THE CHEAP TRIPPERS.
[TO THE EDITOR 07 THE "SPECTATOR."
have read with much interest your article of October 29th on " nippers." All my sympathies are with the people, and I never forget that a man is not any the less a tripper because he goes to Switzerland rather than to Ramsgate. This summer, however, it was my lot to spend part of July and August in Hastings, and I must admit that the con- sequence has been some very unpleasant reflections. The excursionists, especially on Sunday and Monday, were there in thousands. Many of them really took pleasure in the sea and hills ; but a majority, or, at any rate, a large minority, came simply in order to escape from the restrictions imposed by the police in London. It was not merely that they covered the grass with broken bottles and greasy paper and drank more than was good for them,—but I can go no further. Perhaps your imagination can supply what I cannot describe. I can only say that the sights to be seen in broad daylight without searching were incredible. It became clear to me in these July-August days that immense numbers of human beings are not yet at such a stage in their development that beauty has any power over them. They have no respect for it, and it is of no use to them; secondly, it became also clear that our so-called civilisation is the thinnest of films, which at any time may vanish, and that we have no reasons to pre- sent to people which have any power over them to compel even a fig-leaf.
The fact is that the old authority is disappearing, and there is no systematic attempt as yet to supply its place by ethical training. The popular creed is that all that is necessary is improvement in reading, writing, and arithmetic, with Sunday bands, museums, art, and green fields thrown in. I am afraid. this will prove a delusion. The men who behaved under my eyes like dogs were not the "residuum" or the " dregs," but wore flannels and blazers. Some day, when our dying religion is quite dead and we have got rid of the hereditary instinct still surviving as the last trace of bygone struggle and victory,. we shall be awakened by a revolution not exactly like any- thing seen before.—I am, Sir, &c., W.
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