The Wheelmen's Gazette, Vol 4, No 3
Articles in this issue
- The narrative of the fifth annual Indiana L.A.W. state tour concludes, following the party through Blue Lick Springs, Lexington, Shakertown and Bardstown to a triumphant fifty-three-wheel entry into Louisville; signed by Orville W. Lawson of the Louisville Cycle Club.
- Untitled editorial jottings note P. C. Darrow's departure from the Gazette staff, an April novelette by Chas. A. Persons called 'Rip Van Rimple,' a coming series by 'Verax' on Chicago cycling clubs starting with the Lincoln Cycling Club, and a recap of the L.A.W.'s February 18 New York assembly electing Charles H. Luscomb president.
- A state-by-state digest of club doings for the period, including the Oakland Wheelmen's February 22 race meet, the Massachusetts and Boston Bicycle Clubs' annual dinners, the Kings County Wheelmen's and Universal Cycling Club's New York receptions, the Buffalo Bicycle Club's tenth annual banquet, the L.A.W. National Assembly, and a Pennsylvania Bicycle Club smoker.
- A two-line calendar listing a tournament at Woodstock, Ontario on May 24 and the Illinois Division's L.A.W. meet at Ottawa on July 4.
- Reports that after Judges Coffee and Berkshire were struck and injured by a wheelman scorching on an Indianapolis sidewalk, Indiana's Supreme Court, through Chief Justice Elliott, ruled on February 23 that bicycles are vehicles barred from sidewalks and that reckless sidewalk riding is assault and battery.
- A short seasonal poem by Chris Wheeler welcoming spring's return, with images of flowing streams, sprouting crocuses and humming wheels heralding the riding season.
- In this installment of the Gazette's recurring series, a New England correspondent signed 'Stamson' recalls first reading of cycling in the early 1880s, secretly buying a friend's old ordinary over his wife's objections, and coming to believe firmly in cycling's healthful benefits for both sexes.
- A compiled list of British patents granted from January 9 to February 7, 1889 for cycle improvements — brakes, driving chains, saddles, cranks, tires, lamps and steering gear — crediting patentees including J. K. Starley of London and G. Hookham of Birmingham.
- A comic one-act sketch reprinted from Bicycling News in which a pompous doctor keeps prescribing more cycling to an exhausted patient who turns out to already ride a butcher's delivery tricycle fourteen hours a day.
- A column of brief club notes and jokes, including the Harlem Wheelmen's March 13 reception, the Rutherford Wheelmen renaming themselves the Rutherford Field Club, the Ohio Tryon good-roads bill, blind boys at the Pittsburgh Asylum being taught to ride by Dr. Campbell, and the C.W.A.'s spring board meeting set for Toronto.
- A short comic verse mocking professional six-day bicycle racers and their manager, who 'skipped town' partway through the event.
- Campbell Rae-Brown's serial, reprinted from The Magazine of Sport, is narrated by a sociable tricycle recounting its purchase by young Charles Lopes and, over three chapters, the moonlit elopement it carries him and Clarinda Figsby on from her enraged father 'Old Snuffy' to her sister Mrs. Funkleberry's house in Walham Green.
- William Alva surveys trick-riding feats such as the unicycle (said to have originated when Italian rider Scurri broke his bicycle's rear wheel and kept practicing on one), riding with legs over the handlebars, standing on the saddle, and serpentine 'S' riding in formation.
- Reports newly elected officers at clubs including the Boston Bicycle Club, Detroit Bicycle Club, Hudson County Wheelmen, Indianapolis Wheelmen, Philadelphia Bicycle Club, Rhode Island Wheelmen, St. Louis Cycle Club, and the Aeolus Cycling Club of Chicago.
- Untitled press-notes column mentioning a new Amelie Rives serial in Lippincott's, the folding of The Magazine of Sport, a Cycler & Tourist piece on the late Brandon Lewis of Lafayette, Indiana, Stanley Show page-counts from British cycling papers, and a review of Gormully & Jeffery's 80-page 1889 catalogue.
- Captioned illustrations of four machines exhibited at London's Stanley Cycle Show: the 'Rosebury' military safety, the 'Nottingham' sociable, the Phillips triplet quadricycle, and the 'British Star' safety with its new frame.
- A practical instructional piece on mounting and dismounting a bicycle via the step, covering the standard method, mounting by the pedal, and the safer 'over the handles' dismount, recommending beginners practice at a city riding school.
- A dialect humor sketch, signed 'c. a. p.', in which the clubhouse's elderly attendant, Uncle Kerlumbia, dispenses mock racing advice to the young club members on sizing up a rival 'safety' rider's boasts and sabotaging his gear before a race.
- A satirical essay signed 'Kay Bee' mocks anti-bicycle sentiment through a mock-serious complaint about Indiana bills to ban bicycles while permitting cattle on the highway, then turns to deride arguments against women's suffrage.
- A humorous mock-glossary of racing jargon, defining terms such as 'The Rail' as 'a scolding wife' and 'Left at the Post' as 'the starter.'
- A physician warns that wheelmen who wear tight belts risk hernia from the strain of hill-climbing, citing two cases and recommending buttoned shirt-and-trouser bands sewn together instead of belts or suspenders.
- A short poem set in ornamental lettering; most of the verse is rendered illegible by the decorative typeface in this scan, though the heading and surrounding page text are clear.
- A poem signed 'Chris Wheeler' declares loyalty to an old ordinary high-wheel bicycle over the newer 'safety' machines then coming into fashion.
- A short lyric poem signed 'C. P. S.' personifies evening's arrival as a soothing gray-gowned figure lulling a 'weary' and 'heart-wrung' day to rest.