section nine of around the world on a bicycle volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org around the world on a bicycle volume 1 by Thomas Stevens chapter 5 from America to the German Frontier part one at 1 p.m. on that day the ponderous but shapely Hull of the city of Chicago with its living and Lively Freight moves from the dock as though it too were endowed with mind as well as matter the crowds that a moment ago disappeared down the gang plank are now congregated on the outer end of the pier a compact mass of waving handkerchiefs and anxious faac people shouting out signs of recognition to friends aboard the departing steamer from beginning to end of the voyage across the Atlantic the weather is delightful and the passengers well half the cabin passengers are members of Henry Irving’s Lum company on route home after their successful tour in America and old voyagers abroad who have crossed the Atlantic scores of times pronounce it altogether the most enjoyable trip they ever experienced the Third day out we encountered a lonesome looking Iceberg an object that the captain seemed to think would be better appreciated and possibly more affectionately remembered if viewed at the respectful distance of about 4 miles it proves a cold unsympathetic Berg yet extremely entertaining in its own way since it accommodates Us by neutralizing pretty much all the C purpless caloric in the atmosphere around for hours after it has disappeared below the Horizon of our vision I am particularly fortunate in finding among my fellow passengers Mr Harry B French The Traveler and author from whom I obtain much valuable information particularly of China Mr French has traveled some distance through the flowery Kingdom himself and thoughtfully forewarns me to anticipate a particularly Lively and interesting time in invading that country with a vehicle so strange and incomprehensible to the celestial mind as a bicycle this experienced gentleman informs me among other interesting things that if 500 chattering celestials batter down the door and swarm unannounced at midnight into the apartment where I am endeavoring to get the first wink of sleep obtained for a whole week instead of following the natural inclinations of an Anglo-Saxon to energetically defend his rights with a stuffed Club I shall display Solomon like wisdom by quietly submitting to The Invasion and deferentially bowing to Chinese inquisitiveness if on an occasion of this nature one stationed himself behind the door and as a sort of preliminary warning to the others greeted the first interloper with the business end of a boot Jack he would be morally certain of a lively one-sided misunderstanding that might end disastrously to himself whereas by meekly submitting to a critical and exhaustive examination by the assembled company he might even become the recipient of an apology for having had to batter down the door in order to satisfy their curiosity one needs more discretion than Valor in dealing with the Chinese at noon on the 19th we reached Liverpool where I find a letter awaiting me from AJ Wilson fed inviting me to call on him at poers Croft house London and offering to Tandem me through the intricate Mazes of the West End likewise asking whether it would be agreeable to have him with others accompany me from London down to the South Coast a program to which it is needless to say I entertain no objections as the custom house officer wrenches a board off the broad flat box containing my American bicycle several fellow passengers prompted by their curiosity to obtain a peep at the machine which they have learned is to carry me around the world gather about and one sympathetic lady as she catches a glimpse of the bright nickel Forks exclaims oh what a shame that they should be allowed to wrench the planks off they might injure it but a small tip thoroughly convinces the individual prying off the board that by removing one’s section and taking a conscientious squint in the direction of the closed end his duty to the British government would be performed as Faithfully as though everything were laid bare and the kind-hearted lady’s apprehension of possible injury are thus happily allayed in 2 hours after landing the bicycle is safely stowed away in the underground stor rooms of the Liverpool and Northwestern Railway company and in 2 hours more I am Wheeling rapidly toward London through neatly cultivated fields and meadows and parks of that intense greenness met with nowhere save in the British AES and which causes a couple of Native Americans riding in the same compartment and who are visiting England for the first time to express their admiration of it all in the unmeasured language of the genuine Yankee when truly astonished and delighted arriving in London I lose no time in seeking out Mr Bolton a well-known Wheelman who has toured on the continent probably as extensively as any other English cycler and to whom I bear a letter of introduction together on Monday afternoon we ruthlessly invade the sanctums of the leading cycling papers in London Mr Bolton is also able to give me several useful hints concerning Wheeling through France and Germany then comes the application for a passport and the inevitable unpleasantness of being suspected by every policeman and Detective detective about the government buildings of being a wild eyed dynamiter recently arrived from America with the fell purpose of blowing up the place on Tuesday I make a formal descent on the Chinese Embassy to seek information regarding the possibility of making a serpentine Trail through the flowery Kingdom via upper Burma to Hong Kong or Shanghai here I learned from Dr McCarthy The Interpreter at the embassy as from Mr French at putting it as mildly as possible I must expect wild time generally in getting through the interior of China with a bicycle the doctor feels certain that I may reasonably anticipate the pleasure of making my way through a howling Wilderness of hooting celestials from one end of the country to the other the great danger he thinks will not be so much the