The Referee, Vol 9, No 24
Articles in this issue
- An editorial attacking the L.A.W.'s Good Roads magazine, arguing that two-thirds of the 30,000 copies mailed to league members are wasted, that the guaranteed $6,000 has been squandered, and that editor Mr. Potter is a statistician and lawyer but not a real editor.
- A leader welcoming the proposed cash prize league for professionals as a likely institution of 1893, arguing it will let the L.A.W. enforce its amateur rule and bar the 'expense'-abusing pseudo-amateurs from amateur races.
- Comment items including a sharp rebuttal of a Hartford Y.M.C.A. secretary who called the bicycle 'the great enemy' of Sabbath observance, plus a swipe at the Scottish Cyclist over Zimmerman as a 'world-beater.'
- A signed column (La Cote Mal Taile) on the unsound state of the cycle trade, noting Pope's partnership with the elliptical-sprocket makers, another failed cycle concern, and a California division election fight with the new ticket nominated at the San Francisco Bicycle Club.
- Report of the two-day Evansville races closing the western circuit, with Lumsden breaking the five-mile competition world record (12:36 3-5), Johnson winning the piano race over Rhodes and Munger, and full summaries of both days.
- Folded run of dated correspondents' letters from Minneapolis (A. B. Choate commending the Referee on Johnson), Buffalo, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Philadelphia (lantern parade, Park Avenue Wheelmen surprise banquet), Asbury Park, Rochester and Nashville's $3,000 meet, plus club doings.
- Detailed account of W. W. Windle's record rides at Hampden Park, Springfield, cutting the flying mile to 2:02 3-5 and the standing mile to 2:05 3-5 with triplet and pacing-stallion help, and the flying half to :57 2-5.
- Feature recounting champion boxer James J. Corbett's use of the bicycle in training for the Sullivan fight, including his letter to 'Friend Morgan,' a Referee-office chat over toast and lamb chops, and an anecdote of Frank Glover's Utah prize-fight escape.
- Preview of the Chicago Cycling Club's World's Fair Dedication tournament at Washington Park, with Van Sicklen's wire listing promised eastern flyers (Tyler, Campbell, Wheeler, Smith, Arnold, Murphy, Zimmerman) and entries closing with C. P. Root.
- Short trade-news items: the Secure to be handled by more than one agency, Ned Oliver fitting Garford saddles to Raleighs, Pullinger & Co.'s Parade open for U.S. agencies, and the Illinois division's town/consul list.
- Profile (reprinted from the Fitchburg Daily Sentinel) of the Fitchburg, Mass. firm that turns out bicycle balls by the million, and of its general manager G. W. Weymouth.
- Signed essay ('An Old One') on cycle-trade mismanagement, dividing the trade into three classes and arguing makers oversell samples they cannot deliver, with an outlook for 1893 predicting bright but tariff-dependent prospects.
- Factory feature on the New York Belting & Packing Company at Passaic and Phelps & Dingle's 'Ideal' pneumatic tire, with inventor Phelps demonstrating exposing the inner tube in forty-eight seconds and detailing the wire-fastened construction.
- Interviews at the Astor House with Coventry pioneers J. K. and William ('Bill') Starley, on the doubtful future of the geared ordinary, the Rover and Psycho safeties, a new Starley frame patent, and their support for the National show over the Stanley show.
- Patent/invention department describing a new band brake by James L. Reaney of Bradford and Thomas W. Paterson of Dublin's pneumatic tire, leading into 'Recent Patents Granted' (reported by W. E. Aughinbaugh) and 'New English Inventions' (G. Douglas Leechman).
- Trade department on the influx of English makers' reps hustling 1893 orders — Golder and Hadden's 1,500- and 1,000-wheel contracts for New Howes and Bayliss & Thomas' Excelsiors, plus Pugh (Whitworth), Barrows (Rudge) and the Starleys.
- Consolidated trade-news department on visiting reps and dealers — Atwater leaving Stover for Washington, Perrett pushing the Bretz & Curtis Scorcher saddle, Airtite Howell, Bergfel's new saddle, Featherstone's tire suit against Bidwell, and many makers' 1893 plans.
- Good Roads item announcing the Oct. 20 Central Music Hall meeting to form a national highway improvement league, with Chauncey M. Depew and Gen. Horace Porter named by the New York Chamber of Commerce as delegates.