The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 12, No 3
Articles in this issue
- Brief editorial noting the significance of a cable dispatch republished from the New York World about the utility of the bicycle, calling it a positive step toward the day when the lay press forces cycling's merits upon public notice.
- Club news covering the Kings County Wheelmen and Ilderan Bicycle Club securing superior new quarters, strong League renewal figures, and growing preparations for the Thomas Stevens welcome reception at which K.C.W. expects to muster sixty men in full uniform.
- Special correspondent reports sixty wheelmen from Baltimore clubs — Ramblers, Marylanders, Centaurs, and Baltimoreans led by C.C. J. Kemp Bartlett — paraded through Westminster, MD at Carroll County's semi-centennial celebration before an estimated twenty-five thousand spectators who cheered them as the best feature of the display.
- Fred Foster and G.H. Orr, Captain of the Toronto Wanderers Club, set out east on the Kingston road expecting spring conditions but were stopped by a six-foot snowdrift, returning half-frozen and mud-covered after twelve miles of ice and falls.
- Assemblyman Cantor of New York City presented a bill recognizing the bicycle as a vehicle with full road rights and privileges; it was referred to the Judiciary Committee with private support from Speaker Husted and Lieutenant-Governor Jones.
- The Brooklyn Bicycle Club's annual meeting elected L.W. Slocum President, A.B. Barkman Captain, and unanimously voted Thomas Stevens to honorary membership.
- Full returns from the New York State LAW election across six districts totalling 945 ballots; G.R. Bidwell received 940 votes for Chief Consul, and in the Second District Bridgman and Loucks of the K.C.W. led with 245 and 238 votes respectively.
- Short news column noting Wm. Woodside's new Irish one-mile record of 2m.44s. at Dublin, the Omaha Wheel Club's April 5th officer elections, Prospect Park's new ruling allowing tricyclists on the paths, Isaac Potter's trip to Albany to introduce the Roads Bill, and commentary on the proliferating claims of bicycle inventors.
- Southern department editorial by H.L. Collamer noting Virginia's nomination of J.C. Carroll of Norfolk for LAW Chief Consul and arguing that Hagerstown's June 2nd race date, set after Washington and Baltimore meets, risks poor attendance.
- Regular correspondent reports Easter cycling around Washington DC, including a run to Harper's Ferry via Great Falls by Pettingill, Stearns, Fishback, and Barrington of the Cycle Club, and notes of a planned hare-and-hound chase by the District Wheelmen.
- Update on Mr. Collamer's League Tour: B&O Railroad officials are seeking a numerical guarantee from Bidwell before committing to reduced fares to St. Louis, and the list of Roadmasters for the full tour route is now complete with J.L. Long and J.E. Small newly appointed.
- New Orleans correspondent 'Bi.' reports the N.O. Bicycle Club may vote to leave the LAW amid bitter internal divisions, criticises the club's deserted clubhouse and $1.50 monthly dues for minimal benefit, and speculates that Captain A.M. Hill's midday training on a Columbia is aimed at sweeping the annual races as much as a projected New Orleans-to-Portland summer tour.
- Correspondent 'Norb' satirises a Kenton County farmer's petition against bicyclists on public roads, then describes George Hendee demonstrating his wheel on Cincinnati's Race Street before being moved on by police who the next day watched local riders without interference.
- The Hagerstown club has scheduled spring races for June 2nd on the Agricultural Association's half-mile elliptical red clay track, with seven sub-committees working to prepare the surface using a forty-ton steam roller.
- Norfolk Seaside Club correspondent V.P.E. reports J.C. Carroll's unanimous nomination for Virginia Chief Consul, notes that most members ride Victors and are reluctant to change, and describes Mr. Field's plan to tour Salem to Harper's Ferry via the Luray Caverns and Virginia Springs.
- Correspondent 'Gas.' gives a vivid account of the St. Louis wheelmen's Sunday run over the De Soto Road hills to Bulltown — with riders Greenwood, Hildebrand, and Cupid Baker tackling brutal grades, broken handlebars, and a gale on the Frisco summit — and previews the League Meet programme including a river excursion on the Charles P. Chouteau and a visit to the Anheuser-Busch brewery.
- Extensive news column covering the CTC Gazette's piracy of the L.A.W. emblem, the Badminton Library 'Cycling' volume by Viscount Bury and Lacy Hillier, Charles Richards Dodge's departure for Europe, Rhode Island's new road racing association with nine clubs, the University of Penn. Bicycle Club road race on April 22nd, and amateur-professional races at Sydney won by Fred Wood with 17 points.
- Correspondent 'Jonah' celebrates spring's arrival with a survey of excellent macadam road conditions in the Oranges, NJ, reports the Roseville track will reopen under a director committee rather than a paid manager, and proposes an annual inter-city road race challenge between the N.Y./N.J. and Boston associations.
