The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 6, No 22
Articles in this issue
- A short poem signed 'Juvenis' of Boston, dated August 8, reflecting on the wheelman's philosophy of savoring past rides rather than fretting over future weather or mishaps.
- Department of brief news notes: the Karl Kron "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle" subscription canvass reaching 1,773 pledged dollars, Stoddard, Lovering & Co. receiving a line of Rudge racers, Star saddles from the Missouri Wheel Company now ready for market, and the Scranton Bi. Club combining its first annual race meet with its third annual hop in October.
- Boston correspondent reports on a proposed multi-day tournament by the Boston Union Athletic Exhibition Company, the Massachusetts wheelmen's reunion and parade set for September 5 on Commonwealth Avenue near the Hotel Vendome, and a Municipal Court case in which Chief Consul Weston prosecuted a teamster for blocking the road, with Judge Adams affirming that bicycles and tricycles are vehicles under the statutes.
- Full account of the Ohio Division L.A.W. meet's closing day: a parade of some 400 wheels through Cleveland to Wade Park, then races including the 20-mile Pope Cup won by A.C. Bates of Cleveland, the one-mile state championship won by C.W. Ashinger in 3m 21.5s, and the ten-mile won by Chas. Frazier in 37m 24s, closing with a banquet at Weisgerber's.
- W.J. Morgan and Fred Westbrook of Brantford, Ontario, have signed articles for a ten-mile race for $500 a side and a $200 belt donated by a Hamilton patent-medicine dealer, to settle the long-disputed Canadian championship at the Brantford Driving Park.
- Dispatch from Brantford, August 27, that the ten-mile championship race between Westbrook and Morgan resulted in a victory for Westbrook by two feet in 33 minutes 15 seconds.
- Account of the Pittsfield Bicycle Club's annual tournament of August 14 (1,800 tickets sold): Charles Frazier of Smithville won the open half-mile and five-mile, L.D. Hamilton of New Haven won the two-mile open in 6.27.5, and H.S. Wollison won the five-mile Auchmuty Cup (valued at $150) in 18.32.
- Humorous continuation of a canal-towpath touring narrative, with a tall tale of Tom careening pole to pole and tumbling into the canal (rescued with a tyre used as a life preserver), a fantastical migration of terrapins, and an encounter with a ruined man who has spent decades vainly pumping to drain the canal in revenge for it crossing his land.
- Editorial preview of the upcoming season of meets: New London, Ohio (Sept. 3-4), Hartford, Conn. (Sept. 9), the Albany New York State Division L.A.W. meet (Sept. 10-11), the Philadelphia-Germantown-Pennsylvania joint meet (Sept. 13), the Springfield professional tournament with imported English riders (Sept. 16-19), and the New Haven Club's amateur meet (Sept. 23-24).
- Letter from Ray Van Vecten, Secretary pro tem of New London, Ohio, announcing a two-day tournament on September 3-4 with $800 in prizes, a torchlight procession, Mr. Dolph giving speed exhibitions, and J.S. Prince, the world's champion, racing against horses.
- Letter signed W.H. Eel arguing that amateur race prizes have grown so valuable that winners openly sell them, blurring the amateur-professional line, and calling on clubs to cap prize values to preserve the honor of amateur racing and avoid the financial ruin already suffered by several bicycle clubs.
- Correspondent 'The Tramp' of Brattleboro reports on the local Bi. Club's new dark-blue uniform and a satin banner gifted by the young ladies' Red Letter Day Club, its First Annual Races on August 16, and area road notes (routes to Greenfield, Mass. and Hinsdale, N.H.), rebutting Fred A. Coleman's claim that Brattleboro had no bicycle club.
- Letter from Charley Beginnis describing how four Rushville, Indiana wheelmen — Geo. P. Davis (225 lbs.), A.B. Irwin, Lewis Keck, and Wm. George — rode 200 miles from Rushville to Cincinnati via Richmond, Dayton, and Springfield, Ohio in four days, with Davis praised as perhaps the finest heavyweight rider in America.