The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 11, No 12
Articles in this issue
- Wide-ranging column of cycling news snippets covering CTC membership reaching 22,314, Dan Canary's reception in Paris, Gormully & Jeffery's production plans and roadster records by Whittaker, the N.C.U. amateur rule debate, and the American professional team of Woodside, Morgan, and Frazier's upcoming visit to England.
- Pointed editorial arguing the League of American Wheelmen has squandered its power by focusing on internal politics and organizational growth rather than its founding purpose of road improvement, posing rhetorical questions about the League's expenditures, its weekly organ, and why it cannot carry out practical road reform.
- Account of the Citizens' Bicycle Club's informal smoker at 26 West 60th Street on December 10, featuring humorist J.S. Burdette's banjo solos and stories, baritone solos by George Martin Huss, and a supper of beans, roast pork, and coffee prepared by club members, attended by approximately 100 members and guests including artists from the New York World.
- The Citizens' Bicycle Club awaits Thomas Stevens' arrival in Yokohama to finalize a celebratory club banquet in his honour; the article includes a warm letter from Poultney Bigelow, President of Outing Co., endorsing the invitation on behalf of the globe-cycling traveller.
- Review of the Kings County Wheelmen's minstrel show at Knickerbocker Hall, 159 Clymer Street, Brooklyn, attended by 400 people, highlighting tenor N. Callan's solo 'Essie Dear,' ventriloquist A.F. Camacho's professional-quality act, banjo playing, and the ill-received closing farce 'The Unhappy Pair.'
- Discussion of a proposal by Mr. Herring of the Ixion B.C., New York, to allow amateurs and professionals to compete together in cycling races while retaining separate prize structures; the piece quotes favourable responses from The Cyclist and the Athletic News in England, and notes the Ixion Club's recent successful ball at Standard Hall.
- Detailed summary of the Roads Improvement Association's four-page pamphlet distributed with the December C.T.C. Gazette, covering the history of English road neglect since the railway age, correct McAdam and Telford construction methods, steam-roller use, proper drainage, and why bad materials and ignorant labour make roads ruinously expensive.
- Correspondent 'Spokes' writes from Minneapolis describing women's fervent betting at cycling races, including a millinery-store owner who wagered $800 on the Schock-Woodside twelve-hour contest and physically attacked a spectator who said her favourite was losing; also briefly rebuts the editor's over-training theory about jockey Archer's death, citing the London Standard's typhoid account.
- Report of a 100-mile professional race between W.J. Morgan and Wm. Woodside at the Washington Rink in Minneapolis on December 9, won by Morgan in 6h. 6m. 20s. by six feet, but declared no race by referee J.T. Mannix amid accusations that the contest was not entirely free from deception; Morgan denied any impropriety.
- Report on John S. Prince's victory in a six-day, eight-hours-per-day professional race in Omaha (December 6–12) with 767 miles and 9 laps, edging Frank Dingley (765) and Albert Schock of Chicago (756); the piece mocks the extravagant hyperbole of the Omaha correspondent in the Minneapolis Tribune.
- Brooklyn cycling club column covering the Kings County Wheelmen minstrel show's financial and theatrical success, the Ilderan Bicycle Club's progressive euchre party, Mr. Hawkins' disputed 24-hour Long Island road record of November 15, and the Ixion Club's steadily growing membership and cosy new clubhouse.
- Editorial profile of Jens F. Pedersen, a Danish-born watchmaker and jeweler at 11 Maiden Lane, New York, tracing his career since arriving in the country fourteen years ago, and highlighting his holiday offering of solid 14-karat gold stem-winding Elgin watches and a carefully selected range of diamond jewellery at moderate prices.
- Account by 'S.E. Martreb' of a ten-day cycling tour from Watertown, Wisconsin to Chicago and Milwaukee, with mishaps including the party's boat stranding on a lake crossing (forcing them to wade to shore holding their wheels overhead) and a pair of corduroy trousers failing near Geneva, Illinois.
- Brief report of the Union County Wheelmen of Westfield, N.J. annual meeting on December 6, 1886, listing newly elected officers for the ensuing year: President Dr. Fred A. Kinch Jr., Secretary Arthur N. Pierson, Treasurer Albert Farrington, Captain Frank S. Miller, and two Lieutenants.
- Standing events calendar listing upcoming cycling club social occasions: Massachusetts B.C. Ladies' Night (December 18), Ilderan Bicycle Club Entertainment in Brooklyn (December 29), Massachusetts B.C. Athletic Entertainment (January 6), and Somerville Cycle Club's Ball (January 22).