Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-05-30
Edward Payson Weston.

An American who I'm, .in"nriaily done
well III England is Edward Payson
Weston, the pedestrian, So Thoroughly
Yankee in speech ana person is Weston
that he is at once accepted in that coun-
try as Il representative American. |
knew him well during his career in the
United States, and regard him as a
most remarkable walker 1t was not
SO much that he was able to leg it 800
miles in six days, and did it several
times before the long distance record
exceeded his limit Of endurance, but
his more wonderful achievement was
that of being a professional athlete
without any association with profess
sional sporting men. He did not for
years enter into race. His walks
were scientific tests of human ondur-
ancc.' had to do with one OF these
events as newspaper reporter.
"Who are to be the iudges?n Iasked.
"Oh, I'll have Prof. Doremus, the
Rev. DR.. Hepworth, and Judge DAILY"
he replied.
Nonsense" said l; 'they won't let
rs use their names in connection with
foot-race."
"See if they don't" he confidently
retorted land what's more, they will
actually serve-at least for the first
day.
And so they did, Moreover, they lent
him the money with which to pay the
preliminary expenses. lie had been a
book agent That was calling in
which he developed wonderful ca
pacity for working and talking. His
persuasiyeness was equal to gaining the
names and presence of the three mem
toned eminent men. Added to this
was store of good luck. James Cor
don Bennett was among the spectators
at the midnight start, lie is strong and
expert at nearly all kinds of exercise
including pedestriansm. The notion
took him to occupy the tr ok with
Weston for the first mile. The next
mornings papers gave accounts of the
start, placing the professor, the divine.
and the judge in the scorers stand and
the journalist on the track. Nothing
more was needed to command fashion
able attention. The building was
thronged throughout the week by people
in fine clothes. Ladies were abundant.
The distance covered by the pedestrian
was only 435 miles. for this was the oc-
casion of one of his several failures TO
go the promised 500. Now that the 90
as-you-please record has been raised to
675, Weston's earliest performances at
heel-and-toe walking seems insigniii-
cant. Nevertheless, the 435 miles were
quite sufficient to satisfy the spectators
then, and he cleared nearly $4,000.
SEQ that he is now plodding through
England as total abstinence pedestri-
an, travelling fifty/niles every day and
lecturing on temperance every evening.
He will fool them on the distance walk
ed if he gets the chance, for he never
failed to resort to trickery whenever il
was feasible; and as for the advocacy
of non-alcoholism, l have seen him drink
beer in a safe place while publicly pro-
claiming adherence OF it.
Then Weston is fraudep No, he is a
lunatic. A mentally wilder man never
passed for sane one. He has made
fully 800, 900 in pedestrianism and all
of it is gone, After winning a great
London match and $4,000, he spent the
whole in three months at Brighton. A
line of creditors mark the entire route
of his pedestrianism, and yet he could
not keep a dollar In his last effort in
this city, at the Madison Square garden
races, he was attended on the course
by three men in livery.
Il want to show that am gentle
man" he said. "and not mere pedes-
TRAN. Cor. Baltimore american.