The Cycle, Vol 1, No 24
Articles in this issue
- Daisie's serialised comic story in which Guy Atherton borrows the plain name of his friend John Jones to court a country girl on merit rather than fortune, leading to a picnic accident, two proposals at a village cottage, and a double wedding with both couples departing the church on tandems.
- The official programme for the Springfield Bicycle Club's four-day tournament at Hampden Park, 14–17 September 1886, listing every event across amateur, promateur, and professional classes with the full schedule of first, second, and third prizes.
- The issue's main miscellaneous column, opening with a cycling poem ("Cycling" by L.H.P.) and a page of "Cycling Quotations" drawn from poets, then ranging across short items on League politics, the Springfield and Lynn tournaments, club news, racing gossip, and comic anecdotes.
- A comic first-person account of a white flannel cycling shirt bought "warranted well shrunk" that proceeds to shrink catastrophically through successive washings, passing in turn to the narrator's wife, sons, and daughter before finally becoming a doll's frock.
- A short satirical poem contrasting George Washington's era — no bicycle, no telephone, no postage stamps — with the modern age, closing with the rueful observation that for all its conveniences the present seems to have no Washington.
- Correspondence from New Orleans reporting on the New Orleans Bicycle Club's plans for a new clubhouse, the rival Crescent Wheelmen club's rapid growth, the lack of a proper cycle track in the city, and a touring cyclist passing through from Charleston.
- Full race results from recent meetings at Buffalo, Troy, New Orleans, and Roseville, including times and placings for novice, amateur, promateur, and professional events, together with comparative English records and notes on Percy Furnivall's mile performances at Long Eaton.
- A calendar of upcoming cycling races and meetings for September and early October 1886, covering events from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to Junction City, Kansas, with entry contacts for each.