"Feb. 5, 1896 With kind regards from the Long Distance Champion of the World on a Wager of $10,000, started from San Francisco, Cal, April 5, 1895. Dick Whittington."
By 1894, dozens, if not hundreds of walkers, started to participate in an “around the world on foot” craze. For some it was a legitimate attempt, but for most it was just a scam to travel on other people’s generous contributions.
Some, like the Wanderwell Tour actually went the distance, made movies, used airplanes, etc in the 1920s and 30s. Then gave lectures at colleges etc.
The typical scam went like this: They claimed that they were trying to walk around the world to win thousands of dollars on a wager, but they had to do it without bringing any money. They needed to be funded through the generosity of others, get free room and board, and free travel on ships. Walkers came out of the woodwork and the newspapers were fascinated by these attempts.
Eventually some in the press started to get wise. These walkers started to be referred derisively as tramps, globetrotters, cranks, fools, or “around the world freaks.” One reporter wrote, “A great majority of these wanderers upon the face of the earth are men who would rather do anything than work.” Another astute reporter identified many of these walkers as “frauds, traveling over the country practicing a smooth game in order to be wined and dined.”
An Englishman in his early 20s, who had previously attempted to bicycle around the world, agreed to a wager of $10,000 to walk around the world in three years, with the stipulations that he push a wheelbarrow that would hold his possessions, travel with a dog and a cat, and that he not cut his hair the entire time; if either dog or cat died he would have to forfeit $500 per each pet from his winnings.
He based his pseudonym on a figure from English folklore (who actually existed), whose cat was skilled at reducing the rodent population.
His wheelbarrow weighed over 150 lbs when loaded, and was specially built to work on railroads with flanged wooden wheels.
To no surprise, walking across America pushing a wheelbarrow was not successful.
By July he was broke and planned on making money by selling photos (like everyone else I've posted about who biked across the country), selling advertising on his barrow, and lecturing.
He arrived in St. Louis, Missouri in October. “He went in the evening to the exposition, where his quaint costume of sombrero, black sweater, and canvas leggings attracted much attention. He had a large rattlesnake skin wrapped around his hat and several large rattles dangling from the hat buckle. He showed the book in which he collected all the official stamps of the post offices along the route.”
His travels across the plains to St. Louis and Chicago were hard and exhausting, but he kept up a pace of over 20 miles a day. By early February 1896 (when this picture was inscribed) he had reached Pittsburgh, after months of winter weather, where he had a prolonged stay due to flu-like symptoms, respiratory problems and hemorrhages.
After two months he left for Philadelphia, arriving there in June, 1896, so worn out and sick that he died in a Philadelphia hospital on June 12.
Tragic ending to someone who was far likelier to live a long healthy life, if they had a boring hobby, and stayed home.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/277349764229
Horace G. Yorke, an American, left England, in 1894 to walk around the world, got to Canada, realized it's a lot easier if you stick to railways, and seems to have simply hitched rides from one railroad section house to the next, to a depot, stopping by police stations and collecting buttons.
Once he got to Seattle, the war between Japan and China put a stop to that Westward route, and he planned to ride the rails using a railroad handcar to San Francisco, then catch a steamer to Hawaii, then Singapore, etc, but by San Francisco he gave up, the railroad took pity on him, and astutely offered him a job utilizing his expertise as a railroad traveler, the railroad inspector position
