The Springfield Wheelmen's Gazette, Vol 3, No 9
Articles in this issue
- Editorial rejecting English press claims of cycling's decline, arguing the bicycle fills a permanent practical niche in locomotion unlike the roller skate fad.
- Editorial on the problem of riders avoiding time records to game handicapping, drawing a parallel with the National Trotting Association's horse-racing record system and proposing two remedies.
- Reviews the London Cyclist Christmas number ("The Great S—") and Harry Etherington's Wheeling Annual for 1885–86, praising the latter's thirty lithographic portraits of leading wheelmen and recommending it as an indispensable reference book.
- Review of the Columbia Bicycle Calendar for 1886 issued by Pope Manufacturing Company of Boston, praising its chromo-lithographic artwork by G.H. Buck and daily cycling quotations drawn from medical authorities and prominent writers.
- Letter from "Waverley" in London covering winter cycling conditions, the Pickwick Bicycle Club's sixteenth annual dinner, the CTC badge piracy dispute, NCU/AAA amateur-status controversy, and plans for a cyclists' club-house on the Thames Embankment.
- Column by "Chris." from Philadelphia surveying the growth of cycling clubs in the city over four years, contrasting the early days of the Philadelphia, Germantown, and Frankford clubs with the present dozen clubs and three riding schools including the new Park Rink.
- Account of cycling in Sandhurst (Bendigo), Victoria, Australia — a city of 35,000 with three flourishing clubs totalling 300 riders — describing road races and carnivals featuring champions Shackelford, Elliot, Bloomfield, and Con Dwyer.
- Column by "Stamson" on winter cycling in Stamford, Connecticut, touching on year-round riding on the railroad cinder path, ladies' interest in lighter machines, and the Stamford Wheel Club's recent entertainment.
- Letters from multiple correspondents: "Cycle" disputes Captain Bechtel's rebuttal defending the Reading Bicycle Club; Fred Wood (Professional Champion, Leicester) denies attributing hostile remarks to the Cyclist; Harry Etherington publishes Abbott Bassett's retraction of a false Bicycling World item; "The Kiel" reports the Bay City Wheelmen's second invitation hop; and "Mugwump" questions the Bicycling World's shift in favor of American-made wheels.
- Continuation of serial fiction by Chris Wheeler set in rural England, following the romance between Jessie Thompson and Robert Small (a cycling ordinand) as interrupted by Squire Thompson and the arrival of Ralph Shackford.
- Travel account by H.D. Corey of his October 1885 trip to England with Howell and Chambers: Howell's triumphant reception in Leicester, visits to Rudge & Co. in Coventry, a Rudge riders' dinner with Marriott, Adams, and Webber, a night tandem ride with Kennedy-Child to London, and Howell's wedding.
- Short story by "Stamson" in which bachelor cyclist Cousin Will Haverall is drawn into romance by his hostess's matchmaking scheme, with his tandem tricycle serving as the bond uniting him and Essie Gordon.
- Article by G.W. Ribble arguing the bicycle is a practical everyday vehicle for business, touring, and professional calls, dismissing fears about danger and the difficulty of learning.
- Short notes including four Pickwick Club members covering 200 miles in a day, Hendee's tricycle world records, and Overman Wheel Company enforcing its Wicksteed Acme bicycle-stand patent against infringers.
- Detailed account of the first fancy costume cycling carnival held by the Massachusetts Bicycle Club at Mechanics' Building, Boston, attended by about 3,000 people, with prize costumes, a fox hunt on safety bicycles, bicycle polo, fancy riding by W.S. Maltby, and Pierre Lallement riding his original velocipede; H.E. Ducker of Springfield won second prize as Prince Carnival.
- Report on the Springfield Bicycle Club dinner at Barr's, where nearly 50 members gathered and secretary Sanford Lawton presented President Henry E. Ducker with a $500 gift from the club.
- Officer listings for newly elected club officers across more than a dozen clubs including the Baltimore Cycle Club, Capital Bicycle Club (Washington), Lynn Cycle Club, and Yale College Bicycle Club.
- Compiled list of US and British cycle patents granted November–December 1885, prepared expressly for the Gazette by Duffy & Brashears (Washington) and Hughes, Ely & Hughes (London).
- Poem by T.W.E. — a cycling romance in which George Derwent races two miles by bicycle headlight to a house fire and rescues Maude DeVere, winning her hand after she had initially refused him for loving his bicycle too well.
- Short poem by T.W.E. calling for an inventor to devise winter attachments for laid-by machines so wheelmen can defy seasonal barriers and ride year-round.
- Poem by G.W. Ribble extolling the pleasure of a dawn bicycle ride over dewy country roads and open downs.
- Playful poem by "Nellie" in response to a December Gazette piece, teasing her cycling companion about the falls, strains, and dusty clothing omitted from his romantic "Chat with my Nickeled Wheel."
- Excerpts from other cycling periodicals, including praise from the Cycling Times (London), Wheeling's anecdote about a programme boy at a race, the Atlantic News on the Coventry papers withdrawing opposition to Springfield records, and the Australian Cycling News on the Sydney Bicycle Club's race expenses.
- Commentary on C.W. Nairn of the London Cyclist admitting he personally never doubted the Springfield records — in fact had never troubled to learn what they were — used by the Gazette as vindication after months of controversy with the Coventry papers.
- Humorous piece from the Australian Cycling News by a "slow young man" in Sydney comparing cycling favourably to boat racing and horse racing through the comic misadventures of watching sculling on the harbour and enduring waits at the turf.
- Road tour narrative by Karl Kron (an extract from chapter XXVI of "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle") recounting his bicycle ride from New York through Philadelphia, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia to Washington for the L.A.W. fifth annual meet, criticising the League's disorganised parade, and describing muddy roads southward past Bull Run.