The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 9, 1896, Page 26

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 1896 Universal Tramps That Give Appetite and Health In Shady Groves and Over Dale and Hill in Sunny Bugust While walking is not in itself an exer- cise sufficient for the perfect and symmetri- cal development of the body there is really no other form of outdoor pleasure so uni- versally possible for women. Hunting, boating, swimming, wheeling, riding, ten- nis, goli—the whole list presupposes some condition not universally present; but every human being possessing two feet and fair bealth ought to be able to walk for pleasure. Here in California we have apparently cherished a superstition that walking is not a possible exercise. ‘You will find you cannot walk here as you have been in the habit of doing ‘back East,’” a woman physician said to me when I first came to this coast, some years since. As a matter of fact, I have walked farther, more constantly and more easily here in California than I ever did elsewhere. Let us disabuse our minds for good and all of the notion that there is anything about the glorious climate of California inimical to pedestriani There are peculiar inducements, espe- cially about the bay, for tramping parties. During the summer months, while the trades are blowing, tramps upon this side are not wholly pleasant; but across the bay, readily accessible to any good walker, are canyons beyond number that invite the tramper to their cool depths. August is not the most beautiful season even in the canyons, but it is perhaps the best month in the year for visiting these spots. The early springtime, if you are in- terested in the wild flowers, is the loveliest of all seasons, but them you must not linger. The ground, the green foliage, the trees and shrubs are dripping, and the tired tramper who seeks rest before mov- | make you a little breathless at first, but | presents several distinct ‘‘belts” of timber, | each | turn to the left, bevond the little school- ing on is liable to pay for it with a cold. Bui in August even the canyons are warm and dry, while the streams, which a month | later will be running but feebly, are still bright and sparkling. The cattails, in the | bogey places, are just beginning to turn. | The manzanita and madrona have donned their brilliant coats of deep-red bark. The | tender greens of the new-crowth redwood are deepening into mature, dark loveli- | ness, and the woodsy places are thick with | huckleberries and the blackberries for | which our Californian woods are famous. You may believe, with Thoreau, that no | one ever succeeded in getting a huckle- | berry into town, but if you go for huckle- berries you are likely to get something | better vet. | There are a number of elevations to | tempt the amateur tramper, but as a rule st this time of year there is little to re- ward the climber that may not be ob- tained nearer and with less exertion. The Mission Peak, Tamalpais, San Bruno, | Grizzly Peak and Redwood Summit aré royally worth -climbing when the first rains have cleared the air, but during the hazy summer and early autumn months, while the haze effects are wonderful ana, to one familiar with the hill viewsat all | seasons, perhaps lovelier than any others, | the occasional climber usually feels disap- pointed if, having reached an elevation which he has been told commands a view over a vast expanse of country, he finds himself looking off into a beautiful but impenetrable purple and golden haze. The woman who would enjoy‘a com- fortable tramp and come home therefrom comforted and refreshed should be dressed therefor. Toothpick shoes, tight waists and long skirts have no place in the tramper’s outfit. A laced shoe is better than one that buttons; low shoes, with gaiters, are superior to either, provided they have comfortable heels and toes and a sole substantial enough to protect the foot from bruising stones and rough trails. Unless you are accustomed to a moder- ately thick sole, however, you will find them fatiguing. If your feet are tendera flexible insole in a shoe loose enough to admit it is easier than a thick, stiff sole. A good way to toughen tender feet is to soak them at night in & warm, strong solu- tion of alum in water, and in the morning, . before starting, to bathe them in cold water in which is a little spirits of am- monia, about u teaspoonful to two quarts of water. Dry your feet thoroughly before dressing them. Bloomers, a short skirt and a blouse make the most comfortable walking suit. Under the blouse should e worn a snugly fitting but not tight waist. It adds ma- terially to comfort in grade-climbing. A big hat is usually a nuisance, as, also, a , walking-stick is apt to be. The 1latter, moreover, unless you are essaying s stiffer tramp than is usually to be had about San Francisco, is a bit of an affectation. A jacket should always be carried; but it and any other impedimenta with which you may be burdened should be carried upon the shoulders. Thisis a rule vou should aiwaysobserve if you wish really tobenefit by your tramps. Go evenly weighted and as lightly as possible. Ten pounds ona mile track may serve to defeat a good horse, and one pound carried on the arm or in the band on a tramp