The Bicycling World, Vol 5, No 7
Articles in this issue
- A four-verse cycling poem by "Ninon Neckae" that opens with the rallying cry "Up and away, lads" and moves through careful braking on steep descents, hard pedaling on ascents, and the exhilaration of level riding, celebrating the bicycle's freedom over the horse: "Gallops no horseman so free or so bold."
- Presents a suggested slate of candidates for Massachusetts League of American Wheelmen offices under the new constitution, nominating E. C. Hodges (Boston) and F. S. Pratt (Worcester) for chief consul and listing ten candidates — including J. S. Dean, Geo. Pope, and Sylvester Baxter — for the eleven representative positions.
- The editor endorses the new L.A.W. constitution as soundly based on fair distribution of power, arguing that any future failures can only stem from officer incompetence rather than faulty rules, and predicting League membership will grow substantially over the next twelve months.
- Reports upcoming runs and organizational news from clubs nationwide: the Quincy Bicycle Club's run to Nantasket under Capt. Chester Ford, the Crescent Bicycle Club of Boston's run to Marblehead, the Milwaukee Bicycle Club's planned four-day Fourth of July tour to Waukesha and Oconomowoc, the Albany Bicycle Club's adoption of a revised constitution with annual September races, and the newly organized Muncie Bicycle Club in Indiana.
- Reports upcoming fixtures and recent results: Prince won the June 9 professional 50-mile handicap in Boston in 2h 59m 15s; A. D. Claflin took the five-mile Massachusetts Bicycle Club championship at Beacon Park on June 10; G. R. Rood won the five-mile at the N.A.A.A. championship in New York; and R. F. Foster won the ten-mile race at Druid Hill Park in Baltimore.
- Three Worcester cyclists narrate the opening stage of their bicycle tour through the White Mountains, starting at Warren, NH, rating roads mile by mile across sandy loam and soft ground, and describing their foot ascent of Mount Moosilauke via Kendrick's short cut, rewarded by panoramic views of the Presidential Range, the Green Mountains, Lake Winnipesaukee, and the plains of Canada.
- Continues the legal analysis of Pope Manufacturing Company v. McKee & Harrington, reporting that expert witnesses found the bicycle patents weak: workers at a Philadelphia carriage shop confirmed that French acrobat Mons. Verrecke rode a pedal-driven velocipede at New York's Bowery Theatre in 1863, predating the Reynolds patent, raising the prospect of open bicycle manufacture and lower prices.
- "Kol Kron" recounts a bicycle tour along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath from Williamsport to Cumberland, MD, describing the mostly ridable but rough path, a nightmarish overnight in a log cabin where he tallied 125 bed-bug bites, a canal-boat passage through a tunnel, nine miles pushed on foot in pitch darkness, and eventual arrival at the Queen City Hotel at 10:30 p.m. A short unheaded note appended at the close reports Chelsea Bicycle Club members scattering on June 17 — some to Gloucester, others, including the editor, to Worcester as guests of Ex-President Blacker of the Aeolus Bicycle Club, with a Sunday-morning steamer excursion on Lake Quinsigamond.
- Carries the League of American Wheelmen membership invitation with fee details ($1.00, or 50 cents for club members), a list of new applications including nine members of the Nashua Wheel Club in New Hampshire, and a note from L.A.W. Treasurer W. V. Gilman acknowledging dues already received and promising 1882 membership cards will be issued shortly.
- Miscellaneous short notes: Prince sold his 55-inch Royal Mail racer; Kol Kron cycled through Mammoth Cave ("Jumbo Cave") in Kentucky; Mr. Genslinger of New Orleans was the first to ride a bicycle through the streets of Laredo, Texas, creating an "admiring sensation"; and Frank Goodwin and W. C. Stewart of the Star Bicycle Club of Lynn completed a 110-mile round trip to Worcester.
- An editorial urging L.A.W. members and officers to act on the newly adopted constitution, insisting that good rules mean nothing unless officers actively appoint consuls, establish League hotels, map routes, and promote touring and racing, and calling on members to press unresponsive officers up the chain of command until the League becomes a genuinely useful and respected organization.
- Reviews the June issue of "Our Little Ones," a children's monthly by the Russell Publishing Company of Boston, praising its illustrations of monkeys at a menagerie and animals playing see-saw, and stories including "The Little Girl's Complaint," "Jose, the Mexican," and "Nellie's King" — commending them as instructive and entertaining without being silly.