ON WHEELS
AROUND THE WORLD
FOR
THE INTER OCEAN
THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES
IN FOREIGN LANDS
--OF--
MR. AND MRS. H. DARWIN McILRATH.
Compiled from Letters Written by Mr. McIlrath and Published in
THE SUNDAY AND WEEKLY INTER OCEAN,
from April, 1895, to November, 1898.
Copyright, 1898,
By The Inter Ocean Publishing Co.
THE TOUR AT A GLANCE.
INTRODUCTORY.
PAGES.
Chicago Cyclists demonstrate their enthusiasm at the proposed
World's Tour awheel--Friends of the Inter Ocean endorse the project
by giving the McIlraths letters to friends in foreign lands--The
starting point left behind on April 10, 1895 5-7
CHAPTER I.
Two and one-half days getting into Nebraska--Many friends made
on the road--An unanswerable argument in favor of the "rational"
costume for women--An encounter with the law at Melrose Park and
what came of it 9-13
CHAPTER II.
Hard cycling in a hailstorm--A speeder with one leg arouses the
admiration of the World's tourists--In Colorado at the one-time
rendezvous of the famous James Boys and their gang--The 1,000
mile mark covered by May 3 13-18
CHAPTER III.
Made wanderers at midnight through the whim of an unreasonable
woman--Breaking a coasting record at Hot Springs, Colo.--Western
railroad beds as dangerous as the Spanish Mines in Havana
Harbor--An explosion and a badly lacerated tire 18-23
CHAPTER IV.
Lizards, snakes and swollen streams make traveling lively for
tourists--Paralysis of hands and arms necessitates a week's
course of medical treatment--"Tommy Atkins," most companionable
of Englishmen, forced to desert the Inter Ocean cyclists 24-26
CHAPTER V.
Vigilantes of Nevada mistake the wheelman for a notorious
bandit--Saved by one's gold teeth--Into Reno, where hospitality
has its abode--Quick time to California, and then off for the
Mikado's land on Oct. 12 29-33
CHAPTER VI.
Quartered at the Club Hotel, Yokohama--Japan's extraordinary
credit system--At the funeral of a prince, and a few points noted
on Japanese crowds--Uncle Sam's people get the best of everything
in Japan 33-38
CHAPTER VII.
His Highness, the Emperor, objects to being "shot" by a camera--The
war holidays at Shokausha Park, Kudan--By steamer to China--An
effective "gun" for Chinese dogs--Cyclists the center of many
inquisitive crowds 39-42
CHAPTER VIII.
Guests at a Chinese wedding--The dark side of life in China
sought and found--Indescribable horrors of a native prison--New
Year extravagantly celebrated--Mrs. McIlrath's pen picture of a
Chinese lady of fashion 43-47
CHAPTER IX.
Received in state by the Tao Tai of Su Chow--Invited to witness
the execution of a woman by the "Seng Chee" method--Debut of
the bicycle along the Grand Canal--"Foreign devils" pursued by
maddened mobs of natives 48-53
CHAPTER X.
The American people's able representative at Ching Kiang--A
reminiscence of his pluck and courage in settling claims for his
country--Wheeling by night in a strange country with mud up to
the bicycle hubs 53-57
CHAPTER XI.
Saved by a Mandarin from the clutches of an Asiatic
Shylock--Cyclists stray into the dangerous province of Hunan--Taken
into Shaze, the city of blood and crimes--The Yang-Tse Kiang
gorges from a houseboat 57-62
CHAPTER XII.
The Yang-Tse-Kiang in its fiercest mood turned to advantage by
a native undertaker--An appreciative Tai Foo pays the tourists
for calling upon him--Severe punishment of a grasping boatman--A
forced march to Chung King 62-66
CHAPTER XIII.
Coolie guides and luggage bearers desert the tourists--Opium the
curse of the Chinese Empire--The most dangerous stage of the
Chinese trip concluded at last--Chung King's conjurer gives a
remarkable street performance 67-71
CHAPTER XIV.
Inter Ocean tourists become tramps through rain and snow, with
the wheels carried on bamboo poles--Nearing the boundary line
of China--Sudden change of climate and a narrow escape from the
sunstroke--Chang, the Yunnan Giant 72-76
CHAPTER XV.
A toast to the United States on Burmese soil--"On the Road
to Mandalay"--Entertained at a wedding of royalty, where a
feature of the programme caused ladies to retire and bachelors
to blush--Hospitable British officers 76-81
CHAPTER XVI.
Rangoon suffers an attack of the bicycling fever--Native sports
supplanted by corrupt horse-racing--A prize fight where rules do
not count--Across the Bay of Bengal by steamer 81-88
CHAPTER XVII.
