The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 12, No 2
Articles in this issue
- The editors comment on a New York State bill to legally recognize wheelmen's road rights, criticize internal League politics and wire-pulling for office, welcome the arrival of spring, report on a rumored merger of the Ixion and New York Bicycle Clubs, and announce the launch of a new lawn tennis department.
- Karl Kron of New York warns American wheelmen to stop sending dues to London's Cyclists' Touring Club, whose secretary confessed in a London court on November 22nd to printing a forged letter over Jo Pennell's signature in the Gazette, drawing a scathing rebuke from Justice Wells.
- A nostalgic poem by The Welsher, reprinted from Wheeling, celebrating the famous Anchor Inn on the River Wey in Surrey as a favourite resting-place for English cyclists, with memories of the late Cortis and old friends of the wheel.
- Titnam opens a series on cycle-racing preparation, advising aspirants to have heart and lungs examined before hard training, then gradually reduce liquid intake and reform diet to shed excess fat and develop muscle, warning that poorly constituted men risk valvular heart disease or lung strain from over-racing.
- The Harlem Wheelmen held their inaugural annual dinner at Martinelli's for forty guests including Citizens Club and Long Island Wheelmen members; W.H. DeGraff presided as toastmaster, C.C. Bidwell urged support for the road-rights bill, and the newly renovated club house was opened to visiting wheelmen.
- Thornton, Mangrum, and Bailey of the Garden City Wheelmen of San Jose rode 110 miles to San Juan via Gilroy and back over the Santa Cruz mountains, camping overnight after flooding forced repeated dismounts and Mangrum took a header into two feet of quicksand; E.S. Jones and wife, lately of Denver, are noted as popular tandem riders in San Jose.
- N.L. Collamer's regular Southern Department editorial notes the upcoming Easter Monday Westminster Meet hosted by the Cycling Ramblers, reports suspense over the L.A.W. Division election results in Maryland and the District of Columbia, and criticises the League Uniform Committee's slow publication of specifications.
- The Baltimore Ramblers' premature printing of tickets naming S.T. Clark as Chief Consul candidate is explained: Clark had not been formally nominated and withdrew his name, and the club disavows the unauthorized move by a few over-eager members who paid the printing bill as individuals.
- Washington, D.C. cycling notes cover the Cycle Club's run to Brightwood, Harry Lammond's resignation and formation of the new Columbia Cycle Club with C.S. West as President and H.A. Lammond as Captain, and Bert Owen's offer of his Martha's Vineyard cottage for the summer outing.
- Correspondent "Noise" reports on improving road conditions around Cincinnati and Covington, the Avondale's new club-house under construction at Forest Avenue and Mound Street, and an 80-mile ride to Lebanon, Ohio and back by President Al Watcher and members of the Kenton Wheel Club and Wyoming Club despite rain-greased pikes.
- G.W. Ribble reports from Macon, Georgia on the re-organisation of local cyclists into the Central City Cyclists with seventeen active members, Dr. W.C. Gibson elected President, the club choosing to remain non-League to retain professional riders, and the quarter-mile bicycle track being overhauled.
- The Cycling Ramblers of Westminster issue a special invitation for all nearby clubs to attend their Bicycle Parade, Meet, and Trade Display on Easter Monday, April 11th, promising wheelmen will be welcomed and their wants attended to.
- R.H. Wakefield reports the founding of the Paducah Bicycle Club in Paducah, Kentucky on March 26th at Dr. N.H. Wilkinson's office, with twelve charter members enrolled, Wilkinson elected President, and J.R. Scales as Captain.
- N.L. Collamer announces the prospectus for the League's Southern Tour is ready, listing nine appointed road-masters from Philadelphia to Staunton, Virginia, at a per-capita cost of $24 deposited in a Philadelphia bank before departure, with deposit receipts already being issued.
- The Massachusetts Bicycle Club, with 210 members, carries a $2,100 debt and internal discord following a contested election in which a minority faction refused to accept the result; a $5-per-member assessment and subscription paper are proposed to clear the liability before the May 1 lease deadline.
- Philadelphia correspondent covers the resolution of the Aaron-Wells-Bassett controversy, spring stock preparations at dealers including Hart Cycle Company for Columbias and Tryon & Co. for New Mail and Victor wheels, and reports that Bart Keen of the University of Pennsylvania is the city's best racing prospect, while Kohler faces retirement due to heart trouble.
- The editor apologises for publishing a letter by "Felix" that insinuated Brooklyn Bicycle Club members Homan and Blood lacked brains while Potter and Jones lacked money, clarifying the piece was not written by a club member and that all four gentlemen are held in high repute.
- A humorous four-stanza cycling poem by "Jonah" that celebrates the speed and freedom of the wheel through moonlit nights and across hills, only to end abruptly when the rider strikes a stone.
- Jonah surveys New Jersey cycling for the season: Hudson County Wheelmen have grown past Elizabeth Wheelmen as the state's largest club; eight Star-riders compete for the H.C.W. Decoration Day team with Stenken reportedly faster than ever; the Plainfield Bicycle Club raised $550 at a fair; and Saich of Reber, Saich & Kluge is manufacturing the new King bicycle with Kluge to demonstrate it.
