The Bicycling World, Vol 3, No 26
Articles in this issue
- The editors' news column reports on Boston-area club activities, the office move to 5 Pemberton Square, and personal items about prominent wheelmen including L.A.W. President Charles E. Pratt and racers Rollinson and Prince. Also recounts a cautionary story about a party of Chelsea Club cyclists who were overcharged and had their bicycles locked up as leverage at an inn in Milton.
- The editorial urges cycling clubs to secure inexpensive rooms as winter headquarters to maintain club fellowship and interest during the off-season. The second half reports on a Newberry, South Carolina town council trial that ruled bicycle riding a public nuisance and enacted an ordinance banning it from the town's streets.
- Touring correspondent "Crookshanks" recounts the Indiana and Ohio legs of his cross-country bicycle tour, including a detour along railroad ties to escape impassable mud roads, a farm-house dinner with a hospitable family whose daughter darned his stockings, and several days in Columbus with the Buckeye Club for the opening of their new six-lap track.
- Correspondent "Brunswicker" from the nine-member St. John Bicycle Club (New Brunswick) describes two recent rides: a moonlit evening run to Rothesay along the Kennebecasis River covering about twenty miles, and a two-day excursion toward Fredericton over nearly seventy miles of hilly roads where walking outnumbered riding.
- Halifax correspondent "Bluenose" reports on L.A.W. member J. F. Carver's solo ride from Windsor, Nova Scotia, through Walton and Noel on a 56-inch Standard Columbia, where Carver attracted curious crowds at a ship launching who had never seen a bicycle. The letter also comments favourably on the League's decision to change its badge and suggests a gold scarf-pin design.
- Correspondent "Champagne" describes a twenty-rider club run from Boston to Gloucester via Essex County (42½ miles on day one) and the return through Salem and the Middlesex Fells the following day, totalling over 103 miles with no unpleasant fatigue, hosted by League Consuls Philbrick of Salem and Webber of Gloucester.
- Correspondent "Challenge" reports on the Toronto Bicycle Club's founding in April 1881, its growth to thirty members affiliated with the L.A.W., and mostly poor road conditions (broken-metal city streets but ridable roads eastward to Whitby, sixty miles). Notes a proposal to manufacture bicycles in Canada but predicts English machines will dominate the market for years.
- Correspondent "Relcycib" from the Cleveland Bicycle Club reports on a club run to Elyria that ended with riders walking five miles down a railway track after getting lost, recent visits from L.A.W. consuls from three Ohio and New York towns, and a half-mile race at Norwalk won by Geo. Lamkin in 3:35.
- Correspondent "Steno" examines the amateur-versus-professional question at Western agricultural fair bicycle races, where substantial cash prizes tempt amateurs and may compromise their standing, and argues that contact with professionals gives amateurs an unfair jockeying advantage over untrained competitors. Also reports the Chicago Club president is considering resignation over a business partnership in a bicycle dealership.
- Brief note from "Consul 205" defending Watertown riders' correct long-y pronunciation of "bicycle", reporting that local membership will grow to at least twenty next spring, and describing good cycling roads to Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario (twelve miles), Alexandria Bay and the Thousand Islands (thirty miles), and Utica (seventy-five miles).
- "Ladnar" of Philadelphia argues that the amateur-professional distinction collapses when amateurs prefer money-value prizes over medals, racing in exactly the same spirit as professionals. He also questions why bicycle teachers are classified as professionals while bicycle dealers are not, since both make a living from the machine.
- A six-stanza poem reprinted from Puck (26 October) celebrating the cyclist's freedom from commerce and urban drudgery, describing the wheelman who skims plains and climbs hills while laughing at those who barter health for gold, and urging the reader to mount the saddle while still young enough to travel quick.
- Letter from J. S. Dean, L.A.W. Consul for Boston, to Director Hazlett of Portsmouth, proposing a systematic hotel appointment program: standardised certificates of appointment with a "League Headquarters" sign, written agreements for member discounts, and a route-information form template modelled on the British Touring Club's handbook for compiling an American road book.
- Race news covers the Missouri Bicycling Club's five-mile championship won by Bain in 18:52 on a 54-inch wheel over four rivals, plus results from Hemlock Lake, Newark, and San Jose. International reports include De Civry's professional championship at the Paris International races and a 50-mile Edinburgh tricycle race; also notes a planned New York election-day run to King's Bridge expected to draw 250 riders.
- Club news includes the Dubuque (Iowa) Bicycle Club organized 6 October with nine members, planning winter exercises in City Hall granted by the city council; the new Hub Bicycle Club of Boston's West End formed with twelve members and a corduroy-and-blue uniform chosen from Oak Hall; and a report that Troy, New York cyclists are organising a club around a recently established riding school.
- Reader queries and exchanges on cycling records and etiquette: "41." from Cleveland questions whether Smith of England's two-mile time at New York's Polo Grounds implies a sub-3:01 one-mile record for one of the miles; "Meteor" of Boston continues a multi-issue exchange with Crescent Club members over the basic courtesy expected between wheelmen when meeting on the road.