The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 2, No 7
Articles in this issue
- Editorial miscellany marking this as The Wheel's Christmas number, noting the League badges are ready as gifts, reporting the B.T.C. Monthly Circular's new uniform UK railway tariff for carrying bicycles (23c. under 50 miles up to 57c. for 150) and its expulsion of A. H. Llewellyn Winter, and previewing the delayed January Century.
- A poem signed 'Geesee' of Marblehead, Mass., recounting three brakeless coasters who narrowly escape a swift-rushing train at a railroad crossing and vow never again to coast hilly ground without a brake.
- Club news reports a farewell supper at Hall & Scott's in Montreal honouring Captain C. J. Sidey of the Montreal Bicycle Club on his departure for Europe, and the semi-annual officer election at the Capital Bicycle Club, where C. E. Hawley was chosen President.
- Boston correspondent 'Handy Andy' reports that a proposed indoor-track tournament is nearing its $5,000 fundraising target (half already guaranteed), corrects an earlier error overstating B.T.C. membership growth, and notes the Crescents' drill in new uniforms at the Soldiers' Home Bazaar.
- A letter signed 'Capt. C. W. F.' surveying recent U.S. Patent Office Official Gazette items, including a vertically reciprocating bicycle drive the Pope Co. might buy, forging dies for head-blanks and rims, a new spherical steering head, a combined lamp-and-cyclometer, and a Chicago double-suspension-wheel 'safety' bicycle.
- Brief personal notes report that Llewellyn Winter has returned to England, that Mr. Conkling of the New York Club received a lash from buggy occupants who then fled, and that Wm. M. Woodside of the Manhattan Bicycle Club sailed for Europe on December 3; also notes American clubmen Taylor and Thorndike completing a continental tour from Dieppe to Aix-la-Chapelle.
- Two letters: a Montreal reader describes Captain Sidey's rousing send-off at the train station, and professional rider John S. Prince defends his claim to the 'Champion of America' title, declaring himself ready to race any challenger though none of the twenty professionals have taken him up.
- Detailed report of the amateur 50-mile championship at the American Institute, New York, on December 19, 1881, won by Geo. D. Gideon (Germantown B.C.) in 3h 13m 8.5s ahead of 15-year-old Frank Howard and Louis Stearns, with Britons Wm. Smith and C. D. Vesey retiring; mile-by-mile splits are tabulated and John Keen gave a three-mile exhibition afterwards.
- Editorial (signed J. W.) replying to the 'Boston Beans' letter and questioning whether American wheeling is truly progressing, arguing that Brooklyn has gone backward in 1881 and New York barely advanced, and urging readers to send in local road conditions and rider counts to gauge the sport's real state.
- A biographical profile of Charles E. Pratt, President of the League of American Wheelmen: born in Vassalboro', Maine in 1845, patent lawyer, four-time Boston City Councillor, author of 'The American Bicycler,' founder of the L.A.W. in 1880, and recently appointed attorney for the Pope Manufacturing Company.
- A first-person travel narrative in which the author and his friend Jack Conway set off by wheel from Paris toward Como in December 1880, are caught by a snow storm while climbing toward Chamounix, and are sheltered by mountain peasants in a ruined Savoyard chateau; to be continued.
- A column of New York theatre listings naming current attractions such as 'Patience' at the Standard, 'Esmeralda' at the Madison Square, 'The Mighty Dollar' at Booth's, and 'The Lights o' London' at the Union Square Theatre.