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.
J. A. Krohan of Glen Grove, Minn, who calls himself "Colonial Jack" is on his way from Portland, Me, to Portland Ore and proposes to keep as well as he can along the border line of the republic. He is off on a 9,000 mile walk, his longest tramp although he has made many very long trips afoot and likes that form of exercise and amusement very much.
He likes the old colonial dress, or, rather, that of the revolutionary period. He objects to pantaloons, and thinks that he can walk much easier in knee breeches. He wears the old-time cocked hat and wheels a contrivance of his own before him, box shaped, like a pyramid, mounted on a single bicycle wheel.
He took with him a formal letter from Mayor Leighton to the mayor of Portland, Ore, and promised to bring back a reply in 400 days. S. B. Kelsey, the assistant postmaster, sent a letter by him to the assistant postmaster at Portland, Ore, telling him to send him a Pacific coast salmon by "Jack" provided he thought it would be fresh when he got back to the Atlantic coast.
The Washington bee, 11.07.1908
