The Woman Who Bet $20,000 She Could Walk Around the World

A ROUND THE WORLD WALK.

Champion Long Distance Pedestrian to Encircle the Globe.

Miss Zoe Gayton, who holds the diamond belt, thirty-one stone, representing the long-distance championship of the world, is in the city staying at the Colby house. She will go to Victoria to visit friends, after which she will return to Portland and on June 15 start East over the Oregon Railway Navigation Company’s tracks on her journey around the world. She is compelled to walk every step of the way, except where she has to travel by steamer, and if she returns to the starting place within eighteen months wins $20,000 wagered by members of the Olympic Athletic Club, of San Francisco, against $10,000 put up by J. A. Church, of San Francisco, in her behalf.

The course of travel she has outlined is as follows: Beginning at the Oregon Railway Navigation Company’s tracks from Portland she follows the Oregon Short Line and Union Pacific to Omaha, thence along the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy to Chicago, the Michigan Central to Buffalo and New York Central to New York. She is to touch England, France, Italy and Austria to Trieste. Then to Port Said, Egypt and Arabia to Ceylon, and on to Bombay. Thence to Calcutta to Hongkong, where she takes the steamer to Victoria, B. C., and from thence walk down through Seattle to Portland. She says she speaks French, Spanish and German, but will be allowed an interpreter when necessary. Besides her faithful cocker spaniel, she has another, a hunter, which will accompany her across the plains, where his services will come in most opportunely. Three men will make up a party to accompany her in her walks by relays. One will be J. E. Price, a helper or camp attendant; Frank Adams, trainer; and W. J. Marshall, her manager. The men will take turns in walking with the pedestrian 200 miles each, except when they cross the plains, when all will walk the entire distance; blankets and a small supply of provisions and some arms will constitute the impedimenta.

Miss Gayton won the championship of the world by walking from San Francisco to New York city in 104 days, thus winning $12,000. Her first attempt as a pedestrian was in 1884, when she walked from Los Angeles to Tombstone, Ariz., in six weeks, winning $3,000. The longest distance she ever made in one day was forty-five miles. The first day she ever walked she made eleven miles, two the next and none the next day, owing to sore feet. In walking she always wears short skirts, heavy English walking shoes and carries two 44-caliber bullet revolvers. In all her experiences she never drew one of them but once, and that was on two men. Miss Gayton is a pleasant woman to talk with and expresses the utmost confidence in her ability to make the circle of the world in eighteen months.

Miss Gayton will appear at Cordray’s theater tonight during the performance. She will give a short talk, and every word will be full of interest. She is attractive, of magnetic personality and an entertaining talker.