The Bicycling World, Vol 4, No 4
Articles in this issue
- The editorial spokes discusses winter weather curtailing cycling, reports that the Crescent Bicycle Club will give its first public exhibition of drill and fancy riding in new cadet gray uniforms at the Soldiers' Home bazaar, and notes that female cyclist Mile. Louise Almaindo, trained by Prof. Rollinson, rides a 48-inch wheel with exceptional grace.
- The excursion section features Herman H. Duker's account of a five-day bicycle ride from Boston to New York City in September 1881, covering 259 miles through Worcester, Springfield, Hartford, and Middletown, escorted at the start by members of the Crescent, Massachusetts, and Boston Bicycle Clubs; also included is a midnight run by the Keystone Bicycle Club through Pittsburgh's steep cobblestone streets.
- Readers write in on tire design from Detroit (questioning round versus flat tire forms for sandy roads), from Halifax (moonlit park rides and a visit to Windsor wheelmen), from Providence (the Hermes Club's postponed benefit and new club officer notes), from Scranton (an inter-club fancy riding exhibition at the Ezra Griffin Post armory on Thanksgiving eve), and from Buffalo (a twenty-mile Thanksgiving run by eight members in near-zero temperatures).
- The Providence Bicycle Club held its third annual dinner at Hotel Dorrance on November 19, featuring an elegant menu on gold-fringed blue-and-white satin with toasts from representatives of the Boston, Massachusetts, Crescent, Chelsea, and Hermes clubs and City Clerk H. V. A. Joslin; also includes notes on a public fancy-riding exhibition by the Keokuk, Iowa club, and club business from Boston, Oakland, and New Orleans.
- The League of American Wheelmen membership notice invites amateur bicyclers to apply for $1.00 per individual or 50 cents per member for entire club enrollments, with fees payable to treasurer Dillwyn Wistar in Philadelphia and applications to corresponding secretary Kingman N. Putnam in New York.
- Personal notes include the arrival of English professionals John Keen, Robert Patrick, and amateur long-distance champion C. D. Vesey in New York, Cunningham & Co.'s import of a 54-inch Yale Racer (31 pounds) for J. S. Prince, and President Parsons of the Massachusetts Bicycle Club preparing a paper in reply to recent criticisms of the League of American Wheelmen.
- Race results cover the Thanksgiving bicycle handicap at Manhattan Grounds won by L. Sterns over amateur champion W. Smith, the Columbia Athletic Club fall games half-mile handicap won by E. Y. Webber of the Lenox Bicycle Club, John Keen's informal three-mile time trial in 9m. 43s. at Manhattan Athletic grounds, and Keen's formal published challenge to Prince for a race of one to fifty miles for $100 to $1,000 a side.
- The column reviews three publications: The Century (December) with portraits of Lincoln, Garfield, Browning, and Holland and an essay by Edward Eggleston on the late editor Dr. Holland; St. Nicholas (December) featuring holiday stories and the opening chapters of Mary Mapes Dodge's "Donald and Dorothy"; and the November holiday number of Geyer's Stationer.
- The Cycling magazine (Newcastle-on-Tyne, edited by Walter D. Welford, honorary secretary of the Bicycle Touring Club) is advertised as a monthly periodical featuring original articles, practical suggestions, touring reports, and foreign news; combined subscriptions with the Bicycling World are offered for $3.00 per year.