Floorwalker

“ Persons who find themselves spent in a short walk to the market or the post-office, or to do a little shopping, wonder how it is that their [Pg 237] pedestrian friends can compass so many weary miles and not fall down from sheer exhaustion; ignorant of the fact that the walker is a kind of projectile that drops far or near according to the expansive force of the motive that set it in motion, and that it is easy enough to regulate the charge according to the distance to be traversed. ”

“ WOODS WALKING WITH A PACK THERE is a certain trick in learning the technique of walking outdoors. Unless one takes up pedestrianism to make the most of it he is not apt to perfect himself in an art universally practised in a slip shod fashion and yet which is one of the simplest functions of the human body. Just this careful attention to details is what distinguishes the pedestrian from the mere stroller. Indeed one must walk with the head as well as with the feet, studying to eliminate the faults of gait. ”

“ I walk on: the street is so narrow and crooked that a carriage could not pass through it; to the right and left one sees other deserted streets, other white houses, and other closed windows; my step echoes as in a corridor; the white of the walls is so bright that the reflection almost blinds me, and I am obliged to walk with my eyes closed; I seem to be passing through snow. I reach a little square: everything is closed, there is no one about. ”

“ From every window the golden gaslight streams out into the darkness; from the wide-open door a perfect glory floods the street from side to side. There is a hum of subdued voices within, there is a banging of coach doors without; there is revelry brewing, we may be sure.
We step daintily from our carriage upon the rich carpet which preserves our patent-leathers from the contamination of the sidewalk; we trip lightly up the grand stone stairway to the entrance; obsequious lackeys relieve us of our superfluous raiment ”

“ Indeed, a race that neglects or despises this primitive gift, that fears the touch of the soil, that has no footpaths, no community of ownership in the land which they imply, that warns off the walker as a trespasser, that knows no way but the highway, the carriage-way, that forgets the stile, the foot-bridge, that even ignores the rights of the pedestrian in the public road, providing no escape for him but in the ditch or up the bank, is in a fair way to far more serious degeneracy. ”

“ The difficulties of locomotion kept the pedestrian’s eyes upon the ground, and the inconveniences, in making calls, of crossing ditches and stiles, and walking alternately upon grass and pavement, and striking across fields to reach a street, were more noticeable than the noble trees that lined the avenues. ”

“ The roofs of passenger coaches are not made for midnight promenades. And if any one thinks they are, let me advise him to try it. Just let him walk along the roof of a jolting, lurching car, with nothing to hold on to but the black and empty air, and when he comes to the down-curving end of the roof, all wet and slippery with dew, let him accelerate his speed so as to step across to the next roof, down-curving and wet and slippery. Believe me, he will learn whether his heart is weak or his head is giddy. ”

“ In such a case walking degenerates from a fine art to a mechanic art; we walk merely; to get over the ground becomes the one serious and engrossing thought; whereas success in walking is not to let your right foot know what your left foot doeth. Your heart must furnish such music that in keeping time to it your feet will carry you around the globe without knowing it. The walker I would describe takes no note of distance; his walk is a sally, a bon mot, an unspoken jeu d'esprit; the ground is his butt, his provocation ”

“ No one else looks out upon the world so kindly and charitably as the pedestrian; no one else gives and takes so much from the country he passes through. Next to the labourer in the fields, the walker holds the closest relation to [Pg 239] the soil; and he holds a closer and more vital relation to Nature because he is freer and his mind more at leisure.
Man takes root at his feet, and at best he is no more than a potted plant in his house or carriage till he has established communication with the soil by the loving and magnetic touch of his soles to it. ”

“ I splash recklessly through deep puddles, stumble over unfortunate scrapers, walk unexpectedly into open cellars, and lay my length upon wet stone doorsteps. I start back at visions of posts looming up in the darkness, and whitewashed fences and trees, all of which would be quite unlikely to be standing in the middle of the sidewalk, and which disappear at the first reasonable thought. I run into harmless passengers as if I would knock the breath of life out of them, and tangle our umbrellas together so fearfully that they spin round and round some time after their separation. ”

“ Woods walking with a pack differs greatly from common road touring. In his primitive forest habitat the woodsman can outwalk the experienced pedestrian for he has the knack of negotiating a steady gait over uneven and slippery ground, edging through thickets and worming his way amid fallen timber, rocks, brush, etc., with less fret and exertion than one who is accustomed to smooth, unobstructed paths. The woodsman besides having the handicap of traveling over an uneven surface is more or less encumbered by a pack which even if made as light as possible gives the hiker a taste of real work. ”

“ Around him all is quiet; the few shops are closed; an occasional pedestrian passes, his coat-collar drawn up over his ears, and humming some café-chantant air, or a carriage with coach-lamps sparkles along the middle of the street like a huge firefly. ”

“ The footway, paved with large stones on both sides of the street, appears to a foreigner exceedingly convenient and pleasant, as one may there walk in perfect safety, in no more danger from the prodigious crowd of carts and coaches, than if one was in one’s own room, for no wheel dares come a finger’s breadth upon the curb stone. ”

“ Strollers on the common could hear, at certain hours, a hubbub of voices and racing footsteps from within the boundary wall. Sometimes, when the strollers were boys themselves, they climbed to the coping, and saw on the other side a piece of common trampled bare and brown, with a few square yards of concrete, so worn into hollows as to be unfit for its original use as a ball-alley. ”

“ And as the eighteenth century closed and gave place to the nineteenth, the mounted highwayman gradually disappeared, and the footpad, a miserable, muddy, cowardly figure, for whom no one ever had a good word, is seen in his dark lurk, in the wayside ditch, not often courageous enough to work alone, and generally found in couples, ready perhaps with the suffocating pitch-plasters that so terrified the wayfarers of that time. ”

