The Wheel Cycling Trade Review, Vol 3, No 24
Articles in this issue
- A letter signed 'Maryland' replies to the Bicycling World's editorial, insisting the Tenth Annual L.A.W. Meet at Hagerstown was no 'bacchanalian orgie' and naming Mott, Clark, Hayden and other wheelmen whose wives and daughters were present.
- Reprinting the Springfield Republican and Worcester Spy, the piece urges riders to use the gong or whistle at crossings and thank pedestrians who yield, to keep public goodwill toward wheelmen.
- Chief Consul Bull issues a 76-page pocket handbook (6,000 copies) containing the L.A.W. and N.Y. State Division constitutions, a touring article by Fred J. Shepard of the Buffalo B.C., cycling law by Isaac B. Potter and accident-remedy notes by Dr. L.A. Bull, with trade firms such as Pope Mfg. Co. and Overman Wheel Co. underwriting it.
- A new club is organised at Eugene Valentine's residence on Locust Avenue with fourteen charter members, electing H.F. Fuller president; founders include old-timers Frederick Jenkins, 'Gene' Valentine and Dr. Tyler, and headquarters will be at the Castle Inn, New Rochelle.
- A Trenton State Gazette reprint arguing that fresh air, sunlight, exercise and temperance are the real elixir of life, freely available to all.
- Accidental-death statistics for New York in 1888 — 173 drownings, 65 by railways, 64 by street vehicles, none cycling — marshalled as ammunition against those who call the wheel dangerous.
- 'Tam O'Shanter' describes the touring party's nine-mile coast through the Jura Mountains, a customs dispute near Geneva, the steamer trip on Lake Geneva to the Castle of Chillon, and the wet climb to Mürren via Lauterbrunnen.
- Mrs. Angle Truax of Saratoga has invented a combined electric land-and-water carriage with a vibrating-armature motor, cigar-shaped flotation tubes and paddle-fitted rear spokes, claimed to do fifteen miles an hour.
- W.F. Murphy of the Kings County Wheelmen accepts Wm. Van Wagoner's published challenge to race twenty-five miles over the Irvington-Milburn course, proposing September 7 and waiving any restriction on wheel weight.
- The Redemann-Tilford process uses a glycerine bath to alter steel's structure, reportedly yielding far greater ductile and tensile strength at little more than the cost of crude Bessemer steel.
- The Pope Mfg. Co. of Boston has published a colored lithograph closing-hours card, sent free for a stamp, reflecting the spread of the Saturday half-holiday as a benefit to workers and trade.
- H.A. Lozier & Co. of Cleveland are selling 'The Superior,' a boys' safety for ages eight to fifteen with twenty-four-inch wheels, cone bearings and three-quarter rubber tires, priced at $40.
- The Louisiana Division L.A.W. holds its annual meeting under Chief Consul Harry H. Hodgson, reporting sixty-eight members (up from fifty-seven), re-electing Hodgson and choosing J.W. Dodge as Secretary-Treasurer, with plans for an August League run to West End.
- Correspondent 'Atci' confirms the New York State Division meet will be held in New York and Brooklyn with runs to Yonkers and Coney Island and a theatre party under W.H. DeGraaf, and reports Brooklyn Bicycle Club members' summer camping and touring.
- 'Ccister' rebuts a Jersey City Evening Journal article on the Hudson County Wheelmen flouting ordinances, detailing how H.C.W. members enforce the rules and have won the goodwill of the police and Mayor; also lists the New Jersey Division ticket headed by Dr. G. Carlton Brown.
- About forty Bridgeport Wheel Club members enjoy a shore dinner at the George Hotel, Black Rock; Bridgeport L.A.W. men are indignant that Hartford substituted a new Connecticut Division ticket leaving them out, and the Rambling Wheelmen take new rooms over Clark & Nichols.
- An account of the Missouri Club's one-sided circular and unauthorised mail vote on abolishing the active list, and of Track Association stockholders seizing control of the August 31 tournament from a dilatory board, fixing the date and committees for prizes and programme.
- Lancaster, Pa. correspondent 'Tentoone' recounts a Kings County Wheelmen party's picnic, fishing and swimming day at the old Woolen Mill, with Prince Wells brewing coffee, and reflects on the pleasure of small quiet runs over big club turn-outs.
- 'Novice' surveys training at the Cheltenham track — Lumsden, the Van Sicklens, the Thornes and lady flyer Miss Porter — and the bell-and-lantern law that has riders like Tom Roe and Munger fitting noisy gongs, plus club discontent over what members get for their $1.50 monthly dues.
