The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-07
BRITISH VHEELMEN.
THREE ARE MAKING A TOUR OF
THE WORLD.
Have Already Covered Over 10000
Miles-Will Reach Salt Lake To-
day-Offer Their Services to Alger

Inc three brlllSnerS, MeSSrS- JONI
Foster Fraser, Edward Lunn and
Francis Lowe, who are cycling round
the world and who offered their serv
ices to Secretary Alger to go to the
front, will arrive in this city this after
noon.
They have already covered on the
wheel over $4,000 miles, and the re-
manning $500 will be an easy and pleas
ant journey compared with much they
have come through. Wheeling from
London to Harwich they crossed the
North sea to Antwerp. Passing through
Belgium, where they were received BIZ
the king at his chateau de Laaken,
they crossed a strip of Holland and
entered Germany at AiS-la- Chapelle.
They then proceeded up the Rhine val
ley into southern Germany and Austria.
From Vienna to Buda Pesth they fol-
lowed the course of the Danube, and
then struck off through Pennsylvania
and Roumania into southern Russia.
From Odessa they made detour to the
famous battlefields of the Crimea.
Whilst amongst the COssacks they
were roughly handled once or twice,
being taken on one occasion before the
military officials of small town. At
another time revolvers were drawn,
but no damage done. They were oc-
caSionally pelted out of a town by the
ignorant natives. They crossed the
Caucasus mountains in a day and a
half, distance of $50 miles, rising to
the height of 5000 feet In Tiflis they
were entertained at dinner by some so
ardent wheelmen, with the Son-in-law
of the minister of war presiding. From
Tifiis to Erivan, the capital of Armenia,
they passed amongst the restless Kurd-
ish hill tribes, sleeping in their mnd
huts and existing on greasy rice and
onions. They were fortunate in never
falling in with any of the swarmy of
brigands which infest the Russo
Persian frontier
Passing trough Teheran, the capital
of Persia, they stopped a day in Kun,
the most fanatical town in the country,
famous as the burial place of Fabima,
the daughter of Mahomet. Here the
people politely held their noses and
spat violently when they met the
Feringhees (Christians) and muttered
greetings such as sons of burnt
fathers > sons of Christian dogs" etc.
On leaving they were escorted to the
outskirts of the town by four soldiers
and there t3s fun commenced. The
soldiers having fulfilled their duty re-
turned, but the mob of youths and men
who had followed Joined in a frenzied
yell of delight and in half a minute
sticks and stones were flying. However.
half minute saw the trio flying faster,
Nearing the Persian gulf they had to
cross five snow-clad mountain passes
in distance of 160 miles. Here one
evening they met no less than IL bears,
but the lean and famished appearance
of the wheelmen and their curious ma
chimes did not tempt them. They came
near to losing their lives on the highest
inhabited spot in Persia They were
out from p. m. to a. m. in a storm
at the height of 5000 feet without food
or drink.
From Persia they entered India at
Karachi and spent three weeks in the
worst part of the plague districts,
when the plague was at its height.
They then passed through the famine
and cholera districts. On arriving in
Calcutta they were met seven miles out
by 200 cyclists. The road into Calcutta
was lined with native police and traffic
was stopped in all the principal streets
for four hours. AS they neared the
outskirts carriages were drawn upon
both sides of the Grand Trunk railroad.
and factories ran up the union jack
and turned out all hands to give them
a welcome. 1t was estimated that 1OO,-
600 people turned out to see the novel
procession on wheels containing every
European nationality, Mahomedans.
Parsees, Hindoos, Japs and even China
men. 1t was during their stay in Cal
cutta that the city was so disastrously
shaken by earthquake.
They arrived in Burmah during the
rainy season and Travelled and slept for
eight or ten days in and with their
clothes saturated. From Burmah they
crossed the Chinese frontier to COM
mence the most arduouS part of the
entire journey. For the first 1,5OO miles |
they were mountain climbing the entire |
distance, frequently rising 1900 or 1000
feet and falling perhaps 5000 or 4, 900 in |
the same day. They estimate that out
of this distance they walked at least
1.2OO miles. They had frequently to de-
mand protection of officials from the
mobs. On their arrival in Shanghai
they were given a similar reception to /
the one in Calcutta. 1t had taken them !
five months to cross through the
celestial empire, a distance of 5000 |
miles.
The change from the filth of the ma
tives in China to Japan's far-famed |
polite and clearly people was great. |
In the capital of Japan they were in |
Vlted to the house of Marquis Ito. |
where they met at dinner all the min |
listers of state. From Japan they
crossed the Pacific to Victoria, whence |
they took coast steamer to San Fran |
cisco. In San Francisco they were
made honorary members of the
Olympic club of the C. A. c. c., several
OF the members of which accompanied
them on their ride out of Oakland.
From here they Will probably follow
the Denver & Rio Grande Western
route to Denver, and from there TO !
Omaha, Chicago and New York. They
hope to arrive back in London by the
middle of July after an absence of Just
two years.