“ Another form of craft that we sometimes encounter, is an arrangement by which the gate hangs so heavily on its latch, that the would-be passer-through has to lift up the gate before he or she can open it, and often at an expenditure of strength of which many women are incapable. To perform this feat, a rider would of course have to dismount, which would be very awkward, if a lady was by herself. I have met gates of this annoying description on bridle paths on which the public have a right-of-way. ”

“ The road now began to ascend another steep, paved with stones on edge to make a hold for the horses’ feet in climbing, and at length entered a sort of alley between huge stone walls that rose higher and higher on either side as the road ascended, until it reached a heavy gateway flanked with towers, between which, and over the gateway, hung the spiked and rusting iron portcullis, looking as if it were ready, at the touch of a spring, to fall and impale any audacious intruder who might pass beneath it. ”

“ Some who live in the outskirts, having come to town a-shopping in their wagons, have been obliged to put up for the night; and gentlemen and ladies making a call have gone half a mile out of their way, feeling the sidewalk only with their feet, and not knowing when they turned. ”

“ In the afternoon, the children on tricycles stagger up and down the asphalt with due proportion of big dogs at each wheel; the cable-cars coming up hill begin to drop the men each at his own door—the door of the house that he builded for himself (though the architect incited him to that vile little attic tower and useless loggia) , and, naturally enough, twilight brings the lovers walking two by two along the very quiet ways. ”

“ The cyclist or the golf-player, I am told, can hold such intercourse with himself in the intervals of striking the ball or working his machine. But the true pedestrian loves walking because, so far from distracting his mind, it is favourable to the equable and abundant flow of tranquil and half-conscious meditation. Therefore I should be sorry if the pleasures of cycling or any other recreation tended to put out of fashion the habit of the good old walking tour. ”

“ At present, in this vicinity, the best part of the land is not private property; the landscape is not owned, and the walker enjoys comparative freedom. But possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off into so-called pleasure-grounds, in which a few will take a narrow and exclusive pleasure only,—when fences shall be multiplied, and mantraps and other engines invented to confine men to the public road, and walking over the surface of God's earth shall be construed to mean trespassing on some gentleman's grounds. ”

“ The gait of the average townsman is that of a stroller—a distinct up and down action with rather rigid hips, the toes very likely pointing outward and the heels striking first and disturbing the balance. The carriage may be erect enough and the movements springy and graceful over firm level footing but it is an ill poised gait and exhausting should one endeavor to lengthen the step or cover the ground in good time. ”

“ When the family have left the dining-room, the footman clears away, washes the glass used, and cleans the plate. He then prepares himself either to go out with the carriage or to answer the door to visitors, as the case may be. When required to go out with the carriage, it is the footman's duty to see that the inside is free from dust, and he should be ready to open and close the door after his mistress. In receiving messages at the carriage door he should turn his ear to the speaker, so as to comprehend what is said, in order that he may give his directions to the coachman clearly. ”

“ She had gone up the street as far as the place where the stone pavement began, when she saw the green door open and slam quickly to again, as a bare-headed, half-dressed servant-girl ran out. Immediately after, a man came out in similar haste, and through the door which he left standing open behind him, a number of people, with and without hats, streamed out on to the steps. ”

“ Even if you take a stile and leave road for footpath your pleasure is enhanced, and if you leave footpath for the “trackless” woods it is even further enhanced.
For the trespassers’ walk you should be lightly clad and shod, for you have to jump often. You can start at any point you choose, and take the guidance of the compass, or the sun, or some dominant landmark in the view. You then take a bee line and see where it leads you. As you are neither a bee nor a bird you cannot fly over hedges and walls, and you cannot go so fast. ”

“ They used to shuffle or strut along the street pavement, and creep up a coachbox, and climb painfully over a stile. They could hardly mount the stairs three at a time in case of a fire, or run up a ladder, or leap a ditch, or knock down a thief to save their lives. ”

“ Most of the leading pedestrians of the day now, when they come in from their run, divest themselves of their reeking flannels, and jump under a cold shower-bath, on emerging from which they are thoroughly rubbed down, which at once destroys all feeling of fatigue or lassitude. In a few days the pedestrian will be able to increase his distance to nearly double the first few attempts at a greater pace, and with greater ease to himself. ”

“ Only the small boy, who stands upon the pavement, holding to lamp-post or iron hitching-post to steady himself in the wild excitement, can tell you how his heart races and his blood leaps as the first gilded chariot swings around the corner into the main street. ”

“ Reeling, glide at you, we dance it:
‘Tip us nicely for the gloss!’
It’s no putty that we daubs
On your ashen-wooden floors
It’s the bloody sweat we daubs
Over all your pretty floors
We polish it hard! ”

“ The teeming tenements open their doors, and out into the dark passageways and courts, through foul alleys and over broken sidewalks, flow ever renewed streams of playing children. Under the feet of passing horses, under the wheels of passing street-cars, jostled about by the pedestrian, driven on by the policeman, they annoy everyone. ”

“ No doubt travelers on foot are rare on that difficult, out-of-the-way road, and the walker rather than the man was what filled my lady’s eye; unless, as may easily have been true, she was expecting to see a peddler’s pack. ”

“ I wonder if I can make plain to you what a habit is. Have you ever seen men laying concrete sidewalks here in the city, and they put boards across to keep people from walking on the pavements before they were thoroughly dry? I am sure you have. These men keep people off the walk while it is soft because, if any one steps on it, then his footprints harden into the walk as it dries, and will always remain there. ”

“ Now it is self-evident that, in walking, the legs must pass each other at every step. Let us endeavor to draw our pedestrian at the moment when one leg is passing in front of the other, and we shall find it impossible to give the idea of fair heel-and-toe walking. ”