- 'Snohomish' reports that about 90 per cent of Tacoma's wheels are now ridden by the pedal mount without steps and 75 per cent of riders can do the 'stand still,' remarkable given there was but one bicycle in the city in early 1888.
- Preview of the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Divisions' meet at Cottage City, Martha's Vineyard, August 8-10, with an illuminated parade, a run around the Great Circle to East Chop, and Saturday races open to all L.A.W. members.
- 'Zo' notes century-medal attempts by McNiece, Calkins and White paced by Captain Gilbert; a new Y.M.C.A. Bicycle Club brings the city's clubs to ten; D.B. Bonnett's mileage reaches 16,000; and the Zigzags, Buffalos and Ramblers schedule century runs from Erie.
- Cycle patents dated July 30, 1889, reported by C.A. Snow & Co.: a bicycle to L.A. Hill of Philadelphia, a velocipede to T.B. Jeffery of Ravenswood, Ill., and an ice velocipede to J.E. Robinson of Oil City, Pa.
- H.O. Duncan, in Bicycling News, advises cyclists bound for the Paris Universal Exhibition on the Newhaven-Dieppe crossing, passing bicycles through French customs, hotels near the Gare St. Lazare, cheap meals at Duval's, and rides through the Bois de Boulogne.
- 'Argl's' reports the Century Wheelmen's Willow Grove run rained out, a picnic-and-swim run to Cans Dam scheduled, Captain Spirer's August run card, and a delayed Pennsylvania road book, plus George Gossler's gift of Weyers Cave specimens.
- A Mail and Express column on women learning to ride at indoor halls — paying $5 for five half-hour lessons — and joining their cavaliers on tandems, with Bertha von Hillern, Mrs. Josephine Redding and Mrs. Florence Finch-Kelly named as devotees.
- The General Committee for the September 13-14 New York State Division meet reports DeGraaf and Cole arranging the theatre party, C.A. Sheehan chairing the Programme Committee and George Bidwell the Transportation Committee, with the full official Cottage City programme, hotel rates and Old Colony Railroad schedules appended.
- A Stamford delegation including President Mabie of the L.I.W., 'Stamson' and Thos. Cumming ventures into the Glenville and Round Hill region of Connecticut, promising readers an illustrated account of the little-cycled roads there.
- Dr. Edward G. Bogman (Harvard '76), via the Boston Herald, endorses cycling for all ages and both sexes in moderation, praising its variety, economy and value as student transport, applicable equally to the 'Annex' as to Harvard men.
- A Texas Siftings reprint praising the young woman on her low-wheeled bicycle as safer and more graceful than on horseback, arguing the girl who can guide a wheel will guide a household, and that even road-hogs yield to her.
- Season mileage table for Pennsylvania Bicycle Club members led by John H. Draper (2,461), Fred K. Mears (2,401) and B.F. McDaniel (2,254), with fifteen riders listed.
- Calendar of American and European race meets from August 3 to October 29, 1889, including the Cottage City races, the Hartford tournament, the Binghamton meet, the New York State Division meet and the Copenhagen International Meeting of August 18.
- Full all-amateur programme and prize list for the Hartford Wheel Club's September 2-3 meet at Charter Oak Park, with national and state L.A.W. championship events and prizes from a Columbia light roadster and Colt's rifle to a diamond scarf pin and gold watch, under stated handicap rules.
- A survey of the British journal The Cyclist's advertisers — Hillman Herbert & Cooper on the front page, Renouf's French cycle trumpets, Thomas Warwick & Sons selling cycle parts piecemeal, the Rudge Bicyclette and Rover safety, and oddments such as Mills' patent padlocks and horse-skin cycling shoes.
- Miscellaneous briefs: W.J. Grandin of Tidioute rode 1,028 miles in June; Nelly Bly rides veiled on Riverside Drive at dusk; the Eagle Bicycle Mfg. Co. circulates a photo of W.T. Robertson riding down the Capitol steps; and editorial sallies at the Bicycling World over the Hagerstown affair.
- East Greenwich, Connecticut cyclists set a handicap road race for August 22 from East Greenwich to Silver Hook and return, with two prizes and Secretary V.J. Briggs taking entries.
- The North End Cycle Club is organised at the Quincy House, Boston, electing Dr. R.C. Macdonald president and secretary, J.F. McGreeney treasurer and T.J. Kenney captain.
