The Bicycling World, Vol 4, No 2
Articles in this issue
- Miscellaneous editorial notes including the Boston Bicycle Club's new headquarters on Union Park, the Massachusetts club's planned all-day run, telegraph messengers in Rio de Janeiro using bicycles, and a Brooklyn assault case in which Judge Fisher ruled that wheelmen had full right of way on public streets.
- Humorous poem narrating an irreverent wheelman who rides through a cathedral aisle and provokes the furious bald-headed sexton to chase him down.
- Editorial arguing that League of American Wheelmen membership is a permanent commitment requiring formal resignation rather than mere lapse of annual dues, and that clubs admitting members at the reduced group rate should make League membership a condition of club membership.
- Club news from several cities: the Massachusetts Bicycle Club has moved to new headquarters at 194 Columbus Avenue alongside the Crescent Club; the Waltham Bicycle Club held its third annual dinner and voted to adjourn until spring; the Champion City Bicycle Club of Springfield, Ohio passed a resolution against bicycle racing as degrading the sport; and the Manhattan Bicycle Club elected new officers including President Randolph Hurry.
- Results of the Baltimore Bicycle Club's Oriole races at Druid Hill Park, featuring five events including a half-mile dash won by Duker and a 1.5-mile silver cup race won by Clark in 5.27; also a three-mile race at Schuylkill navy fall games won by Woodside of the Manhattan Bicycle Club in 10m. 54s.
- Detailed lap-by-lap account of the one-mile bicycle championship race at Belgrave Road Grounds, Leicester, won by Howell over Cooper by just six inches after four intensely contested laps; Cooper subsequently lodged then withdrew an objection over an alleged false start.
- Brief items: American champion Smith seeks to race Lewis T. Frye; Woodside to sail for Europe with twenty-four medals; a proposed race between Elsa Von Blumen and a Chicago bicyclienne; Salem, Indiana half-mile race result; and San Francisco Bicycle Club's Thanksgiving tournament plans.
- Humorous anecdote from the editor of Le Sport Velocipedique about being roused at midnight for a trivial racing telegram, and news of two new European cycling periodicals — a German monthly in Berlin and La Velocipedie Belge, a French-language fortnightly in Brussels.
- Official L.A.W. notice inviting amateur bicyclers to join, with the list of proposed new members including unattached riders from New York and Pennsylvania, the entire membership of the Peoria Bicycle Club, and newly appointed L.A.W. consuls in Columbus, Delaware, and Springfield, Ohio, and Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania.
- Narrative of a two-wheelman excursion from St. Louis westward over forty-eight miles, featuring a broken pedal shaft repaired on the road, a two-hour wait for the Missouri River ferry, and a moonlight return on fine macadam roads.
- Resumed installment of a serialized cross-country tour, picking up at Wheeling, West Virginia on October 17 and following the rider through Washington, Pennsylvania and on to Washington D.C., where he rode the magnificent avenues with the Capital Bicycle Club and visited Great Falls on the Potomac, ending the tour at 570 miles.
- Letters from four correspondents: F.C.H. of Scranton on riding in Binghamton and a visit to the expert trick-rider Captain Hayward at Susquehanna; Relcycib of Cleveland on a sudden snowstorm, an unusual race-record comparison table, and club race plans; Challenge of Toronto on muddy winter conditions and their club president's comic attempt to learn riding in secret; and A.B.H. of Kankakee disputing who first rode a 60-inch wheel west of the Alleghanies.
- Essay by C. N. Barnard (Secretary, Middlesex Bicycle Club) drawing on Emerson's essay on courage to argue that timidity, not difficulty, is the main barrier to learning to ride, illustrated by the example of Mr. Burt Skinner who, within a month of buying his first bicycle, beat a horse and buggy in a moonlit race from Maiden to Haverhill.
- Letter by Eliot Hunt rebutting W. W. Stall's published account of the October 6 Attleboro fair bicycle race dispute, arguing that Stall knew the 35-cent gate charge in advance, that his rule-or-ruin tactics caused the races to be abandoned, and that the Association's manager Mr. Draper acted fairly throughout.
- Reader questions and replies: Ixion asks for opinions on the Arab bicycle and on cyclometer accuracy; Telzah describes an extended repertoire of trick riding feats — from stand-stills to standing on the rubber tire — performed by club members including a twelve-year-old; and An Old Tourist reports the Excelsior cyclometer consistently more accurate than Pope and magnetic instruments on a shared run.
- Humorous illustrated mock-patent for an imaginary bicycle loaded with absurd attachments — a hoistable sun-and-rain protector, a cowcatcher for deflecting dogs, hydrogen-inflated side cushions, and an electric reservoir stocked with machine oil, crackers, cheese, cigars, and benzine — dedicated to the Canandaigua Bicycle Club.
- Brief notices of two publications: Our Little Ones for November, beginning its second volume and announcing a forthcoming merger with The Nursery into a single children's magazine; and the Wyoming Literary Monthly, a new Buffalo-based literary serial covering original, current, and college literature at $2.00 per year.
- Technical note on a German patent for a flexible, non-peeling lacquer made by combining linseed-oil varnish with slaked lime and raw caoutchouc, described as waterproof, lustrous, and suitable for coating carriage cloths, wood, iron work, and fabrics.