The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 3, No 10
Articles in this issue
- Short editorial notes cover a proposed bicycle and tricycle exhibition at the American Institute Fair building in January, Woodside's departure for British Columbia carrying Ireland championship cups, the H. B. Smith Machine Co.'s new eight-lap cinder track on the Rancocus, and a debate over whether the American Star and the Otto qualify as bicycles for racing.
- The King's County Wheelmen's second annual reception at Knickerbocker Hall, Brooklyn, is described, with fancy riding by Ford Mason and Canary, a comic beginner exhibition by Professor Fred S. Rollinson, and a denial of rumours of a club split with the newly formed Long Island Wheelmen.
- Results from the Kentucky Bicycle Club's fall race meeting at the Exposition Building, Louisville, on November 25, 1882, include A. L. Pope winning the mile dash in 3m. 27s. and Chas. H. Jenkins taking a five-mile scratch race in 18m. 21½s. after Crawford fell and sprained his wrist.
- About 1,500 spectators at the Boston Institute Fair Building watched amateur Lewis T. Frye, on a 58½-inch Yale racer, defeat professional John S. Prince by just over a yard in a ten-mile race timed at 33m. 40½s.; the preceding two-mile amateur heats were won by G. M. Hendee of Springfield.
- S. W. Baldwin reports the organisation of the Long Island Wheelmen in Brooklyn, with F. J. Drake as President, H. H. Stults as Captain, and L. W. Baldwin as Secretary, with membership growth expected in the spring.
- League items list the board of officers and standing committees and report the Massachusetts Division meeting at the Marlborough Hotel on November 27, 1882, covering the adopted 'fish tail' guide-board design, safety signals, and a draft-constitution committee, plus new membership applications from Worcester and elsewhere.
- An editorial weighs Lewis T. Frye's decision to forfeit his amateur status by racing professional John S. Prince without League sanction, doubting whether professional bicycle racing in America yet offers a living and questioning the genuineness of the race after Prince's time ran nearly 25 seconds slower than his best.
- Three letters appear: 'Davy Derby' of Landisville, Pa., recounts a fifteen-mile snow ride and a literary-society debate on bicycling versus horseback riding; a Providence writer discusses local roads, club life, and optimal wheel size; and Albert S. Parsons rebuts the Bicycling World's claim that the Pope Manufacturing Company controls the League and its clubs.
- A first-person account follows the thirteen-man New York delegation, including Pequannock, Mt. Vernon, and Ixion club members, to the Thanksgiving Day 1882 Washington meet; the races were postponed until May owing to snow, but a parade of over 170 riders and a Capital Club dinner at the Riggs House, with speeches by Col. Pope and Dr. A. G. Coleman, are described.
- A column of pointed rhetorical questions on cycling politics asks why the Racing Committee would sanction an amateur-versus-professional race run by outside speculators rather than an authorised club, whether riders like Frye will improve professional racing, and whether the Ixion Club will join the League in a body.