The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-22
ACROSS ASIA ON A BICYCLE.
A Journey Undertaken by Two Ameri-
can Students.


With no parade, and scarcely them
selves realizing the importance of what
they proposed to do, two young American
students started from New York, June %,
1890 on one of the most remarkable Jour
neys of the century Three years after
ward, lacking twenty days, these young
men returned to New York, by way of
San Francisco, Arizona and New Mexico,
having encompassed the world They
had Travelled on bicycles no less than
15,044 miles, which is said to be the
longest continuous land journey ever made
around the world. But this was merely
incidental; they were inspired by higher
purposes than record breaking"
Messrs. Allen and Sachtleben, aged %
and "a years respectively, were graduated
from Washington University in st. Louis
on June 49, 1890 They had obtained a
thorough theoretical college training, and
the wanted to see the practical side of
life and to study the peoples of the old
world. They decided to do all of the
travelling possible on bicycles, although
neither one of them had ever ridden
wheel, in order TO see the countries
through which they passed more thor
oughly, and to come into closer relation
with the inhabitants. 1t never was their
intention simply to make "bicycle tour
around the world" They were following
the example of the medieval scholars who
rOamed afoot through Germany. France
and Italy, But they were to cover a field
of which their prototypes had never
dreamed, and so they called in their BIZ
cycle to their aid
The day after they received their de-
grees they started out on their journey,
and a week later sailed for Liverpool.
After they had wheeled through Great
Britain, they perfected their plans for
crossing Europe and Asia. The most
difficult part of their Journey, they well
knew, would be that portion of the route
which lay through western and Central
China and the desert of Cobb. BY the
kindly aid of Minister Lincoln, who en-
deavored to convince them of the dangers
that were in the way and to dissuade
them from their attempt, they obtained
special passport from the Chinese am
bassador in London.
When they had seen Southern Europe
from better point of vantage than car
window, they set out from Constantlnople
on their long, perilous and arduous jour
ney. They were the first from another CON
tinent since the days OF Marco Polo to
cross the Chinese empire from the west
ern boundary to the capital, Pekin,-and
in many places they followed close in the
footsteps of the great Venetian traveller
Civilization has made but little progress
in this region of the world since the thir-
tenth century, and their eyes rested
on many of the self-same sights that
awoke the astonishment of the emissary
OF Kublai Khan.
Messrs. Allen and Sachtleben have
written a graphic account of their re-
markable journey from Constantinople to
| Pekin, and this will be published in The
| Century, beginning with the May num-
| Der. They met with many curious and
| startling adventures, and these they tell
| with simplicity and modesty as if they
were not unusual episodes in the round
| ing out OF a college education. They took
more than $500 photographs of scenery
! and phases of life that curious European
| eyes had never looked upon before, and
many of these will be reproduced
! The young men served, in a measure,
! as the advance cOuriers of American
/ progress. They bore the stars and
stripes" strapped to the handle-bars of
| their bicycles, to people who learned for
/ the first time of its Significance