ROUND THE WORLD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4715, 5 August 1893, Page 2

ROUND THE WORLD.

A LONG RIDE ON A BICYCLE.

(Pal! Mall Budget.)

Among the champions of endurance 1 Will have to be placed Mr Prank G. Lenz, ;a you ng Amerioan, at present making a tour of = the world on his bicycle in downright, grim earnest. Mr Lenz ia a Bhort, square-set manof twenty-six, and comes from the Teuton stock. His parents are Germans, and he was born in Philadelphia and reared in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he is a member of the Manhattan Athletic Club. Hie journey will occupy aboui two yearß, and hiß route leads aoross the United States from New York, then on to Japan, through China, India, Perßia, Turkey, Austria, Germany, Holland, France, England, Scotland and Ireland. Of this journey he had oompleted over five thousand miles in Canada and the States, a thousand miles in Japan, and just over a j thousand in China, when I met him, travel- ! stained and weary, but still oheerful land sanguine, at lohang, in Mid-China. A couple of days before he had been badly mauled by a murderous mob a few miles ' to the West ofthe oity of Shasi— a perfeot hotbed of anti-foreign feeling. He. had barely escaped with his life, and the j "Viotor" maohine had been rendered a ] wreok, so far as further service waß concerned, "until she could be docked and repaired," as Mr Lenz expressed it, I "How doyou like the Chinese, Mr Lenz P" I asked. i "Oh, they're a plaguey bad lot," he answered with a Yankee accent. , "Do you expect to get through the country after your recent experience P" " Guess I shall try any way. Everybody cells me I shan't— 'from the United States Consuls to the oldest foreign inhabi- j tante." J . .■" Yet you expect to?" j "Certainly; I may not get the machine throngh, though the worst, most hostile, and thickly-populated part of the journey is now accomplished. I was told I should not set two hundred miles from Shanghai. Yet here I am, sound in wind aiid limb, at over a thousand miles from that city, although old "Vie' has got a few ribs broken in the last scrum," he says, smiling complacently as he; looks down at the broken spokes of his wheels. "/Did you have a narrow squeak, Mr Lenz?" "Very narrow; and in the country too. All the trouble before has been in the cities and big towns. They have stoned me, pulled my hair, insisted on my riding in narrow and crowded streets,, upset me and knocked me about generally, but always in a town or city or its suburbs. The country folk and I have got on wonderfully well together before this. I have always arranged my journeys so as to put up at a village or hamlet for the night, bo as to avoid hostile crowds iv the cities." ' " What brought about the last attaok P" "Well, I can hardly tell. I was in a bad district— l could tell that — and got through the city by night, though not without a good deal of mud, stones, and old sandals being thrown at met and I jniolied ona good __i.*______ce into the eoixntry before I put up for the night. Next morning I waa about early, aud had ridden for three or four hours, passing my only coolie, a tolegraph employee, who was to show me the way, as I had to leave my only chart, i.e., the telegraph poles, for awhile. I Btoppedand dismounted to await him in the middle of a plain, and was instantly surrounded and challenged to fight, but smiled and endeavoured to mollify my my assailants, who thereupon became more desirous _ of pugilistic honours. As the crowd increased and became more hostile I very reluctantly drew my revolver and fired over their heads. Thiß made them draw baok, -and I. promptly vaulted into the saddle and dashed along the narrow road across the, plain amid a volley of diabolical yells from the baffled prize-fighters, who were none the less valorous because a hundred to one. "Wasn't using your revolver a dangerous act?" "No j I have a perfect command of my ; temper at all times, and know how useless ] it would be for one man to attaok a hundred, with their worst passions aroused ; especially in a country where life for life is a rigid law, and no official oould save me my head, however hard he tried, once I had killed a Chinese subject." " Did the crowd pursue?" " Yes, but that was not the worst. They yelled 'Strike! strike! kill! kill!' and theory passed from field to field on either side of my path and headed me, fast as I was travelling, for it waß a ride for life. The labourers looked up horrified to find a | foreign or flying devil crosaing their counI try at break-neck speed; and deeming me ■ an evil spirit, dropped straight from the. ; clouds to bring them ill-luok, made for the '' path with uplifted hoes and dealt swinging : blows *at me as I passed. Had I not . miraculously dodged them, tbey would : have Bent me sprawling and senseless. * However I got through that gauntlet of • running fire from hoe and stone I know j not ; it was sheer luck, anyway, and not i any management on my part, for I simply rode like a fiend and bobbed like a marionette." "And your machine ?" "Well, she got a bad knock now and again, so did my camera on my back; but they both saved my person." "Then you raced clean away from them?" "No, I didn't; I went like this for two or three mileß, and then I was suddenly confronted with an embankment forty feet i high, with its crest crowned with a crowd | awaiting me with hoes and bamboos." "That was a tight fix, Mr Lenz; what did you do?" I "Well, I just got off and walked ] straight towards them, to meet my fate right there." "And what happened P" " One old gentleman levelled a blow at my head with a hoe that, had I not dodged it, would have deft my skull and finished the business right away. As it was I got a bad bruise on my ear, and my camera i ! saved my shoulder, but was smashed by 1

