The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 3, No 15
Articles in this issue
- Wide-ranging editorial notes for January 10, 1883, covering Mayor Edson's pending Park Commissioner appointment, the planned six-day bicycle race at Madison Square Garden, Wm. M. Woodside's wish to race champion John S. Prince 25 miles for $200 a side, the amateur-status row over L.T. Fry and George Hendee stirred up by the English 'Cyclist, L.A.W. election apathy in New York State, the Boston Bicycle Club's new officers, and S.T. Clarke sailing to England to introduce the Rennyson safety detachable handle-bar.
- Reader letters from Middletown N.Y. (club members reviving indoor winter riding in a hired town hall), Canandaigua N.Y. (a solitary rider urging New York State wheelmen toward a state organisation), and Little Falls N.Y. (a correspondent contrasting the smooth roads of Boston with the steep hills of Herkimer County).
- A public challenge from Wm. M. Woodside, Champion of Ireland, depositing $50 with retired ex-champion Fred S. Rollinson, calling out John S. Prince of Boston to race 25 miles for $100 or $200 a side and the title of Champion of America.
- Fred S. Rollinson announces a six-day, 24-hours-per-day bicycle endurance contest at Madison Square Garden around January 28, 1883, open to all entrants and offering a world long-distance championship belt, billed as the first such event on either side of the Atlantic.
- The editor argues for New York City as the site of the next L.A.W. annual meet, contending the newly formed Citizens' and Ixion clubs supply the organisational muscle lacking in 1881, and urging New York wheelmen to petition the Park Commissioners for use of Central Park and the Polo Grounds on May 30th.
- A notice on the Aluminium Crown Metal Works Company of Hollywood near Birmingham, where inventor James Webster has patented a cheap process for producing pure aluminium and bismuth/aluminium bronze, drawing offers of over a quarter-million sterling from French, American, Belgian and German syndicates for national manufacturing rights.
- Annual election results for the Germantown Bicycle Club, held January 3, 1883: J. Whitall Nicholson elected president, with Dilwyn Wistar as vice-president, H.M. Linnard as treasurer, G.D. Gideon as secretary, and Wm. Wilson as captain.
- The Owl reports on the Ixion Club's New Year's reception at their 59th Street rooms, attended by Captain Beckwith, Vice-president Gulick and Secretary Smith of the Citizens' Club, Fred Jenkins of The Wheel, Wm. Woodside Champion of Ireland and others, hailed as the first reception ever held in New York bicycling society.
- The Owl's satirical column of questions touches on the Madison Square Garden six-day race, State Consul F.C. Bourne's hospitality, K.C.W. social plans, a defalcation of about $1,000 by the B.T.C. treasurer, and the social exploits of 'Necktie' Smith and other Ixion Club members.
- Official B.T.C. department giving membership application details (Frank Weston, Chief Consul, Savin Hill, Boston; $2.50 fee), names forwarded for membership (B.L. Knapp, Freelon Morris, Frank J. Pool), the appointment of Alfred Ely Jr. as Consul for Cleveland, and notice of the club's excursion to England sailing July 21, 1883.
- Official L.A.W. department listing the Board of Officers (President W.H. Miller, etc.) and standing committees, a notice that the Board voted to furnish membership-candidate lists to The Wheel, and new applications from Arthur K. Brewer (Tucson), Wm. A. Pickett (Worcester) and Benj. M. Norman (Philadelphia).