AROUND WORLD IN 35 DAYS

Mr. John Henry Mears, in an interesting and humorous address told of his record-breaking trip around the world, in the Living Room of the Union last evening. His lecture was illustrated by stereopticon views of the places and people that he saw while encircling the globe in 35 days, as a correspondent for the New York Evening Sun.

The start was made on July 2, 1913, and the first leg of the race was the ocean-trip, on the Mauretania. Among those on board was Mr. Marconi, the inventor of the wireless. After spending a night and a day in London Mr. Mears went to Paris where he met the holder of the "round-the-world" record up to that time. It had been made in 1911 and the time was 39 days. A night train took Mr. Mears to Berlin from where he started for St. Petersburg. At each of the capitals he visited the United States diplomatic representative and saw as many of the interesting sights as his time and railway connections would allow.

From St. Petersburg Mr. Mears began the longest single part of his expedition, when he boarded the Trans-Siberian Express for a 10-day ride over 15,000 miles of Prussian and Siberian territory. A washout caused a delay of 18 hours at one point, and Mr. Mears said that American workers could have repaired it in 3 hours at most. By offering the engineer 20 roubles or $10 for every hour he made up, Mr. Mears was able to cut down the delay by about 8 hours, but the remaining loss was enough to make him miss his boat at Vladivostok. He left the Trans-Siberian, therefore, at Harbin, and taking the South Manchurian Railroad to Moukden he was able to get a fast train to Seoul the capital of Corea. From here a fast train took the traveller to Fusan, at the Southern Extremity of Corea, where he took a boat to Japan.

The Imperial Railway had prepared a special car to take him to Tokyo. Admitting that in such a hurried trip he must necessarily lose much of the picturesqueness and beauty of the scenery, Mr. Mears emphasized that this, however, was impossible in Japan, and threw photographs on the screen which were excellent witnesses to what he said. At Yokohama he took the "Empress of Russia" for America. A hydroplane took him ashore from the steamer to Seattle, and here he took the North Coast Limited for St. Paul. He arrived in New York on August 6 and the official record of his time was given as 35 days, 21 hours, and 25 minutes.