The Bicycling World, Vol 9, No 18
Articles in this issue
- Editorial rebutting correspondents 'Mordecai' and Dr. Blackham, who want the League's amateur rule abolished as undemocratic; argues abolition would let social class become the real dividing line, and that the true fix for prize-hunting is reducing the value of race prizes, not scrapping the rule.
- Interview with the Boston Club's Capt. Harrison, who argues the Massachusetts Division's 5 September wheelmen's parade is unnecessary now that bicycling is well established in Boston and other Eastern cities, and worries a parade of miscellaneous riders will make the sport look juvenile; closes by noting praise for the paper from the Boston Herald and the Spirit of the Times.
- Unheaded editorial notes: a rebuke of the Spirit of the Times for twice refusing to recognize the League racing board's authority over records, and a first-hand test report on a Traveller (Humber-pattern) tricycle with 44-inch wheels geared to 52 inches, found to outperform lower gears on both hills and the level.
- Correspondence from Edward J. Shriver of New York continuing the debate on League of American Wheelmen presidential elections, arguing the chief officer should sit on the board ex-officio without members being restricted to choosing from the list of consuls and representatives, and drawing a parallel to how business-exchange boards are elected by popular vote.
- Letter from Karl Kron himself defending his road book 'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle' as a spur to, not a substitute for, state and local guides like the Massachusetts, Canadian and Essex County road books, citing subscriber Thomas Stevens' contributed survey of 3,700 miles of road and subscriber counts across hundreds of towns.
- Manufacturing notes: the Missouri Wheel Company's new Duryea saddle for Star bicycles, a Zacharias & Smith luggage carrier and Mr. Lamson's Victor-tricycle carrier, a rubber safety bulb now fitted to Columbia tricycle heads, and Stoddard, Lovering & Co.'s brisk Rudge Racer sales, including 55-inch and 59-inch machines built to order for G. M. Hendee and W. M. Woodside.
- Patent-count survey contributed by Amos W. Hart of Washington, D.C., to the Wheelman's Gazette: of roughly nine hundred U.S. velocipede patents, about two-thirds cover tricycles and some 210 cover tandem-wheel bicycles, with detailed discussion of the 23 monocycle patents (annular-wheel, wire-cage and saucer-wheel designs) and a note on Seely and Dinwiddie's mile-and-a-half ride through Washington streets on a Scuri-type machine.
- Dispatch from the Chicago Club recounting its summer touring season — a Wisconsin lakes run through Kenosha, Burlington-on-the-Fox-River and Lake Geneva; a Milwaukee run along the lake shore; an Indianapolis-to-Cincinnati tour; and an Elgin Bicycle Club-escorted run through the Fox River valley — plus a note on Chicago women increasingly touring by tricycle and a planned ladies' tour through Waukesha County, Wis.
- Miscellany column opening with the comic song 'Over the Handles' (to the tune of 'Over the Garden Wall') by A. S. Hibbard and short club notes, then — after two pages of advertisements — further gossip including Albert E. Purdy of Warsaw, N.Y., being refused baggage-car admission for his bicycle on an Erie train, and notes on Wm. Read & Son's new Royal Mail tricycle and a recovered tricycle loaned by A. T. Lane of Montreal.
- Report on the Buffalo Bicycle Club's fourth annual tournament (Milley, Barross, Terry, Lavender, Hedge, Smith and Drullard racing for medals and cash, with a Drill Corps exhibition and a banquet toasting the L.A.W. and the Cyclists' Touring Club), followed by the Springfield Bicycle Club's detailed tournament prize list and results from Brantford, Ont. (Westbrook defeating Morgan for the Canadian bicycle championship), Cottage City, Fredonia, N.Y., and Woodstock, Ont.
- Brief club note on the Greenfield, Mass., Wheel Club's newly elected officers: H. O. Edgerton, president; F. R. Hollister, captain; G. H. Kaulback, secretary-treasurer; B. F. Butler and C. H. Field, lieutenants; and F. L. Gaines, bugler.
- American Division notice of C.T.C. dues, newly appointed local consuls (including A. L. Garford for Elyria, Ohio, and C. F. Smith for Columbus, Ind.) and provisionally elected members, plus the first annual autumn 'Wheel Around the Hub' tour in Boston on 22-23 September and a parallel note on the Canadian Division.
- Calendar of forthcoming bicycle events from 5 September to 4 October, including the Massachusetts Division's parade and the Boston Ramblers' races (5 Sept.), Connecticut Bicycle Club races at Hartford, the New York Division meet at Albany, Philadelphia-area club races, the Springfield Tournament (16-19 Sept.), the C.T.C.'s Wheel Around the Hub, the New Haven Tournament, and the Boston Club's 100-mile road race (4 Oct.).