well-known aversion of the Chinese to having an outer Barbarian penetrate the sacred interior of their country as the enormous crowds that would almost constantly surround me out of curiosity at both Rider and wheel and the moral certainty of a foreigner unwittingly doing something to offend The chinaman’s Peculiar and deepr rooted Notions of propriety this it is easily seen would be a peculiar ticklish thing to do when surrounded by surging masses of dangling pigtails and seruan browsers the wearers of which are from the start predisposed to make things as unpleasant as possible my own experience alone however will prove the kind of reception I am likely to meet with among them and if they will only considerately refrain from impaling me on a bamboo after a barbarous and highly ingenious custom of theirs I Little Wreck what other unpleasantries they have in store after one remains in the world long enough to find it out he usually becomes less fastidious about the future of things in general than when in the hopeful days of Boyhood every Prospect ahead was fringed with the golden expectations of a budding and inexperienced imagery nevertheless a thoughtful meditative person who realizes the necessity of drawing the line somewhere would naturally draw it at impalation not being conscious of any presentiment savoring of impalation however the only request I make of the Chinese at present is to place no insurmountable obstacle against my pursuing the even or uneven as the case may be tenor of my way through their country China though is several revolutions of my 50-in wheel away to the Eastward at this present time of writing and speculations in regard to it are rather premature soon after reaching London I have the pleasure of meeting fed a gentleman who carries his cycling enthusiasm almost where some people are said to carry their hearts on his sleeve so that a very short acquaintance only is necessary to convince one of being in the company of a person whose interest in whirling Wheels is of no ordinary nature when I present myself at po Croft house fed is busily wandering around among the curves and angles of no less than three tricycles apparently endeavoring to Encompass the complicated mechanism of all three in one grand comprehensive effort of the mind and the addition of as many tricycle crates standing around makes the premises so suggestive of a flourishing tricycle agency that an Old Gentleman happening to pass by at the moment is really quite excusable in stopping and inquiring the prices with a view to purchasing one for himself our tandem ride through the West End has to be indefinitely postponed on account of my time being limited and our inability to procure readily a suitable machine and Mr Wilson’s bump of discretion would not permit him to think of allowing me to attempt the feat of maneuvering a tricycle myself among the bewildering traffic of the metropolis and risk bringing my wheel around the world to an Inglorious conclusion before being fairly begun while walking down Parliament street my attention is called to a venerable looking gentleman Wheeling briskly along among the throngs of vehicles of every description and I am informed that the Bold tricycler is none other than major KNX Holmes a vigorous youth of some 78 Summers who has recently accomplished the feat of riding 114 miles in 10 hours for a person nearly 80 years of age this is really quite a promising performance and there is small doubt but that when the Gallant major gets a little older say when he becomes a centenarian he will develop into a veritable Prodigy on the cinder paath having obtained my passport and got it Ved for the Sultan’s dominions at the Turkish Consulate and placed in fired’s possession a bundle of maps which he generously volunteers to forward to me as I require them in the various countries it is proposed to Traverse I return on April the 30th to Liverpool from which point the formal start on the wheel across England England land is to be made 4:00 in the afternoon of May the 2nd is the time announced and Ed Hill Church is the appointed place where Mr Lawrence Fletcher of the anfield bicycle club and a number of other Liverpool wheelmen have volunteered to meet and accompany me some distance out of the city several of the Liverpool daily papers have made mention of the affair accordingly upon arriving at the appointed place and time I find a crowd of several hundred people gathered to satisfy their curiosity as to what sort of a looking individual it is who has crossed America a wheel and furthermore proposes to accomplish the greater feat of the circumlocution of the globe a small sea of hats is enthusiastically waved aoft a ripple of Applause escapes from 500 English throats as I amount my glistening bicycle and with the assistance of a few policemen the 25 Liverpool cyclers who have assembled to accompany me out extricate themselves from the crowd Mount and fall into line to a breast and Merrily We wheel away down Edge Lane and out of Liverpool English weather at this season is notoriously capricious and the present year it is unusually so and air the star is fairly made we are pedaling along through quite a pelting shower which however fails to make much impression on the roads Beyond causing the flinging of more or less mud the majority of my escort are members of the anfield club who have the enviable reputation of being among the hardest Road riders in England several members having accomplished over 200 miles within the 24 hours and I am informed that Mr Fletcher is soon to undertake the task of beating the tricycle record over that already well contested route from Jon grz to Land’s End 16 miles out I become the happy recipient of hearty well-wishes innumerable with the accompanying hand shaking and my escort turned back toward home and Liverpool all save four who wheel on to Warrington and remain overnight with the avowed intent of accompanying me 25 miles farther tomorrow morning our Sunday Morning Experience begins with a shower of rain which however orgers well for the remainder of the