The Springfield Wheelmen's Gazette, Vol 3, No 1
Articles in this issue
- Editor Ducker reveals the full story of Hendee's training accident at New Haven the previous autumn—a collision with a boy on a wheel during a five-mile trial in which Hendee had already covered three miles at record pace—explaining why the Springfield champion was physically unfit at the 1884 meet and predicting he will lower the mile record to 2.32 in 1885.
- Commentary on the League of American Wheelmen Racing Board's revised rules, criticising Section D's exclusion of racing tricycles as unfair to ordinary loop-frame machines and attacking Section H's prohibition on clubs paying members' expenses as unenforceable, while also reprinting a sharp exchange with L.A.W. official-organ editor Aaron over the Gazette's club-directory figures.
- The Gazette's London correspondent 'Waverley' surveys the opening of the 1885 British cycling season—Easter touring conditions, early professional races at Leicester and elsewhere, the Amateur Athletic Association's disputed claim of jurisdiction over cyclists, the N.C.U. suspension of H.J. Webb for allegedly taking the train during his Land's End to John O'Groat's tricycle ride, and the dissolution of the firm of Humber, Marriott & Cooper.
- A wide-ranging column of short cycling paragraphs covering record predictions, new tracks, trade notes, club news, and editorial exchanges with rival papers including comments on the Columbia Light Roadster, the L.A.W. meet at Buffalo, and praise for the Gazette from the Boston Herald and Wheeling (London).
- Correspondent reports on Ohio cycling matters including new bicycle agencies in Cincinnati, the half-mile national championship placed at Springfield, Ohio, and an account of Ohio division chief consul T.J. Kirkpatrick's new handbook for League members, as well as the L.A.W. meet location debate.
- Correspondent 'Stamson' describes the Solitary Club's first spring run through Riverside and Sound Beach, notes new membership at the Stamford Wheel Club, and reports the Victor Bicycle's popularity there.
- Letters from readers in Portland, Oregon; New Haven, Connecticut; Fort Worth, Texas (from professional racer T.W. Eck praising Springfield's $500 purse with $100 entrance fee for its world-championship implications); and Macon, Georgia ('Reb.'), who describes the visit of professionals John S. Prince and W.J. Morgan and argues for admitting professionals to the L.A.W.
- Brief international cycling news items covering Thomas Stevens's departure for his round-the-world bicycle tour, the N.C.U.'s official suspension of H.J. Webb, a court ruling in Springfield, Illinois upholding the bicycle's right to the road, and William J. Bowman's 150-mile Oakland-to-Gilroy-and-back road ride.
- Reports on club events including the Troy Bicycle Club's fourth annual birthday reception, the Genesee Bicycle Club's second anniversary banquet in Rochester, and notes on the Canadian Wheelmen's Association annual meet and numerous club officer elections across the United States and Canada.
- Calendar listing upcoming race meetings and club events from April through October 1885, including the Springfield Bicycle Club's May 30 meeting, the L.A.W. annual meet at Buffalo on July 2-3, and the Springfield international tournament September 8-10.
- Detailed mile-by-mile account of the twenty-mile bicycle championship of England at Leicester on March 28, in which Howell (Coventry) and Lees (Leicester) finished in a dead heat in 1h. 5m. 55s., with Duncan a close third, followed by a table of all previous championship winners.
- Full text of the League of American Wheelmen's revised thirty-rule code governing amateur race meetings, covering officer duties (referee, judges, timekeepers, starter, umpires), starting procedures, track etiquette, foul riding, protest rights, and specialist race formats including without-hands, slow, lap, team, and run-and-ride races.
- Excerpt from the proof-sheets of John S. Webber Jr.'s forthcoming guidebook 'In and Around Cape Ann,' describing the sixteen-mile shore-road cycle route from Gloucester through Rockport, Pigeon Cove, Lanesville, Bay View, and Annisquam, with notes on hotels, scenery, and road conditions for wheelmen.
- Reports the results of the L.A.W. division chief consul elections, with Henry E. Ducker of Springfield elected Massachusetts chief consul by 363 votes—the largest majority of any state—with a table comparing voter turnout by state and a defence of Massachusetts cycling against Editor Aaron's criticism.
- Notes that the Wheel (New York) is 'sorely troubled' by the Gazette's success and by Ducker's election as Massachusetts chief consul by the largest vote of any chief consul, suggesting the March Gazette issue had a bad effect on the Wheel editor's constitution.
- Announces the inclusion of W. Reed's cartoon depicting scenes from the September 1884 races at Hampden Park, Springfield, and previews the great international meeting to be held on the same grounds September 8, 9, and 10, 1885.
- Humorous verse by 'S.F.W.D.' of Brightwood, Mass., imagining the upcoming Springfield meeting with Hendee winning all honors, Ducker as president, and Winans as captain.
- Comic poem depicting a confident cyclist who sets out in fine style in the morning but returns battered and bruised in the evening, with humorous speculation about whether a comet or a West Shore engine was responsible for his undoing.
- Romantic verse by Dexter E. Chamberlin of Springfield in which the narrator, cycling through autumn scenes, encounters a pretty maiden on a tricycle and they race together, ending with a declared partnership for 'the voyage of life.'
- Karl Kron reports on his subscription campaign for 'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle,' including a letter from the honorary secretary of the Warrnambool Cycling Club (Victoria) with results of Australian road races, F.W. Briggs's 100-mile record of 8h. 30m., and F.H. Shackelford's Victorian championship wins.
- Reprinted from the Cycling Times, uses 1884 accident-insurance compensation tables to argue that lawn tennis resulted in more and larger payouts than bicycle or tricycle riding, concluding that cycling is less dangerous than popularly supposed.
- Describes a theatrical novelty at the Leicester Theatre Royal pantomime 'Jack the Giant Killer,' in which the West End Bicycle and Tricycle Co. arranged for Gordon, Wolseley, and the army to be 'rescued from Khartoum' riding Rudge machines across the stage each evening, with the full comic verse dialogue reproduced.
- Lyrical road-touring sketches by 'Stamson' depicting autumn bicycle runs through wooded lanes near Steep Hollow, Bible Street, and Slabtown, celebrating the cyclist's close communion with nature and rural scenery.
- Thomas Stevens, excerpted from Outing for May, recounts firing his revolver at a mountain lion in Nevada's Five-mile Canon during his transcontinental ride, missing the beast but driving it off with a second shot that threw sand in its face.
- Dr. Mundy of Williamsport, Pennsylvania describes a bicycle tour northward through Lycoming County—taking in views from Mound Cemetery, the Susquehanna valley, and the road through Hepburnville, Cogan Station, Crescent, and Trout Run—praising cycling as uniquely healthful for professional men confined indoors.