I had observed that most people who wrote stories of travel journeyed over the country in firstclass coaches. They visited only the great cities and points of known interest. . . . Their stories are of beaten paths and, dress them as artistically and originally as they may, they are only telling a tale that has been told. While making no particular claim to superiority in writing, I thought by assuming the garb of a sailor and traveling as one of the plain, everyday toilers I could get closer to nature and her children and tell a story of our country such as had never been told.
Krohn, John Albert. The Walk of Colonial Jack; a Story of a Long-Distance Walker. Keane, N.H.: Printed by the Cheshire republican, 1910.

Boston Lads start on Cross Continent Tramp. Young Men to Set Out From Los Angeles on Wager.

Luca Reber, 21 anni, ha lasciato tutto ed è partito alla volta del mondo. Starà via un paio d’anni. Con sé ha pochi vestiti, macchina fotografica e pc. “Non mi serve altro, non mi manca niente”. Budget: 25mila franchi, i suoi risparmi. “Dormirò gratis sui divani. E se non bastano i soldi, troverò un lavoro”.

This is a book of American roads, for men who travel on the bicycle. Its ideal is that of a gazetteer, a dictionary, a cyclopaedia, a statistical guide, a thesaurus of facts. The elaborateness of its indexing shows that it is designed less for reading than for reference, - less for amusement than for instruction, - and debars any one from objecting to the multiplicity of its details.