Part Two: Round she goes
This post is part two of the Nellie Bly story. If you missed part one you can catch up and read it here.
At age 25, Bly was still working at New York World and looking for her next big adventure. Inspired by the Jules Verne novel, Around the World in 80 Days, Bly decided she would try to best the fictional hero, Phileas Fogg, and beat his time. She offered the idea to her editor and a year later, on November 14, 1889, she boarded the Augusta Victoria steamer and started her 24,899 mile journey with nothing but the dress she was wearing, a small duffel of toiletries, and a bag of money worn around her neck.
In order to increase publicity of their own periodical, Cosmopolitan, sent their own reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, around the world in the opposite direction with the goal of not only beating Fogg but Bly as well. To keep interest in the story alive, New York World held the “Nellie Bly Guessing Match;” participants would estimate Bly’s arrival to the second for a chance to win a trip to Europe, and spending money for the trip.
Bly’s trip took her from New Jersey across the Atlantic to London and then Amiens, France. It was here where Bly had the opportunity to meet Mr. Verne himself. He picked her up from the train station with his wife, and the group spent some time together. France led to Italy, and onward to Egypt where Bly noticed a large group of intrusive beggars that “seemed to thrust their deformities in our faces in order to compel us to give money to buy their absence from our sight”. Singapore and Hong Kong were next and finally it was time for the long boat ride back to America. Bly landed in San Francisco on January 2 and was brought back to Jersey to complete the journey successfully.
Submarine cable networks and the telegraph system allowed for Bly to communicate progress reports quickly during some legs of the race; at other times it could take weeks by post for word to come from the traveling reporter. Occasional setbacks in Asia allowed Bly a chance to explore the countries where she visited a Chinese leper colony and bought a monkey in Singapore. By her arrival in San Francisco on January 21 she was two weeks behind schedule; New York World owner, Joseph Pulitizer, hired a private train to bring her home to New York. Bly finished her trip in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 4 seconds after her departure from Hoboken. While her time was a world record, it was quickly bested a few months later by a man completing the same journey in 67 days. Bly’s book on her trip Around the World in 72 Days became a best seller.
Next month: our story comes to completion with part 3, and Bly finds inspiration in the steel industry.