Emblem of the League of Walkers GOING AFOOT A Book on Walking BAYARD H. CHRISTY Published for the League of Walkers BY ASSOCIATION PRESS New York: 347 Madison Avenue 1920...

Special acknowledgment is gladly made to the respective publishers for permission to use the following copyrighted material: Quotations from the Journals of Henry D. Thoreau, copyright by Houghton, Mifflin & Company; “Trees,” by Joyce Kilmer, copyright by George H. Doran Company; “Uphill,” from “Poems,” by Christina Rossetti, copyright by Little, Brown & Company, Publishers, Boston; “Overflow,” by John Banister Tabb, copyright by Small, Maynard & Company; “The Lake Isle o

Observe the vigorous man as he walks: the stride is long and free; the feet come surely and firmly to the ground, without twist or jar, toes pointed straight ahead; the pelvis, swaying easily, carries an erect body; the arms swing in alternate rhythm with the legs; the head is borne free over all; breathing is deep and long; the blood courses strongly. Every member shares in the activity. It must be the pedestrian’s ideal, when he comes to consider the matters of clothing and burden, in the leas

Any day—every day, if that were possible. Says Thoreau, “I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least [in the open]”; and, again, he says of himself that he cannot stay in his chamber for a single day “without acquiring some rust.” Recall Thoreau’s Journals. Their perennial charm lies largely in this, that he is abroad winter and summer, at seedtime and at harvest, in sun and rain, making his shrewd observations, finding that upon which his poeti

Anywhere. Surely the pedestrian may claim for his recreation this advantage: it may be enjoyed when one will and wherever one may be. But this does not mean that there is no choice, no preference. Says Thoreau again, “If you would get exercise, go in search of the springs of life. Think of a man’s swinging dumb-bells for his health, when those springs are bubbling up in far-off pastures unsought by him!” And Emerson has this fresh, breezy comment: “The true naturalist can go wherever woods or wa

The walking clubs of Europe have had a long and useful history. The favored regions, particularly the Alps, the Bavarian highlands, and the Black Forest, have, time out of mind, been the holiday land for all the European peoples. Walking there is in vogue as nowhere else in the world, unless it be among the English lakes. Before the war it was interesting to an American visitor in the Tyrol to observe how many people spent their holidays afoot—and how many sorts of people: men, women, old, young

Those who live reasonably near the home or field of existing clubs are urged to relate themselves to them. Don’t organize hastily. Be sure, first, of two things: that a fair-sized continuing membership is to be expected, to be advantaged by a club; and, second, that, in the multiplicity of already existing societies, there is place for another. Remember that the persons who will be interested and whose interest and support are desired, will in large part be persons already giving much time to al

On Walking William Hazlitt —On Going a Journey. Robert Louis Stevenson —Walking Tours. Henry David Thoreau —Walking. Journal for Jan. 7, 1857. Ralph Waldo Emerson —Country Life. Concord Walks. Bradford Torrey —An Old Road. John Burroughs —The Exhilarations of the Road. —Footpaths. A. H. Sidgwick —Walking Essays. Art of Walking C. P. Fordyce —Touring Afoot. Arnold Haultain —Of Walks and Walking Tours; an attempt to find a philosophy and a creed. Mountaineering Journals Alpine Journal , published