Chapter I: Front Matter

ON WHEELS
AROUND THE WORLD
FOR
THE INTER OCEAN

THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES
IN FOREIGN LANDS

--OF--

MR. AND MRS. H. DARWIN McILRATH.

Compiled from Letters Written by Mr. McIlrath and Published in

THE SUNDAY AND WEEKLY INTER OCEAN,

from April, 1895, to November, 1898.

Copyright, 1898,
By The Inter Ocean Publishing Co.

THE TOUR AT A GLANCE.

INTRODUCTORY.

PAGES.

Chicago Cyclists demonstrate their enthusiasm at the proposed
World's Tour awheel--Friends of the Inter Ocean endorse the project
by giving the McIlraths letters to friends in foreign lands--The
starting point left behind on April 10, 1895 5-7

CHAPTER I.

Two and one-half days getting into Nebraska--Many friends made
on the road--An unanswerable argument in favor of the "rational"
costume for women--An encounter with the law at Melrose Park and
what came of it 9-13

CHAPTER II.

Hard cycling in a hailstorm--A speeder with one leg arouses the
admiration of the World's tourists--In Colorado at the one-time
rendezvous of the famous James Boys and their gang--The 1,000
mile mark covered by May 3 13-18

CHAPTER III.

Made wanderers at midnight through the whim of an unreasonable
woman--Breaking a coasting record at Hot Springs, Colo.--Western
railroad beds as dangerous as the Spanish Mines in Havana
Harbor--An explosion and a badly lacerated tire 18-23

CHAPTER IV.

Lizards, snakes and swollen streams make traveling lively for
tourists--Paralysis of hands and arms necessitates a week's
course of medical treatment--"Tommy Atkins," most companionable
of Englishmen, forced to desert the Inter Ocean cyclists 24-26

CHAPTER V.

Vigilantes of Nevada mistake the wheelman for a notorious
bandit--Saved by one's gold teeth--Into Reno, where hospitality
has its abode--Quick time to California, and then off for the
Mikado's land on Oct. 12 29-33

CHAPTER VI.

Quartered at the Club Hotel, Yokohama--Japan's extraordinary
credit system--At the funeral of a prince, and a few points noted
on Japanese crowds--Uncle Sam's people get the best of everything
in Japan 33-38

CHAPTER VII.

His Highness, the Emperor, objects to being "shot" by a camera--The
war holidays at Shokausha Park, Kudan--By steamer to China--An
effective "gun" for Chinese dogs--Cyclists the center of many
inquisitive crowds 39-42

CHAPTER VIII.

Guests at a Chinese wedding--The dark side of life in China
sought and found--Indescribable horrors of a native prison--New
Year extravagantly celebrated--Mrs. McIlrath's pen picture of a
Chinese lady of fashion 43-47

CHAPTER IX.

Received in state by the Tao Tai of Su Chow--Invited to witness
the execution of a woman by the "Seng Chee" method--Debut of
the bicycle along the Grand Canal--"Foreign devils" pursued by
maddened mobs of natives 48-53

CHAPTER X.

The American people's able representative at Ching Kiang--A
reminiscence of his pluck and courage in settling claims for his
country--Wheeling by night in a strange country with mud up to
the bicycle hubs 53-57

CHAPTER XI.

Saved by a Mandarin from the clutches of an Asiatic
Shylock--Cyclists stray into the dangerous province of Hunan--Taken
into Shaze, the city of blood and crimes--The Yang-Tse Kiang
gorges from a houseboat 57-62

CHAPTER XII.

The Yang-Tse-Kiang in its fiercest mood turned to advantage by
a native undertaker--An appreciative Tai Foo pays the tourists
for calling upon him--Severe punishment of a grasping boatman--A
forced march to Chung King 62-66

CHAPTER XIII.

Coolie guides and luggage bearers desert the tourists--Opium the
curse of the Chinese Empire--The most dangerous stage of the
Chinese trip concluded at last--Chung King's conjurer gives a
remarkable street performance 67-71

CHAPTER XIV.

Inter Ocean tourists become tramps through rain and snow, with
the wheels carried on bamboo poles--Nearing the boundary line
of China--Sudden change of climate and a narrow escape from the
sunstroke--Chang, the Yunnan Giant 72-76

CHAPTER XV.

A toast to the United States on Burmese soil--"On the Road
to Mandalay"--Entertained at a wedding of royalty, where a
feature of the programme caused ladies to retire and bachelors
to blush--Hospitable British officers 76-81

CHAPTER XVI.

Rangoon suffers an attack of the bicycling fever--Native sports
supplanted by corrupt horse-racing--A prize fight where rules do
not count--Across the Bay of Bengal by steamer 81-88

CHAPTER XVII.

Arrival of the tourists causes great excitement at Benares--A
pretty trio of supercilious British wheelmen--Guests of the
Maharajah at Fort Ramnagar--A leap almost into the jaws of
death 88-94

CHAPTER XVIII.

Pursued by a maddened herd of water buffalo--A joke ends in a race
for life--The Yankee flag a conspicuous feature of the Queen's
Jubilee at Delhi--A reminder of the plucky but unfortunate Frank
Lenz 94-96

CHAPTER XIX.

Patriotism nearly lands McIlrath in a native prison--A night of
terror attributed to Rodney, the pet monkey--Cyclists stricken
with fever and become helpless invalids at Lahore--Bicycling much
more comfortable than English national traveling 97-102

CHAPTER XX.

Last days in India spent during the dreaded monsoon season--The
pet monkey's appetite for rubber brings about an annoying
delay--Officials refuse to let the Inter Ocean tourists follow
out their plans and ride through Beloochistan 103-107

CHAPTER XXI.

On board the "Assyria" bound for Persia--American firearms
come in handy when road agents ask for "presents"--Climbing the
Alps child's play compared with crossing the Kotals of Persia
108-112

CHAPTER XXII.

A visiting card left on the Porch of Xerxes--At the ruins
of Persepolis--Some plain truths, as to the character
of the Armenians--Lost in a snowstorm on the peak of a
mountain--Mrs. McIlrath's feet frozen badly 113-118

CHAPTER XXIII.

The most miserable Christmas day ever passed by man--The Sultan's
cavalrymen forced to admit the superiority of the bicycle--Deserted
by a cowardly driver on the road to Teheran--The trip to Resht
made by carriages 118-122

CHAPTER XXIV.

Landed in Russia three years after leaving Chicago--Easter
Sunday in Tiflis, the "Paris of the Caucasus"--In sight of Mount
Ararat--The pet monkey commits suicide in Constantinople--A Turkish
newspaper joke--Roumania the next country entered 122-126