A STRENUOUS TOURIST.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 15, 23 February 1914, Page 8

A STRENUOUS TOURIST.

"ROUND THE WORLD ON A WHEEL." AN AMERICAN STORY. Ther.e is at present in Christchurch a Yankee with the maximum amount of j nerve, even for an American subject. He says so himself, so it will'not hurt him to see the fact recorded in print. His name is Devlin, and he has only one leg, the other having been lost in a railway accident 13 years ago, when he was 14 years of age. Since that time he has been making a living as a'trick" cyclist, and his latest venture is to ride round the world on a pushbike. He left his home in, Texas onMay 1, 1912, and his story is that the; "Waco Morning News" will pay him 20,000 dollars if he gets home after circling the globe by the same date of this year. His journey is now almost completed, as he has merely to cross the Pacific and ride into Waeor-wher-ever that is, —and draw his cheque. He has over two months to make the trip, and he is already telling himself what he will do with the money.

According to his tale, as given to a SUN representative this morning, he has already traversed 38 States of America, part of Canada, Mexico, England, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Australia, and Tasmania. He has been in New Zealand for about seven weeks, and has ridden from Wellington to Auckland and from Nelson to Christchurch. He is not quite certain whether he will sail from Wellington to 'Frisco, or from Auckland to Vancouver, but he will be leaving for America some way or another as soon as he can.

Devlin's method of getting from one country to another is to sell his bieycle for What it will fetch, and then stow away on the first available steamer. Arrived .in the new country, he sells post-cards detailing his exploits, and then buys a new bike. In this, way he has used 16 machines on his tour. When he stows away he cheerfully takes the risk of imprisonment at the end of his journey, but this he looks on merely as the price of his passage. So far he has managed to escape without paying such a penalty, and in some cases has even persuaded the captain of the vessel to treat him as a more or less honoured guest, after he has been found. Such, at least, is his story- —and one must always - "remember that Ids domicile is America. v One of his best stories tells how he was arrested in Nice, France, for selling his post-cards in the street without a permit. Various assaults on the gendarmerie resulted in an incarceration of 24 days, after which he was discharged. As he was escorted from the prison gates he was handed a paper, which he took to be a permit to sell his post-cards; but he found later that it was an order to leave France within 24 hor>.rs. His last experience of that beautiful country was a wild rush for the frontier against the clock. He won —although he has only,, one sound leg. He stowed away from Naples on a German ship amongst a crowd of Italians —Eye-talians he calls them. He, was discovered at Colombo, but he exercised his German—picked up in beer gardens where he had sold his postcards —on a particularly genial skipper, and he was allowed to finish the journey to Australia as a guest of the owners, and was transferred to the English quarters. So he says. From Australia to Wellington he travelled in the stokehold, and the American consul at Wellington gave him enough money for a wash and a meal. To-day, he says, iie is still in possession of one post-card—printed in Westport—and eight '-bawb." He looks forward cheerfully to a homeward voyage to the land of his birth as part of the cargo. His life is strenuous, and not a little uncomfortable—but 20,000 dollars!. What won't these Americans do for a living?