East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-01-31
PEDESTRIAN WILL
take A LAST HIKE
FAMOUS WALKER WILL
CROSS CONTINENT AGAIN
Edward Payson Weston VIII Try
To Cross Country in 100 Days-Is
Past II Years of Age-Made Same
Trip Before in 105 Days.

Los Angeles, Cal, Jan. S1.-Ed-
ward Payson Weston, whose feats as
a pedestrian have made him famous
throughout the world, completed his
arrangements today for another and
last transcontinental walk. Starting
from this city tomorrow afternoon,
Weston hopes to make the trip from
ocean to ocean in a hundred days. He
will be given great sendoff by his
thousands of admirers in southern
California.
The actual start from Los Angeles
will be westward, so that Santa Mon
lea, a California coast city, can first
be reached. In this way the ocean to
ocean circuit will be literally covered.
With the Pacific ocean rolling at his
feet, Weston will then turn eastward
for his transcontinental dash.
When the walk ends on the steps
of the city hall in New York city
March 2s, Weston will thus both tech
nically and actually have walked
across the continent from the Pacific
to Atlantic.
One interesting feature of the walk
is that when it begins, Weston will
be in his seventy-first year and that
It will end in his seventy-secondSyea
He will celebrate his seventy-second
birthday on March Is, en- route.
There is one point in connection
with his forthcoming effort, which
Weston desired to emphatically i'm
press upon those who are interested
in walking as an exercise and a pas
time Weston regards his proposed
undertaking as a somewhat strenuous,
yet absolutely normal physical feat
behind which lies a great moral les
son of interest to both young and old.
Throughout his long public career,
Weston has been the leading expo
nent of walking. He has taught its
advantages to American youth in the
interest of perfect physique and NOR
al mentality. And now, while pass
ing from his seventy-first to his sew
enty-second year. blessed with robust
health and untiring activity as the
result of a life of temperate and cor
rect habits-he starts forth for his
walk across the American continent
to prove simply that the feat is not
one of superhuman or even unusual
effort, but an educational and heal
thy exercise which any man of nor
NAL health and temperate habits car
successfully follow.
At this season, the extreme south
ern route is the only available course
TO insure success. As there are no rec
ognized post roads between Los An
geles and Chicago, Weston will be
compelled to follow the track of th'
Atchison. Topeka and Santa Fe rail
road, having secured the permission
of the railway officials This will en-
able him to crafty a long cherished
desire to visit the famous Grand Can
on of Arizona and the petrified for
ests in that vicinity.
Weston's previous performance
when he covered the continent be
tween March Is and July IA of las
year. in 1O5 days, was generally con
sidered a marvellous success by tn
public.
During the latter part of the jour
ney. however. Weston encountered al
most insurmountable obstacles in tn
shape of a series of unlooked-fo
storms and intense heat. He wa
greatly handicapped, moreover, b
having frequently to double" on h
trail. Hence his record was 105 day
Weston's numerous friends in Ne
York City were perfectly satisfied
however, with the result. They pro
posed at the time to raise for him
substantial purse, to be presented {
a testimonial lecture to be delivere
by him upon his return east. Whe
the pedestrian learned of the propt
sition in San Francisco he pleade
with his friends to postpone the te
timonial until, as he telegraphed,
have accomplished my task"