the blow. What happened then for a few moments I oan not tell. 'Vio/ and I got parted, and I presently found myself on the edge of the crowd, and one of the better-class Chinamen bidding the crowd delist. When he had succeeded in this I picked np.my machine, and instinct told me I must make these people laugh, so I began to explain by geeticnlation— for I .only know two words of their language— food and bed— and began .fooling ronnd and falling off it, and then mounting one of their number and dexterously giving him a header. The wrath disappeared from their faoes like magic; stolidity gave way to smiles, and smiles to peals of laughter, as the orowds who. had been chasing me came up in rear, and soon joined in the chorus, and I thus turned men thirsting for my blood into an admiring audience, and presently begged, and was allowed, to proceed unmolested." 1 "._*. "That was very cleverly done, ', Mr Leoz.' .■ ..';.. *' Yeaj yon see lam alone, and too weak to fight a mob, so must hold parley and fool with them. My object Is to get through the country, and the.end jus&flM the means." "Why are yon travelling sdtoneP," '• I know I can command my own temperf a companion might be hasty, and lead uf both into trouble." ''Are not the officials bound to protect you?" " Oh, yes, bnt I never go near thorn if I oan help it. 'They create no end of a pother, and hinder me in the morning, when I like to be away early." " And how do you get on at the inns P" " Ah, there I do capitally. I eat and' sleep exactly the same- ac an ordinary, Chinaman, and frequently pitch into a meal witb, or sleep beside my own coolie, if I happen to have one, whioh only occurs in hilly districts. When I arrive in the evening I order my snpper and bed, and allow the crowd to Batisf y their curiosity about me and the maohine to their hearts' content. If they get too troublesome I prodnce this puzzle key and act them to work on it. A mechanical puzsle is, as yoa know, a powerful attraction to the natural curiosity of the Celestial. They squabble and quarrel about the solution of the puzzle and entirely forget me, and I eat my meal and Write up my notes. When all have failed, I shew them the lolution, and each man despises hit- neighbour for not having discovered so simple a trick, ■and there4s. a hearty roar of laughter.' Then I produce this mouth-Organ, and after tunning down the scale as a liminary, get to business thus."- Here Mr Lenz played several popular and lively airs. "Then I get tired, and as we are by that time on the best of terms, I say good night, make my kotow with a bland emile, and retire to bed. But they, ihsist on accompanying me to ray room, and make what further investigations they choose while lam undressing— it would be simple madness to resist or resent. Then, when I am in bed, the landlord takes away the candle and I am left withont further molestation. In the morning lam up and off with the notes of the first obantioleer. That is the Way to fool them." "But they seem to have had the last.' innings with you, Mr LenzP" "Oh, yesj but I shall .be even with them yet. Here is my camera, for instance; I get piotures of them when they have no idea what lam about. It never comes out of its leather case. I simply uncover tbe lens and rest it on a; wall or mound, and get the picture by my 'finder.' Then I set this olockwprk arrangement of mine in motion, and mingle with the crowd, arrest their atten-, tion on some particular objeot until I hear a click; then I know the 'clockwork has 1 done its work, and that I have got a shot with the exposure I adjusted for, while the Chinamen have been taken willy-nilly." "But how did yon oome throngh , tbe worst districts P" "Simply travelled by night when iheir superstitious nature keeps them nearly all within doors. Thus I can pass through their cities and towns in spite of them." " How about ihe soldiers at the gates V* "These Chinese documents are sufficient to open the tightest gates in China, when only officials are present. It ia the uncontrollable mobs; that yell at my heels all through tbe country that are . the greatest nuisance." " And what is the objeot of yonr tonr t What does it prove if you succeed P" I "It is chiefly educational. I have always had a strong desire to travel, and mv trip before I got to China, and I hope after I get out of it, will go to prove that there is a fraternal feeling among the human raoe,, besides the natural love of self $ that witb civilisation comes toleration, and a more sympathetic appreciation of fellow-men among all nations. It will certainly bring this home to young Americans, if it does no more."

"Is 'China the worst put of your journey?" , " Yes, lam doing the worst part first* Afghanistan, Persia and Asia Minor, eaoh have formidable difficulties; bnt they are not of co dangerous a nature as those who entertain the superstitious belief that a man on a bioyole is a flying devil from, the clouds. They will, at least, give . me -the credit of being human, however badly thej may use me for other reasons." (