The Bicycling World, Vol 5, No 16
Articles in this issue
- A humorous item recounts an old sailor at the Buffalo docks quizzing a reporter about a nickel-plated bicycle passing by, mistaking its rider for a helmsman with a fine "spread o' canvas"; it also reports that J. Calkins of the Chicago Bicycle Club was maliciously upset and badly injured, his machine broken, when a street railway laborer raised a rail across his path at Clark and Washington streets.
- An editorial welcomes the rising popularity of the tricycle in England, arguing it brings new riders — including women, the timid, and the elderly — into the wheel world without displacing the bicycle's supremacy for speed and excitement, and predicts the three-wheeler will especially suit touring, where comfort matters more than pace.
- The Kentucky Bicycle Club elects A. Cornwall president and Charles H. Jenkins captain at its 9 August meeting and plans to incorporate; the Missouri Bicycle Club, under its "pushing" president Garvey, issues an illustrated 1882 anniversary souvenir card with member records and bicycle songs.
- Lists a busy autumn racing calendar (Columbus, Montreal, Canton, Worcester, Buffalo, New York, Boston, Springfield, Philadelphia) and reports results: W. J. Morgan wins the Coney Island six-day contest with 467 miles 8 laps over Mlle. Armaindo and Miss Von Blumen, H. L. Cortis lowers his 20-mile record to 59m 20.5s at Surbiton after Keith-Falconer retires, R. Howell of Coventry takes the 25-mile professional championship at Leicester by half a yard from A. E. Derkinderen, and W. M. Woodside sweeps sprint and handicap races at Belfast and Ballymena.
- Correspondent "Glem S. Bell," writing from Antwerp, describes a Sunday ride along the Belgian canal towpaths toward Lierre, dodging tow-horses and a narrow, risky path, and stopping in villages for the Flemish favorite of gin and beer.
- Correspondent "Eureka" reports that the Hamilton, Ontario bicycle club voted at its 15 July meeting to join the L.A.W., and describes a movement among Canadian wheel towns to form a League of Canadian Wheelmen, possibly merging later with the L.A.W. under a combined name.
- Signed "Fad" of Chicago, the letter argues that large bicycle clubs splinter into rival cliques and urges forming small clubs of eight to twenty members instead, citing the Milwaukee Bicycle Club's twelve-member Milwaukee Touring Club as a working example.
- Correspondent "T. Squake" of Chicago proposes an "ideal" club uniform of black serge coat and vest, Nova Scotia homespun breeches, gray ribbed stockings, russet or patent-leather shoes, and celluloid collars and cuffs, with an editor's footnote praising the Boston Club cap.
- Correspondent "Hub" describes three Milwaukee Bicycle Club members' moonlight run to Waukesha and a new resort at Crooked Lake near East Troy, noting captain Hathaway is yachting on the Great Lakes and secretary Friese has ridden to Madison.
- Correspondent "Rex" describes Dr. Chas. P. Pruyn, president of the Chicago Bicycle Club, touring Euclid Avenue, Wade Park, and Lake View Cemetery (Garfield's grave) with a Cleveland Bicycle Club member before departing for Mackinac aboard the steamer Prussia.
- Correspondent "Vedette" sends a cut of the Falls City Club's gold star badge, reports a new city ordinance requiring wheelmen to use bells and lamps after a bicycle accident injured an old lady, and describes an ongoing rivalry between Star-bicycle and ordinary-bicycle riders on Louisville's roads.
- "Chas. A. Hanna" of Cadiz, Ohio reports that the Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad now carries bicycles free as baggage at owner's risk, reviews the Expert bicycle's weight and ball bearings, and notes Cadiz riders will attend the Ohio L.A.W. meet at Columbus.
- "Gifford" describes evening club runs to Riverside and the Lion Park, a disappointing Coney Island race week redeemed only financially, Ben Sanford and Will Pitman training for the Manhattan 50-mile and other autumn races, and Arthur G. Carter taking over Wm. M. Wright's bicycle business at 4 East 59th Street.
- "Nine Pin" protests the L.A.W. committee on rights and privileges' rejection of twenty-one Worcester Bicycle Club ballots as unfair, alongside a note from Marblehead correspondent "Geesee" describing a joint run of Essex County Wheelmen officers to Nahant and the Salem Willows.
- "Steno" recounts two Chicago Bicycle Club members' Sunday tour with Detroit Bicycle Club president Bates and six Detroit wheelmen across the Walkerville Ferry into Canada, comparing Detroit's rough wood-block pavements unfavorably with the smooth macadam roads toward Chatham, Ontario.
- Reprints General Baggage Agent F. J. McWade's reply to V. M. Haldeman of Vesta, Pa., setting the Pennsylvania Railroad's bicycle rate at twenty-five cents for fifty miles or less and a half-cent per mile beyond.
- Through E. G. Latta's efforts, the Alleghany Central Railroad orders its baggage men to carry riders' bicycles free when accompanied by their owner, and the piece recommends the line for a Genesee Valley-to-Olean tour via Belvidere, Richburg, and Bolivar.
- Lists new and additional League of American Wheelmen membership applications from the Xenia, Missouri, Manchester, East Bridgewater, Lexington, Springfield, and Warston (England) bicycle clubs, plus unattached applicants from Lowell, Canton, and Frederick, Md.
- London correspondent "London W." predicts a coming tricycle boom among English riders such as Sturmey, Faed, and Hillier, cites two young ladies riding a sociable tricycle seventy miles in a day, and recounts Papa Weston's speech at the B.T.C. meet in Harrogate, Yorkshire.
- Miscellaneous notes report the U.S. tariff commission's Boston sessions of 24-26 August, newlyweds Harrison and Churchill of the Boston Bicycle Club returning from their honeymoon tours, and the Canton Bicycle Club (Pa.) arranging events for the following Monday.
- Correspondent "Icycle" reports about twelve tricycles now in use in Washington, D.C., with Capital Bicycle Club members eyeing a Coventry Convertible, alongside a report of a Buffalo man's home-built steam-powered tricycle and Lacy Hillier and Henry Sturmey's long tricycle rides to the Harrogate meet.
- Answers reader questions on the pronunciation of "bicycle" and hub lamps, and prints a Baltimore rider's endorsement of the American Sanspareil Roadster as an unusually rigid, easy-running machine.
- Reviews the September Century (Gen. George B. McClellan on the Egyptian war, a Thomas Bewick profile by Austin Dobson), the children's magazine Our Little Ones, and the 1882 edition of Sturmey's "Indispensable" cycling handbook describing over four hundred machines.