The herald., 1897-09-02
THEIR LONG WALK
TWO GERMANS ARE FOOTING 1T
AROUND THE WORLD
They Arrive Here Dusty and Weary
and Are CHARTERED at the
Hollenbeck

Two German university students who
are tramping around the world arrived
dirty and weary at the Hollenbeck hotel
last night. They had walked all the way
from Acton, a distance of fifty-four
miles, since making their last stop.
The names of these two enterprising
pedestrians are Otto vollbehr and Paul
DEWITT. They started out from Berlin
on the 1st of January, 1895, and agreed to
walk around the world, earning their
own way and to be back by 1900. The
making the journey purely for pleasure
and are satisfied with the experience
which they are getting on the trip. Their
route from Berlin has taken them
through Paris, Italy, Egypt, Persia, At
ghanistan, India, China, Japan, the
Sandwich San Francisco and Los
Angeles. From here they will walk to
Yuma, Ell Paso, the City of Mexico,
through Central America, Bolivia, Chile,
through to Brazil and finally to Rio de
Janeiro, where the journey ends.
1t is their intention on arriving at that
point to take steamer, il they have suf-
ficient money, to New Orleans, and
travel thence by rail to New York, final
ly taking passage there for Europe. At
present the men are about a month
ahead of their scheduled time.
Vollbehr is a chemist and DEWITT an
architect. Whenever it has been neces-
sary to replenish their capital the men
have stopped for time and worked. If
possible they found something to do at
their professions, and if not they worked
at anything they could get to do. AT
Yokohama Vollbehr managed a drug
store for eight months and his partner
drew up the plans for large modern
hotel which is being built in that city by
some Europeans. In Hawaii the men
again ran short of money, and finding
nothing else to do got job cutting su-
gar cane.
A Herald reporter called on the Ger
man travellers last night. Both mer
speak excellent English, also French ano
Spanish. After showing their passport:
from German consuls at different points
along their route, they told some very
interesting incidents Of their journey
Upon their return home they expect tc
write book detailing their experiences
as globe trotters.
Speaking of the journey, Vollbehr said
1--WE experienced the greatest difficui-
ties while travelling through Persia. Here
we tramped over a parched waste lying
under a torrid sun for many hundreds
Of miles This great desert is an awful
place to cross. For days we would have
to travel without getting fresh supply
Of water.
while crossing Turkey we took side
trip to the Holy Land, and visited Je-
rusalem Damascus and others of the
famous Jewish cities In the interior OF
China we had some difficulty. Some OF
the Mongolians had never seen white
man before, and they were not inclined
to let US pass peaceably along our way.
On one occasion it became necessary for
us to use our firearms, and l still carry
a bullet in my leg that l received on that
occasion.
"On arriving at San Francisco we at
once started on the tramp to this city.
On the way down we visited Mt. Hamil-
ton and came through the Yosemite
valley We found it necessary to do a
little work. and both of us got jobs in
the Utica mine, where we handled a
pick and shovel. Sunday night week
ago we left Fresno, and it has taken us
just ten days to cover the distance from
there. Ordinarily we calculate on max
ing about thirty miles a day. The next
month will be spent in Los Angeles, and
we intend to get work and try to earn
enough to last us until we reach the City
Of Mexico"
Both men are doing correspondence
work for German papers They carry a
notebook along with them, in which they
get the postmaster at some town to
stamp the place and date each day. By
this means their location at any given
date can be traced from the start.
It is announced that r. c. Lehman
,Harvard's rowing coach of last year,