Elizabeth Bisland challenged her arch rival Nellie Bly in a westward course to beat Jules Verne’s fictional record around the world in less than 80 days. Ignoring her busy social calendar in New York, she launched during the prime holiday season starting in November of 1889.
It was a time when most people still considered it improper for women to be adventurous or competitive. A staunch supporter of the status quo, Bisland boldly challenged Bly who openly ignored these tired conventions. In her short story titled “The Coming Subjugation of Man” Elizabeth Bisland warned that men would be like drones in a beehive if women ever became their social equals.
Readers believed Bisland’s words, even as her actions told a different story when she rolled up her lace-trimmed sleeves and her globe-circling race began.
Bisland made the first leg of her “flying trip” in record time, thanks to an experimental mail train and a crazed engine driver. Her arrival in San Francisco in a record-breaking four days and twenty hours was splashed across headlines heralding a new world of female freedoms.
Following are 6 reasons why we believe she enjoyed these freedoms more than she wanted to admit.
#1 – Headlines Screamed Her Name In Large Type
Elizabeth Bisland challenged the propriety of a lady allowing her name to appear in a headline, even if she used a nom de plume like Nellie Bly did. And yet, Bisland’s name was splashed across newspapers from coast to coast once her race against Bly began.
Just one example was the Daily Alta California, November 1889. The headline read:
MISS BISLAND’S JOURNEY
RACING AGAINST NELLIE BLY
She Will Attempt to Make Fast Time Around the World!
In Bisland’s interview:
“Had I realized that I would attain such newspaper notoriety 1 never would have started. It is different with Miss Bly; she is accustomed to it.” (Daily Alta California)
Only four days into her trip, she seemed to be settling in to her dangerous new reality.
“It seems rather strange to see my name in the headlines of all the newspapers. lam getting hardened, though, and probably will not mind it when I get back to New York.” (Daily Alta California)
#2 – Ladies Should Never Be The Focus Of Public Attention
By the late 1800s, more women were venturing out of the home and into the world. But this new freedom exposed them to the glare of public disapproval.
On one hand, Bisland challenged women who placed themselves under scrutiny. On the other, she was undoubtedly pleased to read what was printed in the Daily Alta.
“Miss Bisland. who is stopping at the Palace Hotel, is a tall, dark-complexioned young lady, about twenty-five years old, and unusually handsome. She is Southern by birth, and she possesses the Southern beauty to its fullest extent. In spite of her beautiful face, there is a look about the mouth and a snap in her black eyes that express great determination.”
In her interview with the Alta reporter, she said:
“I started from New York last Thursday on my queer journey, and on arriving here was surprised to find so much interest taken in my project.” (Daily Alta California)
#3 – She Rolled Up Her Sleeves And The Race Began!
In keeping with her times, Elizabeth Bisland challenged the propriety of women with competitive spirits. The first modern International Olympics were held in Athens, Greece in 1896 with no female competitors. The International Olympic Committee said that female athletes would be “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect.” It wasn’t until 1900 that a few women were allowed to compete.
It’s no surprise that in 1889 Bisland repeatedly denied that she was racing Nellie Bly. Instead, she claimed she was merely writing travel pieces with the interesting twist of girdling the globe faster than Jules Verne’s fictional character who did it in 80 days.
Despite her protests and denials, she stepped into the race with gusto.
“I expected to sail to-day on the steamer Oceanic for Yokohama, but find that she does not sail until Thursday. I am thus forced to lose two days, which I will find hard work to make up.”
In fact, Bisland’s route was carefully planned in meticulous detail.
“I had calculated on making the circuit of the globe in seventy-two days, but hardly expect to do it now. I go by way of Yokohama to Hong Kong and take the steamer from thereto Ceylon, then through the Ked Sea to the Mediterranean.” (Daily Alta California)
It was more than a little surprising that she still denied taking any pleasure in competition.
“If I arrive at Havre in time to catch the French steamer I shall complete the journey on time. That is , my only chance; and I will engage a special train at Brindisi if necessary. If 1 miss the 1 steamer at Havre I may catch the City of Eome by racing across Ireland and intercepting the ship at Queenstown.” (Daily Alta California)
By the time Bisland made it to the west coast, she clearly had honed her competitive spirit.
#4 – Ladies Do Not Travel Solo
Like so many people of her day, Elizabeth Bisland challenged the very idea of ladies traveling solo even though their were increasing in numbers by the late 19th century.
