The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-08-24

servedly given first place in a series
of articles in THE Cycle (EngEsh),
on Some Gigantic Feats of Cycling"
The history of the great ride is here
given:
In 1884, one Thomas Stevens, a born
Englishman, but a naturalized Ameri-
can, started on a fifty-inch ordinary
bicycle from San Francisco, full of de-
termination to ride round the world.
On his crude bicycle he crossed the
Rocky Mountains and then journeyed
over the prairieS through Omaha to
Chicago, and SO one to New York. From
New York he took steamer to Liver
pool, where he met with a grand re-
ception from English cyclists, and
pedaled evenly through Britain to the
Southern coast. After his $500 miles
across the American continent, Stew
ems delight at the English roads was
inexpressible. Straight on to Paris he
went, then by a southeasterly course
into Germany, through Strasburg to
Vienna, Buda-Pesth, and Peterwardein
to Semlin, the last city of the Occident.
He crossed the Danube here and trav-
ersed Servia, Bulgaria. Eastern Rou-
melia, and European Turkey, until in
TIC SNtAl OdS vi MAY 1000, II6 lduQGQ
in the ancient city Of the Constantines
He had now covered, he reckoned,
something like half the Journey, but the
remaining half way was one which
would not be so pleasure BILE, for it was
to be among a people bitterly opposed
| to foreigners. and who had never seen
such thing as a bicycle before In
spite of the opposition which he re-
ceived on all hands, he set out on his
great journey across Asia. He crossed
| the Bosphorus in early August, and
went through Ismidt, Angora, Ere
roum, Tabriz, and so on to the capital
of Persia, Teheran. Here he was en-
tertained by the Shah and made much
of. The whole populace, in fact, turned
out to see him on his extraordinary
engine"
He wintered in Teheran, and in the
early spring of 1886 started out for the
capital Of Afghanistan. The Afghans,
however, were a bit too much for Thos.
Stevens. They took him prisoner and
carried him back over the frontier tell
! ing him he could get around the world
by any means he liked so long as he
did not go through Afghanistan
BY a circuitous route Stevens then
got round to Beluchistan, and so on in
to Northern India, which he crossed
down the valley of the Gauges. Then
he tried Burnah, and after that tackled
the tit-bit of his ride, the unknown
provinces Of Southern China. His ex-
periences in China We're, to say the
least, terrible. Stoned, fired at, starved,
and otherwise maltreated, his indomit-
able spirit was nearly caving in at
times, and so great was the opposition
presented to him on several occasions
that he was compelled to travel in the
night in order to avoid the hostile ma
tives. Ultimately he was taken pris-
oner by the soldiers and carried bodily
to Shanghai. where he met many dis
tinguished individuals in the diplomat
ic world whose influence was sufficient
to set him free. He left China for ia
pan, cycled from Nagasaki to Toxic,
and in 1887 landed at San Francisco,
which he had left some three years
previously, having accomplished what
must always be regarded as one of the
most remarkable cycling feats of the
nineteenth century.
-
Men in charge of bicycle repair shops
oIleH express surprise at the KnOWl-
edge Of machinery shown by women
riders, who seem far more able to de-
tect flaw, or follow the power
through, than their male escorts. Yet,
upon consideration, this is not so
strange. Hosts of young women tend
machinery in large mills and factories,
and become quite accustomed to make
minor changes and repairs. Here
however, they are on a par with hosts
OF young men. But when we get into
officers, the conditions are different. A
great many clerks and professional men
are grossly ignorant of mechanics and
machinery. But the girls during office
hours run a typewriter, or handle a
copying press, or work a telegraph key
Or telephone. When at home, they
do great stunts with the sewing ma
chine and are familiar with all the me-
chanical apparatus of the up-to-date
kitchen. If these young women are
turned loose on wheel, they take to it
very kindly, and betray a quickness of
perception as to the details that makes
one believe the mechanical girl to be
more surely destined for ultimate SUI
premacy than many other types of
| fenininity.