The morning call., 1892-12-28

Mo, and w: J.. Sachtie D n OF Alton, Ill.
Their featis no 'ess than the girdling of the
most Of the world ON bicycles, the most
wonderful portion Of the trip being the
crossing of Asia Minor. Persia. Turkistan
:. and China on the modern two-wheeled
!. ,teed. =.
!, Two college men,: bronzAd, robust, self
" reliant, witt no assumption Of manner. they
seemed to THE GALL reporter who inter
viewed them yesterday the very type OF the
: modern successful traveller.
fSaehtleben is. 26 years of age. short of
stature. dark OF complexion. and. hardened
:. and burned: by exposure. he seems per-
: feet type of strength and endurance. Mr..
Allen. "a years old, shorter of stature than
=: his companion and not so robust In appear
ance, is still man who one would pick
= out as capable of supporting almost any
= hardship. -: -.
1t must be remembered that the young
: adyenturers, amply supplied with means,
! started on impulse, with 40 idea of making
an athletic record advertising anything or
- anybody, but simply wishing to see the
world, and believing the best way to do so
was on their IA machines.
Alone, unaecompanied by guide, servant
OF attendant, unacqnainted with the lar-
.guages of. the countries traversed, unpro-
=. Wded with clothing or bedding except what
they wore or carried on their machines in
:: front of them. having no. provisions. ex-
: cept what they purchased at the towns and
: villages on the way, they tTaversed thou
sands of miles of. unknown country. part Of
:: II a sandy desert, aud most OF it, where in
=. babred at all, Inhabited by people of a rude
: and barbaTous nature, and they arrived safe
. and well at their journeys end.
AZ
said they yesterday,
. We went to school and college to ogether,
and on.June Is, 1890, graduated from Wash
= .ington University. ST. Louis, Mo.
."The next, day We started on our bicy-
cies for New York. via Washington and
=. Cincinnati. An. odd thing was that we had
not had mach previous experience in riding
- and had many tumbles en- route. Our ma
chimes were nf the safety pattern.
=. I'VE left New York June %, arriving in
Liverpool July g. and there we purchased
" our bicycles with which we made the tour,
although we had no idea of makng;it then,
= But purchased because they were cheaper.
.After a trip through Ireland. Wales,
Scotland and England we came to London,
: where we decided TO go round the world by
Asia: "
j. 'Leaying london on September IS, we
went to Newhaven and crossed the channel
TO Dleppe and proceeded via Rouen 10 Paris,
where We, had very good time.
- :"Fhe Club de- Cyelistes de Paris enter
tained US, and. accompanied US out Of the
city at Porte Maillot on the road to Yer
;sailleS as far: as Charities, a distance of
eighty-ive miles. where we parted at
farewell dinner.
=: :: Here let us say that the French and
E.u1y liSh iadC ba has
- cyclists as we found them. The English
wind more. :and:so are more domestic, pic
: tnresqqe and Interesting, but the French
military roads are magnfcehtly direct.
- From Charsres we went to Angouleme,
POitiers and Bordeaux, intending to 60
through Spain, but gave up the idea on ac-
count OF the, ~chofera- there prevalent. In
stead we went oyer the lesser Alps, through
the picturesque Cantal. region to Mar
. seilles, ya-Ayignon and Mines, the roads
being good; and hard-rQlled throughout.
From lMarseilles we wheeled along the
Riviera route, ON the shores of the Medter-
. ranean, a section acknowledged to be be-
you'd compare for scenery, Sometimes we
were raised -aloft. and again down on the
: plain with the blue waters of the land
locked: sea on: one side and the snow
capped mountains on the other.
Like patriotic Americans. we did not
" tairto visit Cogoleto.. the home of Colum-
. bus: We: saw. his. house and the little
monument raised near by to his memory.
. ITO Genoawas but step, and thence we
proceeded to Milan and thence to Athens,
=: whence Mr. Allen made a trip back to
london, e ard after his return we set
out on our fortypound heavy roadsters for
:: ConstantiHople.-
q: - "Iherewe made angements for pass
ports, etc. for our passage of Persia and
Tqrkistaii.
Our first exploit, of which we are little
. proud was the. scaling of Mount Ararat,
where Noah's ark, you know, was supposed
TO have rested after the food.
We are the first Americans thatreached
top and the natives could hardly be-
lieve we had succeeded :;
We started on July and reached the
summit July 4; where We celebrated the
American holiday by waving an American
:: flag and firing off shots from our revolvers.
'On our return the Governor Of Bayazid.
a Greek. gave a dinner in our honor
The ascent, we may mention, has been
sworn. to- and ls registered In Washington,
! D: c.; :
-. "Apropos We were rather amused by
articles In q certain San Francisco news
paper. pufporting TO portray the discovery
OF: the ark on Mount Ararat. The only
sign of ii we saw was an immense big rift
In the mountain side, which we imagined
might have been made by the elephant
sliding down after his exit from at tenn
poEafy home Of his
From Ararat we crossed to Meshed
along the hard camel paths. there being no
roads In Persia.
'hn al H.
sand beaten firm by the spreading Impact
OF the broad foot Of The ship OF the desert
:: and they make pretty good travelling, but
when we reached Askabad through the
ocean of sand we were not sorry to take the
new-buih railroad to Samarcand and thence
cycled to Tashkend, where the winter over
took us. >: =.
Here we formed the plan of continuing
our journey across eastern Turkistan
=. through the desert of Gob and thence
across China to Peking
-. LAS We must perforce halt Ii may be in
teresting to point: out the ronte taken by
:: Thomas Stevens, the only man who claims
Ito have cycled around the world. Ifyou
look at map of Asia you will understand
:-the difference between our routes better.
:; "Steyens cycled from Constantinople to
Meshed and thence started south to get
, Into Afghanistan, but just. south Of Herat
. was captured by Afgnans and carried back
:. to Persia, whence he had to retreat to Con-
uantineple.
"From there he took steamer through the
Red Sea and. Arabian Sea to Kurrachee in
India going from there TO Lahore by rail
and running along the main highway from
:. Lahore to Calcutta.
=: AT Calcutta he again took the steamer
through the: Malay Straits to Singapore, and
: so skirtihgthe coast. up through the China
:. Sea TO Hong-Kong and Canton.
= He left Canton for Peking on his wheel,
bnt had not cycled 100 miles when he was