day and save for a gentle headwind no reproachful remarks are heard about that much criticized individual the Clark of the weather especially as our road leads through a country prolific of everything Charming to one’s sense of the beautiful moreover we are this morning bowling along the self-same highway that in days of Y was among the favorite promenades of a distinguished and enterprising individual known to every British juvenile as Dick Turpin a person who won imperishable Renown and the undying affection of the small Britain of today by making it unsafe along here for stage coaches and travelers Indiscreet enough to carry value about with them think I’ll get such roads as this all through England I Ask of my escort as we wheel joyously Southward along smooth macadamized highways that would make the sandpapered roads around Boston seem almost unfit for cycling in comparison and that lead through picturesque Villages and Noble Parks occasionally catching a glimpse of a splendid old Manor among venerable trees that makes one unconsciously begin humming the ancient homes of England how beautiful they stand amidst the tall ancestral trees over all the pleasant land oh you’ll get much better roads than this in the southern counties is the reply though fresh from American roads one can scarce see what shape the improvements can possibly take out of Lancashire into chesher we wheel and my escort after wishing me all manner of good fortune in hearty Lancashire style wheel about and hide themselves back toward the rumble and Roar of the world’s greatest sea port leaving me to Pedal pleasantly Southward along the green Lanes amid the quiet rural scenery of Staffordshire to Stone where I remain Sunday night the country is favored with another drenching downpour of rain during the night and moisture relentlessly descends at Short unreliable intervals on Monday morning as I proceed toward Birmingham not withstanding the super abundant moisture the morning ride is a most enjoyable occasion requiring but a dash of sunshine to make everything Perfect The Mystic Voice of the cucko is heard from Manny and emerald cops around songsters that inhabit only the green Hedges and woods of Merry England are carolling their morning Vespers in all directions skylars are soaring soaring Skyward warbling their unceasing Pains of Praise as they gradually Ascend into cloudlands shadowy Realms and occasionally I Bowl along beneath an archway of spreading beaches that are colonized by crowds of noisy Rooks incessantly coing their approval or disapproval of things in general surely England with its welln perfect roads the wonderful greenness of its vegetation and its roadsters that meet and regard their steel ribbed Rivals with Supreme indifference is the natural Paradise of cyclers there is no annoying dismounting for frightened horses on these happy highways for the English horse though spirited and brimful of fire has long since accepted the inevitable and either has made friends with the Wheelman and his Swift winged Steed or what is equally agreeable maintain a hay Reserve pushing along leisurely between showers into warshire I reach Birmingham about 3:00 and after spending an hour or so looking over some tricycle works and calling for a leather writing case they are making especially for my tour I wheel onto Coventry having the company of Mr priest Jr of the tricycle works as far as Stonehouse between Birmingham and Coventry the recent rainfall has evidently been less and I mentally note this 15m stretch of road as the finest Traverse first since leaving Liverpool both for width and smoothness of surface it being a veritable Boulevard arriving at Coventry I call on brother stury a gentleman well and favorably known to readers of cycling literature everywhere and as I feel considerably like deserving reasonably gentle treatment after perseveringly pressing forward 60 mies in spite of the rain I request him to steer me into the cyclist’s touring Club Hotel an office which he smilingly performs and thoughtfully admonishes the proprietor to handle me as tenderly as possible I am piloted around to take A hurried glance at Coventry visiting among other objects of Interest the Starly Memorial this Memorial is interesting to cyclers from having been erected by public subscription in recognition of the great interest Mr Starley took in the cycle industry he having been in fact the father of the interest in Coventry and consequently the direct author of the city’s present Prosperity the mind of the British small boy along my route has been taxed to its utmost to account for my white military helmet and various and interesting are the passing remarks heard in Consequence the most general impression seems to be that I am direct from the Sudan some youthful conservatives blandly intimating the Starly Memorial Coventry that I am the advanced guard of a general Scuttle of the army out of Egypt and that presently whole regiments of white helmeted wheelmen will come whirling along the roads on nickel-plated steeds some even going so far as to do me the honor of calling me General woolsley While others Rising young liberals probably recklessly call me General Gordon intimating by this that the hero of carum was not killed after all and is proving it by sweeping through England on a bicycle wearing a white helmet to prove his identity a pleasant ride along a splendid Road shaded for Miles with rows of spreading Elms brings me to the Charming Old Village of dun Church where everything seems Moss grown and venerable with age a Squatty castle-like Church tower that has stood the brunt of many centuries frowns down upon a cluster of picturesque thatched cottages of primitive architecture and Ivy clad from top to bottom while to make the picture complete there remain even the old wooden stocks through the holes of which the feet of boozy unfortunates were won to be unceremoniously thrust in the good old times of rude Simplicity in fact the only really unpri building about the place appears to be a newly erected Methodist Chapel it couldn’t be no of