- Correspondent "5678" corrects a typographical error from the previous week (Bi-Monthly vs. Bi-Weekly League organ), reports that Dr. Kinch of Westfield has declined the Chief Consul nomination, that C.R. Hoag—the area's fastest racer—has joined the Essex Club as lieutenant, and that the Wanderers begin club runs on April 23rd with a century planned for June 4th.
- The Ilderan Bicycle Club of Brooklyn has engaged a three-storey frame dwelling at 71 Lincoln Place, eighty feet west of Sixth Avenue, to be fitted out with wheel rooms, locker and dressing rooms, a parlor, and a billiard room, to be occupied from May 1st.
- "Alek" surveys Brooklyn cycling at the season's opening, urging all League clubs to press for road improvements including Long Island signboards, paving of the Bedford Avenue hill, fairer L.I. Railroad rates, and electric lights on the Boulevards, and noting the growing popularity of tricycles and the Thomas Stevens lecture with 43 Brooklyn club members attending on April 16th.
- Hartford correspondent describes the Hartford Wheel Club polo team's away match at Unionville, won six goals to four despite a cramped rink, followed by a supper at future Chief Consul Mr. Tracy's home, and a subsequent 6-1 defeat at Meriden; Henry Goodman has opened a new athletic goods store on Main Street with Columbias, Spalding goods, and tennis racquets.
- W.J. Morgan writes from Dublin on March 20th about the American Cycle Team's transatlantic crossing and warm reception in Ireland—banqueted by the Londonderry Bicycle Club, greeted by the press and club cyclists in Belfast—before concluding arrangements with the Irish Cycling Association to compete at Easter sports on the Balls Bridge third-of-a-mile track.
- Short cycling news items cover Karl Kron's forthcoming 800-page road book due in May at $1.50 pre-publication, Thomas Stevens' illustrated book from Scribners, Boston-Albany railroad's new bicycle freight rates under the interstate commerce bill, a Boston-area inter-club road racing association being formed at the International Hotel, and the Cunard Company's new non-convertible tandem tricycle with Bessemer steel axle.
- A biographical sketch reprinted from Bicycling News on John Loudon Macadam (1756–1836), who devised his road-building system while surveyor at Bristol requiring stones broken to fit a two-inch ring and weigh under six ounces, contrasting his original method with the inferior mud-prone macadamised roads of 1887.
- R.L. Jones of the Calumet Cycling Club writes to correct a report attributing Hamilton's accident on the West Drive to illegal coasting; Jones, who was present, states Hamilton was thrown from his machine while riding at speed on the level below a hill, not coasting.
- The Kings' County Wheelmen have broken ground for a new $16,000 club house at Bedford Avenue and Fulton Street in Brooklyn, to include wheel, billiard, card, committee, toilet, and locker rooms with incandescent electric lighting throughout.
- A Wheel representative toured the Adams & Sons factory in Brooklyn to report on Tutti Frutti chewing gum—made from Mexican Chico Zapotis tree sap and proven non-injurious by chemical analysis—endorsed as a throat-moistener for long dusty rides, pre-race nerves, and rink use.
- Technical description of the new Star Tricycle for boys and young misses by the H.B. Smith Machine Company, with 26-inch driving wheels operated by alternating Star levers direct to spindles without chains, able to pass through a 30-inch door, adjustable for riders of varying sizes, priced at $100 complete in black enamel and nickel.
- The Wheel launches a new Lawn Tennis Department and solicits news from club secretaries nationwide, noting that Prospect Park is adding courts on the Nethermead and lower Long Meadow with general season permits for all applicants rather than reserved courts for individual clubs.
- The Monona Tennis Club, organized a year ago near the Harlem River with President Fred Greene, has proved remarkably successful with a full membership of thirty, two double turf courts, monthly winter receptions, and an opening-day tournament planned for May 30th.
- Fifty-nine of sixty-five clubs in the United States Lawn Tennis Association met at the Hoffman House on March 11th, electing R.D. Sears of Longwood Cricket Club as President, adopting the Wright and Ditson ball over the Ayres ball, and deciding to hold annual singles at Newport and doubles on the Orange L.T.C. grounds at Mountain Station, N.J.
- Secretary H.W. Slocum Jr. of Brooklyn reports sixty-nine clubs in the U.S.L.T.A. with an estimated membership of over six thousand, listing all member clubs from Albany to Yale University, with thirty-five belonging to the eastern district.
- Charles W. Saunders of Pasadena reports on a three-day lawn tennis tournament at Riverside, California in March among the clubs of Riverside, San Gabriel, and Pasadena, with Hostetter and Trevelii winning the Gentlemen's Doubles; the meeting also founded the Lawn Tennis Association of Southern California with James Bettner of Riverside as President.
- A circular from Frank Obear (President, St. Louis) and C.E. Chapin (Secretary, Chicago) invites Western tennis clubs to join the newly formed Western Lawn Tennis Association, arguing that a regional body with open tournaments would raise standards and allow Western players to compete without the expense of travelling East.