The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-25
TELLS OF FIRST
 FAST GLOBE TRIP
Book Describes Journey of 117 Days Around World
 Back In 1876

New York, July 25.-Four years af- ter the supposed round the world jour ney of the mythical Phileas Fogg and thirteen years before Nellie By suc- cessfu1ly broke the hypothetical rec- ord set up by Jules Verne's story of a similar journey was undertaken by Capt. W. D. Seymour of Queenstown, Ireland. Though he made no attempt at record smashing, he was perhaps the first of the series of modern trav- ellers who have set out with the eeri- ous purpose of gird1ing the globe with out lettering on the way.
 Capt. Seymour left Queenstown on Aug. Il, 1376 and reached home on Dec. 6, having consumed a total Of ex- in his-Iong trip. Unlike Means, Capt. Seymour elected to travel westward and frst set his face to America. The captain, who was a veteran traveller of wide experience, made the trip pure Iy for pleasure. He was lawyer and jurist, and although an Englishman was at the time of his journey one of the oldest living members of the New York Yacht club.
 In the days when the Atlantic liners still pufurIed sails to aid the thrash ing paddle wheels and $50 miles was a phenomenal daily run; when the buff falo could be counted by thousands from the trains of the newly built Pa cifc Railway; when Japan was prac- Hcal1y a feuda1 nation, unchanged since the Middle Ages and the Suez Canal had not been overshadowed by the vaster project, of Panama a jour ney of 3O.000 miles was not quite so simple as it now appears.
 Capt. Seymour's route led him first to New York and thence via Chicago and Omaha to San Francisco, where he took ship for Yokohama. From Yo- T-1 41,1 ntnsular & Oriental Navigation Conn pany conveyed him gradually home ward by way of Hong4zong. Singapore, Bombay, Suez. Gibraltar and South ampton.
 The captain made complete record of his Journey in the form of a. diary which he afterward published It Is now out of print, but from an old copy supplied by a friend to the Evening Sun learned the particulars of the trip, which is all the more interesting in contrast with the dash now being The City of Richmond, in which Capt. Seymour left Queenstown, made the voyage in eight days, remarkably quick time for 1876. and from New York the captain proceeded to Mag araz where the magnitude of the falls
 much impressed him. Those who I grunbIe at modern railway service would surely be amazed at the trav- e11er's enthusiastic praise of that of the centennial year. He seems to have found the ride westward delight fu1.
 Chicago, already a thriving city, 1 Omaha, scarcely beyond the days when the postnaster1S hat served as post office, and Ogden were success sively passed. The great stretches of animal life together with the appear ance of numerous Indians, added va riety to the journey.
 1 After passing with much discom- fort through the American desert the captain reached Sacramento, a ftcfty l cred to his surprise that paper money was not then good in California. He was. not particularly struck with the 1 scenery at one point in the Cascades known as Cape Horn, which in a burst | of admira ton he declares is certainly
 not equalled in the world" On Aug
 3n he arrived at San Francesca. from
 wbichhe sailed two days later for Yo- | kchana.
 ! If one is to believe Capt. Seymour
 the high cost of living apparently took l it's origin in the city of the Golden Gate '"The charges for every thing in | San Francisco,'' he says, "are almost l incredible, and are two or three times
 those in Great Britain Though he | speaks of many Chinese Tn the West
 ern States, there is scarcely a men, l one that 1876 was considerably before | the time cf school disputes and ant1- alien land laws.
 The voyage to Yokohama proved un- 1 eSentful except for sever>. hurricane I encountered on Sept. 8 which for T
 time threatened to destroy the vessel