may serve to spoil what would otherwise be a glorious trip. Choose your companion on a tramp carefully. One member of the party who is unable to keep the pace is a sore triai to strength and patience, for it is always more fatiguing to lag than to go forward promptly. Of course you take a luncheon, but if you are out for the benefit of your health and the uplifting of your soul, re- member that luncheon is an incident, not the event of your trip, and make it as sim« ple, as wholesome and as nourishing as possible. Avoid taking a variety of things, and if you take fruit be sure it is perfectly ripe, and that there is not too much of it. Nuts and raisins are better than fresh fruit for such occasions, and each member of the party should carry her own luncheon. Never hurry, and, if yon are wise, you will avoid level roads. They make the hardest sort of walking, and do not, as a rule, lead to the most interesting places. In hill- climbing most people will find it easier to walk =t a pretty good eait. This may Exercise you will get your ‘‘second wind’’ after a bit, and the muscular fatigue is less than in strolling along. I have spoken of August as the month ! for visiting canyons. There are a num- ber of interesting ones close about the bay that are not too much frequented to be pleasant. Sequoia Canyon, near Miil Valley, is one of these. It is peculiarly interesting for its sylvan growth, as it separate period. Redwoods, sycamores, alders and ma- dronas are here, to be studied, and the place is well worth a visit. The redwood growth is particularly interesting, every Califormian ought to be familiar with the characteristics of this noble tree. Yet I was asked recently’ by an almost life-long resident of the State if the red- wood is a conifer. One of the pleasantest and most profit- able tramps I know in this vicinity is over the old ‘“Jack Hays Canyon road,” be- yond Blair's Park, across the bay. Itis well to make an early start for this, which is a trip quite within the powers of a compara- tive novice in tramping. Take theelectric car at Washington and Broadway, in Oak- land, for Piedmont. Leave the car at the park entrance, and take the first road to the right thereof, keeping the park at your left. You will find yourself at once trav- ersing very pretiy country, now skirting tempting angles of laurel and buckeye, alder and oak, the tops of the tall trees almost in reach of your hand, so deep is the canyon. You can scramble downa mile or so beyond your starting point, and | just at this season can ‘“pick” your way through a blackherry tangle where the ripe fruit hangs thick and tempting, lunch at the bottom, where a tiny stream flows through, and climb up the cther side, com- ing out through eucalyptus wood lots near the old silk culture station. 1here is always something rather as- tonishing about the places you find your- self coming out at in that neighborhood. A slight bend of the ravine, or round of | the hills, brings you to a point of view so | new you think you have come to terra in- cognita, when another turn brings you close to some famitiar landmark. If you | are a good walker and wish to go far| afield, you can leave the road by the first | representing a and | g 3 PN FU (2 IR R CASCADE LAKE—An Effect in Sunshine and Shadow; From a Photograph Taken for “The Call” gretted ‘‘the sad fact that there were no lakes in California.” Another tonrist of the same kind told us that we had no but- terflies, and a third bewailed in moving phrases our total !ack of singing birds. That was before we Californians had fairly house, and tramp over the divide | into Contra Costa County, and on to Walnut Creek, but you will re- | turn by train, as it isf a stiff trip. In fact, this road is full of pos- | sibilities. You canskeep along it, and find | plenty to interest you, until you have skirted the foothills and find yourself back in Oakland, at Thirteenth avenue, ere you know it. Bt take advice, and strike into | the road to the left, just before you reach | the quarry, and follow it, keeping always | to the left, to where it winds through fields of stubble, past a cattle-ranch or two, on to where, growing apparently out of solid | rock, a solitary redwood tree stands like a sentinel, sole occupant of a great field. The lone sentinel looks out over a very wonderful sight, by the way, and you wilt do well to sit down in its shade for luncheon. On the one hand, before you, the hills tumble away, playing leap-frog over each other’s shoulders to where Diablo towers, his great head just outlined above them all, miles away. You will not see much in the other direction, but hidden by the haze lies the Golden Gate, and between you and it are Oakland, the bay and San us, bowing to fame and authority, mur- mured that these things must be true; but some, with reckless audacity, using | their own eyes, saw that we had butter- flies and mountain lakes, and, using their own ears, heard the singing of our larks and orioles. After a little, when the new and golden age of summey outings began to dawn upon Californians, we dis- covered that our lakes were not surpassea by those of any other mountain region of the United States. The hasty generalizer was wrong, as he generally is. State maps show little of the Sierra