The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 3, No 12
Articles in this issue
- The editor challenges the L.A.W.'s newly adopted three-foot track measurement standard, printing a letter from Henry Sturmey of The Cyclist confirming English tracks are measured one to eighteen inches from the pole, and adds notes on the Citizens' Club rooms, Chief Consul Cullen and Buffalo representative J. O. Munroe being too busy for League work, the Kings County Wheelmen, and the abandoned Institute race meeting.
- Four reader letters: S. W. Baldwin of the Long Island Wheelmen encloses Brooklyn Police Commissioner Jas. Jourdan's ruling that bicycles are legally vehicles and exempt from Sunday-riding interference; 'C.' recounts a two-day Orange County tour from New York through Goshen to Middletown; 'Ninon Neckar' describes the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club's first winter club skate on Fairmount Park lake in Philadelphia; and 'S69' of Haverhill, Mass. grumbles about the endless Boston-versus-Massachusetts club quarrel and asks for comparisons of the 'American Sanspariel' and 'Expert' machines and advice on riding suits.
- The pseudonymous columnist 'The Owl' poses arch questions about club gossip and racing men, asking who would win a ten-mile scratch race between Woodside, Hendee, and Place, why everybody accuses Oliver of being the Owl, and whether the Pequonnock Wheel Club at Bridgeport has a 'soft snap' with Sumner in the county clerk's office.
- An editorial laments that wealthy cyclists fail to support the cycling press, describing well-to-do young men who read office copies of The Wheel and The Bicycling World without subscribing, and announcing a combination offer of $2.50 a year for both The Wheel and The Wheelman arranged with the Wheelman Company.
- Responding to a Wheelman editorial on what constitutes a professional, the editors agree that anyone earning a livelihood by teaching bicycling — in a rink, on a track, or anywhere — is a professional under the L.A.W. rule as amended, but disagree that the amateur/professional distinction is itself unjust, defending the League's rule as substantially in accord with the N.A.A.A. and B.T.C.
- The editor urges clubs to devise winter activities to keep members together, praising the Boston Club's 'chop club' hosted by 'Papa Weston' and President Pratt — a Saturday gathering of about twenty-five men consuming thirty pounds of mutton chops — as a model others should imitate with dinners or literary evenings.
- Thanksgiving Day racing at the Olympic Athletic Club grounds in Oakland: H. C. Finkler failed to beat H. C. Eggers's Pacific Coast mile record of 3:15½, posting 3:24¾ on a heavy track, while W. F. Fisher won a one-mile scratch race over G. R. Butler and Edwin Mohrig in 3:33 (credited to the Breeder and Sportsman).
- By telegraph from Boston, December 18, 1882: professional champion John S. Prince beat former League champion Lewis T. Frye in a ten-mile race at the Institute Fair building for a $100 silver cup, winning in 32m. 44s. on a new 53½-inch Columbia Racer; E. Burnham won the two-mile amateur heats over W. M. Woodside, and H. M. Saben took the mile straightaway for non-winners in 3m. 21½s.
- An L.A.W. official-organ notice records the Board of Officers' October 20 Boston vote to furnish lists of membership candidates and league notices to The Wheel, then lists names forwarded for membership (E. S. Sumner, Geo. H. Johnson and Chas. E. Godfrey of Bridgeport, Chas. A. Gall of Millbury) and newly appointed state consuls (Fred. G. Bourne, New York; J. A. Cross, Rhode Island; J. S. Dean, Massachusetts) and local consul G. Farmer of Providence.
- An appeal from the newly organized Massachusetts Division, signed by Chief Consul Fred. S. Pratt and the executive board with secretary F. P. Kendall (Box 589, Worcester), urging non-member wheelmen to join before the new League year, describing plans for road maps, guide boards, and a state-wide consul network, with a $1.00 entrance fee covering both National and State membership.
- An appeal signed by Treasurer W. V. Gilman of Nashua, N.H. calling on League representatives to support their Chief Consuls, retain existing members, and actively recruit, urging the League to abandon mere self-defense for a policy of 'active aggression' now that it is well and firmly organized.