The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-05-21
Polo a
Champ

ITO find the international and all.
N time unusual travel champion it
is necessary to go back several hun.
dred years.
The title must be awarded to Mar.
co Polo.
Marco won the crown back in the
thirteenth century. and he's held 1t
ever since.
He Travelled for nearly thirty-ave
years over southeastern Europe and
nearly all of Asia by foot. horse,
mule, camel, elephant and boat. And
he travelled at time when there
weren't any road maps and gas fill
ing stations were unknown.
The Polos were a Venetian family
living in Constantinople. In about
the year 1860 Marcos father, Nicolo
Polo, and his. uncle, Maffeo Polo.
both merchants, started for Asia on
what was probably the first interna.
tional TRADE tour.
Arriving at Bokhara they fell in
with party Of retainers of the
great Kublai Khan, Monaghan ruler
whose domain stretched from the
Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean.
PALESTINE TO PEKING
Kublai's retainers persuaded the
Polos to accompany them on a visit
to The Great Khan. who received
them courteously and invited them
to return.
Two years later they started out
again, and this time they took young
Marco with them.
They trekked through Palestine,
Persia, cut across north Of India,
and finally reached Picking.
The trip took three and a half
years, and, when their destination
was finally reached, Kublai Khan
gave Marco Polo an official position
and started him travelling again.
AS Kubai's representative he
visited Burmah, Japan and India.
For awhile he served as governor of
the Chinese city of Yangchow. He
covered Asia by every means of
transportation known at that time.
At last the Polos grew homesick,
And about that time Kublai sent
them to escort a young Mongol
princess who was to wed his great
nephew Argon, monarch OF Persia.
The party sailed from China, visited
Sumatra and southern India, and
reached Persia after a journey Of
two years.
Upor arrival they found that Ar.
gon had died-so they married the
princess to Argon's son. Having dis.
charged this duty. they pulled out
for home.
They went to Constantinople. then
back to their native Venice, reach.
Ing there in 1895.
HOME FOLKS FORGOT THEM
But they had been gone so long
hat they were not recognized and
we're refused admission to their own
home!
: At last, however, they established
heir identity and gave a feast for
Ill their friends. When the company
vas assembled they exhibited their
shabby travelling clothes. cut the
inings Of the garments-and poured
ut a stream Of rubies. sapphires,
arbuncles. emeralds and diamonds!
1t had been a profitable trip.
Some years later Marco Polo was
aptured in sea battle between the
,enetian and Genoese navies and
yas confined for several years in a
ienoa, prison. To pass away the
ime he wrote an account of his
ravels, and this account has been
anded down to the present day.
In his story Marco told Of the
rmies Of trained war elephants in
urmah and OF how they were beat
n by the Mongol horsemen; OF the
ense population Of China; of the
longol conquest OF Pegu: of the vii.
Lges and cities and Buddhist mon
'teries Of Asia; Of the vast amount
gold in Japan. and of the great
hristian empire of John the Priest
. Preston John" somewhere IL
which he admitted h,
ad never seen.