Walking Round the World for a Wager.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 33, 7 January 1899, Page 2

Walking Round the World for a Wager.

Mr G-. M. Schilling, who ig Wilder contract to make a walking tout 1 of the world for a wager, will appear this evening in the Oddfellows' Hall, nupp-orfced by a capable company of Ringers and instrumentalists. He has already walked 8900 miles in nine mdnths and 28 dayi, 3300 miles in 90 days and 1000 miles in 21 days. He appeared in Dtlnedin on Monday evening, and the Otago Daily Times says that Mr Schilling, who is a power-fully-built man, and looks quite capable of carrying out his contract, gave an account of the hardships he had met with in hii walk over the American Continent. The statement w*s a plain, unassuming one, and from the style in which it va» made, it was evident that Mr Schilling makes light of wh*t to most men would appear as herculean tasks. He referred to the kindness he had met with in Australia and Tasmania, and explained the nature of his contract, which was to walk round the world in four years without begging, borrowing, or spending, and to return to New York, whence he started, with 5000dol in cash. The wsy he mad© money, ho explained, was by selling photographs of himself, and while in Melbourne he put his experiences into book form. He was not allowed to ask people to purchase, becauw it was against the term* of his contract. One little circumstance he mentioned th*t raised a laugh was that he had so far worn out no less than 21 pair of boots. It may be mentioned that the contract arose out of a wager between two well-known sports in New York.