Arrival of the tourists causes great excitement at Benares--A
pretty trio of supercilious British wheelmen--Guests of the
Maharajah at Fort Ramnagar--A leap almost into the jaws of
death 88-94
CHAPTER XVIII.
Pursued by a maddened herd of water buffalo--A joke ends in a race
for life--The Yankee flag a conspicuous feature of the Queen's
Jubilee at Delhi--A reminder of the plucky but unfortunate Frank
Lenz 94-96
CHAPTER XIX.
Patriotism nearly lands McIlrath in a native prison--A night of
terror attributed to Rodney, the pet monkey--Cyclists stricken
with fever and become helpless invalids at Lahore--Bicycling much
more comfortable than English national traveling 97-102
CHAPTER XX.
Last days in India spent during the dreaded monsoon season--The
pet monkey's appetite for rubber brings about an annoying
delay--Officials refuse to let the Inter Ocean tourists follow
out their plans and ride through Beloochistan 103-107
CHAPTER XXI.
On board the "Assyria" bound for Persia--American firearms
come in handy when road agents ask for "presents"--Climbing the
Alps child's play compared with crossing the Kotals of Persia
108-112
CHAPTER XXII.
A visiting card left on the Porch of Xerxes--At the ruins
of Persepolis--Some plain truths, as to the character
of the Armenians--Lost in a snowstorm on the peak of a
mountain--Mrs. McIlrath's feet frozen badly 113-118
CHAPTER XXIII.
The most miserable Christmas day ever passed by man--The Sultan's
cavalrymen forced to admit the superiority of the bicycle--Deserted
by a cowardly driver on the road to Teheran--The trip to Resht
made by carriages 118-122
CHAPTER XXIV.
Landed in Russia three years after leaving Chicago--Easter
Sunday in Tiflis, the "Paris of the Caucasus"--In sight of Mount
Ararat--The pet monkey commits suicide in Constantinople--A Turkish
newspaper joke--Roumania the next country entered 122-126
CHAPTER XXV.
Saluted by the king of Roumania--A country where cyclists are in
their glory--Splendid riding into Austro-Hungary--Vienna gives
the Inter Ocean tourists the heartiest of welcomes--Munich and
its art galleries 126-130
INTRODUCTORY.
PROPOSAL OF THE INTER OCEAN TOUR--ENTHUSIASTIC CHICAGO WHEELMEN
ATTEND THE RECEPTIONS TO THE CYCLISTS--THE START ON APRIL 10.
Beyond tests of speed involving championships and world's records,
there have been few performances in the recent history of cycling to
attract more general notice than the world's tour awheel of Mr. and
Mrs. H. Darwin McIlrath. In the early Spring of 1895 the Chicago
Inter Ocean, appreciating the great interest taken in cycling all
over the country, planned this remarkable trip of more than 30,000
miles. From the moment of the first announcement of the McIlrath
tour to the time of their home-coming, interest in and admiration
for the Inter Ocean Cyclists never abated. Letters of inquiry at
once began to come in so thick and fast to the Inter Ocean office,
that to facilitate matters and more thoroughly acquaint the public
with the details of the tour than could be done in the columns of
the Inter Ocean, a series of receptions was tendered to the intrepid
riders for several days prior to their start. The large room at 101
Madison Street, Chicago, was secured for the purpose, and for days
Mr. and Mrs. McIlrath received their friends and admiring enthusiastic
Chicago wheelmen. The crowds in front of the building became so great
gradually that special policemen were detailed to keep the throng
moving and traffic open. Among those who visited the McIlraths were:
Mrs. K. B. Cornell, President of the Ladies' Knickerbocker Cycling
Club, Roy Keator of the Chicago Cycling Club, J. L. Stevens
and W. C. Lewis of the Lincoln Cycling Club, Frank T. Fowler,
Frank S. Donahue and Frank Bentson of the Illinois Cycling Club,
O. H. V. Relihen of the Overland Cycling Club, Miss Annis Porter,
holder of the Ladies' Century Record, Thomas Wolf, of Chicago-New York
fame, Letter Carrier Smith, who has made the trip from New York to
Chicago five times, David H. Dickinson, S. J. Wagner, O. Zimmerman
(a cousin to the famous A. A.), Frank E. Borthman, R. B. Watson,
Dr. and Mrs. W. S. Fowler, Mrs. J. Christian Baker, Mrs. L. Lawrence,
John Palmer, President of Palmer Tire Co., Gus Steele, Yost racing
team, C. Sterner and Grant P. Wright, Ashland Club, H. J. Jacobs,
C. G. Sinsabaugh, editor of "Bearings," Mesdames A. G. Perry, George
E. Baude, Helen Waters, D. W. Barr, C. Hogan, Mrs. Doctor Linden,
George Pope, Robert Scott, Misses Kennedy, N. E. Hazard, Eva Christian,
Mrs. Charles Harris, J. G. Cochrane, Pauline Wagner and Ada Bale.
