The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1873-05-24
A Plea for Pedestrians.

The following, from the pen Of our old
friend and companion, John Burroughs,
We clip from the GdIdry COR May
When ! see the discomforts that able
bodied American men will put up with
rather than 20 q mile OF half mile on
foot, the abuses they will tolerate and ell
courage, crowding the street car on little
fall in the temperature or the appearance
OF an inch or two of snow, packing up to
overtiowing, dangling to the straps, tread
ing on each Others toes, breathing each
others breaths, crushing the women and
children, hanging by tooth and nail to
square inch Of the platform, imperilling
their limbs and killing the horses = think
the commonest tramp IN the street has
good reason to felicitats himself on his
rare privileges Of going afoot. Indeed,
race that ne0lects or despises this primi-
tive git, that fears the touch VI the soil,
that has no footpaths, no community Of
ownership in the land which they imply,
that warns of the walker as trespasser,
that knows no way but the highway, the
carriage way, that forgets the stile, the
fOot-bridge, that even ignores the rights Of
the pedestrian in the public read, provid
ing no escape for him but in the ditch
or up the bank, is in fair way to far
more serious degeneracy.
The human body is a steed that goes
freest and longest under light rider, and
the hghtest Of all riders is a cheerful
heart. Your sad, OF morose, OF embitter
ed, or preoccupied heart settles heavily
INTO the saddle, and the poor beast, the
body, breaks down the first mile Indeed,
the heaviest thing in the world is heavy
heart. Next to that the most burdensome
10 the walkar is q heart not IN perfect
sympathy and accord with the body The
horse and rider must be willing to 20 the
same way. This il no doubt our trouble
and the man reason Of the decay Of the
noble art in this country As a people We
are not 80 positively sad, OF taciturn, or
misanthropical, as We are vacant If that
sportiveness and surplusage Of animal
spirits that characterized our ancestors,
and that springs from full and harmonious
life "a sound heart III accord with a sound
body. man must invest himself near
at hand and IN common things, and be
content with steady and moderate re-
turn, If he would know the blessedness Of
"a cheerful heart and the sweetness Of "A
walk over the round earth. This Is a
lesson the American has yet to learn ca
pability Of amusement on low key. He
expects rapid and extraordinary returns.
He would make the very elemental laws
pay usnry. He has nothing to invest IN a
walk it is too slow, too cheap We crave
the astonishing, the exciting, the far away,
and do not know the highways Of the gods
when we see them always a sign of the
"A. IS tha faitb and uir t,.4
If were 70 say to my neighbor, Come,
let ms go walk among the heavenly bodies,
he would prick up his ears and come forth
with but if ! were to take him out on the
hills under the full blaze of the sun, or
along the country road, our footsteps light
ed by the moon and stars, and say to him,
" Behold, these are the heavenly bodies,
tins we now tread IS morning star, he
would feel defrauded and AS if | had play
ed hm a trick. And yet nothing less than
dilauon and enthusiasm like this is the
badge of the master walk.
If we are not sad, We are careworn, hur-
ried, discontented, mortgaglng the present
for the promise of the future II We take
walk, 1t is as We take "a prescription.
with about the same relish and with about
the same purpose and the more the fa-
tigue the greater our faith IN the virtue of
the medicine
OF those gleesome saunters over the
hills in spring, OF those sallies Of the body
in winter, those excursions in space when
the foot strikes fire at every step when
the air tastes like new and finer mixture,
when We accumulate force and gladness as
We 20 along. when the sight Of objects by
the roadside and of the fields and woods
pleases more than pictures or than all the
art IN the world those ten or twelve mile
dashes that are but the wit and etfluence
of the corpureal powers of such diversion
Of US know very little
| notice with astonishment that at our
fashionable watering places nobody walks
that of all those vast crowds of health
seekers and lovers Of country air. YOU can
never catch one IN the fields or woods, or
guilty of trudging along the country road
with dust on his shoes and sun tan on his
hands and face The sole amusement
seems to be to eat and dress and sit about
the hotels and glare at each other The
men look bored the women look tired,
and all seem to sigh, "Oh Lord what
shall We do to be happy and not he vulgar III
Quite different from our British cousins
across the water, who have plenty of
amusement and hilarity, spending most Of
the time at their watering places in the
open air, strolhng, picnicking, boating,
climbing, briskly walking, apparently with
little fear Of sun tan Of compromising their
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