The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 11, No 23
Articles in this issue
- Brief note regretting that the Brooklyn Park Commissioners have barred all bicycle and tricycle riders from Prospect Park paths and drives, restricting them to the West Side Drive and Methermeae Circuit.
- Full account of Thomas Stevens' reception in Boston by the Massachusetts Bicycle Club, including a banquet at Young's Hotel attended by Col. Albert A. Pope, Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and leading Boston wheelmen, at which Stevens recounted adventures on his globe-circling Columbia ride through Europe, Persia, India, and China, and was elected an honorary club member; club mileage statistics for 1886 are appended, with C.E. Davis Jr. leading at 5,014 miles on a tricycle.
- Poem by David W. Colbath of the Massachusetts Club, recited at the Stevens banquet and printed in full, hailing Thomas Stevens as 'noblest wheelmen of them all' for belting the globe on a Columbia through darkness and peril from the Pacific shores to Japan.
- Pope Mfg. Co. announces it has commenced patent suits against the makers of the 'American Champion' bicycle by Gormully & Jeffery and the 'Lillibridge' saddle, warning dealers and users that sale or use without a Pope licence also constitutes infringement subject to legal proceedings.
- Southern Department editor N.L. Collamer commends the District Division's new self-controlled voting regulations proposed by C.E. Pettengill, urges sister divisions Maryland and Virginia to cooperate in a Washington Reception Meet timed around the National Drill, and declines to publish personal attacks while noting the unresolved Surprise–White controversy in the Tennessee Division.
- Baltimore correspondent 'Chesapeake' reports that wintry conditions have halted active cycling, describes a muddy and header-filled Washington's Birthday club run through Druid Hill Park to Pikesville by the Baltimore Club, and announces the formation of the new nine-member Centaur Cycle Club in East Baltimore.
- Norfolk correspondent V.P.E. laments that the 'Seaside Club,' the oldest bicycle club in Virginia, is moribund due to inactive officers who produce fine plans for race-tracks and tours that never materialise, while predicting a spring cycling boom as new riders plan to purchase machines.
- A Nashville League member (No. 7,477) disputes Chas. J. Scherer's published letter, defends ex-Chief Consul Surprise's first-year organisational work in building division membership from seven to eighty, and urges Tennessee wheelmen to support the clean ticket of J.C. Combs and John S. Miller of Clarksville over candidate White.
- Memphis Cycle Club President S.H. Hampton Jr. rebuts Scherer's allegations, reveals that White wrote to the St. Louis Wheel Company under false pretences to obtain damaging material against Surprise, and reports that after White's duplicity was proven at a special meeting his nomination was reconsidered and E.D. Fisher installed as the club's nominee for Tennessee Chief Consul.
- Marshal Collamer announces the route for his planned Southern Tour: Philadelphia to Staunton, Va. via Pennsylvania Road Book route 26, departing May 10 with stops at Gettysburg battlefields and Luray Caverns, then connecting by rail to the St. Louis meet and returning through Washington for a Reception Meet around May 27.
- Secretary-Treasurer Chas. J. Scherer traces the Tennessee Division's founding from a January 1886 Memphis meeting through its growth to eighty members across eight cities, criticises Chief Consul Surprise for never calling a proper business meeting or notifying the Secretary of official acts, and provides a full financial statement showing receipts of $30.63, expenditures of $20.47, and a $10.16 balance.
- Correspondent 'Norb' reports that Division Secretary T.J. Willison has organised a new six-member club at Cynthiana, Ky., notes Howard S. Rodgers of Covington as the strong Chief Consul candidate after Covington was narrowly defeated by three votes in each of the last two years, and argues that the South and West deserve more influence in League governance.
- Correspondent 'White House' reports on the District Division's Feb. 26 meeting adopting proxy-voting rules capped at five per member, setting nomination and election dates for March 19 and 26, a planned Reception Meet during National Drill week, and the forthcoming launch of The Wheel Age, a new Washington monthly devoted to practical and scientific wheeling; also notes Ed. N. Bullock of Omaha defeating Tom Eck in a 100-mile race at the Omaha Exposition Building, finishing in 5h 59m 59s.
- Regular column of miscellaneous cycling notes covering Thomas Stevens' New York social engagements with the Citizens' Club, W.T. Fleming's 5,410-mile 1886 season, the intercollegiate bicycle championships at Manhattan A.C. on May 28, the New Orleans race meet at Audubon Park, Gormully & Jeffery's purchase of the Lillibridge Saddle patents, the Rudge Bicyclette selling out its first lot, and numerous other trade, club, and League items.
- Correspondent C.T.F. reports on the Springfield Bicycle Club's two-night Bicycle Minstrel Show on Feb. 22–23 at the Opera House for the Woman's Christian Association, featuring A.D. Morgan, C.W. Roane, and Frank Hills, and notes that the club voted 15 to 11 against holding a tournament this year, though reconsideration is possible if Mr. Ducker returns.
- Brief letter from Henry J. Hall Jr. correcting a misperception from the previous week's trade notices that he is a business associate of Messrs. Schwalbach and Willdigg.
- Correspondent 'Keystone' introduces Pittsburgh's three cycling clubs — Keystone Bicycle Club (founded c. 1880 under Col. E.J. Waring), Allegheny Cyclers, and Pittsburgh Wheelmen — plus the nearby Sewickley Valley Wheelmen under L.A.W. Rep. Murray, noting that the Star bicycle is especially popular given the city's steep hills, and describing the indoor riding school at Old City Hall and the 'Seventh Avenue' hotel as League headquarters.
- Correspondent 'Independent' covers Brooklyn cycling club news: the Long Island Wheelmen broke ground for a dedicated clubhouse on Feb. 23, the Brooklyn Bicycle Club held a well-attended monthly reception with vocal and banjo entertainment for seventy-five wheelmen, and the new thirty-member Calumet Bicycle Club organised with R. Mabie as president and W.L. Mills as captain.
- Correspondent L.B.G. praises Outing magazine's renewed commitment to wheeling coverage after his letter of complaint, reviews a photograph of the forthcoming Champion Light Roadster with favourable remarks on its saddle and handle-bars, comments on Rudge's slow start in the Minneapolis market, and discusses the C.T.C. Gazette debate over granting foreign Divisions more independence.
- Article reprinted from Wheeling describing improvements to Townsend's patent bicycle and tricycle saddle since its 1886 Stanley Show debut, including a dipped centre frame to prevent backbone contact, dipped front springs for closer rider positioning, and an adjustable pommel pin for tricycle saddles; Stoddard, Lovering & Co. of Boston will import it.
- Correspondent 'Kid' announces the Illinois Division's annual tour July 2–4 from Chicago via Aurora to Peoria (190 miles), reports on a pleasant Sunday boulevard spin that ended in mud, relays rumours that the Owls cycling club may disband, and covers the successful organisation of the Wisconsin Division L.A.W. at Milwaukee on Feb. 24 with A. Hathaway elected Chief Counsel.
- Letter from C.S. Butler, N.Y. Board representative, exposing Secretary-Editor E.M. Aaron's alleged appropriation of ~$5,700 in League funds, fraudulent suppression of proxies at multiple Board meetings, the L.A.W. Bulletin's $5,000+ deficit and its entanglement with E. Stanley Hart & Co. notes, while defending the Board's January 17–18 New York meeting and criticising Pennsylvania members who condemned its actions without knowing the facts.
- Short review of Cyclers' Record Book by V. Paul Ellis of Norfolk, Va. (10 cents, 1886), a neatly printed and white-bound pocket guide tabulating seven excellent shell roads near Norfolk with mileage data and useful route information.