lake system. The sheets of the admirable geo- logical survey and those of the active, well-managed Sierra Club show many mountain lakes as yet unnamed, and still fail to show some that are known to fisher- men and hunters. Many of these small mountain lakes will some time become the pride and de- light of persons of culture and refinement. They will be stocked with fish, if not al- ready so, and will be under private owner- ship or will become noted public resorts. | The late Professor John Le Conte says somewhere: ‘‘Hundreds of little Alpine begun to think for ourselves, and most of Once upon a time some notable who |andis as well worth one's admiration as | spent a week upon the Pacific Coast re- | Lucerne or Geneya. Figures do not tell much, but sometimes they help. Our Tahoe covers an area of nearly 200 square miles. Its greatest length is twenty-five miles, and its great- est width is twelve miles, while its great- est depth is about a quarter of a mile, aid its surface is more than a mile above the | | ground,” a magnificent moraine, and the “Devil’s Oven,” besides many other freaks ocean. In round numbers then, the eleva- tion of Tahoe is oWer 6200 feet, while that of Lake Geneva is only 1150, and its great- est depths over 1700 feet, while that of Geneva, near Evian, is 920 feet. crescent-shaped Geneva is fifty miles long its greatest width is but eight miles. It | has Mount Blane, to be sure, but Tahoe | has snowy Tallac, nearly 10,000 feet high, | from whose sides a score of mountain | some extent the private villas, such as lakes can be seen in the wild Sierra can- | | others. | smith-shop,” with a huge anvil of perfect While | Jhe Mountain Liakes of Galifornia A LAND OF NATURAL WONDERS AND MARVELOUS BEAUTIES giant rock pinnacles, strangely shaped by prehistoric ice rivers. The pioneers have nasmed many of the stone faces that overlook the canyons — Roscoe Conkling, Shakespeare, Belva Lockwood and half a ‘score of One sees also the “Devil’s Black- shape left in the rock; the “Devil’s Play- of nature. ® . Ordinary guidebook publications give suriace detaiis about Tahoe. They tell one about the stage-route terminus at Tahoe | City—not so picturesque a place as some others, but still very interesting and evi- | dently a popular resort; they describe to Sunnyside and “4dlewild; the public re- yons. True, Geneva has its fameus castles | sorts, as McKinney’s, Rubicon Springs, and ancient towns; the historical charm | | and glamour brood over its lovely waters; | Glenbrook and others. All of these are | on one side is Savoy, on the other the | mere beginnings, extremely creditable, to | beautiful Pays de Vaud; there flows the arrowy Rhone. And yet our own Tahoe, with its literary and historical charms Emerald Bay, Tallac, Yanks, Bijou, be sure, but liitle indeed to what they will be in a few years more under wise and businesslike encouragement of the travel- only beginning to be created, appeals |ing public of California and Nevada, not reason of this very fact. On one side of gray Nevada, the silver | forcibly to every healthy. imagination by | to include the rest of the Pacific Coast and the Eastern tourists. Every Christian Endeavorer coming to California in 1897, and sagebrush commonwealth; on the | for instance, will see Tahoe if given halfa other is the main axis of the Sierras and golden California. Here, in all its un- | spoiled freshness, is a vast mountain amphitheater, wherein human interests maust increasingly gather for many genera- chance. The general impression one gets from a trip around the Tahoe resorts is that of comfort, healthfulness aund variety. People can have style and fashion or they - Baird on Athletics I take it that it is as much the duty of an adviser t6 warn as to encourage. A friend is as much a friend when he re- proaches as when he applauds. Pope says: Trost not yourselves: but your defects to know, Make use of every friend—and every foe. Therefore I wish to lay aside the theme of encouragement, and from the exper- ience of a generation dwell upon the theme of caution. 5 Caution is greatly needed in athletics, and for two reasons: First, because the sport is more or less interesting and ex- citing, enticing a person to excess. Sec- -| ond, because the votaries are generally young, and often do not know better than 1o go 10 extremes. For instance I have a young friend who is very fond of swimming. He is not sat- 1sfied with going in for twenty minutes or half an hour, but he must stay in for hours ai a.time. Two or three times he has had the cramps, and was glad to find himself on shore. At other times he finas himself weak and not fit for much the next morning. Yet he does not take these lessons to heart, and is likely sooner or later to suffer for his thoughtlessness. Therefore excitement and inexperience are likely to cause trouble if the young athlete is not cautious. I cannot too strongly advise young and aspirine avhletes about smoking—particu- larly cigarette smoking. Whatever may be said about the harmlessness of full- grown men smoking it is generally agreed thatitis a terrible injury to boys. I cannot quote a better authority than to state that the United States Military Acad- emy at West Point will not admit a boy who has been accustomed to smoke, Ten