The Wheelmen. 21 Dec 1891, Mon
San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California)
Newspapers.com
The Wheelmen.
The Alameda Bicycle and Athletic Club, as it will be known after January 1st, has empowered its ways and means committee to draw on its treasury for the necessary amounts to fit up clubrooms at the Schuetzen Park. The members of the club are very enthusiastic, several of them spending all day yesterday working in the new rooms. The entrance of the grounds has been adorned with a new sign, the name of the club, the old park name being entirely done away with.
A delegation of cricket players visited the grounds yesterday and requested that they be granted permission to lay out a cricket court in the grounds. If a sufficient number of the cricket players express a desire to have a court no doubt they can be accommodated.
The club is highly elated over its rapidly increasing membership, many San Francisco business men, resident in Alameda, having recently joined among them, Messrs. Osborn, Curtis, Mastick and Dr. Van Orden, the vice-consul of California Division, L. A. W. The “Niche" congratulates the club on its success.
The lady members of the San Francisco Bicycle Club, with their customary originality, gave an entertainment on Friday evening to the gentlemen of the club which was both a novel and an appropriate one. It consisted in having a Christmas tree upon which was a present to each member, and most all the gifts were singularly happy ideas, which could only have been evolved after much searching into the characters of those present. After a little musical entertainment, which was followed about 9 o'clock by Dr. Curragh, the retiring president, being appointed as Santa Claus, a position which he filled admirably, the distribution of presents commenced. The first was to the newly elected president, Thomas R. Knox, which consisted of a handsome gavel, and for which he returned thanks in a neat but brief speech. Many other presents followed in rapid succession, but perhaps the one that caused the most merriment was that of a little George Washington hatchet, which was handed to the newly elected secretary, Thomas S. Cobden. This may have been intended as a hint to “chop off" some of those great stories for which Mr. Cobden is so noted, or possibly only to point out the great similarity between the great George and Cobden, neither ever having, etc.
Besides the musical entertainment and Christmas tree, the ladies had provided a splendid lunch, and to this ample justice was done. Dancing followed to a late hour. The members through these columns desire to thank the ladies, and particularly Mrs. Owens, with whom the happy idea is said to have originated, for the pleasure afforded them.
The much mooted question of a consolidation of the Cyclists and the Garden City Wheelmen of San Jose seems to be drawing to a close, a meeting of the two clubs having been held Saturday evening to discuss the matter and make necessary arrangements.
One of the clubs has a lease of some rooms in a building now being built and it would seem as though a union of the two would be the most sensible plan for all concerned.
The rains of the past week, while putting a stop to wheeling for yesterday, gave the cyclists a good opportunity to thoroughly enjoy their club-room fires.
A billiard and pool and also whist tournament are on the list of the Bay City Wheelmen for the coming winter months.
Captain Doane of the Bay City Wheelmen has recently developed into a swimmer of no mean abilities. On a recent trip along the San Bruno bay road the doughty captain, who by the way is still riding the G. O. O., struck a small hole and was thrown into the bay. The way he struck out for shore was most graphically described by J. K. Thornton, who was riding with him. ["G. O. O." = "Good Old Ordinary." - MF]
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