Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-11-14
.QbIo Statesman.
from Colonel Dan Rice
10 Weston.
CONTINENTAL HOTEL,
PHII,ADEIPHIA. Oct. Doth. 1868.

|
EDWARD PAYsoN WESTON, ESQ.,
In accordance with the promise 1 volun
tary gave you, based upon the condition
precedent of your successfully perform
| ing the feat at White Plains.- of walking
100 miles in less than twenty-five and
one-half hours, now make you formal
proposition, as follows:
If you will walk 5000 miles, as you
propose, in one hundred consecutive
days, subject to the subjoined regulations
and instructions, hereby bind myself
to secure to you, by general contribution,
IA purse of not less than twenty thousand
dollars.
| You are neither to lay any wager
yourself upon the result of your effort
to walk 5000 miles, as aforesaid, nor to
permit any other person or persons to do
so in your behalf or for your interest.
In accomplishing said 5000 miles,
you are to start from the city Of Bangor,
Maine, on OF before The ~1st day Of De-
cember next, between the hours of 2 and
A o'clock P. NJ, and proceeding via the
city of St. Paul, Minnesota, by such in
termediate points as you may elect, con-
clude your journey at the city of New
York, on or before March 18th, 1869,
between the hours of and o'clock P.
M. of that day.
You-a are to accomplish the said dis
tances of 5000 miles within 100 days
from the time of starting from Bangor,
including Sundays, but in no event will
YOU be permitted to walk between the
hours of midnigbto On Saturday and mid
night Of Sunday, at any time during the
prosecution of said journey.
/ You are to be accompanied by not less
than eight responsible persons, none of
whom are to be directly interested in the
success or failure of your journey, all of
whom shall be duly sworn to diligently,
faithfully and impartially discharge the
duties of judges, time-keepers and pro-
tectors, and not less than three of whom
shall be designated, by me. 81 ~
You shall be accompanied by at least
one carriage during the whole of said
distance of 5000 miles, to which shall
be attached aPrescottSs Gage edometer,
by which the distance walked by You
from day to day and the total number of
miles accomplished by you shall be de-
termined.
Such odometer shall be in the exclu-
sive charge of the judges aforesaid,
whose duty it shall be to detach it from
/ the carriage at the end of each days
| route, in the presence of some disinter-
ested and responsible citizen of the town,
| whose attention shall be specially called
! to the index, and in whose presence the
| distance as noted by it shall be entered
i in a diary of distance to be regularly
/ kept by the judges for that purpose. Said
odometer to be again attached to the
4 carriage in the presence of said citizen
4 just previous to your again starting on
1 your journey, and his attention to be
! then called to the index, that he may be
/ able to determine whether the same has
! been changed or not. 2GT TGi
I Whenever it shall be advisable or me-
/ cessary for you to cross any ferry or fer
i ries, Immediately previous to so doing
you shall walk double the distance to be
ferried.9 ueIdistance to bedetermi6ed
by the ferryman in charge of the ferry,
subject to the approval of the judges ac-
companying you - it being understood
that such distance or distances shall not
be included or allowed for in computing
the said distance of 5000 miles.
| During said journey you are not, at
at any time or under any circumstances,
on any secular day, to enter any vehi-
Gle used for transportation, but are to
walk invariably, whether prosecuting
said journey or not.
| You are to walk invariably not more
than 100 feet in advance of the princi-
pal vehicle containing the judges accom-
panying you. 4 ! 'Hlf
| You are not to avail yourself of the
assistance ef any means of transporta-
tion or of that Of any person or persons,
directly or indirectly, to aid you in the
act of walking.
| No delay or detention shall be allow
ed for except where it shall be clearly
proven that the same was the result of
malicious injury to your person; but in
the event of such injury, if of charac-
ter to permanently disable you or pre-
vent you from successfully prosecuting
| your journey, am to fulfill my obliga-
tion as if the said journey had been ac-
complished as hereinbefore agreed
i All questions with reference to said
Tourney arising during the prosecution
thereof, to be decided by a majority of
the judges accompanying you.
| The postmaster of each city or village
1 through which you pass shall be entitled
to seat in the judges carriage, either
| for himself or such friend as he may
designate, and every reasonable facility
shall be extended him for the purpose of
enabling him to satisfactorily determine
the manner in which yourself and your
Judges prosecute said journey, provided,
however, that no such person shall be
privileged to occupy a seat as aforesaid
for greater distance than nine miles.
| All expenses incident to said journey,
or the preparations therefor, to be borne
by you.
| In making the above proposition am
governed by two motives-frst, to be
the humble instrumentality of rewarding
you for display of physical and moral
courage in the face of almost insur-
mountable obstacles and most cruel and
undeserved suspicious and criticisms;
secondly, to foster and encourage taste
for pedestrianism, made requisite by the
fashionable and enervating Incidence of
the times.
| am pleased to be able to say that
regard you, in every respect. as a gen.
! tleman fit to be the, pioneer in this sadly
neglected branch Of physical culture
1 am not prepared to predict success in
SO herculean task as the one proposed,
but 1 believe that you can and will ac-
complish it if fortune favors your efforts.