years ago I visited that wonderful institu- tion that produced the Grants, the Sher- mans, the Sheridans and the Hancocks of the war, and it was not difficult to see the effect of the prohibition of tobacco. Such a fine-looking lot of young men it would be almost impossible to find, exeept by actually picking them from our gymna- siums and athletic clubs. The color on their cheeks, the elastic step and the manly though not pompous bearing did not all come from instruction and disci- p line, but from freedom irom the effects o tobaccoand liquor as well. Let me assert most positively that wine, beer, or liquor of any kind are unneces- sary to an athlete’s success, and are used for the sole purpose of tickling the palate and bracing the nerves. I commenced ex- ercising eighteep years ago, and have never drank a glass of liquor in any form in my life. As to whether I have been successful, I will refer the reader else- where. Among the good results of total abstinence, I will state that I have never missed 2 day from business in eighteen years—no, not a half a day, through sick- ness. As for alcohol or any other lini- ment after exercising, let me say that I do not believe in it. Asa special thing itis all right in its way, to ward off a cold, or after a long and severe race, or something special of that kind; but to make a practice of rubbing liniment of |any kind in the skin is wrong. If a person believes in taking whisky for a cold and keeps on using it until it be- comes a habit, of what use will it be for a cold? The system has become used to it. The same law applies with liniment. The skin gets accustomed to it and the alcohol becomes ineffective. A friend recently said that liniment took all the stiffness out of the muscles after exercising. My reply was that there must be something the matter with the exercise if it required \ N LR AN 1 “YOU ARE ON A ROAD WHERE NONE MOLEST OR MAKE AFRAID” Francisco. You will probably catch a glimpse of the “Dead Man Laid Out” on Tamalpais, and register a vow to.come back here when the rains have cleared the air, but when you have eaten your luncheon, this time, you will push on, free from care, youlare on a road where none molest or make afraid. and descending by an easy | grade into a delectable forest, where red- | woods, madrona and laurel tower above a tangle of manzanita, and ceanothis, cur- rant, witch hazel and azalea; where the yerba buena runs in and out along the paths, and where, everywhere, just at] present, huckleberries are growing *thick as bees.” You will have to get permis- sion to pick these, if you are of the people of sincerity and respect the rights of others, but it is decent treatment and not the earth that the lan dholders thereabouts desire, and you will not find this difficult. You will be dusty and hungry when you reach home. Warm, too, in all probabil- ity, and this holds good of all occasions of return from a long tramp. You will avoid the plunge bath, warm or cold, for which you think you are longing. Do not put the feet in' water. Sponge them off in tepid water with a little ammonia added, and you may take a quick tepid sponge bath, taking care to expose but a smali part of the body at a time to the air. Then a light supper and a long night’s rest, and ten to one if you are not, in the best sense of that word, ‘a new woman” in the morning. PENELOPE POWELSON. e The Queen of England bas personally opened twenty-five sessions of Parliament for } during her reign, lakes, with their clear, deep, cold, emerald waters, are embosomed among the crags of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.” He de- scribes many of them ana the processes by which they were formed among the pine- crested ridges of granite that rise to such giants as Shasta, Lassen, Lyall and Whit- ney. From the summit of Lyall a party ofuniversity students not long ago counted thirty-nine lakes in plain sight. A large number of very attractive moun- tain lakes are scattered about in the central Sierra region, around the forks of the Yuba and American to the Summit and beyond. ‘Mnny of these have as yet Do name, though well worth mapping. Every year new trails are laid out, and these wild places are made more acces- sible. Lake Fenner, Lake Eleanor, Lake Angeline, Five Lake Valley, Lake Pleas- ant, BEureka, English, Stirling, Meadow and many otliers will long be remembered by those who visit them. It would be easy to give a list of a hundred such, all charming and well worth an extended description, But the finest lake region of the Sierras is along the line of that glacier-hewn Alpine valley, the Truckee basin, between the east and west divisions of the vast mountain range—in that immense cleft extending almost north and south,wherein are Webber, Independence, Donner and a score of lesser lakes, in which wild tor- rents flow. not oceanward, but inland, toward the desert, and in which, greatest of all, our sealike Tahoe reposes among its purple crags ana transcendent peaks of snow, our pre-eminent Californian lake, | that certainly ranks among the three or four finest mountain lakes of America, tions to come. Arrow-like Truckee, speeding down the glacier-hewn canyon from Tahoe past Reno, orfers as many bold promontories for summer castles as does the