Abolishing Stuffiness
THE fight against Mrs. Grundy, who objects to sun- bathing, while it hiss secured a considerable victory on the Serpentine, swayed in the other direction the other day on the banks of the Welsh Harp, at Hendon, when forty sunshine enthusiasts (twelve of them women) were attacked by a small mob and beaten.
I know nothing of the rights and wrongs of that affray, but I do know, as a journalist, that a cause whose martyrs arc mentioned in the newspapers is in a fair way to success. We are waking up in Great Britain to the fact that we possess skins, and that these skins must be exposed to sunlight if we would obtain for ourselves those gifts of Nature which the inhabitants of Northern Europe have cultivated intensively for the last five years.
The sun-cult has spread amazingly. From Zoppot to Brioni, from Wimereux to Warsaw, from the fringes of the Baltic and Zuyder Zee to the shores of the Mediterranean, by every sea and lake and river you may see brown bodies of both sexes, freeing themselves for a few hours from the tyranny of needless clothing and the erampings of con- vention. In every town in Germany the Reichsverband filr Deutsche Jugendherbergen has its shelters (2,500 ()I' them with 31 million beds) to enable German youth to wander through its Fatherland at small expense.
Many of us who are young in heart if not in years have been wanting such a movement in England, and now, at last, it has been started. It is called The Youth Hostels Association of Great Britain,* and it encourages our hoys and girls to see Great Britain afoot, with as minimum of worldly gear.
Exactly how the Association will be managed I do not yet know, but the main lines of the scheme will probably he those adopted in Germany ; there will be a small membership fee—say, 2s. 6d.— which will entitle the tramper to clean and comfortable accommodation in the hostels to be created, or adapted, throughout the country. Many of our school buildings could be used to shelter wanderers during the summer, given the necessary sanction from the Claffeh and Educational authorities of the districts concerned. In some places, however, no suitable accommodation exists ; then hostels will have to be built, and funds are as yet lacking; but as the move- ment embodies everything that is healthy and right as a counterpoise to the dangers of urban life, I have no doubt that the necessary. funds will be found. The nomad instinct is deeply implanted in the human breast ; civiliz- ation shall not and cannot entirely tame us while we have feet and hands to use.
• The address of the honorary secretary ia E. St. J. Catchrool, Esq., 18 Bridge Road, Welwyn Garden City. There will, I suppose, usually be a common-room and a sleeping-room for each of the sexes in these shelters, and beds and blankets and a kitchen and washing arrangements, as there is in Germany. No " service " will be provided. Those who use the hostel will be expected to make their beds and tidy up before leaving. On these very simple lines it has been found that the shelters need only charge a few pence to each occupant, thereby making travel possible to a large class who could not otherwise afford to leave their homes.
I can imagine that hotel-keepers may object. Yet they have nothing to fear and much to gain by encouraging Wanderlust. In fact, if they were pro- gressive, they would themselves raise a fund of £50,000 for this purpose, anticipating what will surely happen, namely, that boys and girls will grow richer as they grow older, and that, having seen the countryside with packs on their backs, they will return with suitcases, demanding luxuries.
Unfortunately, our hotels are not progressive : ever since the Middle Ages travellers have complained of English accommodation. Driving south-west the other day, I breakfasted at an inn marked with two stars in the A.A. Book. In the dining-room were enormous cruets containing every kind of sauce, but there was only one salt-cellar, which a harassed maid transported to the dozen breakfasters. While waiting for my eggs and bacon I looked round the twilight room, and observed that the wallpaper was browny-grey and shaded from the radiant morning outside by heavy brown curtains ; and that the overmantel with its stuffed owl under glass had a plum-coloured flounce, and was flanked by wrought-iron gas brackets ; and that ash trays advertising whisky and soda water, and mar- vellously-folded napkins vied with the electro-plated eructs as table decorations. Our massive plush-backed chairs stood on a magenta carpet. Some centuries hence such a 'Victorian interior will be a collector's prize, but to me in a hurry, half an hour was too long to con- template the artistic hey-clay of another age.
When finally I was able to set to, I found that the food was of that basic excellence common in the English countryside ; but by the time the salt had been retrieved from its last user my eggs were cold. When I paid my bill I found I had spent four shillings and one hour of time.
Things move slowly with us, but they do move. Sonic of our seaside " resorts" are rubbing their eyes at the questions which they have been asked by Dr. Jordan, of the Men's Dress Reform Party. " Will yott be good enough to let me know," he wrote to a number of Clerks of Councils, " whether your regulations permit men to bathe in the sea and to sun-bathe on the beach (and whether at all times and on all parts of the beach) wearing only bathing slips or trunks, as is now done at Brighton and nearly all Continental resorts ? "
Deal answered that " we are particularly free from annoying regulations " ; Ventnor that public opinion had abolished " vexatious restrictions" ; Whitby that the Council were engaged in drafting by-laws to allow men to bathe and sun-bathe in slips ; Hastings that it encouraged " brighter bathing." Brighton has long been a pioneer in these matters. But Mrs. Grundy still holds the Channel ports. At Eastbourne, " proper regulation costumes nuist of course be worn," and at Hythe the .Council "does not encourage sun-bathing on the beach." So far thirty seasidcs have declared in favour of light, and twenty-three of darkness. In one of the latter I have seen even little children armoured up to the neck
in serge, as if to prevent the sun from turning them into full-chested lads and nut-brown maids.
More power to Dr. Jordan's elbow : he is doing a good work. In at least three clubs and one restaurant it is now possible to dine out of doors in London. A thousand people had paid for admission to the Serpentine by noon last Monday week. Three London shops keep men's dress-reform clothes, and a big bookseller has opened a special department for New Health books, with a bronzed physical culture enthusiast as its adviser. Cambridge has a lively party of dress-reform under- graduates. Tennis in shorts has been played at Wim- bledon by men (many women play in bare legs, except on the centre court), and a game between two famous players wearing this costume has been filmed and exhibited. Open-collared and hatless men are visible in every town during the dog-days. The boys of Loretto School (and some other public schools) wear sensible clothes, far removed from Eton's toppers and Harrow's hideous straws. The Union of Postal Workers have petitioned the Government that postmen may be allowed to wear open-necked shirts on their rounds.
How long shall we men continue to dine and dance its filthy black ? Everybody enjoys dressing up, of course, but why should we not array ourselves in clean finery ? The peacock preens himself daily, hourly. We change our white waistcoats and starched fronts often enough, but what of our black tails ?
F. YEATS-BROWN.
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