BIG TRAMPING FEATS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5217, 16 December 1927, Page 1

BIG TRAMPING FEATS.

SOME CURIOUS WAGERS. Two young Englishmen recently started from London oil a 6000-milc stroll io India. They are tw-ins named Donald and Douglas Buiton, and they took enough money only to pay th.oir fares across the channel. They were soon footing it across Europe, trusting to ti.eir literary talents to earn a living as they go.

Tney are, at any rate, says a London paper, not so heavily handicapped as the man in the iron mask Who, before the War, pushed a perambulator round the world. His name remains unknown, but he was an Englishman, and his trip is known to have been the outcome of a wager of no less than £20,000 with a millionaire friend which was made in a London Club. ’ The terms of the bet were that he was to conceal his identity, find a wife on the road, start with no more than a pound, and make his living as the went, write an account, and get it signed by the Mayor of each town through which he passed, and —finally—buy a postage stamp in every town.

Another world tramp who had to comply with pretty stiff terms was Mr Shilling, an American who left New York clad in a suit made of newspapers, hatless, coatless, and penniless. ’He had backed himself for £5OOO to walk round the world in five years, and without begging, borrowing, or stealing, to return at the end of that time with £lOOOl In all, Mr Shilling walked a. distance of 37,700 miles, .and in the course of his travels, which included a walk through New Zealand, he was held up by Mexicans, nearly strangled by thugs in India, and mobbed by Chinese Boxers. He earned his living by lecturing as he went, and accomplished his. .amazing journey with tnree months to spare.

But even Mr Shilling had a better time than Marius Shroder, a young Danish Journalist, who undertook to make his way round the planet in twelve months, wearing handcuffs. Emil Rex, editor of the paper on which Shroder was a reporter bet him a large sum tlikt he would not travel round the world with no money in his pockets to start with, and with his hands manacled for all but two hours daily ini which to earn enough money on which to live and travel. It speaks well for his pluck and per-< severance that he succeeded in this very stiff task. Some years ago there arrived in London a Japanese named Nakumura, who, without the bait of any wlager, was engaged in a world tour without money. He then went through Elurope to London, sailed thence to New York, walked across America, and ended by a tramp across Australia. On reaching home again lie' declared that he had had a very good time.

An Austrian, named Anton Hans-, lian won £4OO from the New York Herald by walking round Europe, a distance of 7000 miles, in 250 days, and at the same time pushing his wife and child in a perambulator before him. Tiring though his task was, it was child’s play to that of his. wife, forced to sit all day ip the bumping little vehicle and hold her child in her arms. Often at the end of the day Hansli,an had to lift her from the pram, as she was top stiff to stand.