The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1908-02-20
THE WALKING FAD.

slow.
An important matter imperfectly un-
derstood, taken up, and urged with
more zeal than sense, deserves the less
dignifed word-fad-by which we must
| be content to hear our enthusiasm de-
scribed.
1t is only when fads partake of the
nature of reforms, like that instituted
by Edward Payson Weston, that we
need to cultivate them.
The walking fad is in the air; it comes
to us from Harvard college in advice as
to gait,-whether erect or flexion--and it
is demonstrated for us by Weston and
his thousand enthusiastic walkers, as
they perambulate the suburbs of Bos-
ton. Contagion spreads and already
the Watch City, my adopted home,
boasts its walking club.
What, then, shall we who are too
delicate, or too old, or too dignified to
join club, get out of the passing fad?
Let us analyze it.
Walking compels the walker to get
out into the open air, the first benefit.
To walk properly one must have nor
NAL feet. Oh, the prevalence of alb
normal feet! The bunions, corns and
burnings! Exclusive of the province
of the chiropodist, we can get the bene-
ft of Weston's directions for the care
of the feet: Take coffee cupful of
salt, pour over it quart of boiling
water and let it stand until the salt is
thoroughly dissolved. Then add five
quarts of cold water. If you have not
been used to cold water, have the tenn
perature the same as that of your bath.
| Battle the feet from two to five minutes.
Do not keep the feet in the water long
enough to get chill. Wipe them
thoroughly dry with rough towel, pay
ing attention to each toe and all parts
of the foot. Be thorough in the drying.
Get your foot and toes pink. Then,
with the hand, sop over the feet guam
tity of half-diluted alcohol and let that
dry in. Then you are ready to retire
and ready to take up the natural means
of locomotion which consists in being
on your feet more than tWo-t thirds of
your life"
Walking exercises the legs and the
lungs and thence the whole body. 1t is
suitable for all ages, it is within the
reach of the poor as we'll as the rich,
and instead of signing for the automo
bile-that discourager of walking-and
regretting that ones lot is not cast on
the line of an electric road, one can be
thankful that he or she is able to walk
| attend church weekly with a trio of
ladies' each of whom has passed the four
score mark. They each enjoy COM
petence, each is remarkable for her Ell
durance in walking and ignoring the
street cars. 1t goes without saying
that they are well preserved persons be-
lying their years, wise enough to pre-.
serve their ability to walk by practice,
and their example is a constant rebuke
to any weaknesses of my own flesh,
whether real or imaginary.
Need we recommend the walking fad
to the business man who rides to and
from his work and then wonders why
bis health grows poor; to the clerks on
high official stools, leaving their health
between the leaves of their ledgers; to
the factory girls, not all of whom are in
| Lowell; to the seamstresses who have
piled the daily and nightly needle until
it is almost time to hem their own
shrouds. Those who do not find time
for exercise will have to find time for
illness.
We are none of us called upon to
walk from Portland to Chicago; we are
called upon to make popular an exercise
which is, without question, the least
Injurious and can be made the most
universally beneficial of all outdoor
pleasures.
Tado! By all means let US have them
They open the way for cool judgment
to winnow the grain from the chaff for
the upbuilding of the people.
We have had reforms in dress-op-
portunities are still not lacking, we
are constantly reforming our foods,
and we try to reform society. The
future reformers will labor with less
zeal but more reason.
Sam Walter" Foss, the librarian of
Somerville, reaches this conclusion in
his latest book of poems entitled "The
Average Man," from which l quote:
We're all the old refOrmers of breed too
weak to last?
Did all the great ~rOng-smiters wane and
perish in the past?
Did they fight losing battle? Were they
conquered in the fray?
Why are there no refOrmers fighting in the
world today?
Well, tits but thing of labels; the reform
ers have not gone,
But they're mixing with the people, with
misleading placards on;
For we label them fanatics, Missionaries,
dOts and fools
Men denounced by clubs and churches, by
the journals and the schools.
There are men who wear these placards
daily in the market place,
Heroes of an ancient lineage, kings. and
saviours of the race;
But we never see their greatness through