Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1912-03-29

U 4
novice ought to record his or
her first impressions Of Switz-
erland in winter in tho train
coming back. BY the time
you have settled down again at home.
and sit in your parlor to retail your
doings to your admiring and envious
friends, the disagreeables, If any there
have been, have faded into oblivion.
and the joys Of even a bad Swiss win
ter, when contrasted with the rigors
Of the "old-fashioned" English article,
strike one SO forcibly that you can
only gasp out incoherences about
the time of your life" and the wicked
waste of never having gone before.
But in the train, when you perchance
can still see from the window the
peaks on which you have floated and
slid and tumbled, and with the pros
pect of eight weary. dark hours jour
ney to Paris) you can put things
straight in your mind. writes r. M.
Morrison in Country Life. Youa 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 three-mile ascent, skis in
hand, from the village to untrodden
and silent slopes, a wall so warming
that. the destination reached, was
glad to rest and lunch in the shade.
/ recall the quaint and mysterious
observation-disclosures identified as a
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.
I had been only three days skier.
and a successful ascent was still be-
yond my dreams. l 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 of with the
baton, after the uncouth style Of the
novice. For the briefest fraction Of
a second feared that my pose was
Unbalanced and that I was fated to
fall. The next, was given up to the
toy 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.
I suppose everybody's introduction
to skiing is very much the same.
Everyone has to get over the inclina-
ton 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 q
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-year-old boys, to whom beautiful
skiing seems second nature. can
teach one much, although skiing II
not Of the soil. but a recent importa-
ton from Norway. BY the way, fail
ing a native, the best tutor is an
English schoolboy, who. having no re-
gard for his own neck or yours. does
lot fiuster or fuss you. but rather 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 Juggling
which has hitherto seemed good
enough fun for anyone Truth to tell.
Juggling is all done on a track, to
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 tho track, dragging
your luge behind you like child with
its toy, in order that you may whizz
down in a twentieth part Of the time.
The absurdity Of this proceeding be-