. A. W. Bulletin and the Bicycling World to any vigorous cycling club that will pay the expressage, asking club secretaries to state whether they keep a library and how large.
- J. J. Bowersox, C. F. Hanson and W. S. Callaghan of Baltimore deny last week's report that they objected to paying toll - they hold that paying it will win recognition from the turnpike companies - and repeat only that the pike out of Baltimore is in very bad condition.
- Kirk Brown forwards Secretary Thos. J. Edge's card inviting delegates from all organised bodies to the Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture meeting at Harrisburg on 22-23 January 1890, where Gov. Beaver will speak on roads and road laws, and urges the L. A. W. to be represented.
- "Nostaw" of Bridgeport answers Mr. Dean of Danielsonville, saying he doubts there are ten road signs in the hundred-odd miles between New Haven and New York inside the Connecticut line, and that dismounting to pore over a map is no substitute for sign-boards.
- "Ali Baba" backs the Buffalo Bicycle Club's plan for a stock-company Bicycle Track Association and athletic grounds, arguing that Buffalo's three thousand wheelmen can build the finest track in the country, but draws the line at "boxing exhibitions to a finish," which he calls brutal.
- B. Woodhull of the Genesee Bi. Club denies that E. B. Freatman's death followed from the Buffalo-Rochester road race: Freatman said he was unwell a week before it and in no condition to ride, and was stricken with typhoid fever two weeks afterwards.
- "Tutti" asks what Geo. S. Atwater has done as Chief Consul of the District of Columbia Division to deserve a Vice Presidency, names Brown and Benedict of New Jersey, Holm of Missouri and Davis of Illinois as better workers, and suggests replacing Treasurer Brewster.
- The Blennerhassett Wheelmen of Parkersburg, over C. C. Byers, President, and E. P. Lang, Secretary, declare for Chas. H. Luscomb, Wm. H. Emery and Geo. S. Atwater as L. A. W. officers for 1890-91 and unanimously favour Niagara Falls for the 1890 Meet.
- Geo. S. Atwater of Washington, D. C., withdraws as candidate for second Vice President of the League on grounds of business pressure and asks his friends to support George R. Bidwell of New York instead.
- Comptroller General H. Reader Lack rules on George Butler and Samuel Stanton's English patent application No. 18827 of 1888, holding the Bown patent granted to J. H. Hughes (No. 3531 of 1877) a master patent for adjustable ball bearings and requiring a disclaimer in the applicants' specification.
- The Social Wheel Club's five-mile handicap road race on the 1st was won easily by ex-President Austin Banks, in from his ranch on the "divide," in 18.10 1-2, with Shaw, another scratch man, a good second.
- Notice of Volume VIII of the Advertisers' Reporter, published by the Publishers' Commercial Union of Chicago, judged a further improvement on former issues, with the publishers' own claim for the accuracy of its enlarged directories and ratings.
- The Quadrant Tricycle Co. reports that the coil springs which broke on its protected spring front wheel have been cured, and describes a new adjustable suspension saddle spring said to isolate the rider from rear-wheel vibration and to adjust for weights from eight to twenty stone.
- Geo. C. Lloyd & Co. of Chicago report holding the sole United States agencies for Bayliss, Thomas & Co., who will build their hollow tangent-spoke ordinaries at about thirty-six pounds, and the Centaur Cycle Co. of Coventry for safeties, and have opened a branch store at Fifty-Seventh street and Lake avenue under C. G. Field.
- A low-priced typewriter shown to the paper that prints from ordinary printer's type, is self-inking and has no ribbon, each letter rising through a fixed mortice so it cannot get out of alignment; the Gormully & Jeffery Mfg. Co., 178 Columbus avenue, are the New England agents.
- League directory giving President Chas. H. Luscomb of New York, First Vice President James R. Dunn of Massillon, Ohio, Second Vice President Sanford Lawton of Springfield, Treasurer W. M. Brewster of St. Louis and Secretary Abbot Bassett at League headquarters, 12 Pearl Street, Boston.
- Membership of the L. A. W. standing committees: Membership (Mealy, Casselberry, Pennell), Improvement of Highways (Dr. Chas. S. Butler, Wm. W. Share, Junius E. Beal), Rights and Privileges, Rules and Regulations, Racing (C. S. Davol and four others) and Transportation.
- Abbot Bassett lists the printed matter each Division Secretary-Treasurer should keep in stock, including the recruiting circular, the pamphlet of court decisions by Charles E. Pratt and Isaac B. Potter, the "Improvement of Highways" pamphlet with Clemens Herchel's $400 prize essay, stencil outfits and application blanks.
- Chas. S. Davol, chairman of the L. A. W. Racing Board, suspends F. W. Van Sicklen from the race track pending investigation of his amateur status.
- Gardner H. Cain and Harvey F. Whitehead certify that at a meeting of the Trenton Wheelmen on 21 November 1889 Robert V. Whitehead was elected to represent the club on the New Jersey Division Board of Officers.
- Chief Consul David J. Post appoints Henry Goodman of Hartford a Representative, commending his recent Division work, and E. H. Wilkins of Portland to the Improvement of Highways Committee in place of S. J. Wakelee, removed for non-residence.
- Chief Consul Robt. Holm appoints Chas. W. Barstow, Jr., of 1631 Lucas Place Local Consul for West St. Louis.
- List of Illinois Local Consuls as of 13 December 1889, running from Aurora and Austin to Winnetka, with three for Chicago - J. E. Templeton on the North Side, A. E. Lumsden on the South Side and J. B. McCleery on the West Side.
- List No. 5 of Local Consuls appointed by Chief Consul M. A. High, from Athens and Delphos to Van Wert and Wellston, together with the L. A. W. hotels he has appointed and their rates, from the Central House at Athens to the Latona at Sinking Spring.
- H. Crowther, chairman of the Road Book Committee, announces that the Pennsylvania-Maryland-New Jersey-Delaware Road Book is complete and will be mailed as rapidly as possible.
- Chief Consul E. S. Hartwell urges Colorado wheelmen to send in applications at $1.50 before 1 June, argues the State has material for one of the strongest Divisions, and asks members willing to serve as Local Consuls to write to him at 1319 Sixteenth street, Denver.
- List 220, with League totals of 12,096, giving new applicants by Division - 24 for New York (Buffalo, Lockport and New York Bi. Clubs), 15 for Iowa (largely the Spencer C. C.), 11 for Connecticut and 6 for Massachusetts, down to single names for Maryland and the District of Columbia.