Even so, she made her trip entirely alone. Yes, John Brisben Walker, her publisher at Cosmopolitan Magazine arranged handlers for her to meet along her journey. But she was without a formal travel companion and seemed to do just fine.
“Although I am traveling entirely alone, every body treats me with the greatest consideration. I have had some experience traveling about this country, but have never made an ocean voyage.” (Daily Alta California)
Is it possible that Bisland was happy to join the ranks of solo lady travelers?
#5 – Girdling The Globe At Record Speed Revolted Her
Everything in the 1890s seemed to move faster than previous decades. Bisland challenged such high-speed travel as uncouth at best. Even bicycles were engineered to move at faster speeds, prompting critics of female cyclists to bemoan a new “ailment” called Bicycle Face.
Even so, Elizabeth Bisland risked the gossip of high society as she boarded an experimental mail train with Mr. Foley at the helm. According to Bisland’s book, In Seven Stages: A Flying Trip Around The World a great government contract would be won or lost by morning.
Foley “remarked with jovial determination, as he climbed into the cab, that he would “get us to Ogden — or hell, on time.” Several times during that five hours’ ride the betting stood ten to one on the latter goal, and Hades was hot favorite.” (In Seven Stages)
At fifteen minutes past nine the nose of the ferry-boat from Oakland touches the San Francisco wharf. They had crossed the continent in four days and twenty hours.
“…and the distance between New York and the Western metropolis is reduced by a whole day. A great achievement! There are crowds of reporters waiting to interview everybody; General Manager, engineer, conductor — even me. (In Seven Stages)
When asked what was to be gained by the traveling at such high speeds, she replied:
“I really do not know, unless it is to see how quick the trio can be made, and as an advertisement. No practical good can result from such an undertaking.”
This tremendous pace for thousands of miles across the country has told upon my nerves to an absurd degree, and I wonder, as I shiver with exhaustion and tremble with nameless, undefined apprehensions, how the coming generation that is to travel a hundred and a hundred and fifty miles an hour will bear the strain of it.” (Daily Alta California)
#6 – A True Lady Travelled With Several Steamer Trunks
Elizabeth Bisland challenged the idea of quick travel. She wrote that true ladies travelled with necessities that required several steamer trunks to transport. And yet, she jumped aboard a speeding train with one steamer trunk and one carry on.
Granted, Nellie Bly did it with one tiny carry on. Even so, Bisland was woefully underdressed to “fly around the world.”
“My departure from New York was very sudden, as I had only Bix hours’ notice. M 7M 7 baggage consists of a satchel and a small steamer trunk. I understand that Miss Blv took only a small hand satchel, but I could not travel that way.” (Daily Alta California)
Why Did She Agree To Girdle The Globe?
That Elizabeth Bisland challenged Nellie Bly is a matter of historical record. But why she did it is not so clear.
Like Bly, Bisland’s family tragedies compelled her to earn her own way in life. But Bisland wrote essays on the the arts and articles on proper female topics for the “ladies’ page”. She also chose to write essays under pseudonyms.
So why did she girdle the globe during the holiday season of 1889?
Was she jealous of her gutsy rival who had captured the minds and hearts of New York readers? Was it for the promise of better assignments that would advance her career? Did Brisben Walker offer her a handsome bribe she couldn’t refuse?
Or was she just as adventurous as her archrival, Nellie Bly?
According to Elizabeth Bisland in her book, In Seven Stages:
“Amid my dreams has always been a carefully elaborated and favorite one of the day upon which I should at last set out on my travels. I had thought out all the details of this episode, and what my emotions should be — a tasteful mingling of regret and exultation — as I bade my unfortunate home-staying friends adieu, and the great Cunard swung free from the docks, bearing me away to the delights and mysteries of foreign lands.
Even in my childhood my sympathy for the heroes in the fairy tales was always keenest at the moment when they waved their hands in farewell and turned their faces at last towards the magical adventures that stalked about impatiently awaiting their advent in the strange countries where their havens lay.” (In Seven Stages)
The answer remains open to your musings.
Whatever the answer, at three o’clock Thursday afternoon of November the 21st of 1889, the White Star steamship Oceanic, of the Occidental and Oriental line — Charles H. Kempson commander — sailed from San Francisco. Elizabeth Bisland, even if under duress, found it “a very exciting thing to leave one’s country for the first time.”
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