"THE YOUTH MOVEMENT IN GERMANY" [To the Editor of the
SrEcrArort.]
Sin,—May an old " Wander-bird " (probably an owl !) send a few lines of welcome to Mr. Watkins' very interesting account of the German Youth Movement in your issue of last week ? The Germans have learnt from us the value of games : let us in return learn from them the value of the life of the open road.
I remember as a small boy hearing, with infinite scorn, from a schoolfellow who had lived in Germany that the German schoolboy had no recreation but walks. To-day the English schoolboy runs the danger of having no recreation but games ! The motor car and the iron grip of compulsory cricket and football leave boys little time or inclination for rambling. But even those who wish to ramble are faced with two serious deterrents, (1) expense, (2) the difficulty of finding lodging for the night. The German " Jugendherbergen " meets both difficulties. Cannot something on similar lines be devised in England ? There is, of course, "Scouting," which is better still ; but it does not cover all the field.
May I give a few experiences from nearly fifty years of tramping ? My first tramp was in 1883 during a Whitsuntide holiday—Westminster took its spring holiday at Whitsuntide in those days. (0 si sic tonnes!) My good mother—God bless her !—protested: "Why did we silly boys want to wander about like tramps when we had comfortable beds at home ? " But, wise woman that she was, she let us go. And what glorious fun it was ! In towns like Stratford-on- Avon and Gloucester we supped and slept in coffee taverns, with a careful eye on the pennies as they mounted up ; in villages, just anywhere that would take us in. Some hospitality we enjoyed by the way—at Oxford our starting point, where a kind brother at "the House" had got rooms for us in Peckwater ; with a schoolfellow at Lois Weedon. I wish I had kept the details of our balance-sheet : I know the cost had to be met mainly out of the two sovereigns which, by an ancient and honourable use, I had earned as a "Second Election" from two separate " Seniors " by instructing their " juniors " (fags) in their duties. My latest was this time last year when I inoculated with the wander germ my first- born, just thirteen (a couple of years younger than I was when I began), by a three days' tramp round that splendid, and little known, bit of South Devon coast (within the last few months so happily acquired for the National Trust) from Bolt Tail to Bolt Head and on by Dartmouth to Totnes. In between I have tramped Cumberland fells, Yorkshire moors, the Roman wall from *end to end; most of the Devon and 'Cornwall coasts; Connemara, Antrim, Brittany, Switzerland, the Black Forest, the Umbrian hills, the Abruzzi, the Morea. Nowhere is tramping so full of delight as in England—and nowhere is it so costly ! Last year—to bring things up to date —we slept a first night in a modest inn at Salcombe—supper, one room, and breakfast, 14s.; the second night in lodgings at Stoke Fleming, about the same. We took the steamer- up the Dart to Totnes ; and in the cool of the evening walked back to our starting point, Bigbury-on-Sea. Total cost for two nights and the inside of two days about £2, which as -things go in England was very cheap. In Germany it seems it would have cost under 8s. What a difference !
Nothing is more certain than this—that if the cost in England could be reduced to anything like the German standard, that is, to a fifth, or let us say a quarter, very many more of our young folk—and some old folk, too !—would "take to the open road," drinking in health at every step and learning the lessons nature teaches on her "sun-strewn stage." There would be fewer pallid youth about, and more of the "glorious mahogany faces," of which Mr. Watkins writes with pardonable enthusiasm ; and (when the lesson was well learnt) we should "look in vain for litter, whether in town or country." What a glorious possibility ! Will not my old friend, Beach Thomas, take up the cause ?—I am, Sir, &c., Moyses, Five Ashes, Sussex. LIONEL JAMES.
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