San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-11-24
FIVE HUNDRED MILES. 'e
A FAMILY TAKE A TRAMP THROUGHsv'
ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. =

Chat with the Heroine Of the Latest Re-
markable Pedestrian Feat-six Children.
the Eldest Twelve Years Old-Baby's
Enjoyment-The Outfit
Mrs. Adams Acton of Sunnyside, St Johns
wood, and Ormidale. Arran, is the heroine Of
the latest remarkable pedestrian feat-a
walk of 500 miles in England and Scotland,
beginning at London and ending in Glasgow,
and performed not alone, but In the COM
pany of her whole family of six children, the
eldest of whom is 10 years and the youngest
II months. The latter, it need hardly be
said, did not walk the whole distance, being
wheeled in fact, together with his feeding
bottle and appurtenances thereto belonging,
in perambulator.
with pleasure" was Mrs Acton's cheer
full response to the request for particulars OF
her remarkable walk.
ITO begin with, Of whom did your party
oonsstf
There were the six children, the youngest
in our famous psrambulator, which has been,
oh, thousands of miles ON the continent and
in England and Scotland, and my husband
and myself and two maids-ten in all"
LIGHT OUTFIT.
''What was your outfltP'
"When we started from Sunnyside, our
house in st. Johns Wood, we each took a
small black bag in our hands, but we soon
had to give those up. Afterward We had alb.
solutely nothing but d nightgown and a,
macintosh each. There was one brush aSd
one comb for myself aud ali the children.
We really couldn't carry more than the least
possible quantity of luggage, you know Tea
my husband is so fond Of a good cup of
tea-so we carried our tea all the way from
London; and we had kettle, too, one of
those fiat ones to boil over a spirit lamp, and
the spirit lamp itself. And, Of course, the
baby being a young baby and fed on the
bottle, obliged us TO carry tin can of milk. u
''How did you manages And, by the way,
what was your farep'
''We had very light fare. As soon as wei
got into the north of England we always
had porridge for breakfast. We never had
much meat On the only two occasions
when we had a really good dinner we found
we could not walk afterwards. We had eggs
and milk and bread and butter to any
amount. The meat we had was almost en-
tirely timed meat, which we bought, with
bread, in the town or village in a morning,
and carried with us till we came to suit
able place for dinner We had dinner in the
open air always Then for tea we had just
70 call at a cottage and get a kettle of water
and the use of tea things, which they were
always glad to supply us with for u shill Ing"
PREVENTING SORE FEFT
"Of course the trouble was boots" Mrs.
Acton continued I'VE were recommended
all sorts of 'hygienic soles' and everything,
and VIC tried everything, and we had to give
oil VI bOotc oil
and took to sand shoeS'-canvaS shoes with
india rubber soles. Those allow the feet TO
20 anyhow they like there is no pressure,
I'D We found them admirable. We never
GOT blisters or sore feet or anything. We
used TO soap our toes and heels and the III
sides of our stockings before VIC started;
that is very good thing. Then as to wash
ing, we could not possibly stop 70 have every
thing washed ut the inns and places, so the
way We managed our washing was to have
one thing washed each night. We found We
could always get one thing washed and
quickly got up, and so we had clean things
without the trouble of carrying any with US.
I'VE carried no umbrellas A city man, a
neighbor of ours in London. asked me before
we started: How many umbrellas are you
going to takeT and when l replied, Not
one he was perfectly Mortified; 1t made him
quite i'll. But, though the weather was very
bad in England, we did very veil without
In the first part of the time We walked in our
mackntoshes and hats that the rain would
not hurt OF course, it was very muddy;
and, what with the mud and the rain and
the sun, our dress got into such a state we
were quite ashamed of ourselves; and on
Saturday nights we had to stop somewhere
and buy flowers or some little friling or
something to brighten up our hats to go to
church in next morning. But we never had
colds, in spite of having no umbrellas, and
though we had a great deal of gray cold
weather that people complained Of, we found
it splendid weather for walking"
And the baby9"
"Oh, baby got quite like gypsy; he quite
enjoyed it. First thing in the morning he
used to say, "Tite ready; tite ready to gop"
AVERAGE PER DAY.
''What distance did you cover in a day on
the averageY"
I'VE walked sixteen and eighteen, and one
day twenty miles, but the average was
twelve. We made it rule to 60 twelve
miles a day Sundays we rested. We always
felt very sffectionately disposed toward the
nilestones. Here's another delightful mile
stone the children would say. And that was
one matter in which we saw a most remark
able difference between Scotland and
England. Directly we got over the border
there were neither milestones nor direction
posts. We did find some near Ayr, but all
| broken, not the slightest use; while in
England they were all 50 well kept you
couldn't go wrong"
| sTWhot was vour nIaY Of walkinOVn ssVVa