The Referee, Vol 9, No 23
Articles in this issue
- Editorial leaders defending John S. Johnson's 1:56 3-5 Independence mile against Frank Egan and the Sporting Life, plus a companion leader ("Will Wire the Fault Lines") on rumors of a cash-prize professional racing association and the L.A.W. racing board's failure to discipline crooked amateurs.
- Editorial paragraphs on sidewalk-riding nuisances, the changed friendly tone of the daily press toward cycling, and "La Cote Mal Taile"'s skepticism of Johnson's elliptical-sprocket records versus Zimmerman.
- Recurring profile department sketching Bressler, chief consul of the Michigan division; the page also carries the Rochester, N.Y. city-correspondence letter on the Rochester Wheelmen's League trouble.
- A. A. Zimmerman's syndicate article on his training methods, winter rest, diet, massage and choice of a Raleigh wheel; the page also reports the rain-spoiled Elgin (Ill.) National Athletic Club meet won largely by Thorne and Heuman.
- Lengthy feature/pen-portrait of L. C. Boardman, cycling editor of the New York Recorder and founder of the Associated Cycling Clubs, and his feud with C. A. Sheehan over the A.C.C. secretaryship and the relay-ride banquet.
- Trade discussion of the growing alliance between bicycle and carriage manufacturers, quoting a Carriage Monthly editorial on ball-bearing axles, pneumatic tires and the bicycle sulky; followed by "The Professional League" item on the cash-prize question debated with Zimmerman, Taylor, Banker and Troy.
- Front-matter New York correspondence by Morgan covering the Sporting Life professional scheme and Sunday racing/pool selling, Zimmerman's mock cab-stand jest, the B. D. Emanuel trade-swindle confrontation at the Referee office, and the Madison Square Garden six-day meet talks (R. G. Betts).
- Report on Judge Townsend's U.S. Circuit Court decision in the Dunlop pneumatic-tire patent suit favoring A. Featherstone over the George R. Bidwell Cycle Co. and Thomas Inflatable Tire Co., with statements from both Featherstone and the Bidwell company; page also covers the Wellsville, O. Tuscarora C.C. meet.
- Major two-day western-circuit race report from Jacksonville, Ill., where the Chicago Cycling Club men (Lumsden, the Green brothers, Bliss, Githens) captured most events, Johnson took only one first but rode a fast mile, and Lumsden won an $800 cabinet grand piano.
- Report of the Louisville Cycle Club's two-night "electric tournament" on the Auditorium track, with Lumsden, Munger, Bliss, Githens and Rhodes; also "Chicago's Coming Meet" preview of the Chicago C.C. Washington Park tournament tied to the world's fair dedication, plus Milwaukee race gossip.
- Report of the Buffalo Rose team road race over the Corfu course won by the Press C.C. (Callahan), with the rival team challenges that followed; the page also carries "The Wilmington Races" with Zimmerman, "Zimmie Won Easily" at the N.A.A.A. championships, and "The Boston Road Race."
- Report of the Crescent Wheelmen's Cincinnati meet where Lumsden took two firsts and Rhodes one; the page also folds in the Boston Athletic Club's twenty-five-mile road race (Emerson, McDuffee), and shorter meets at Muscatine, Wicker Park, and the AEolus club road race won by Gregg.
- London trade letter on the rival National (Crystal Palace) and Stanley cycle shows and a detailed description of the improved 1893 Dunlop tire, plus notices of the Stratton & Nethercott and Preston-Davies tires, a Rudge front driver, and a new Sunbeam tricycle.
- Letter from "Old Cycle Crank" arguing America originated many cycle inventions (suspension wheel, rubber tire, cushion tire, hammock saddle, ladies' bicycle); the page also carries the Telegram pneumatic tire description and patent/tire-suit items (Stokes, Thomas v. Bidwell, Coventry Machinists' American factory at Richmond, Ind.).
- Reprinted special-telegram reports of John S. Johnson's world-record rides on the Independence, Iowa kite track—the :55 1-2 half, the 2:04 3-5 standing mile, and the celebrated 1:56 3-5 flying mile paced by running horses—presented within a Morgan & Wright tire spread.
- Trade department of short items (Imperial sulky used by Nancy Hanks, recent bicycle patents granted, Samuel Snell to manufacture lamps in Chicago, stolen wheels, James-wheel road-race results, new English inventions) consolidated across the trade pages.
- Rochester correspondence in which wheelman C. J. Iven argues against the Spalding cash-prize professional scheme, doubting Zimmerman would sacrifice his L.A.W. status; the page also gathers Chicago/Milwaukee trade notes including E. C. Stearns's new wheel and the rain-spoiled Milwaukee century.
- Editorial arguing the L.A.W. racing board should discipline the manufacturers and agents ("the fountain-head") rather than only the salaried amateur riders; the page also lists the New York office's trade visitors (Starley, Pugh, Riley, Boardman, Betts and others).
- Morgan's column quoting Cycling editor C. P. Sisley on the humbug of amateurism, with companion sketches "The Old Vet, Pit" (Pitman, first Worcester bicyclist), "The Colonel and Minister Egan" (a letter from Albert A. Pope), and a profile of Irish Cyclist editor R. J. Mecredy.
- Morgan's reply to Frank Egan's personal attacks in the Sporting Life, plus "Pneumatic Scheme No. 3" on the Life's special-car trip west for the "kings of cycling," and "Bliss' Baltimore Trouble" reporting Chairman Raymond's decision stripping Bliss of his Maryland Club class-race prizes for record-jumping.