The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-05-02
A Wonderful Runner.

The feals of our pedestrians, though
surprising enough. are cast into the
shade by the recorded exploits of Ernst
! Menscn, Norwegian sailor in the
, English navy, early in the present cen.
tury. Although for long time known
to his shipmates as an extraordinary
runner, he first attracted public atten-
ton by running from London to Ports
mouth, a distance of seventy-three
miles, in nine hours, on q wager that
he could not accopmlsh the feat in ten
hours, and soon after he ran from Lon
don 10 Liverpool, one hundred and fifty
miles, in thirty-two hours. Mensen
did not quit the. sea until he disiin-
guished himself in the battle of Navari-
no in 1927, but shortly after that date
he became a professional runner. Af-
ter winning number of lesser matches
he was induced TO undertake the great
feat of running from Paris to Moscow.
lie started from the Place Vendome at
! O'Clock in the afternoon of June IL.
1881, and entered the Kremlin at ten
O'Clock A. NJ. of June %, having ac-
complished the distance of 17GO miles
in thirteen days and eighteen hours.
| This feat, as might be supposed, Gre
| ated a decided sensation throughout
Europe, and the employment of Mensen
rs n courier extraordinary by kings and
princes became a popular amusement
III European courts. He ran from
country TO country, and from court to
court, bearing messages of congratula-
'lon, coincidence, or dispatches of great
er importance, and whenever matched
against the regular mounted couriers.
easily succeeded in beating them. He
always carried with him map a com
pass, and as many biscuits and ounces
OF raspberry syrup as there was to be
uays occupied on the journey. In win
ter he took with him pair of long
slender Norwegian snow shoes, and in
travelling he always chose the most d. |
rect line, turning out neither for noun |
tains nor rivers, but climbing the one
and swimming the other. He never
walked, but invariably ran, keeping up |
a long, swinging lope for hours at |
time without rest. His only refresh |
ment was one biscuit and one ounce of
raspberry syrup per day, aud two short
rests of ten or fifteen minutes each in
twenty-four hours. These rests he
took while standing and leaning
against tree or other object of sup
port. AT such times he covered his |
face with a handkerchief and slept, and
after such nap he would pursue his
way apparently as refreshed as though
he had slept for honrs.
In 1888 he started from Munich at
p. NJ, June G, with dispatches from
the King of Bavaria to his son Otto.
King OF Greece. These dispatches
were delivered at Nauplia at 9 A. NJ.
July |, or seven days sooner than i'll
they had been sent by the regular post.
In 1886, while in the employ of the
British East India Company, Mensen
was charged with the conveying of dis
patches from Calcutta to Constantine
pie through Central Asia. The dis
tance is 5615 miles, which the messen-
ger accomplished in fffty-nine days, or
IN one-thlrd OF the time made by the
wiftest caravan. On this wonderful
journey he made his way across terri
BILE deserts, awful salt swamps, where
for hundreds of miles he saw no living
being, and through countries whose in
habitants were savage robbers and who
lived in state of continual warfare.
AT last the project was broached to
Mensen to explore the Nile and attempt
to solve the most interesting geograph-
ical problem of the age, the discovery
os the sources of that great river. lie
set out from Silesia on May II, 1912,
and ran to Jerusalem, and thence to
Cairo and up the western bank of the
river into Upper Egypt. Here, lust
outside the village of Syane, he was
seen on the morning of January %,
1913, to stop and rest, leaning against
a palm tree, with his face covered by
a handkerchief. He rested so long
that some persons tried to wake him,
but they tried in vain, for he was dead.
lie was buried at the foot of the tree,
and 1t was years before his friends in
Europe knew what fate had befallen
him.