Rhone. As for Tahoe itself the time will come, after the great valleys are full ol‘ people, when this magnificent lake will be fairly girdled with towns, cottagesand stately mansions. Thousands of city dwellers will come here, not only for the fir-fragment summers. but for the superb winters of our high alps; our St. Pgtershurg of ice pulaces and sleigh bells | | will be on the shores of Tahos and in the hollows of Truckee, Tahoe has had a sudden popularity this season. Never before was its lines of trans- portation so severely tested. New and larger botels, more cottages and better ac- 'commoduuons are foreshadowed. Perhaps in a few years Truckee will have a branch railroad to the lake, It is probable that a }nrge part of this great increase of travel is due to the energy which built the new steamer Tahoe, one of the swiftest and most exquisitely proportioned pleasure .:mfm in America and a great credit to the Union Iron Works. This vessel, witha length of 168 feet, extreme breadth of less than 18 feet, displacement of 152 tons, hqtunower of 1500 and speed of 25 or 26 miles per hout, is licensed to carry 200 passengers. She makes daily trips around qu lake, and with her powerful search- lights is especially adapted to night ex- cursions. The thoroughly organized stage- coach system by which connections are made with Truckee deserves high praise. The tollroad is excellently kept, and no- where else in California can & more attrac- tive fifteen-mile stage ride be found—past can live plainly and comfortably in tents or cottages in go-as-you-please colonies. There is room and to spare for every grade of expenditure and for every class of tourist. v The territory accessible from Tahoe isin- deed most attractive, and every year more people explore it. The other day I heard John H. Budd of Stockton, regent of the university and brother of our worthy Goy- ernor, remark that he was going on a fish- ing trip in ‘‘Faith, Hope and Charity.” “That is a charming spirit in which to start,” said the person to whom the re- mark was addressed. ‘““The leading ques- tion, however, is whether it will be prac- ticable for one to come back in the same frame of mind.” Faith, Hope and Charity, be it under- stood, are three small valleys of Alpine Couniy. The late Ross Browneywhen he made that notable journey of his on foot across the Sierrason the “rush to Washos” in 1860, bappened into Hope Valley ina snowstorm. Wora out and hungry be hobbled up to the only cabin it contained and asked a big, burly mountaineer who sat on a pile of foxskins by the doorway if he could stay there all night. The mountaineer, holding a large white buildog by the ears, replied with visible emphasis: “Bull an’ me thinks you'd better light out and go twelve miles further!” This point of view was steadily main- tained, and poor Ross Browne trudged hopelessly out of Hope Vailey. His only satisfaction was in labeling the moun- taineer as Diogenes when he published the story. CuaARLEs H. SHINN. something to brace his muscles up. Only a rare and special effort should make such a stimulant necessary. Exercise, as a reg- ular thing, should never be indulgea in to such an extent as to leave the joints and muscles stiff. Take my advice and use al- cohol externally but once a week, and in- ternally, never! Walking, as a style of racing, has many objections. irst, it is not practical. It is a fine exercise, I admit, but that is not everything. Twenty years ago if a man wanted to cover fifty miles he would walk —to-day he would go on a dog trot, ana get there a long way before his walking companion. I repeat, it is not practical except as a mere exercise. ¢ Second—As there are very few men who are capable of judging a walk, it places the competitors very often in the hands of incompetent men. Sometimes good men are appointed to serve, but something interferes and the men are at the mercy of a well-meaning, perhaps, but inexperi- enced judge of walking, The rules of athletics say that the decision of the judge shall be final and without appeal; but this rule, wise as it is (for it shuts off end- less controversy), actually places a walker in the power of a prejudiced or unprinci- plea official. Third—An honest walker cannot tell w'hln he is “lifting,” 4o that when he is disqualified ne feels very bitteragainst the judge. He tries to walk fairly, but if his style is defective he does not know it. If you l}en a man stoutly assert that he was walking perfectly fair don’t pay any at- tention to him; or if bis friends say the same remember that “love is blind,”” and. in this case possibly ignorant. The eyil fHé Says Tobacco and Liquor ~ Are Bad Stimulants Must Not Be Used When in Jraining-—-As to Style of this matter is that cases have been known where men who have been consid- aered the patterns of excellence 1n style have begun to skip withouta moment’s warning, to the astonishment of their in- timate friends. The worst of " whols matter is that few walkers have escaped censure, however just or unjust it may be. I have seen some men go out and walk perfactly fair and be pronounced skippers by the prejudiced and the ignorant. On the contrary, I have seen men win cham- pionships and beat records whose walking was certainly not fair. An athlete goes out to run. The