Many of those who called, though utter strangers to the tourists,
upon the strength of their friendship for the Inter Ocean brought
letters of introduction for Mr. and Mrs. McIlrath to relations and
acquaintances in the foreign lands to be visited. The itinerary as
planned by the Inter Ocean was as follows:
Start from Chicago, April 10, 1895: Dixon, Ill.; Clinton, Cedar Rapids,
Des Moines, Council Bluffs, Iowa; Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island,
Neb.; Denver, Pike's Peak, Colo.; Cheyenne, Laramie, Green River,
Wyoming; Salt Lake City, Ogden, Utah; Elko, Reno, Nev.; Sacramento,
San Francisco, Cal.; steamer to Yokohama, Kioto, Osaka, Niko,
Kamachura, Papenburg, Japan; steamer to Hongkong and Canton, China;
the Himalayas, Bangkok, Siam, Rangoon, Burmah; Calcutta, Benares,
Lucknow, Cawnpore, Agro, Lahore, India; Jask, Teheran, Tabriz,
Persia; Erzeroum, Constantinople, Turkey; Athens, Greece; steamer
to Italy; Turento, Pompeii, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan and Nice,
Italy; Toulon, Marseilles, France; Barcelona, Valencia, Carthagena,
Gibraltar, Spain; steamer across channel to Tangier and Cadiz; return
via steamer to Gibraltar, Lisbon, Portugal; Madrid, Spain; Bordeaux,
Orleans, Paris, France; Brussels, Belgium; Frankfort, Germany; Vienna,
Austria; Berlin, Germany; Warsaw, Poland; St. Petersburg, Russia;
steamer to Stockholm, Sweden; Christiana, Norway; steamer to Great
Britain, Scotland, England and Ireland; steamer to New York, Buffalo,
Erie, Penn.; Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Chicago.
It had been intended for the tourists to depart from Chicago at 7
o'clock on the morning of April 10. After farewell receptions at the
Illinois Cycling Club and the Lake View Cycling Club, it was decided,
in view of the popular demand, that the hour for departure be changed
until noon. So it was that as the clock in the Inter Ocean tower
struck 12 on Saturday, April 1, the credentials and passport, which
was signed by Secretary of State Gresham, were given to Mr. McIlrath,
and in the midst of a crowd numbering thousands, and with an escort
of hundreds of Chicago wheelmen, the Inter Ocean cyclists were faced
west and started on their tour of the globe.
Captain Byrnes of the Lake Front Police Station and a detail of police
made a pathway through the crowd on Madison Street to Clark. Cable
cars had been stopped and the windows of the tall buildings on each
side of the street were filled with spectators. A great cheer went up
as Mr. and Mrs. McIlrath mounted their wheels to proceed. They could
go only a few yards so congested was the street, and they were forced
to lead their wheels to Clark Street, north to Washington and west to
Des Plaines. Here they mounted and the farewell procession was given
its first opportunity to form. A carriage containing Frank T. Fowler,
John F. Palmer, John M. Irwin and Lou M. Houseman, sporting editor
of the Inter Ocean, led the way. Next came a barouche containing
Mrs. Annie R. Boyer of Defiance, O., Mrs. McIlrath's mother. The
escort of cyclers, four abreast, followed, with the tourists flanked
by the secretaries of the Illinois and Lake View Cycling Clubs. At
the Illinois Club House came the leave-taking, and not until then
could the tourists be said to be fairly started.
The unlooked for events of the three years following 1895, chief among
which was the Spanish-American War, caused several material changes
in the itinerary of the McIlraths as originally planned. Though
accomplished successfully, the long trip across Persia, taken during
the dead of winter, resulted in delays that had not been anticipated
and after the cyclists had entered Germany, it was deemed best by
the promoters of the enterprise to bring the tour to an end. Mr. and
Mrs. McIlrath left Southampton, England, the first week in October,
1898. After landing in New York they took a rest of several days
before starting overland to Chicago. The route from New York to
Chicago led through the following cities: New York to Yonkers,
Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Albany, Schenectady, Canajoharie, Utica,
Syracuse, Newark, Rochester, Buffalo, Fredonia, New York; Erie,
Penn.; Geneva, Cleveland, Oberlin, Bellevue, Bowling Green, Napoleon,
Bryan, Ohio; Butler, Kendallville, Goshen, South Bend, La Porte Ind.;
through South Chicago and Englewood to the Inter Ocean Office.
