The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 10, No 24
Articles in this issue
- The weekly roundup covers international racing news including G.P. Mills's new Land's End–John O'Groats tricycle record of 5 days 10 hours, A.P. Engleheart's three-mile bicycle record attempt at Coventry, and the Springfield Bicycle Club's proposal to the A.C.U. for a world's championship race open to amateurs, promateurs, and professionals.
- Brief humorous exchange quoting The Bicycling News's objection to Mrs. Weldon being called 'a member of the bar' for taking up the tricycle, with The Wheel's witty rejoinder about England compensating with an aristocratic poet and a horsey Prince.
- The Wheel pledges to forward half of all subscription and renewal revenue received during September to the Charleston earthquake relief committee, inviting wheelmen to subscribe as an act of both charity and wheelman solidarity.
- Full entry lists for both days of the Berkshire County Wheelmen's tournament at Pittsfield (September 10–11), featuring promateurs C.E. Kluge, F.F. Ives, George M. Hendee, and Horace Crocker alongside professionals Neilson, Woodside, Morgan, and Frazier.
- Results of the third annual tournament at the Driving Park, Brattleboro (September 2), with S.W. Kirkland winning both the three-mile club championship and the half-mile L.A.W. State championship, and F.T. Reid giving a unicycle exhibition in 2m. 27s.
- Two-day race report from Charter Oak Park (September 8–9) highlights George M. Hendee's A.C.U. championship mile in 2m. 38½s. (a new track record), Fred Wood's professional handicap mile in 2m. 33s. (the fastest ever ridden in competition), and H.S. Hart of New Britain's surprise upset in the five-mile Connecticut State Championship.
- First-person touring narrative of a wheelman's ride through southern Wisconsin, describing mostly difficult and unrideable roads between Waterford, Burlington, Lyons, Lake Geneva, and Milwaukee, with hospitality from German farmers contrasted favourably with New England farmers.
- Previews two September road record attempts: Huntly of the Nonantum Club will ride a 54-inch Rudge to break McCurdy's 24-hour record on September 13, while H.D. Corey and A. Kennedy-Childe of London's Ripley Road Club aim for 240 miles in 24 hours on a Rudge Humber tandem over a 12½-mile Newton–Auburndale course.
- Signed 'The Owl,' this editorial compares New York's restrictive Central Park badge system (75 cents for limited access, cyclists alone charged) unfavourably with free or subsidised cycling facilities in Paris's Bois de Boulogne, Manchester, Dublin's Phoenix Park, and the Emperor William's imperial parks at Nuremberg, calling on wheelmen to demand their rights rather than merely petition for them.
- Results of the Lockport N.Y. Wheelmen's tournament at the fair grounds (August 26), with W.S. Campbell of Niagara Falls dominating the day by winning the one-mile open, one-mile Safety, one-mile unicycle, and one-mile tandem tricycle events.
- Comprehensive report on the L.A.W. Board of Officers' meeting and New York State Division's Fourth Annual Meet in Buffalo (September 3–4), including adoption of a new state division constitution, a parade of 200–300 wheelmen through downtown Buffalo, and race results at Driving Park where S.P. Hollingsworth won the five-mile L.A.W. championship in 15m. 26s. over H.S. Kavanagh.
- Results of the Orange Wanderers' first annual race meeting at the new three-lap Roseville, N.J. track (attendance ~1,200), where A.B. Rich of the Staten Island Athletic Club won both the five-mile scratch race (15:26 3/5) and the three-mile lap race, while J.B. Pearson of the Vineland Bicycle Club won the three-mile New Jersey Championship in 9:07 1/5.
- Published letter from a meeting of racing cyclists at the Cleveland Bicycle Club races (August 26–28) adopting formal resolutions mourning the sudden death of Wheel editor George E. Weber, signed by some two dozen prominent riders including A.B. Rich, W.E. Crist, H.S. Kavanaugh, and H.E. Bidwell.
- Letter from 'Ornh Qra' of Stockport, N.Y., challenging strong road riders to attempt the 152½-mile New York-to-Albany route in 24 hours, noting that old stage coaches took 48 hours and a horse once went blind making the journey in a single day.
- Brief Philadelphia Herald dispatch reporting that Germantown's Montgomery Lightfoot dislocated his wrist and was badly bruised when a bulldog attacked his bicycle on the Bethlehem pike, causing him to take a header after dexterous riding failed to shake off the dog.
- The regular commentary column reprints the Boston Herald's dismissal of Western cycling prowess and rebuts it at length, crediting Western wheelmen with record-setting tours, electric timing, the country's biggest road race, and key League leadership, before quoting Wheeling magazine's sardonic prediction that most of the English riders supposedly bound for Springfield 'will hear of their own intentions for the first time.'