The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 5, No 9
Articles in this issue
- A gossipy New York column recounting champion Jack Keene's surprise confrontation with braggart Jno. Prince at Schuyler's shop, the Ixions' new club dog 'Beauty,' a mock contest for 'club liar,' and a caution against riders trimming their handlebars with ribbons. It also notes Louis Hamilton of the New Haven and Yale clubs trading his 60-inch Yale racer for a Star.
- Reprinted from The Cyclist, an English appraisal of America's first great camp, meet and tournament at Springfield, where 44,000 spectators saw all American records beaten. It rates the professionals Prince and Keen well below Wood, Lees and Howell and compares the camp unfavourably with England's Harrogate gathering.
- Correspondent 'Blitt' describes the Peoria Bicycle Club's new winter quarters on South Adams Street, opened November 15th with a gymnasium and reception room. Miss Minnie Wharn caused a sensation on a Victor Rotary Tricycle as the first lady to ride a tricycle publicly alone in the city.
- The full text of the League of American Wheelmen constitution, reprinted on request, setting out the League's objects, the $1 initiation fee for amateur wheelmen in good standing, and its structure of officers, Chief Consuls and state divisions.
- An 1881 essay (signed J. W., reprinted from The Wheel of July 6th) arguing that the future of American cycling depends on good roads, contrasting England's rideable network with America's cobbles, and calling on wheelmen from Halifax to San Antonio to report their local road conditions.
- The secretary reports the November 12th resignations of Albert Trego, Wm. Spurgeon and J. Day Flack and the election of E. R. Jones, Albert C. Kenly and Dr. H. W. Hoopes, then describes the lantern-lit November supper at Smedley House, Towson, where a member read a pun-laden comic essay on bicycles.
- A letter signed 'Murus' rebutting 'Phil Moore's' attack on the American Expert bicycle after its backbone broke while coasting, arguing that English backbones fail just as readily and that the Expert proved itself on the Chicago Bicycle Club's recent Canadian tour.
- Report of the Columbia Bicycle Club's races of November 14th-15th at the South Carolina State Fair grounds, where W. L. Pharr of Charlotte dominated the longer events and T. T. Gilmer of Charlotte took the mile and half-mile. Signed 'Le Secretaire.'
- Annual-election notices from the Junior Wheelmen of Baltimore (J. C. Guggenheimer, President), the Worcester Aeolus Wheelmen (Fred. S. Pratt), the Harlem Wheelmen, and the Providence Bicycle Club (Albert G. Carpenter).
- The official list of 46 candidates for League membership, arranged by state division, published under Article III of the Constitution by Corresponding Secretary Fred. Jenkins.
- C.T.C. consul and hotel-headquarters appointments for New Haven, Bethlehem, Marietta and Stockport, together with a list of new membership applications to date from December 31st.
- The Cincinnati Bicycle Club opened its Winter Riding Hall and School on November 15th with one-mile team championship races, Star fancy riding by Thos. Finlay, and a five-mile 'Enquirer' medal race that ended in a Pierson-Galway tie. Signed 'C. M. Galway.'
- An editorial urging the League fix sixteen as its minimum membership age, arguing that boy members cause the most trouble before the Membership Committee and that older riders shun clubs full of youngsters.
- Short editorial notes: wheelmen seen afoot on Evacuation Day, the Chicago Bicycle Club's club-house entertainment, and the Citizens filling their 75-member limit and raising the initiation fee to twenty-five dollars.
- Brief editorial replies to readers, including 'Kathleen Mavourneen,' who is told the New York Club is so far the only one with lady members and to apply to its Secretary, E. W. Adams.
- A humorous wheeling poem signed 'Dalt Wheelman' ('When I rose to the wheeling, My heart full of go'), in the vein of J. G. Dalton's verse advertised elsewhere in the issue.