[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—The letter of Mr.
Frost in your last week's issue entirely mistakes the drift of Mr. Willett's scheme. That scheme deals with men as they are, not as they might be. A good deal of recreation might, as Mr. Frost says, be obtained before breakfast, but it is not. As one who invariably bathes, or golfs, or walks, or takes some form of exercise in the early hours of the morning, the present writer can testify to the exceedingly small fraction of mankind who take any form of outdoor exercise at that time, even when they are surrounded by opportunities. However, this is really wide of the mark. The main object of Mr. Willett's scheme is to help those who are not surrounded by opportunities. His object is not, as Mr. Frost fears, to supply croquet-players with time for another game in the evening, but to supply the great mass of our city populations with more opportunities for " healthy recreation," and this he would do by concentrating the daylight hours of leisure. How little benefit, for example, one hour in the morning and another in the evening are to the city clerk immured in a wilderness of bricks and mortar, with miles to walk or bicycle before he can get out into real country. How far more useful are two solid hours of daylight in the evening. And on these September evenings, when the sun sets so soon after he gets home from his work, what would he not give for another half-hour or so of daylight ? But he is assured that "all the good things Mr. Willett describes he has already." Has he ? The same mistake is made over those " evenings indoors," which may be affected by the scheme, though they are " often the most pleasant part of the day." Most pleasant, certainly, for the man who has had plenty of fresh air and has a comfortable smoking-room to retire to or a well- filled library. But are they quite so pleasant, quite so fascinating, for the man who has a noisy and well-filled cottage to retire to ? Are evenings indoors quite so pleasant for the shopkeeper who has been tied down to his counter all day ? It is these classes that the scheme would try to help, and by the judgment of these classes that it will stand or fall. —I am, Sir, &c., 104 Shoe Lane, B.C.
W. A. Fox.
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