The Bicycling World, Vol 4, No 7
Articles in this issue
- The issue contents listing covers Editorial Spokes, Wheel Club Doings (Capital, San Francisco, Lancaster, Rochester), an excursion from Marblehead to Concord, reader correspondence, the Crescent Exhibition, a model mount review, Bicycular Mismanagement, and League of American Wheelmen news.
- The Christmas editorial offers seasonal greetings and notes that Chicago's boulevards and South Park have been opened to bicycle traffic, while chiding 134 delinquent subscribers. It announces the republication of a Spirit of the Times article on "Bicycular Mismanagement" addressing the poor organisation of racing events such as John Keen's proposed 50-mile championship.
- Reader letters cover champion Elsa Von Blumen's 1,000-mile endurance feat in Pittsburgh and the Keystone Bicycle Club five-mile race she sponsored, won by Philo N. French ("Irish") in 24m. 20s., alongside the New Haven club's fall races run in a driving snowstorm and Chicago's newly won boulevard access for cyclists. Further letters debate the legibility of the new L.A.W. badge's Old-English lettering and a public challenge from Prof. F.S. Rollinson to meet J.S. Prince on the track to settle the American championship.
- Club news covers officer elections at the Capital Bicycle Club in Washington D.C. and the newly formed Lancaster Bicycle Club (Pa.), while the San Francisco Bicycle Club votes to arrange a 50-mile road race to San Jose. A Rochester bicycle rink exhibition drew a large crowd to watch Captain W.H. Reid demonstrate his American Star wheel and fancy rider R.A. Punnett perform on a 56-inch machine.
- Three riders recount a bicycle excursion from Marblehead to Concord, Massachusetts, passing through Swampscott, Lynn, Saugus, Melrose, Stoneham, Winchester, and Lexington before being forced to push their machines through deep sand on the final approach to Concord. On the sidewalks of Concord the party unexpectedly encounters Ralph Waldo Emerson, who steps aside and waves them courteously on.
- Four mail vote resolutions (Nos. 12–15) passed under President Charles E. Pratt authorise the Committee on Consuls to designate League Hotels in each state, prepare hotel certificates and signs, establish a uniform bicycle-transport tariff, and issue printed route slips. New membership applications from the Champion City, New York, and Crescent Bicycle Clubs are listed, alongside notes from the French racing scene assessing Charles Terront, Jules Terront, Esperon, and the seventeen-year-old G. Pihan.
- A full race report and editorial analysis cover the 50-mile amateur championship at the American Institute Building, New York, where George D. Gideon of the Germantown Bicycle Club won in 3h. 13m. 8.5s. after English favourite C.D. Vesey (Surrey Bicycle Club) retired with cramp at mile 30 and W. Smith (Manhattan Athletic Club) fell exhausted at mile 40. Frank Howard of New York finished a close second just two laps behind, having stormed through the final miles, and John Keen then rode an exhibition three miles in 10m. 16.5s.
- Brief items note that President Pratt's portrait will appear in The Wheel's Christmas number and that Kol Kron's ten-page essay "On the Wheel" has been accepted by Lippincott's Magazine. A.A. Ballard, engineer at the Abattoir, was deliberately run down by a two-horse team driven by Macy Stearns while cycling to dinner, damaging his bicycle to the value of $15–20, and plans to sue for damages.