Evening star., 1928-06-10

! Practically every boy develops an ex-
| tremely painful inferiority complex. He
can't help but realize his inferiority to
everybody-to his parents. his teachers,
| every adult that comes into his life.
They all know more than he does.
They all are physically stronger.
Nobody can stand for long sense
of inferiority. If the boy didn't have
some means of escaping. of finding a
world in which he is superior to every
body else and does things his parents
and teachers can't do. the results might
be disastrous. Nature wisely has pro-
vided such a means.
| The imagination of the boy is vivid
| He can pass over into his dream world
| with little difficulty A book, a hole
| in the rocks. a bow and arrow. an air
rifle, ere all he needs to create an
/ agreeable reality. But the real world
| crowds him closer and closer rs he
grows Older He becomes an account
| ant, a carpenter, a Government clerk
| or something of the kind Actual life
becomes extremely narrow and monot-
| onous. The man is pushed into a mar
/ row, shadowy lane. with the black bats
of futility forever brushing against his
| face. There are high walls on each
| side, over which he cannot see.
| The man still needs means of escape
| from nferiority-which is just what the
Potomac-Appalachian Club is trying to
| provide for him, so far as this part of
/ the country is concerned.
| Some find such an escape in the
/ nation pictures, where they identify
themselves with the actors. Some find
/ 1t at base ball games or prize fights,
where they identify themselves with the
athletes. Some find 1t in fiction or in the
| lodge rooms of secret societies Some
| find 1t on the golf links II they can be-
come good golf players. But there are
| great many to whom all these things are
! inadequate.
| They can't sit under the electric fan
in the neighborhood movie house and
identify themselves with Douglas Fair
banks. They can't identify themselves
with Admiral Peary without under
going some OF the actual hardships of
the admiral. They can't fly across the
Atlantic, seated in an easy chair at
home reading about Lindbergh-as
might have been possible when they
were boys.
1t is for such as these that the Blue
Ridge trail Is being constructed. Here
| they can be real mountain climbers for
day or week. They can carry. heavy
packs over desolate, almost impenetrable
country They can have real adven-
tuie III ptdCe Oh Jle pSeudO-aQVenture
which satisfies others, but leaves these
persons only with a sense of disgust.
1t requires real physical effort to get
to the mountain tops in the first place.
1t requires still greater effort to pro-
gresS along the crest, climbing over
rocks, pushing through underbrush, etc.
There are no corner policemen to guard
them from injury. They are cut of
from civilization. They are alone with
the clouds and the stars--masters of all
they survey. Senses of inferiority and
futility cannot survive under such con-
ditions
Men come down from the mountains
full OF fight and ambition, able to en-
dure little longer the effeminate world
about them, with its running water, its
street cars. its smooth highways They
have gone. not only into another world,
but into another century. They have
lived the lives of their ancestors.
X n
THE Appalachian trail find
ers seek only to get people into the
mountains-not to make things particu-
larry easy for them when they get there.