The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 5, No 6
Articles in this issue
- The editor's front-page gossip column reviews the close of the riding season, the N.Y. Athletic Club bicycle race won by Louie Stearns over Pettus, the K.C.W.'s new uniform, and Lt. Pearson of the Ixions failing to ride New York to Philadelphia in a day, while arguing amateur race meets should bar professional riders.
- A letter signed 'Thespian' recounts a week in Providence, Rhode Island, hosted by L.A.W. Chief Consul A.G. Carpenter and the Providence Bicycle Club, with runs to Pawtucket and Warren and a joint supper with the Pawtucket Bicycle Club. It closes by warning that an impostor calling himself H.H. Hall is swindling local wheelmen.
- Correspondent B.B.A. contrasts two financially failed professional tournaments (1879 and 1883) with Chicago's steady growth to over 500 riders, praising local inventions like the McDonnell odometer and Miller hub lamp. He previews the Chicago club's planned tour taking in Niagara, Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence Thousand Islands.
- A Philadelphia correspondent signing 'Tri Again' describes a twenty-mile tricycle and bicycle outing to Bryn Mawr and Haverford College with two lady cyclists over muddy roads, noting growing enthusiasm for lady cycling and talk of forming an L.A.W. ladies' club.
- The editors reprint a pun-laden circular issued by a neighboring club's secretary (signed 'Quill Driver') urging lapsed members to renew their interest and pay their dues, playing throughout on 'spokes,' 'hubs,' 'saddles,' 'tires,' and 'backbone.'
- Following a presentation by a committee from the Citizens Club, the New York Park Commissioners voted to remove all time restrictions on cycling the Riverside Drive, though League passes remain required as before.
- The official League department lists the Board of Officers (President Dr. N.M. Beckwith, Cor. Sec'y Fred Jenkins, Treasurer W.V. Gilman), the standing committees, Chief Consuls, Representatives, and Division secretaries and treasurers, plus a Treasurer's notice from W.V. Gilman about duplicated numbers on this year's membership tickets.
- The weekly list of 59 new L.A.W. membership applicants, grouped by club and division, with large blocks from the New Haven Ramblers and New Haven Bicycle Clubs and from the Camden City Bicycle Club of New Jersey.
- Nine members of the Hawthorne Club of Salem rode a certified 100.5-mile run from Salem through Lynn, Medford, South Framingham, and Sudbury and back in 13 hours 38 minutes total (11 hours 1 minute riding), timed by Secretary H.T. Conant with Ritchie's magnetic and Butcher's cyclometers.
- George Hendee beat English rider Robinson in a 10-mile bicycle race at Hampden Park, Springfield, before 2,500 spectators in a cold northeaster, shooting past on the home stretch of the ninth mile to win by about a second (last mile 3.06, total 39:12) and a $200 gold medal from the Springfield Bicycle Club.
- At the much-postponed Maryland Bicycle Club meet, A.B. Harrison won the 5-mile club championship (19:10.5) and 1-mile State Championship (3:21), while J. McK. Borden upset Frazier in the 2-mile scratch (7:11.5) and took the 3-mile handicap from scratch.
- Writing from his sick-bed with a broken leg, the editor urges wheelmen to fit a reliable brake and ride carefully, recounting a 200-pound club member who took the Boulevard hill unbraked, struck the curb, and tumbled fifteen feet down an embankment, and warning against reckless pace-setting and night riding.
- Edward K. Hill, Chief Consul of the Massachusetts Division, rebukes the Bicycling World for editorials faulting the League over signboards and route books, detailing the 150 guide boards placed, Consuls in nine-tenths of member towns with hotel discounts averaging 22 percent, and the state route book material being collected.
- Signed 'Bike,' a report on the New Haven Ramblers Bicycle Club's three-day fair (Oct. 29-31) that raised about $500 for new club rooms, with a nickeled bicycle won by J.D. Gibson, a diamond League pin voted to Dr. N.P. Tyler as most popular bicyclist, and visits from the New Haven, Meriden, and rowing clubs.
- Brief items on Robinson's failed bid for Hendee's title, the Citizens Club's planned move, the Ixion road race, the Pope Manufacturing Company's patent injunction against the St. Nicholas Toy Company of Chicago, and a winter western exhibition tour by professionals Prince, Higham, Woodside, Morgan, and James.
- Reprinted from the Times, a notice that the 75-member Citizens Bicycle Club of New York is erecting the first purpose-built wheelmen's club house, a 20.5-by-100-foot brick building on West Fifty-eighth Street near Eighth Avenue costing about $8,000, captained by L.A.W. President Dr. N.M. Beckwith.