race begins, and from the crack of his pistol he has only to think of keeping his own course and putting out the best there is in him. A walker is different. He must not only think of judgment and speed, but he must regard that man walking around the middle of the field who is watching him so narrowly; he must re- gard those reporters, who may “rip him up the back’ to-marrow, and he must have a wholesome regard for the crowa who line the outer rail ready to cheer for him or howl at his style according as they happen to belong to his club or his rival’s. Throughout my whole athletic career I have seen so much quarreling Between walkers themselves, accusing each other of bad stvle; so much resentment at judges, accused of . unfair decisions and prejudice; so much controversy among friends of competitors and spectators, and so much discussion in the newspapers over the manner of walking of the favorites of the public, that for many years I have never lost an opportunity to say to begin- ners, Do not go into walking; ana to those who have already begun, Drop walking and go into distance running. I have -known an old walker, whose name is familiar to every student of records and athletic statistics. 81 have seen him go out and win championships and beat records, yet it was difficult to get two experts to agree upon his style. I have heard an old athlete say that his walking was perfectly fair—beautiful, and heard another say that it should not have been allowed. He is the holder to-day of many bests on record, yet there are two elements in the East—one that accepts his records unqualifiealy, the other refuses to accept them at all, or with considerable hesitation. I could mention the mame of another man who won more than one champion- ship, and carried the scalps of many a champion on his belt. No one ever questioned the good 1ntention of thisman, yet after he had won his first champion- ship he was continually in hot water on account of his style, which without his consent insisted on giving him trouble. He labored for yearsto correct the diffi- culty, which neither he nor physicians or tramners could understand; and though winning another championship by the greatest labor and care to keep his style in form, went to pieces immediately after. He was finally compelled to give up walk- ing as his style refused be corrected. Cases have been known where men have become amateur pedestrians, have put in a great deal of time on heel and toe, have spent years atit with more or'less suc- cess, until they have awakened to the con- clusion that it was impossible to overcome the criticism that was incessantly aimed at them. Then they havedecided to enter the running field, but discovered that their system had become too much set to ever make a success at it. Had they gone into running instead they would undoubt- edly have made a success, asa good walker makes a fine distance runner if he does not put it off too long. There are other reasons why walking races are a nuisance. For instance, here is a boy who enters his name for a race. He is perfectly honest; would scorn to win a race by unfair means, and more- over is a hard ana conscientious trainer. On the day of the race his family all turn out, and with his best girl along go to see the roung man win.. Fancy their rage, indignation and resentment when they see the pride of the family ignominously and unceremoniously ordered off the track for unfair walking. Would it not be natu- ral for him to prefer to leave town than face his family, and particularly her? But the ignominy does not end here, for the next day the papers may say, after men- tioning his name, “Ruled off for skip- ping.” There is another point not to be over- looked in this argument—the public. I have seen 'the public assemble in large numbers to see & race between great walkers, and when the contest was getting most 1interesting one of the competitors would be disqualified: the one that was left—the winner—would drop his hands and finish slowly. Now 1t is not fair to treat & good-natured public in this man- ner, and the only way to cure it is to let heel-and-toe walking fall into disuse. One of the greatest objections to walk- ing is the nstant dispute over the records. No one Who knows anything about watking at all believes the records as they stand on the books in favor of pro- {fessionals in England, which are the best in the world. I was in#imately acguainted with the gentleman who judged a walk in which J. W. Raby apvoeared in this coun« try. He is the holder of the records just spoken of, from two to seven miles, made in England. He told me if Raby walked that way in the old country it was no wonder that he took down all the records from off their pegs. In fact it was not walking at all, There are many people to-day who will not believe the present amateur records of this country as a whole. They insist that some are cloudy. England has to-day a very fast amateur mile record, made over ten years ago. Now, I had the pleasure of baving this man in a race with me, and all I have to say is that if I had been per- mitted to go in the style that was permit. ted to him on that occasion I woula have taken a sponge and altered every time on the table of records for walking, | GEORGE D, BAIrDp,