The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 6, No 2
Articles in this issue
- A comic narrative poem reprinted from the Transcript in which a young couple, Gussie and Mamie, elope on a sociable bicycle and outrun her father's English cart, after which the father vows to take up the wheel himself.
- An untitled New York city column on the Citizens Club's costly new "white elephant" clubhouse, the forthcoming Mercury club, the Ixions relocating to the Citizens' old headquarters, and a club's secret circular to scratch the lone Ixion from the League state ticket.
- Boston correspondence signed "Lewee" reporting the snowy Fast Day opening of the season, the Ramblers' new Hotel Berwick rooms, the Massachusetts Club's growth to about 130 members and its new Newbury Street clubhouse lot, and the new five-lap track at the Boston Union Athletic grounds.
- M. E. Graves of the Citizens Bicycle Club recounts securing an Attorney-General ruling, through Congressman C. R. Skinner, that bicycles accompanying travellers from abroad are personal effects admitted free of duty, reversing the seizure of Karl Kron's and F. A. Elwell's wheels on their return from Bermuda.
- The Citizens Bicycle Club's April 28 race meeting at the American Institute is drawing wide public notice, with reserved seats selling fast, evening training hours of five to seven set on the nine-lap track, and a handsome programme designed by artist E. N. Blue.
- Annual elections and club news from the Hudson County Wheelmen, the Aeolus, Maryland (petitioning the League to readmit non-League clubs to the parade) and New Jersey Wheelmen, the Manchester and Youngstown Bicycle Clubs, the newly formed Druid Cyclists of Maryland, and the Kings County Wheelmen.
- Racing Board chairman Geo. D. Gideon announces that the L.A.W. championships at Washington on May 20 will comprise the twenty-five, ten, three and one-mile bicycle and one-mile tricycle races, with $1.00 entries closing May 15 to Abbott Bassett.
- Committee members Stephen Terry and Edward K. Hill submit the approved League hotel contract and certificate forms, recommending the certificate serve as a permanent ornamental sign and that its engraved plate be deferred while the treasury is low; the contract text follows on the next page.
- A pledge appeal to raise $500 toward the League's Championship Race Meeting, listing the first $80 in subscriptions from Frank A. Egan, Fred Jenkins, Geo. R. Bidwell, Fred G. Bourne, N. Malon Beckwith and others.
- An editorial tracing the history of L.A.W. championship races from the 1881 Polo Grounds meeting through 1883, noting that Hendee holds the one-mile medal twice and Gideon the two- and three-mile medals, while A. H. Robinson's twenty-five-mile trophy is in England and W. W. Stall disputes a stolen tricycle medal.
- The official list compiled by Corresponding Secretary W. V. Gilman of new League membership applicants, grouped by the Washington D.C., Ohio, Connecticut and New York State divisions, published for the required two-week objection period.
- Corresponding Secretary W. V. Gilman, endorsed by President N. Malon Beckwith, urges League officers and committeemen to send their Washington-meet reports to The Wheel by May 3 for advance publication, so delegates arrive informed and business is not consumed by reading reports aloud.
- A. G. Coleman of Canandaigua argues that the League rule measuring race tracks eighteen inches from the pole is incompatible with the horse tracks used for most bicycle races (measured three feet from the pole), and would invalidate past records unless revised.