In which a new type of share appears on the London market

When he left London, Phileas Fogg could have had little idea of the impact that his departure would have. The news of the bet first went around the Reform Club and had a considerable effect on the members of that distinguished institution. Then, from the club, its effect spread to the newspapers via reporters and from the newspapers to the public in London and the whole United Kingdom.

This issue of the ‘journey around the world’ was discussed, argued about and analysed with as much passion and energy as if it had been a major international dispute like the Alabama Claim. Some people sided with Phileas Fogg, others – and they were soon in the majority – came out against him. To go around the world, other than in theory and on paper, in such a short time and with the means of transport currently available, was not only impossible, it was madness.

The Times, the Standard, the Evening Star, the Morning Chronicle, and a dozen other newspapers with a wide circulation came out against Mr Fogg. Only the Daily Telegraph supported him up to a point. Phileas Fogg was in general considered an obsessive and a madman and his fellow members of the Reform Club were criticized for having accepted this bet, which was evidence of a decline in the mental capacities of the person who had made it.

Some extremely heated but well-argued articles were published on the subject. It is well known how seriously anything involving geography is taken in England. And so there was not a single reader, regardless of social class, who failed to devour the columns devoted to the case of Phileas Fogg.

In the early days, some independent-minded people – mainly women – were for him, especially when the Illustrated London News published his portrait, based on a photograph from the archives of the Reform Club. Some gentlemen went as far as to say, ‘Well, why not, after all? Stranger things have happened!’ They were mainly readers of the Daily Telegraph. But it soon became clear that even the support of this newspaper was beginning to wane.

In the event, a long article appeared on 7 October in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. It examined the question from every perspective and proved conclusively the madness of the undertaking. According to this article, everything was against the traveller, human obstacles and natural ones. For the plan to succeed would require a miraculous coordination of departure and arrival times, a coordination that didn’t exist and that couldn’t exist. At a pinch and in Europe, where the length of the journey was relatively short, the trains could be expected to arrive on time, but when they take three days to cross India and seven to cross the United States, how could anyone consider them reliable factors in such a calculation? And with mechanical breakdowns, derailments, encounters with the unexpected, bad weather, heavy snow, surely everything was against Phileas Fogg? On steamers, were you not in winter at the mercy of gusts of wind or patches of fog? Was it that unusual for the fastest transatlantic ships to be two or three days late? Yet all it needed was one single hold-up for the whole chain of communication to be irreparably broken. If Phileas Fogg missed a steamer by only a few hours, he would be forced to wait until the next steamer, and that would be fateful for his whole journey.

The article had a considerable impact. It was reprinted in almost all the newspapers and shares in Phileas Fogg fell considerably.

During the early days after the gentleman’s departure there had been some heavy betting on the risks involved. It is well known that in England betting is an activity practised by a more intelligent and select group of people than gambling. Betting is part of the English character. So, not only did various members of the Reform Club place considerable bets for or against Phileas Fogg, but the public as a whole followed suit. Phileas Fogg was treated like a racehorse, entered in a sort of form book. He was also made into a new sort of share that was immediately quoted on the London market. There were buying and selling prices for ‘Phileas Fogg’, and large amounts of money changed hands. But five days after his departure, after the article in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, people began to sell. Shares in ‘Phileas Fogg’ fell. There was a wave of selling. Quoted first at five to one, then ten, the odds then became twenty, fifty and a hundred to one!

He had only one supporter left. This was the elderly, paralysed Lord Albermarle. The noble sir, confined to a wheelchair, would have given his whole fortune to go around the world even if it took him ten years! So he was the one who bet £5,000 on Phileas Fogg. And when people showed him not only how foolish the plan was but also how pointless, he merely replied, ‘If it can be done at all, then it’s only right that an Englishman should be the first to do it!’

This, then, was the situation: the supporters of Phileas Fogg were becoming fewer and fewer; everyone, and not without reason, was turning against him; the odds werenowone hundred and fifty, two hundred to one. Then, seven days after he had left, something quite unexpected resulted in no odds being given at all.

What happened was that during that day, at nine o’clock in the evening, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police had received the following telegraph message:

To: Rowan, Commissioner, Police Headquarters, Scotland Yard, London

From: Fix, detective inspector, Suez

Trailing bank robber, Phileas Fogg. Send arrest warrant without delay Bombay (British India).

The effect of this telegram was immediate. For ‘honourable gentleman’ people now read ‘bank robber’. His photograph, which was kept in the Reform Club along with those of all his fellow members, was carefully examined. It reproduced down to the last detail the features of the man whose description had been provided by the police investigation. People remembered how secretive an existence Phileas Fogg led, how solitary he was, how sudden his departure had been, and it seemed obvious that by inventing this story of a journey around the world and then backing it up with an absurd bet this individual had acted with the sole intention of putting the British police force off his scent.