The Bicycling World, Vol 5, No 13
Articles in this issue
- The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's baggage agent J. Van Smith orders that bicycles be carried free in baggage cars when accompanied by their owner; separately, Philadelphia wheelmen meeting at Horticultural Hall plan a grand bicycle display for the city's bicentennial celebration on 26 October, expecting 400 or more riders and levying a 50-cent assessment per rider, with a committee of Messrs. Lewis, Gideon, and Hunt appointed to arrange details.
- The lead editorial objects to bicycle clubs duplicating names and badges — citing Lynn's new 'Crescent' club as too easily confused with Boston's own Crescent club, and praising the 'Shawmut' club for renaming itself courteously — then defends G. D. Gideon's amateur standing while questioning why W. Smith was barred from the N.A.A.A.'s two-mile championship, and urges the League to press the tariff commission meeting at Long Branch to reduce the duties on imported bicycles and tricycles.
- Lists coming meets — the League of Ohio Wheelmen's Columbus races (28–29 August), Montreal Bicycle Club races, the Worcester Bicycle Club/Aeolus Wheel Club New England Fair races, the Buffalo Bicycle Club tournament, the Manhattan Athletic Club's 50-mile race at the Polo Grounds, and Philadelphia's bicentennial meet — and reports Louise Armaindo's six-day, ten-mile-a-day match against Elsa Von Blumen at Ridgeway Park (Armaindo won 21 of 30 heats), the Canton Bicycle Club's first race meeting (Ed. Davenport, Fred Black, Frank Mayo Jr., Arthur Cook), the Pawtucket Bicycle Club's races at Roger Williams Park, and Mlle. Armaindo's published challenge to J. S. Prince or any American rider to a distance match.
- E. F. LeCato, secretary of the Maryland Bicycle Club, writes praising the World's editorial protest against the League's committee on rights and privileges, arguing that the Maryland club — which applied to join on 20 June, before the new constitution's rules were even published — should not be shut out of the League officer elections.
- W. Inans of Xenia, Ohio reports that baggagemen on the Little Miami Railway have stopped collecting extra fares for carrying bicycles, crediting the Xenia Bicycle Club with securing the change.
- A practical guide (signed 'Steno') for wheelmen shipping bicycles out of Chicago names the officials to request a free-carriage permit from on each line — A. V. H. Carpenter (Milwaukee), N. A. Phillips (Chicago & Northwestern), F. I. Whitney (Michigan Central), and Murray Keller (Louisville, New Albany & Chicago) — and advises on tipping baggage-masters and wrapping the backbone and forks in cotton rather than crating the machine.
- Notes on Xenia, Ohio wheelmen: the Xenia Bicycle Club adopts a new blue-black velvet uniform ahead of the League of Ohio Wheelmen meet; John Barrett rides 80 miles from Spring Valley through Wilmington, Sabina, and Washington Court House and back; Wm. Galway rides 65 miles from Cincinnati; and club captain R. S. Kingsbury tours to Dayton's Soldiers' Home, Eaton, and Richmond, Indiana.
- Signed 'M. D. C.,' a Lawrence Bicycle Club member recounts a multi-day tour through North Andover, Beverly, Salem, Marblehead, Nahant, Lynn, Arlington, and Lexington, joined along the way by the North Andover, Marblehead, and Holyoke club wheelmen, with a League of Essex County Wheelmen officers' meeting at Salem setting an August excursion, a September meet, and an October race.
- Ninon Neckar's comic verse 'II' tells of Timothy Jackson's disastrous first bicycle ride, which ends with him crashing through a cottage door and landing on a cranberry pie amid a startled family's supper.
- The Tricycling department notes the sport's rapid American growth and reprints notes from Lacy Hillier's new Tricyclist journal on night riding, health benefits, and comparative bicycle/tricycle speed and effort; 'Ixion' contributes a detailed technical description, from his own trials around Orange, of the 'Club' Sociable double tricycle built by the Coventry Machinist Company for the Alpha Tricycle Club's planned use near Boston — two 50-inch drivers with 64 spokes, ball bearings throughout, Cheylesmore clutch gearing, and Lamplugh & Brown suspension seats.
- A parody of Jaques's 'seven ages of man' speech from As You Like It, reset in 1900 when 'all the world's awheel' — tracing a cyclist's life from infant tricyclist beside his nurse, through schoolboy, lover, and L. A. W. club captain, to a portly justice on a heavy mount, and finally second childhood on a low safety trike, sans strength, sans speed, sans skill, sans everything.
- New League of American Wheelmen applications list members from the Ovid, Maryland, Detroit, Champion City (Springfield, Ohio), Hudson, and Montreal clubs, plus unattached riders from Rochester, Vineland, Laramie City, Baltimore, Chicago, and England; corrections are issued to previously published Newton, Hackensack, and Missouri club member listings.
- The fourth and final installment of the White Mountain touring guide covers roads from Jackson to North Conway, Conway Centre, and Fryeburg, with per-mile surface and grade ratings, and concludes with practical advice including an average daily cost of $3.45 in the mountain region and suggested four-day, six-day, and fifteen-day itineraries.
- Miscellaneous notes: Fred Jenkins imports a new 53-inch Rudge bicycle; J. S. Prince has a 34-pound racing Expert built for fall track competitions and gives an exhibition ride in Providence; the Champion City Bicycle Club of Springfield, Ohio plans a picnic for members' wives and lady friends; Mlle. Armaindo, W. J. Morgan, and T. W. Eck thank Philadelphia dealer H. B. Hart for hospitality; and W. F. Sutton of the London Scottish Bicycle Club is reported to have beaten the 24-hour distance record with a 222-mile London-to-Bath-and-back ride.