[The McIlrath equipment consisted of truss-frame
wheels made by Frank T. Fowler, of Chicago, fitted
with Palmer tires and Christy saddles furnished by
A. G. Spalding & Bro.]
CHAPTER I.
PROGRESS ARRESTED BY A POLICE OFFICER IN MELROSE PARK--A PLEASANT
RIDE OF TWO AND A HALF DAYS INTO IOWA AND NEBRASKA.
When I consented to the plan of going around the world I intended
to make the trip alone, but my wife pleaded so hard to accompany me
that I finally concluded to take her. She is a brave little girl, and
rather than considering her a burden, I now look upon her as having
been of great help to me on our memorable voyage. Aside from the fact
that she is an expert wheelwoman, she is also an unerring shot. Nerve
she possesses in abundance, as all will agree after reading of the
adventures which befell us. The outfit with which we started did not
exceed fifty pounds each. Both of us rode diamond truss-frame Fowler
wheels, weighing 26 and 27 pounds each. The saddles were Christy
anatomical, with Palmer tires, and everything from handle-bar to
pedal was stoutly made. Mrs. McIlrath wore the "rational" costume so
often derided by dress reformers, and I may say here, that had these
same reformers witnessed the advantage of the "rational" costume
upon some of the haps and mishaps which come to world's tourists,
their arguments would be forever silenced. All of our luggage was
carried in a leather case which neatly fitted the inside angles of the
bicycle frames. Our personal apparel consisted merely of a change of
underwear, as we depended upon the stores in towns along our route for
new clothes whenever we should need them. The remainder of our luggage
cases contained photograph films, medicines, repair outfits, etc. My
"artillery," for which there was great use as it afterward happened,
consisted of two 38-caliber and one 44-caliber revolvers.
To cyclists who contemplate a trip such as I have just made, or even
one of lesser proportions, I can say that these three cannon are as
necessary as a repair kit. They come in handy at the most unexpected
times, and next to the pistols, I know of no better arms to carry
than credentials from such a paper as the Inter Ocean. My credentials
were necessary before we had been three hours out of Chicago, since
through them we escaped an arrest, which meant certainly ten days
or ten dollars. It happened in Melrose Park. We had come through
Garfield Park to Washington Boulevard, through Austin, Oak Park and
Melrose Park. The roads were abominable, and in order to take to the
Northwestern tracks we were forced to return to Melrose Park. Being
overjoyed at the sight of any smooth surface, we could not resist
the temptation to ride on the sidewalks of this pretty suburb. Then
it was that we were arrested. I pleaded with the officer and offered
to pay a fine without the delay and inconvenience of standing trial,
but he was firm in refusing to release us. At last I showed him my
Inter Ocean credentials. Just as promptly he let us go, and remarking
to a fellow officer that "it did not pay to buck against newspapers,"
he went so far as to assist Mrs. McIlrath on her wheel and start us
again upon our way.
When we took the Northwestern tracks at Melrose Park our party
numbered ten. They were: Ed. Porter, Tom Haywood, William Floyd,
G. M. Williams, A. E. Wood, William J. Dilner, J. M. Bacon,
F. W. Mechener, E. M. Lauterman and Miss Annis Porter. So far as
Geneva, where we had supper, and where our escort left us to return to
Chicago, the journey was without event. Two and a half days out from
Chicago we were in Clinton, Iowa. We met friends all along the line
who extended us hearty greetings. Not one of them was in ignorance of
our tour and the Inter Ocean enterprise. Farmers called to us from
their fields; engineers, as they whizzed by us, saluted with their
whistles, and passengers in the coaches behind threw us notes, fruits
and flowers. Since leaving Chicago we had eaten four meals daily,
sandwiched with countless drafts of creamy milk, and yet the cry
arose from us both, "I am so hungry." But the farmers were generous
and we were never refused, and wherever remuneration was offered It
was invariably declined.