- A Lynn Item note that riders who affect the bent-over racing style for town riding are generally 'n.g.,' since real professionals sit upright when jogging for pleasure.
- A St. Louis Spectator reprint welcoming the lady bicyclist, who now rides in ordinary dress thanks to ingenious adaptations and is the equal of her male companions on the road.
- Howard D. Elliott, seventeen, of Brooklyn is arrested for stealing a Warwick Perfection Safety from John Berry's store; he sold it to the New York Bicycle Company, which stopped payment and returned the wheel on learning it was stolen.
- Republished conditions for the two Adams & Sons gold medals ($100 and $50) for the highest single month's mileage between May 1 and November 1, 1889; claims require sworn affidavits of rider and captain and an inspected cyclometer, submitted to F.P. Prial or C.W. Fourdrinier.
- Chief Consul Albert Mott and eight ladies who attended the Hagerstown meet, including Mrs. Clarence H. Plumb and Mrs. Frank McGlathery, sign a public rebuttal to the Bicycling World's 'bacchanalian orgie' charge and demand the journal produce its proof.
- While hearing an appeal on cyclists' right to sidewalks, Indiana Supreme Court Judges Coffey and Berkshire are themselves knocked down by a reckless rider leaving the capitol; they reverse their unrendered opinion and rule that a bicycle is a vehicle and reckless riding into a pedestrian is assault and battery.
- The Washington Cycling Club of Chicago is formed on the West Side, opening handsome quarters at 653 West Adams Street about August 15 under President George D. Chisholm and Captain B.F. White.
- 'Tam O'Shanter's' second instalment: the party descends from Mürren, rides to Lucerne to see Thorwaldsen's Lion, ascends the Rigi-Kulm by cog railway (the first bicycles ever taken to the summit), and at Zurich two members are accidentally locked in a prison repair workshop before reaching the Falls of the Rhine at Neuhausen.
- The Providence Journal reports two riders dashing down Mill Street and across Thames at night so fast they could not have stopped for anyone, and that Thames Street is sometimes used as a race track in the small hours.
- 'Free Lance' reports from Paddington on July 20: the young German Lehr steals the one-mile championship while Osmond and Synyer watch each other, Dr. Turner electrifies the crowd in a tricycle heat, and F.T. Fletcher takes the record-breaking twenty-five-mile safety.
- An extended obituary (with portrait) by editor F.P. Prial for cycling writer 'Jack' Purvis-Bruce, who drowned in Chauncey Pond, Westboro, Mass., on August 4 aged about twenty-four; it traces his life from birth at sea off Cape Horn through Mississippi, Minneapolis journalism and Scotland, and reprints the Bicycling World's tribute and Dr. Corey's graveside poem.
- 'Novice' reports the Illinois Cycling Club's acceptance of the Chicagos' five-man challenge on the Oak Park course, Bob Garden's refusal to sign Munger's reinstatement petition, and four Chicago riders being led through a flooded stretch of Stony Island Road by Van Sicklen.
- A San Francisco note that the Chronicle and Examiner are campaigning daily for bituminous rock on a concrete foundation to replace the city's noisy basalt blocks and cobblestones.
- A San Francisco correspondent argues that giving associate (non-riding) members the vote turns a cycling club into a social club, citing two local clubs whose contrasting fortunes prove the point.
- 'Headers' praises the Bay City Wheelmen of San Francisco for three profitable 1889 race meetings — January, April and the July 4 Stockton tournament with the Oak Leaf Wheelmen — and notes W.A. Shockley's rise to safety champion at Stockton in 2m. 59½s.
- 'Spark' reports heavy rains wrecking Essex County's macadam roads, the Broad Street mud-hole to be paved with Telford, Frank Brock of the Atalantas twice climbing Eagle Rock, and the Atalantas seeking a team road race.
- 'El.' reports the Louisiana Cycling Club has bought a $900 building lot on Octavia Street and approved plans for a one-story club-house with a 20x40 parlour; five new members bring the roll to fifty, R.G. Betts resigns as captain and L.J. Frederic is promoted in his place.
- 'Ithuriel' condemns a Globe-Democrat article falsely accusing wheelmen of snatching hats and whipping carriage horses in Forest Park, exonerates a rider blamed for the Manchester stage upset, and ridicules the Missouri Club circular calling cycling 'an improved means of walking.'
- 'Snohomish' reports a second Tacoma run to the Woolen Mills on Steilacoom Creek and announces a three-week tour through Oregon, Washington and British Columbia by Prince Wells (fancy riding) and Halsted (racing five miles against three relay riders).
