SEXAGENARIAN'S TRAMP. WALK OF 1235 MILES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 150, 21 December 1907, Page 19

SEXAGENARIAN'S TRAMP. WALK OF 1235 MILES.

Sixty-nine years old and lively as a boy, Edward Weslon, America's champion pedestrian, started from Portland, Maine, on a 1235-tramp to Chicago. Weston walked from Portland to Chicago in 1867, in twenty-five days and twentythree hours. "Old as I am," says Weston, "I am going to break my lecord of forty yews ago. I'll tramp from Portland to Chicago in twenty-four days and twenty-three hours., or break a leg in the attempt. I feel just as sprightly and a.* Well to-day as 1 Mas when I left Portland for Chicago in 1867, and can get over the road as fast and with as little fatigue as usual. Weston was accompanied by a staff of witnesses, ne has walked about 70,000 miles since he bogan his professional career as pedestrian in 1367. He hopes before long (o pay another visit to England, of which he retains most happy hietoories. "Englishmen," said the champion lately, "are a nation of walkers. No doubt their splendid physique njid Maidoubted powers of endurance, which make the average Britisher tho finest specimen physically in the world, are due to an open-air life and habits of pedestrianism. In England pqoplo do not take the omnibus, tram, or train to travel 100 yards, but they walk, walk, women and girls, as well as men and boys. Weston spoke .of the time when he was in England, many years ago, and would be grieved to hear that the 'bus, tram, and train habit has grown somewhat in recent times. He believes that America •will always (js a nation of dyspeptics while its citizens cherish such an aversion to pedestrianism out' of doors, or walking up a flight of fetairs indoors. Weston believes in teetotalism and physical culture, as taught in the schools, nowadays but walking he considers the best exercise of all, and a mile run before breakfast — not a mile walk, but a mile Tvn — is the best thing possible for every man, more especially after passing his fortieth year. [On the 20th of last month a cable message stated that Weston did the journey in 595 hours, his previous record being 623 hours. The best day's walk was 95 miles.]