Going Afoot: A book on walking.

by Bayard Henderson Christy

“The schedule time of the Coney Island walk, for the novice squad, to be completed before noon, was about two hours and a half. And the average New Yorker, who regards a long sleep and a good breakfast on Sunday mornings as his inalienable rights, gazed gloomily at these items, and then turned to an account of a murder or a break in the stockmarket, anything in fact radiating a more cheerful influence. Even the enthusiastic golfer sighed to himself as he thanked God that he was not as some other man.

“It was in 1913, too, that the Ladies’ Walking Club, affiliated with the Walkers’ Club of America, was organized, but it has never had many members or attained any marked degree of popularity. Prior, however, to its formation, the Alumnæ Committee on Athletics of Barnard College prepared a programme of intercollegiate outings for Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, which included several pleasant hikes; and these attracted a much greater number of participants than did the events of the Ladies’ Walking Club.

“Under the impetus derived from the Walkers’ Club several of the evening high schools formed pedestrian organizations which turned out with the parent body. One of the morning newspapers offered century medals, which seems to have materially stimulated interest, and by the beginning of 1915 there were six or eight schools that sent out their squads of hikers every Sunday.

“It was early in 1915 that the Walkers’ Club, with a membership of over two hundred, was incorporated. Shortly thereafter a schism arose in its ranks, which resulted in the birth of the American Walkers’ Association. At a meeting of the Walkers’ Club, held in June, seven members withdrew. Within a week twelve men had formed the Walkers’ Association, which was almost immediately incorporated. Of the split it may be said that it was deplorable, and beyond that its history must occupy a blank page in the annals of American walking.

“The Walkers’ Association immediately began an aggressive campaign to secure members. It adopted a small emblem which the majority of the one hundred and twenty men on its rolls wear. It also adopted the walking associations of most of the evening high schools, as well as all promising material which it could discover. Finally it organized a women’s branch with a schedule of walks of its own. It points with pride to a membership of over 135, a record of 17,856 miles covered by members on its hikes, so that if a message had been relayed it might have crossed the continent five times; to one hike on which 107 men turned out, and to another—not the same hike—when fifty miles was covered in a day.

“The walks of the Walkers’ Club and the Walkers’ Association invariably start from New York, and up to the present time have invariably been along the high roads which the pedestrian must share, in unequal distribution, with the motorcar and other vehicles. A speed of four to six miles an hour is maintained and the walks vary from ten to fifty miles in length. The walkers are divided into squads, graded according to speed and the distance to be covered. The hikes of the Fresh Air Club, on the other hand, start from some point reached by train, twenty to forty miles from New York, and the trail leads through the woods and over the hills, through streams and bogs and over rocks and fallen trees, with an occasional stretch of road as an incident to the walk.

“Like the Walkers’ Club it has a schedule, and where the going is good a speed of four miles or better is maintained. The walks terminate at a railway station which must be reached before train time. The Appalachians, however, saunter, they rarely exceed ten miles on their local tramps, they proceed leisurely cross country, if they see a hill that appeals to them they climb it and enjoy the view, or they linger on the shores of some lake. The Club walks are all held on Saturday afternoons and holidays, Sunday walking being mildly disapproved.

“As a purely constructive factor in the development of pedestrianism in the eastern United States, the Walkers’ Club and Walkers’ Association probably lead. Other clubs have conceived theories—ideals, perhaps—these organizations have created pedestrians. Their walking season extends from the 21st of June to the 22nd of December, and from the 22nd of December to the 21st of June. Both clubs have trained people to walk. An officer of one of them once remarked to the writer that fifty per cent of the members did not know how to use their legs.

“The Walkers’ Club has to its credit an extended list of activities. It fathered the evening high schools’ walking movement; it inaugurated a campaign of publicity; it has through Pathfinder Hocking planned walks of from one day to one week for individuals and groups; it has done much to raise pedestrianism from its low estate to an equality with other sports and the end is not yet. ‘Hocking,’ said a member of a rival organization, ‘has done more for walking than any other man in America, but—’ and the rest of the sentence I have transferred to that unpublished page in the annals of walking on which the recording secretary spilled his ink.

“A few years ago the Walkers’ Association mapped out a most elaborate program. With the consummation of its plans, however, the war materially interfered. It was intended to create a large number of walking squads. There was to be a squad for the ‘tired business man’—that variety of the genus homo of whom we read much and whom we never see; a cross-country squad, which would take tramps similar to the hikes of the Fresh Air Club; an afternoon squad for the man who desired to spend his Sunday mornings in dreams; and any other kind of squad that anyone might desire to suggest.