The Canadian Wheelman, Vol 2, No 1
Articles in this issue
- The publishers announce that with this issue The Canadian Wheelman, founded September 1883, has been taken over by an unincorporated Canadian Wheelman Company and is now the official gazette of the Canadian Wheelmen's Association and the Cyclists' Touring Club in Canada.
- An editorial warns that professionalism is the most dangerous threat to amateur cycling, urging the C.W.A. and its committee to act fearlessly against the several cases of professionalism that have arisen to keep the amateur record clear.
- Short notes on the Springfield meet, Toronto fancy rider Hurst imitating Canary, the postponed Brantford tournament, Montreal's hilly streets, detachable handle-bars, the Woodstock Amateur Athletic Association, and the Queen City riders Lavender and Davies both breaking limbs.
- Lists the gentlemen composing the Canadian Wheelman Company, organized August 1884 to publish the paper, including Hal. B. Donly of Simcoe, H. S. Tibbs of Montreal, W. G. Eakins of Toronto, and Jas. S. Brierley of St. Thomas.
- Signed 'Georgius,' a report of the Chicago wheelmen's tour from Toronto through Whitby, Newcastle, Cobourg, Brighton, Belleville and Napanee to Kingston, with bands, dances and escorts by local clubs along the way.
- Praises F. E. Huddle, editor of The Through Mail of Bloomington, Illinois, for rapidly building the humorous paper's circulation; it is clubbed with The Canadian Wheelman at $2.00 per year.
- Recounts the series of victories won by young Englishman Sanders Sellers at Hartford, Albany and Springfield, including a record 2.39 mile and beating American champion Hendee, taking diamond studs, shotguns and cups as prizes.
- C.W.A. notices from secretary Hal. B. Donly listing membership applications (Ariel and Kingston clubs), the 1884-5 board of officers with President Horace S. Tibbs, and an appeal that clubs admit all members at 50c. per head per the Constitution.
- C.T.C. notices listing membership applications (Lloyd Harris of Brantford, A. T. Lane jr. and S. G. Retallack), a consular appointment for Brantford, and hotel and repairer appointments at Woodstock.
- Club correspondence from Winnipeg ('Spoke Adjuster' on the Manitoba boom and Captain Nourse leaving to join Wolseley's Gordon relief), the revived Toronto Wanderers, St. Thomas, Montreal local notes, and the Hamilton Bicycle Club's first entertainment.
- Signed 'P. E. D'Alpin,' a long letter reporting the three-day Springfield meet where Sellers beat Hendee and Howell broke professional records, with detailed race summaries; opens with 'New York Squibs' on the Citizens' and Ixion clubs and the sale of The Bicycling World to Dean and Bassett.
- An account of Presidential candidate Belva Lockwood, the Woman's Rights nominee, as a daily tricycle rider in Washington, including her letter declining the Keystone Bicycle Club's race invitation, followed by Karl Kron's note on subscriptions and transportation arrangements for 'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle.'
- A reflective prose piece, credited to C. R. D. in 'A Shadow Love,' on the sentiment and beauty of riding a-wheel through the countryside at sunrise.
- A detailed instructional article (from the Bicycling World) on enjoyable road-riding, covering wheel choice, clothing, pacing on hills, mounting and dismounting, hand position, and avoiding showing off.
- Rev. W. S. Hawkes of South Hadley Falls, writing in the Congregationalist, recounts buying an Overman Victor Rotary tricycle and using it for parochial visits, recommending the machine to ministers and women.
- Comic verse about a novice's mishaps learning to ride, signed 'W. G. E.' of Toronto, preceded by 'The Small Boy' poem from Rugby Monthly.
- Alan Hiley's first-prize essay (value one pound) from Wheeling defending Sunday cycling against Pharisaical Sabbatarians, arguing the wheel is an aid to worship and health.
- A dialect anecdote (Detroit Free Press) of an old sassafras seller bantering with bicyclists, followed by news items including a Land's End to John o' Groat's tricycle ride and a Boston barroom fight between Howell and Sellers.
- Lists the Canadian bests-on-record to date, noting H. Clarke of Woodstock's times and that his unrecorded mile splits in the five-mile race likely beat several existing marks.
- Reports the Woodstock American Athletic Association games (Lavender and Davies prominent) plus Toronto races where Clarke beat Davies in 2.59 1/2 after a protest and re-ride, and New Haven, Crystal Palace and other meets.
- A column of brief wheel news: Hartford and Springfield rider counts, cinder-path plans, Lavender's Buffalo crash, Thomas Stevens's transcontinental ride, the St. Louis bicycle-horse contest, and Clarke being Canada's fastest seventeen-year-old rider.