course it couldn’t be possible that there is any connecting link between the American peculiarity of elevating the feet on the window sill or the drum of the heating stove and this oldtime custom of elevating the feet of those of our ancestors possessed of boozy hilarious proclivities at Weeden Barracks I make a short halt to watch the soldiers go through the bayonet exercises and suffer myself to be persuaded into quaffing a mug of delicious creamy Stout at the canteen with a genial old sergeant a bronzed veteran who has seen active service in several of the tough Expeditions that England seems ever prone to undertake in various uncivilized quarters of the world after which I wheel away over old Roman military roads through northamptonshire and buck Hamshire reaching fenny Stratford just in time to find shelter against the minations of the weather Clark who having withheld rain nearly all the afternoon begins dispensing it again in the gloaming it rains uninterruptedly all night but although my route for some miles is now down cross country lanes the rain has only made them rather disagreeable without rendering ing them in any respect unridable and although I am among the slopes of the chil turn Hills scarcely a Dismount is necessary during the for noon spending the night at berkhamstead hartfordshire I pull out toward London on Thursday morning and near Watford I’m highly gratified at meeting fed and the captain of the north London Tricycle Club who have come out on their tricycles from London to meet and escort me into the Metropolis at fired’s suggestion I decid to remain over in London until Saturday to be present at the annual tricycle meet on Barnes common and together we wheel down the edgear road Park Road among the fashionable turnouts of Picadilly past nightsbridge and Brompton to the inventories exhibition where we spend a most enjoyable afternoon inspecting the thousand one material evidences of inventive genius from the several countries represented 512 cyclers including 41 tandem tricycles and 50 ladies ride in procession at the Barn’s common meat making quite an imposing array as they wheel to a breast between rows of enthusiastic Spectators here among a host of other Wheeling celebrities I’m introduced to Major KNX Holmes before mentioned as being a gentleman of extraordinary powers of endurance considering his Advanced age after tea a number of tric cyclers accompany me down as far as cin which place we enter to the pattering music of a drenching rainstorm experiencing the accompanying pleasure of a wet skin Etc the threatening aspect of the weather on the following morning causes part of our company to hesitate about venturing any farther from London but fed and three companions wheel with me toward Brighton through a gentle morning shower which soon clears away however and before long the combination of The Splendid Sussex roads fine Breezy weather and lovely scenery amply repays us for the discomforts of yester Eve 14 miles from Brighton we are met by eight members of the Kempton Rangers Bicycle Club who have sallied forth thus far northward to escort us into town having done which they deliver us over to Mr C of the Brighton Tricycle Club and brother-in-law to the mayor of the city it is 2 in the afternoon this gentleman straight away ingratiates himself into our United effect s and wins our Eternal gratitude by giving us a regular wheel man’s dinner after which he places us under still further obligations by showing us as many of the Lions of Brighton as are accessible on Sunday Chief among which is the famous Brighton aquarium where by his influence he kindly has the diving birds and seals fed before their usual hour for our speci special delectation a proceeding which naturally causes the barometer of our respective self-esteem to rise several notches higher than usual and doubtless gives equal satisfaction to the seals and diving birds we linger at the aquarium until near Sundown and it is 15 miles by what is considered the smoothest road to New Haven Mr C declares his intention of donning his riding suit and by taking a shorter though supposedly rougher Road reach New Haven as soon as we as we halt at Lewis for tea and ride leisurely likewise submitting to being photographed on Route he actually arrives there ahead of us it is Sunday evening May the 10th and my ride through marry England is at an end among other agreeable things to be ever remembered Remembered in connection with it is the fact that it is the first 300 miles I ever remember riding over without scoring a header a circumstance that impresses itself nonetheless favorably perhaps when viewed in connection with the solidity of the average English Road it is not a very serious misadventure to take a flying header into a bed of loose sand on an American country road but the prospect of rooting up a Flintstone with one’s nose or knocking a curbstone loose with one’s bump of cautiousness is an entirely different Affair consequently the universal smoothness of the surface of the English highways is appreciated at its full value by at least one Wheelman whose experience of Roads is nothing if not varied comfortable quarters are assigned me on board the channel steamer and a few minutes after bidding friends and England farewell at New Haven at 11:30 p.m. I am gently rocked into unconsciousness by the motion of the vessel and remain happily and restfully oblivious to my surroundings until awakened next morning at Deep where I find myself in a few minutes on a foreign Shore all the way from San Francisco to New Haven there is a conscious of being practically in one country and among one people people who though acknowledging separate governments are bound so firmly together by the ties of common instincts and interests and the Mystic Brotherhood of a Common Language and a common civilization that nothing of a serious nature can ever come between them but now I am verily among strangers and the first thing talked of is to make me pay Duty on the bicycle end of section N9
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