We were met at Clinton by a party of twenty-five wheelmen and
escorted into the city. Mrs. McIlrath and I had been reinforced
by Messrs. William Boyd and J. E. Spofford of Dixon, Ill., through
which city we had passed; Mrs. Scoville, who had been our hostess at
Dixon, and herself so ardent a wheelwoman that she could not refrain
from joining us for a few miles; and Harry Ferguson, a son of State
Senator Ferguson of Sterling, Ill. When we left Clinton on Saturday,
April 13, we had been invited by the press, municipal officers and
the entire cycling fraternity to remain over for Sunday, which was
Easter. The bright weather and the prospects of good roads, however,
overweighed the social inducements, and we started at 4 o'clock
Saturday afternoon. The promises of good weather were not fulfilled,
and Mrs. McIlrath and I spent our Easter of '95 on the road in mud
above our tires. In a chilling rain we rode into Cedar Rapids, where
our entertainment and reception was royal. Frank Harold Putnam of the
Merchants' National Bank, who, it is needless to say, is a devotee
of the wheel, and his sister, Miss Caroline Putnam, of the Saturday
Record, Cedar Rapids' society journal, gave us a warm greeting. With
them we dined at the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bell and
through them we received from Messrs. C. D. Whelpley, Ben E. Miller and
Harry Hodges of the Occidental Cycling Club, a letter of introduction
to the Hon. Nicholas M. McIvor, United States Consul at Yokohama. There
was much of interest to record during our stay in Cedar Rapids, chief
of which was our visit to the Indian Reservation near Tama. Of this
visit, I may mention that the squaws and the noble red men which came
under our observation were more than sufficient to disillusion us,
who had been fond readers of Longfellow's "Hiawatha."
Hard riding, rain and the consequent exposure had got in its work
upon me by the time we struck Marshalltown, but on the 19th, in spite
of the advice of physicians, I started our party, being aided in the
carrying of luggage by Mr. Ferguson, who remained with us. At 4:30
o'clock on the afternoon of April 19 we pedaled into Des Moines, the
capital of Iowa. The dime museum man was on the alert for us, and we
had been in the Kirk wood Hotel scarcely half an hour before my wife
and I were offered $25 an hour each, for four hours' exhibition of
ourselves. It is a waste of ink to say that the offer was declined
without thanks. Our night in Des Moines was the most comfortable we
had yet spent. The following day we were entertained at the State
House by Governor and Mrs. Jackson and Private Secretary Richards. The
Governor is a hearty believer in better roads and he is an admirer of
cycling. He expressed sincere admiration for the world's tour awheel,
and declared his admiration for the Inter Ocean in furthering such
a project. The Des Moines Wheel Club entertained us lavishly in the
evening, though while at the club house the tour of the globe was
menaced with sudden termination. The brand of Marshalltown fever,
which I carried away with me, was such that a physician ordered me
promptly to bed. The sun, I am confident, was responsible for my
condition. We had been out of Chicago ten days, and two-thirds of the
distance was done over railroad beds. We had journeyed almost 300 miles
over ties and trestles, suffering intermittently with paralysis of the
hands. Often we were compelled to ride along a narrow shelf scarcely
12 inches in width just outside the track and ballast, where the
slightest deviation from the course would have caused a plunge down
an embankment frequently 30 feet deep. This, too, was accomplished
upon a heavy laden wheel with the glare of the burnished steel in
our eyes. My physician's advice was that I remain for several days in
Des Moines, but anxiety to reach the coast moved me to depart Sunday,
April 21. Fifty cyclists rode out of town with us and saw us fairly
upon our hilly ride to Council Bluffs. Bad weather was encountered,
delaying our arrival in Council Bluffs until April 23. Wheelmen from
Omaha and Council Bluffs awaited us upon the outskirts of the latter
named city, and in triumph we rolled into that splendid center of
the Republic--Omaha. Here we found that the veteran Jack Prince had
stirred much enthusiasm in wheeling, and a banquet at the "Pump House"
was the first of the chain of entertainment in store. The "Pump House,"
it should be known, is a handsomely appointed club house under the
patronage of the Omaha Wheel Club. Its name is derived from a large
pneumatic pump which stands invitingly to all cyclists outside of the
main entrance. Our stay in Omaha was pleasant and, from our selfish
standpoint, only too brief. When we started away the afternoon of
April 25, a pretty surprise and compliment was Mrs. McIlrath's when
she found her wheel literally one of gorgeous flowers. Since we
left Chicago no larger crowd has wished us good-bye than the one in
Omaha. Our friend Ferguson left us here, stubbornly refusing to bear
back with him our cargo of souvenir spoons. These precious mementos are
all very well in their way, but hardly the thing for two persons who
intend pedaling their way over the world. We were already threatened
with having to charge ourselves excess baggage. Lincoln, the capital
of the state, turned out almost to a man to receive us. The Capital
City Cycling Club escorted us on our visit to Governor Holcomb,
to whom we presented a letter of introduction. It was through the
kindness of the Governor that we visited the State University, and
with him we attended the theater in the evening.