- Correspondent L.B.G. reports a late blizzard delaying spring riding, George Hendee's demonstration of the Springfield Roadster at Armory Hall with 1,236 orders reported since he started out, and the Minneapolis Bicycle Club's pleasant new rooms at 211 Nicollet Avenue with fifteen new membership applications pending.
- The Wheel interviews American artist Jo Pennell about riding Humber safety bicycles with Pall Mall Gazette journalist Norman on a roughly 250-mile reconnaissance of the Franco-German frontier in March 1887, passing through Verdun, Metz, and the Vosges Mountains while evading German military guards, and discovering a German army corps of fifty cyclists in Strasbourg trained as military messengers.
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch report on LAW annual meet preparations: a two-day programme on May 20–21 under general chairman W.M. Brewster includes board sessions, a parade of 800 wheelmen, a river excursion, and a banquet at the Lindell Hotel; the finance committee has raised $660 toward a $5,000 budget with 1,000 visitors expected.
- The Massachusetts Bicycle Club's April 5th meeting, chaired by President Charles Richards Dodge, resolved $1,871.80 in debt — owed chiefly to Pope Manufacturing ($1,162.41) and the landlord ($560) — by unanimously voting a $5 assessment per member; a committee was also named to draft resolutions on the death of Horace B. Wilbur, the club's oldest member, at seventy.
- Reprints a cable to the New York World reporting that over 800 bicycle and tricycle scouts at the British Army's Dover Easter manoeuvres outperformed cavalry in speed, secrecy, and cross-country agility during a simulated foreign invasion exercise, with celebrated riders Bernard and Mr. Tooth among those attending.
- Correspondent 'Dixey' previews the University of Pennsylvania Bicycle Club's 25-mile road race on April 22nd on the Lancaster Pike with Page and Whitaker as principal contenders, and notes a Philadelphia rider plans to import the Ivel safety bicycle despite a 35% duty.
- Correspondent '5678' reports on spring rides in the Oranges, NJ: the Wanderers will not enter the N.Y. and N.J. Team Road Race after fast man Baird relocated to Montreal, Star orders at the Smithville factory cannot be filled, and importers and domestic manufacturers are slow to deliver new pattern machines.
- Correspondent 'Bon.' reports poor road conditions between Brooklyn and Jamaica, a wheelman named Bolff badly injured in a deliberate collision on the Boulevard on Easter Day, the Ilderan Bicycle Club's new three-story clubhouse at 71 Lincoln Place, and Thomas Stevens' upcoming lecture at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 16th.
- Correspondent 'Keystone' reports the Allegheny Cyclers and Pittsburgh Wheelmen made successful Good Friday runs to Bakerstown, and describes a proposed quarter-mile bicycle track at the Bicycle School with an eighteen-foot-wide circuit pending a $500 guarantee from interested clubs.
- Detailed specifications and press review extracts for the Quadrant Tricycle imported by S.T. Clark & Co. of Baltimore: central geared with Quadrant differential axle, seven ball bearings, 40-inch driving wheels, and a Quadrant Roadster triumph cited as Alfred Bird's unassisted ascent of Weatheroak Hill near Birmingham.
- Letter from S. Tar of Newark clarifies that Dr. Kinch declined the LAW Chief Consul nomination before Dr. Cooley was proposed — citing inability to give the office adequate time — and notes the nominating committee recorded that Cooley would not have stood had Kinch been in the field.
- Letter from B.B. Ayers, Transportation Committee, explains that the new Interstate Commerce Law has unsettled railroad pass practices but specifically exempts excursion tickets, so the St. Louis meet committee has omitted fares from its schedules pending the commission's official interpretation.
- The Hyde Park, Mass. Ramblers opened their season with a hill climbing contest on the steep gravel of Maple Street near Mt. Neponset, W.S. Scott placing first ahead of H.S. Peare and J.P. Bird, followed by a club run to Dedham and an athletic entertainment at headquarters in the evening.
- Brief Baltimore notes: the Maryland Club attended the Westminster Meet en masse, Bartlett is expected to be re-elected Chief Consul, and Harry D. Hedger & Co. have built the new Swiftsure bicycle — 32 inches and 41 pounds — for road racer R.A. Neilson.
- U.S. Lawn Tennis Association executive committee, with R.D. Sears presiding at the Hoffman House, set the national singles championship at Newport on August 22nd and doubles at Orange on September 6th, and granted regional championship dates to the New Haven, Scarlet Ribbon (Chicago), St. George's, and Young America clubs.
- Lawn tennis club notes covering officer elections at the Passaic Lawn Tennis Club and the New Haven Lawn Club (membership at its 250-person limit with $2,300 in bank), and formation of the Middlesex County Tennis League in Lowell, believed to be the first county league in the country.