- 'Dokson' describes the twenty-five-mile state championship around Lake Harriet on July 31, won by Colie Bell in 1h. 38m. 45s. after a Graham-Gray collision broke spokes, with James Stockdale edging Bird for second; a Bird-Bell rematch is rumoured.
- 'Atol' warns that athletic clubs poaching the fastest bicycle-club riders with 'expenses paid' make racing an unfair battle to be fixed only by classifying racers, and reports the B.B.C. escorting the Riverside Wheelmen to Bath for a swim and dinner.
- 'Zo' reports Crescent Wheelmen visitors from Cincinnati, mocks the Wheelmen's Gazette illustrations, and notes the Ramblers' second century run (Erie to Buffalo, seventy starters expected) on August 18 and the Lockport Wheelmen's fourth annual meet on August 15.
- The Harrisburg Wheel Club marks its third anniversary with a parade and banquet at the Bolton House, with toasts to the L.A.W., the Star, the Safety and 'The Wheelmen's Wives and Sweethearts,' breaking up at 2 a.m.
- 'Tanglefoot' reports the Elizabeth Wheelmen's monthly meeting, a planned October lantern parade, runs to Long Branch, and the awarded contract for the Elizabeth-Rahway turnpike, with the club now aiding the arrest of sidewalk riders.
- A second fixtures calendar (Aug 9 issue) of race meets from August 5 to October 29, 1889, embedding the Scranton Bicycle Club's full annual tour itinerary from Scranton through Binghamton, Utica, the Catskills and the Berkshires back via New York and the Delaware Water Gap.
- Full results of the N.C.U. amateur championships at Paddington on July 20: August Lehr of Frankfort wins the one-mile in 3m. 09 4-5s. (first time it has left England), F.J. Osmond the twenty-five-mile ordinary, H.H. Sansom the five-mile tricycle, and F.J. Fletcher the twenty-five-mile safety in a record 1h. 16m. 34 2-5s., with a list of previous winners since 1878.
- A rain-shortened meet at the Yellow House, Reading, on August 3: Dundore of Reading wins the novice half-mile in 1m. 38½s. and Taxis of Philadelphia wins both the one-mile safety and the one-mile handicap from scratch.
- East Greenwich bicyclists meet at the Updike House and arrange a handicap road race for August 22 from Cundall's drug store to Silver Hook and return, electing Charles H. Weld chairman with nine riders already entered.
- Two events at the Sir Charles Napier Lodge picnic: the two-mile open won by L.L. Clarke in 7m. 10s. and the two-mile open to New Jersey cyclists won by Hazleton in 7m. 22 4-5s., with A.A. Zimmerman among the starters.
- A one-mile handicap at Lloyd's Queens grounds drew nine of twenty-two entries; C.M. Murphy of the K.C.W. won the final in 3m. 11s. ahead of L.L. Clarke, N.F. Waters and A.A. Zimmerman.
- The Division's official section: officers for 1889 under Chief Consul W.S. Bull, the Fall Meet programme and sub-committees (September 13-14, New York and Brooklyn), and Bull's address warning that wheelmen misbehaving at League hotels may face expulsion.
- Short items: W.G. Schack's 3,204 mileage; Ralph Temple's first English appearance at Leicester winning a probably-faked ten-mile race in 32m. 14s.; the Toronto Bicycle Club's August 12 meet; and a note that Lehr's championship wheel combined Royal Mail, Club and Rudge parts.
- The L.I.W.'s harmonious monthly meeting; W. Schmid's 139-mile high July day; total June mileage of 11,652; and eleven members credited with century runs, including Teller, Wise, Alden and Schumacher.
- The Waiontha Bicycle Club announces its August 14 meet at Richfield Springs, N.Y., with fifteen events including a fifty-mile road race, the five-mile L.A.W. State championship, fancy riding and a slow race.
- Charles S. Davol of Warren, R.I., and Howard L. Perkins of Providence object to The Wheel calling Van Wagoner's challenge 'blatant'; Davol testifies Van Wagoner rode the thirty-one hilly, unsanded miles from Boston to Westboro in under two hours.
- S. Wallis Merrihew wins the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club's challenge-cup road race on the Lancaster Pike from the General Wayne Hotel to Overbrook in 16m. 30s. on a light roadster, ahead of B. Clarke and B.F. McDaniels (scratch, on a safety).