The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 2, No 13
Articles in this issue
- A miscellany of short items: a 37-member club in London, Ontario making its first 20-mile run of the season on March 5th, the planned entertainment at Mason's riding-school on March 29th, the Kings County Wheelmen's annual dinner and reception on March 17th, the raffle of a Special Columbia by Company C of the 9th Regiment, and a critique of the Sportsman's reporting of John S. Prince's race against time.
- Reports from several clubs: the newly formed Cortlandt Wheelmen of Peekskill, N.Y. (five members, captained by E. F. Hill); the Essex Bicycle Club's third annual meeting at Newark electing President E. H. Snyder; the Ixion Bicycle Club of New York organised March 9th with Frank Egan as President; the Lenox Bicycle Club under Captain E. Y. Weber; the Manhattan Bicycle Club's second-anniversary dinner at Martinelli's with President Randolph Hurry; and the Montreal Bicycle Club's fourth annual meeting chaired by H. S. Tibbs.
- Boston correspondent 'Handy Andy' weighs the candidates for the L.A.W. annual meet (Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York, the last hampered by the unsettled Park difficulty) and previews the Boston Bicycle Club's indoor race meeting and machine show at the Institute building on April 6th, where new amateur riders are expected to surprise the established racing men.
- Brief notes on prominent wheelmen in town, including Chas. E. Pratt, Frank Weston, A. A. Pope, and T. A. Hayward (Consul L.A.W.); acknowledgement of imperials from Chas. H. Jenkins (winner of the recent 50-mile inter-club race) and Orville Anderson of Louisville; the crushing of Frank Egan's diamond watch-charm; and Wm. J. Smith, amateur champion in England, defending his reported two-mile time of 6:08½ in the Bicycling Times.
- A letter from H. C. Bagot of 100 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Australia, dated 4 January 1882, enclosing twenty-five cents for a copy of the paper and requesting the Cunningham & Co. illustrated bicycle catalogue, illustrating the magazine's international reach.
- An editorial (initialled J.W.) on the contested amateur/professional distinction, arguing it is short-sighted to exclude trade-connected riders from club membership while accepting that racing fairness requires separating professionals from incidental riders, and calling for revision of the vague L.A.W. Rule 24 on what constitutes 'pursuing' bicycling.
- Announces the appointment of A. G. Spalding & Bros. of Chicago as sole Central Agents of the Cunningham Co. for the Northwestern States, handling the Harvard, Yale, and Shadow machines, expected to advance the trade and the prospects of bicycling throughout the great Northwest.
- Notice that the Bicycle Touring Club's financial year expires March 31st and that U.S. members should renew by sending 2s 6d to Secretary S. A. Auty at Bradford, Yorkshire, or 75 cents to the U.S. Chief Consul, with renewals dispatched by the mail leaving New York on Saturday the 18th.
- A sardonic item reprinted from Andrews' American Queen ridiculing the New York cycling-ball debacle in which Revell decamped with the funds, leaving the bicyclers unable to raise the $50 needed to open the hall and their guests to go home disappointed.
- A detailed letter from G. F. C. Smillie, L.A.W. Director for New Jersey, written from Plainfield on 18 February 1882, indicting the League's failures — a single instance of assistance rendered (the Haddonfield Turnpike case), the $250 Handbook, the $700 Directors' meeting, infrequent meetings and unfair elections — and proposing a reorganisation modelled on the U.S. Government and the Masonic Order.
- The draft reorganised constitution accompanying G. F. C. Smillie's letter, setting out the League's name, objects, amateur-membership definition, and a new government of Executive Committee, Commanders, State Boards of Directors, Directors, and Consuls with their respective powers and duties (continued onto p.102, marked 'to be concluded').