The Bicycling World, Vol 3, No 3
Articles in this issue
- Opening editorial paying tribute to cycling-friendly public officials invited to the League Meet, including Ex-Attorney-General Devens (who reduced bicycle import duties from 50% to 35%), Gen. Butler, the Park Commissioners of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and General Thayer, superintendent of Fairmount Park.
- Light verse by L.H.S. about a cyclist who gives his next-door neighbor's daughter daily bicycle lessons that never seem to end, until both agree the only solution is for him to marry her.
- Editorial on maintaining even pace and proper intervals in the forthcoming Boston parade: advises club captains to train men to ride at a set speed over rough roads, prescribes ten feet between riders in single file and fifty feet between clubs, and emphasizes that the national character of the event demands careful preparation.
- Excursion narrative starting at Schenectady on September 6, 1880, where the writer retrieved his bicycle from the freight house and mounted the Erie Canal towpath westward toward Niagara; the stone-foundation path is covered in fine dust from mule hoofs, and the rider must dismount for every approaching canal boat.
- Logistics digest for the May 30 League Meet: plans to photograph the entire League membership after the parade, Hotel Brunswick as headquarters, the New York Club's Saturday run to Blue Bell Inn and Beacon Park races, a consuls' run to Waltham on Sunday, and railroad companies offering free bicycle transport from New England points.
- Official programme for the L.A.W. Meet: Saturday, May 28 races at Beacon Park under League management (quarter-mile dash, half-mile heats, one-mile and two-mile amateur dashes, and a one-mile professional heat race for $40 and $20), and Monday's schedule — parade meeting on Commonwealth Avenue at 10 a.m., League photograph at 12.25, business meeting at Bumstead Hall at 2.30, and dinner in Music Hall at 5.30 followed by trick and fancy riding.
- The parade route through Boston's Back Bay — forming on Commonwealth Avenue with right resting on Dartmouth, then via Beacon, West Chester Park extension, Arlington, Columbus Avenue, Chandler, and Clarendon back to Dartmouth — laid out to give a review at every quarter; League dinner tickets ($2.00) available from Cunningham & Co., the Pope Manufacturing Co., E. C. Hodges, and committee members Woodman, Woodward, and Mandell.
- Letter signed 'Telzah' (Portsmouth, N.H.) describing Major Urch's patented marine bicycle — a 20-foot pedal-powered catamaran with air-tight floats, backbone and handlebars identical to a road bicycle, a reversible two-bladed propeller, and a handle-bar-controlled rudder — to be exhibited in Boston during the League Meet.
- Club news from across the country: the Cincinnati club abandoning its Exposition building quarters and planning a new club house; the Germantown Club near the head of the League in membership; and brief items from several other clubs preparing for the spring riding season.
- Results of the one-mile amateur bicycle race at Elizabeth, N.J.: thirteen entries, nine starters on a narrow 15-foot track; W.P. Field won the final heat with Woodside second (on a foul claim); starters included Stearns, Woodside, Field, Bedell, Pittman, Taylor, Douglas, Walker, and Gavitt.
- Comic excursion narrative by three Essex Bi. Club members — Brown, Jones (56-inch wheel, blazing red hair), and Smith — riding from Orange, N.J., over the Orange Mountain to Montclair and on to Little Falls via the Morris Canal towpath, with a memorable descent into Cedar Grove and a wordplay-laden return via the Notch road.
- Standing League department: the membership invitation ($1.00 admission fee, checks payable to Dillwyn Wistar of Philadelphia), a special notice that the Grand Parade starts from Trinity Square on 30 May at 10 a.m., and corresponding secretary Albert S. Parsons's list of membership applications, including additions from the Rockingham Bi. Club of Portsmouth, N.H., and applicants from Tecumseh, Gloucester, Newburg, and Boston.
- Notice inviting American wheelmen to join the international B.T.C., already over four thousand members strong, at an annual fee of two shillings and sixpence (about 62 cents) plus a silver badge at six shillings and sixpence; applications go through the chief consul, and B.T.C. headquarters during the League Meet will be at the St. Botolph, Tremont corner of Dover Street, Boston.
- Full report on the New Hampshire Supreme Court case in which Miss Jennie Ladd sued Phillips Academy students Ethan Allen and two companions for a horse-frightening incident in Exeter (November 1880) that threw her from her buggy; Justice Lucius W. Clarke charged the jury that cyclists had equal right to the highway, and the jury found for the defendants on all three questions, returning a verdict of 'not guilty.'