the most famous was an irish immigrant from chicago, daniel o'leary.to door book salesman until the great fire in 1871 in chicago. that really reduced the demand for guiilt-edged version of the bible or dictionaries. so he had to walk out to the suburbs to sell books and developed a reputation for endurance himself. when he thought about westin he thought i can do that. he rented a rink in chicago and walked 100 miles in 23 hours. and westin walked 100 miles in 22 hours. it became apparent these were the two leading pedestrians in the united states and it was time for a showdown. i call them, really, the ali and velvet shirts and carried a cane. he understood that the event was about more than athletics. it was about entertainment. he was there to entertain the crowd. o'leary would have none of. that he wore a traditional tight cotton pants and a cotton shirt and just looked straight down at the track, wouldn't even acknowledge the crowd. he was always focused, i guess you would say. he was the joe frazier in the comparison. but in november of 1875 it

the most famous was an irish immigrant from chicago, a guy name daniel o'leary.coincidentally he had been a door to door book salesman until the great fire of 1871 in chicago. that really reduced the demand for guilt edged versions of the bible or dictionaries. to make money he had to walk great distance out to the suburbs to sell books and developed a reputation for endurance himself. when he heard about what he was doing, o'leary thought, i can do that. he rented a rink in chicago and walked 100 miles in 23 hours. then westin walked in 22 hours. pretty soon, these were the two leading pedestrians in the united states. soon it was time for showdown. i call them the frasier and ali of their age. westin liked to perform wearing ruffled shirts, played coronet when he walked. he understood the event was more about athletics, it was about entertainment. o'leary would have none of that. he just wore a traditional tight cotton pants and a cotton shirt and just looked straight down at the track. wouldn't even acknowledge the crowd. he was always focused, i guess they wo

the most famous was an irish immigrant from chicago, daniel o'leary.he was a door to door book salesman until the great fire in 1871 in chicago. that really reduced the demand for guiilt-edged version of the bible or dictionaries. so he had to walk out to the suburbs to sell books and developed a reputation for endurance himself. when he thought about westin he thought i can do that. he rented a rink in chicago and walked 100 miles in 23 hours. and westin walked 100 miles in 22 hours. it became apparent these were the two leading pedestrians in the united states and it was time for a showdown. i call them, really, the ali and the frazier of their age. westin was the ali character. he walked in velvet shirts and carried a cane. he understood that the event was about more than athletics. it was about entertainment. he was there to entertain the crowd. o'leary would have none of. that he wore a traditional tight cotton pants and a cotton shirt and just looked straight down at the track, wouldn't even acknowledge the crowd. he was always focused, i guess y

daniel o'leary, the irish immigrant from chicago, he was the spokesman for a brand of salt.don't know what the connection was, but apparently, he liked that salt. there were corporate sponsorships. i mentioned westin would sell ads as he walked. there were many, many pedestrians were sponsored by newspapers and would compete with the logo of the newspaper across their shirt. a tradition that i have to say so far major league baseball to its credit has resisted. though for how long, i don't know. it also had a struck a chord with people not just because there wasn't anything else to do. that was a big part of the appeal. there was so little entertainment, but the idea of walking to the average american in the 1870s and 1880s is very different than it is today. everybody walked. a good horse might cost 100 or $150. this is one of the things that surprised me. i just always imagined everybody had horses. nobody had horses. the 1% had horses. the 99% walked and walked everywhere. there was some public transportation, especially in new york and philadelphia. but by and large, peo

the most famous was an irishr# immigrant, daniel o'leary. had been a door-to-door salesman until the great fire in 1871 in chicago. that really reduced the demand for edged ends of the bible or dictionaries. this is hard to sell books. this is quite a reputation of what weston was doing. o'leary rented a rink in chicago and walked 100 miles in 23 hours. and then weston walked 100 miles in 22 hours. soon it became apparent that these were the two leading pedestrians and it was time for a showdown. i call them the ali and frazier of their age. weston was the ali. he'd like to perform wearing velvet shorts. he intwo i 2i68ly understood. he was there to enter tan the crowd. o'leary would have none of that. he wore traditional tight cotton pants and a cotton shirt and just liked down at the track. he was kind of the joe frazier in the comparison. but in november of 1875 it was finally decided that we need to have a competition to determine the world's champion pedestrian. never mind that it was between two americans but we still call it the world

but two of the pedestrians, edward westin and daniel o'leary they continued to stage walking expeditions well into their 80s. westin walked from new york to san francisco in about 1907 and again sold one of these pamphlets along the way. he did a walk from new york to minneapolis and sold a pamphlet and the sponsor was the packard car company. westin did not like cars just because he thought they made people walk less. iconically, westin, in 1927 was crossing a street in manhattan and was hit by a car. and was left crippled and never walked again and died two years later at the age of 90. o'leary fared a little better. he would stage walk expeditions before major league walk games. he would challenge a player to run around the races while he walked around once. more often than not he would pass a hat through the stands collecting nichols and dimes and this is how he funded his retirement. i imagine -- he performed before a game in chicago between the white sox and the a's in 1927 and i imagine the players in the dugout who were all born well, well after the golden age they had never hear

but two of the pedestrians, edward westin and daniel o'leary continued staging walking exhibitions well into their 80s. edward walked from new york to san francisco in about 1907. and again, sold one of these pamphlets along the way. did another walk from new york to minneapolis and sold a pamphlet, the major sponsor was the packard car company, which said you could go 300 miles in a day. i guess he was desperate for ads because he did not like cars. westin did not like cars just because he thought they made people walk less. ironically, westin in 1927, was crossing a street in manhattan and was hit by a car and was left crippled and never walked again and died two years later at the age of 90. o'leary fareed a little better. he would stage walking exhibitions before major league baseball games. he would go out and challenge the fastest runner on the team to run around the bases twice while he walked around once and more often than not he won, and then he would pass the hat. literally, pass a hat through the stands collecting nickels and dimes and this is basically how he funded his ret