The Springfield Wheelmen's Gazette, Vol 3, No 10
Articles in this issue
- Editor Henry Ducker defends the Springfield tournament's split-seconds timing methods against doubts raised by Coventry papers, reproducing admissions from the Athletic News of Birmingham that their own timekeepers did not even know what a split-seconds watch was.
- Editorial arguing against adopting a flying start in bicycle racing, contending that cycling has risen above horse racing and should not import its tendency toward jockeying and disputed starts.
- Brief notice that the League of American Wheelmen annual meeting will be held in Boston, May 27–29, 1886, encouraging lady tricyclists to join the parade.
- British cycling correspondent 'Faed' (writing from London, January 13, 1886) reports on the severe winter halting road riding, the pending peace between the N.C.U. and A.A.A., the Speedwell and Stanley show preparations, A.J. Wilson's 7,021-mile road record for 1885, and the editorial changes at Wheeling magazine.
- Philadelphia correspondent 'Chris' surveys the League's rapid growth toward 10,000 members, the Pennsylvania Division's active renewal campaign, Mr. H.B. Hart's continued riding school near Fairmount Park, and a proposal for a League headquarters in Philadelphia.
- Short miscellaneous items including the Ramblers of St. Louis racing every Saturday, Weber's Star bicycle feats, Messrs. Crist and Higham securing the Washington agency for the Quadrant tricycle, and the Overman Wheel Company's new store lease on Columbus Avenue.
- The Stamford Solitary Club reports riding all but six days to January 22 on 44-inch Special Faciles, comments on crank-length preferences, and muses on the upcoming League meet in Boston.
- Correspondence section opening with a letter from C.W. Nairn of London (representative of The Cyclist) denying he ever doubted the Springfield times, followed by a letter signed 'Dash' urging wheelmen not to ride on the Sabbath.
- Chapter II (continued) of a cycling-themed romantic fiction by Chris Wheeler, in which Robert Small and Ralph Shackford both call on Jessie Thompson during a stormy night, and Ralph delivers an unexpected marriage proposal.
- J.R. Hogg, Hon. Treasurer of the North Shields Bicycle Club, invites American racing men—Hendee, Rowe, Kluge, Weber, Knapp, and Crist—to compete at their new track in late June/early July, promising races at North Shields, Alexandra Park, Birmingham, Newcastle, and Bristol.
- Mileage records from Philip Fontaine of the New York Citizens' Club (3,400 miles), A.J. Foote of Australia (100-mile record), the Orange Wanderers' Club paired totals, and M. de Civry's open challenge to French trotters at Longchamps.
- Monthly mileage table from advance sheets of Karl Kron's 'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle,' showing J. Warren Smith, Captain of the Orange Wanderers, covering 20,027 miles in 66 months from 1880 to 1885.
- Club notes section featuring satirical minutes of a San Francisco bicycle club run to San Jose (with seven headers and a train retreat), plus the Boston Bicycle Club's January meeting admitting six new members and opening a restaurant at the club-house.
- Officers elected for the new year in clubs including the Avondale Bicycle Club (Cincinnati), Bay City Wheelmen (San Francisco), Boston Bicycle Club, Springfield Bicycle Club (president Henry E. Ducker), and a dozen others across the country.
- List of U.S. patents granted January 12, 1886, and British cycle patents filed late 1885, compiled for the Gazette by Duffy & Brashears (Washington) and Hughes, Eli & Hughes (London), covering bicycles, tricycles, tires, saddles, and variable-speed gears.
- A St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter recounts riding a 54-inch Expert Columbia 4,679 miles on city granite streets over 191 days in 1885, with only three pedestrian collisions and no serious accidents, arguing the bicycle is a practical daily work tool.
- Frank A. Elwell of Portland, Maine, promotes a cycling tour to Bermuda departing March 2 on the Quebec S.S. Co. steamer Trinidad, describing coral roads, tropical scenery, and the Hamilton Hotel, at a total cost of ninety dollars for twenty days.
- Short humorous poem by T.W.I., suggesting the cycling 'word war' between correspondents 'Fifty-three' and 'Nellie' from previous issues be settled by the two forming a partnership and sending the author a piece of wedding cake.
- Prose sketch by 'Stamson' describing an autumn bicycle ride through the New England countryside near Stamford, noting hay stacks, apple orchards, stone walls, and the tranquility of woodland roads.
- Comic poem by T.W.E. in which a tired Springfield cyclist falls asleep in a barber's chair and has a vivid nightmare of being bound and threatened with a razor, only to be woken by the barber offering sea-foam shaving cream.
- Second Bermuda tour promotional piece by Frank A. Elwell, offering detailed logistics: departure from New York March 2, thirteen days at Hotel Hamilton, return March 21, cost ninety dollars, with advice on state-room booking.
- Items clipped from exchange papers, including a Philadelphia cycling quip about 'slow races,' a humorous anecdote from the Hartford Post about a cyclist who broke 'his other leg,' and notice that the Seaside Bicycle Club of Norfolk, Va. intends to attend the Boston League meet by steamer.
- Extract from Thomas Stevens's account in Outing for February, describing how he sewed Turkish para coins as buttons onto his knee-breeches as emergency currency against brigands while cycling through Asia on his round-the-world tour.
- Charles A. Brady describes a voyage aboard the brig Victoria from New York to Bridgetown, Barbados, detailing the island's sugar economy, limestone architecture, colonial society, coral roads, and the presence of bicycles and tricycles among the local population.
- Excerpt from Thomas Stevens's Outing account of cycling through Serbia, describing the climb over the Balkan range past goat-herds and ox-carts, Balkan mountain costumes, and the descent into the Nissava valley.
- Reprint from The Irish Cyclist and Athlete arguing that in Ireland riders openly accept machine discounts without scandal, contrasting with English secrecy, and predicting the Irish Cyclists' Association would act swiftly against any true professionalism.
- Extract from Thomas Stevens's Outing account of riding through Adrianople, where a howling mob followed him through the muddy streets shouting 'bin! hin!' (mount! mount!) and flinging their red fezes at the bicycle wheels.
- Extracts from a letter written by Thomas Stevens in Teheran, December 26, 1885, to Karl Kron, outlining his planned eastward route through Meshed, Herat, Kandahar, Delhi, Calcutta, and Burma to China, and noting he has secured a subscriber for Kron's book from the Indo-European telegraph staff.
- Profile of Henry W. Williams, three-term president of the Massachusetts Bicycle Club, who took up cycling on a doctor's advice and rode 2,449 miles in 1885; includes a five-year table of his annual mileage from 1881 to 1885.
- Reprinted from the Travelers' Record, arguing that bicycles are safer than horses and railway carriages, illustrated by a list of insurance claims paid to cyclists injured in accidents across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and other states.