our
English calendar tells you it is still spring. Later in the year the
heat is often intense all through the middle of the day, and the young
men who make their excursions on foot start at dawn, so that they may
arrive at a resting place by ten or eleven. "For many years our boys
have wandered cheaply and simply through their German Fatherland,"
says a leaflet advertising a society that organises walking tours for
girls; Saturday afternoon walks, Sunday walks, and holiday walks
extending over six or eight days. "Simplicity, cheerful friendly
intercourse, gaiety in fresh air, these are the companions of our
pilgrimage.... We wish to provide the German nation with mothers who
are at home in woods and meadows, who have learned to observe the
beauties of nature, who have strengthened their health and their
perceptions of everything that is great and beautiful by happy
walks.... Anyone _wanderfroh_ who has been at a higher school or who
is still attending one is eligible. The card of membership only costs
3 marks for a single member and 4 marks for a whole family. Some of
the excursions are planned to include brother pilgrims, and their
character is gay and cheerful, without flirting or coquetry, a genuine
friendly intercourse between girls and boys, young men and maidens, a
pure and beautiful companionship such as no dancing lesson and no
ballroom can create, and which is nevertheless the best training for
life." So nowadays gangs of girls, and even mixed gangs of boys and
girls, are to swarm through the pleasant forests of Germany, ascend
the easy pathways of her mountains, and fill her country inns to
overflowing. How horrified the little _Backfisch_ would have been at
such a suggestion, how unmaidenly her excellent aunt would have deemed
it, how profoundly they would both have disapproved of any exercise
that heightens the colour or disturbs the neatness of a young lady's
toilet. I myself have heard German men become quite violent in their
condemnation of Englishwomen who play games or take walks that make
them temporarily dishevelled. It never seemed to occur to them that a
woman might think their displeasure at her appearance of less account
than her own enjoyment. "No," they said, "ask not that we should
admire Miss Smith. She has just come in from a six hours' walk with
her brother. Her face is as red as a poppy, her blouse is torn, and
her boots are thick and muddy."

As a matter of fact, I had not asked them to