The Southern herald., 1912-04-12

ketNhs ~ AAAN NAA-~
d down again at home,
parlor to retail your
admiring and envious
,agreeables. II any there
ave faded into oblivion,
Of even bad Swiss win
intrasted with the rigors
fashioned" English article,
so foreibly that you can
gasp e9t incoherences about
tine Of your life" and the wicked
Of never having gone before.
in the train, when you perchance
an still see from the window the
peaks on which you have loated and
slid and tumbled. and with the pros
peet Of eight weary, dark hours jour
ney to Paris) you can put things
straight in your mind, writes r. M.
Morrison IN Country Life You are
not distracted by questions which
bring home to you how sleepy and
casual your observation has been.
You are not shamed into excuses and
depreciations before your experienced
and expert friends, who have fed
the Swiss winter in contempt and
despair You are not compelled to
go into the conventional ecstasies
over the Alpine sunset. In the train
your opinion is as honest as a no
vices naive and rapturous opinion
can be. Out Of all your experiences,
the sensations Of one day shine out
clear before all others. My most abid-
ing memory is of dazzling, brilliant
day. Of a three-mile ascent, skis in
hand, from the village to untrodden
and silent slopes wall so warming
that. the destination reached, was
glad to rest and. lunch In the shade.
! recall the quaint and mysterious
footprints-afterwa Identified as
deer's-found near the lunch tree and
lazily pondered over. glow at the
remembrance Of slope, FIVE hundred
yards long, virgin snow to the skier.
had been only three days skier,
and a successful ascent was still be-
yond my dreams fell, and with re-
lief and surprise noted that did not
fulfil the prophecy of breaking my
toes. | stood on the brow of the
slope and pushed myself off with the
baton. after the uncouth style of the
novice For the brlefest fraction OF
second / feared that my pose was
Unbalanced and that I was fated to
fall. The next, was given up to the
10Y Of swift motion, Of the sweeping
career through the air and sunlight,
until few out of the sun into shadow
and suddenly grew cool and blind.
: suppose everybody's introduction
to skiing is very much the same.
Everyone has to get over the inclina-
tion to lift his feet and turn out his
toes: most people have to fight down
the awful feeling Of terror which at.
tacks them, not on their debut, but
on their second attempt; and not a
few. | hope, have the sense land the
knowledge Of French) to be able to
take in good part the grave com.
ments of the village children. These
ten-yenr-old boys, to whom beautiful
skiing. seems second nature, can
teach ona much, although skiing Il
not OF the soil, but a recent importa.
ton from Norway BY the way fall
ing native the best tutor is an
English schUnlboy, who, having no re-
gard for his own neck or yours does
not fluster or fnss you. but ratbar I'm.
pels you to the most unheard of
feats
As soon as one has attained the
smallest degree Of comfort and grace
on skis. one despises the lugeine
which has hitherto seemed good
enough fun for anyone Truth to tell.
lugeing is all done on a track. 10
which one is tied, while at skiing one
can at least pretend to be travelling.
Again and again you take the fifteen
minutes walk up the track, dragging
your llige behind you like a child with
its toy. in order that you may whizz
down il twentieth part Of the time.
The absurdity Of this proceeding be-