Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1873-06-04
A Plea for Pedestrians.


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When [ see the discomforts that able
bodied American men will put UP with
rather than 90 a mile or half mile on
foot, the abuses they will tolerate and en-
courage, croWding the street car on little
fall in the temperature or the appearance
of an inch or two of snow, packing UP to
overlooking, dangling to the straps, tread
ing on each others toes, breathing each
others breaths, chrushing the women and
children, hanging by tooth and nail to a
square inch Of the platform, imperiling
their limbs and killing the horses-I
think the commonest tramp in the street
has good reason to felicitate himself ON
his rare privilege of going afoot. Indeed,
a race that neglects or despises this primi-
tive gift, that fears the touch of the soil,
that has no foOtpaths no community Of
ownership III the land which they imply,
that warns off the walker as a trespasser,
that knows no way but the highway, the
carriageWay, that forgets the stile, the
foot-bridge, that even ignores the rights of
the pedestrian in the public road, 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 lightest Of all riders is a cheerful
heart Your sad or morose, or embitter-
ed, or preoccupied heart settles heavily
into the saddle, and the poor beast, the
body, breaks down the firstmile Indeed,
the heaviest thing in the world in heavy
heart Next to that the most burdensome
to the walker is a heart not in perfect
sympathy and accord with the body. The
horse and rider must both be willing to
go the same way. This is no doubt our
trouble and the main reason of the decay
of the noble art in this country AS
people we are not SO positively
sad or taciturn, or misanthropic, as
we are vacant Of that sportiveness and sur
plusage Of animal spirits that character
lied our ancestors, and that springs from
full and harmonious life-a sound heart in
accord with sound body A man must
invest himself near at hand and in COM
mon things, and be content with a steady
and moderate return, if he would know
the blessedneSs Of a cheerful heart and the
sweetness of a walk over the round earth.
This is lesson the American has yet to
learn-capability Of amusement On a low
key He expects rapid and extraordinary
returns. He would make the very ele-
mental laws pay usury. He has moth
cheap. We crave the astonishing, the ex-
citing, the far away, and do not know the
highways Of the gods when we see them
always sign of the decay of the faith and
simplicity of man.
If I were to say to my neighbor, "Come,
let us 60 walk amid the heavenly bodies,
he would prick up his ears and come
forthwith; but if / were to take him out
on the hills under the full blaze of the sun,
or along the country road, our footsteps
lighted by the moon and stars, and say to
him, Behold, these are the heavenly
bodies, this we now tread is morning
STAR" he would feel defrauded and as if
l had played him a trick. And yet moth
ing less than dilatation and enthusiasm
like this is the badge of the master
walker
If we are not sad, we are careworn, hur-
ried, discontinued, mortgaging the pres
ent for the promise of the future. If we
take a walk, it IS as we take a prescrip-
ton, with about the same relish and with
about the same purpose; and the more the
fatigue the greater our faith in the virtue
Of the medicine.
Of those gleesOme saunters over the hills
in spring, or those sallies of the body in
winter, those excursions into space when
the foot strikes fire at every step, when the
air tastes like a new and finer mixture,
when we accumulate force and gladness
as we go 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 effluence
OF the corporal powers-of such diversion
and open road entertainment, / say, most
OF us know very little.
[ notice with establishment 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 slln-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, ooh Lord! what
shall we do to be happy and not be vul-
gar?" 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, strolling, picnicking, boating,
climbing, briskly walking, apparently
with little fear of sun-tan or of comprom-
Using their "gentility. Dc ch5la1at5oas Of
the Road," By John Burroughs, IN June
GALAXY.