Imagine you’re going on a hike with a few
of your friends to the Grand Canyon. You’ve planned to spend the night, camp
like boy scouts, and most importantly, have fun. As you’re on the trail towards your destination,
your fastest buddy (who loves to show off) is a few hundred feet ahead. Suddenly, you see him tripping, and just as
he’s about to hit the ground, he vanishes into thin air, right in front of your eyes. What would you do? Would you trust your eyes, or think of it
as a hallucination? Well, that hike sounds all too familiar, but
it went a little differently 126 years ago. James Burne Worson was a kind shoemaker who
lived in Leamington, Warwickshire in England. He had his own little shop where he created
his own foot wear and repaired the shoes of passers-by. He was a humble, honest and respected man,
but just like all of us, he had some negative traits that other people didn’t appreciate
that much. He enjoyed showing off from time to time;
and he also loved challenging people into doing things for fun. On September 3rd, 1873, he and a few of his
friends were walking around town, talking and having a laugh. Suddenly, an idea flashed into James’ mind
to play a game. Since he was a man who continually sought
approval and loved attention, he thought of an excellent way to get his dose of recognition. You see, he was quite the athlete too, and
that meant that he had the ability to showcase his physical skills to impress the town’s
residents. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time. He decided to go on a match against nature. It was his strength and will against the odds
of making it. What does that mean? Well, he was challenged by one of his buddies
to run from Leamington to Coventry, and then run the whole way back again. It wasn’t an easy task either, since the
distance he had to cover was about 20 miles. To help you understand, it would’ve taken
him 6 hours had he walked the whole way. And assuming he was running approximately
7 miles an hour, that meant he needed more than 3 hours to complete his journey. No, he wasn’t Superman, and he would get
regular breaks to catch his breath. Not one to shy away from a task, his bravery
kicked in, and his reply was: “Challenge Accepted”! Even though he was confident that he could
make it, his buddies had their doubts. I mean, he could’ve easily run to the countryside
outside of Leamington, sat there for a few hours, and then ran back, pretending to be
exhausted and out of breath. So, to make sure that wasn’t the case, his
friends decided to follow him. His challenger, whose name is still a mystery,
got in the back of the cart wagon, alongside his two other buddies: Barham Wise, who was
a linen draper, and Hamerson Burns, who was a photographer. And then the race began. James Worson was running with a steady pace,
while his friends were following him with their wheels. He’d managed to cover several miles at an
easy gait, without even looking tired. He made the marathon seem like a piece of
cake. His buddies kept some distance while following
him, but not enough to lose sight of him. And they occasionally teased him, as encouragement
to keep him going. But you know what they say. “All is calm before the storm.” James kept running; his friends were about
36 feet behind with their eyes fixed on him, when suddenly, the unexpected happened. It seemed like James had tripped over something,
and he was about to go down. As he was falling headlong forward, he let
out a loud shriek and disappeared into thin air. – He never even touched the ground; he simply
vanished. His friends were shocked! They couldn’t believe their eyes! The sight made them question their own sanity. Where could James have gone? All three buddies stopped, got off the wagon,
and started looking for him. They were wandering around the area to see
if they could spot him. Maybe he was pulling a prank. Maybe he was never there. Or perhaps he teleported. Nobody could explain this incident using logic. His friends were in utter shock. After spending some time trying to locate
him without success, they began their journey back to Leamington. Once they arrived, they started sharing the
unbelievable occurrence they’d just witnessed, explaining how their friend just vanished
in front of their eyes, as if he never existed. Now, if you heard that story today, you would
nod your head in disbelief and assume that they must’ve done something bad to him. Well, that’s also what the authorities believed
back then, and they were arrested. The three men were taken into custody, and
investigators began their interrogations to find out what happened. At first, they believed that the friends were
responsible for James’ disappearance. However, after a while, they had no evidence
to support that. And since he was never found, they couldn’t
be prosecuted. The story made headlines, and people started
coming out with theories about what happened. Some believed that those three guys were concealing
the truth about how the events progressed out there. Some others believed that they were telling
the truth. But others took a more surrealistic approach
to explain what truly happened. Besides, the world and the universe were still
a mystery in the 1870s. Some theories say that James accidentally
entered a 4th dimension, which made him disappear. Ok, we all know that we use 3D to both explain
and measure width, height and depth. But what happens if we enter a forth dimension? Well you can’t! 4th dimensional space is
a hypothetical direction in our 3D geometry. It’s used by mathematicians to explain something
using spatial dimensions. So, a human entering an imaginary dimension
couldn’t have been possible. Another theory claimed that James had teleported. While he was running to get to his destination
and win the challenge, he teleported to a different place; maybe even a different country. Does that mean he exceeded his capabilities
and won the race? Hehe. All kidding aside. Even if people believed that teleportation
was possible back then, it’s certainly not possible now. However, quantum teleportation is a real,
and a very interesting phenomenon; but that’s a whole different story. So, what truly happened out there? Could this be a figment of their imagination? The answer isn’t that simple, and I’ll
get to that in a sec. This event was written about by Ambrose Gwinnett
Bierce, who was a well-respected journalist and storyteller in the 19th century. The disappearance of James Worson was named
“The Unfinished Race”, and it was published in 1888. There’s no evidence that James Worson was
a fictional character. Let’s not forget that Bierce, the writer
of the story, was usually investigating strange happenings, which is what gained him recognition
for his excellent journalism. But here’s where it gets interesting. We all know the saying that history repeats
itself, and that’s exactly what happened here. Ambrose Bierce, like James Worson, went missing,
leaving no traces behind him. At the age of 71 to 72 years old, the famous
writer travelled to Mexico. There, he met the Revolutionary Francisco
"Pancho" Villa, and joined him as an observer. On December 26th 1913, Ambrose wrote a letter
to one of his closest friends and fellow journalist, Blanche Partington. He narrated all his adventures to her: where
he’d been, and what he was up to at that time. Towards the end of the letter he wrote "As
to me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination." That was the last time anyone ever heard from
him again. There was even an official investigation about
his disappearance where a lot of Pancho Villa’s men were questioned, but it was fruitless. After that, word got around that Bierce had
disappeared, and with that, a lot of theories surfaced. One of them claims that he was last seen in
the city of Chihuahua, in Mexico, around January of 1914. Another one says that he’d never been to
Mexico in the first place. One, in particular, indicates that Ambrose
Bierce never even sent that letter to his close friend. This is based on the fact that his letter
was never found. The only thing that existed was a notebook
that belonged to his secretary. In that book, there was a summary of a letter,
and her statement that it’d been destroyed before it was sent out. The story kept gaining more and more momentum. Despite the abundance of crazy theories out
there speculating what happened to the writer who disappeared into thin air, just like his
literary character, James Burne Worson, one thing is sure: His fate remains a cloud of
mystery. What do you think happened to the journalist
and the shoemaker? Do you think that the author disappeared for
his work? What about the three men in the wagon? What about the three little pigs? Oops, wrong story. Let me know your own theories in the comments
below. If you learned something new today, then give
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