WALKING AS A FINE ART 
The first act of all animals is that of absorption. Feeding is a 
primal necessity. The senses of smell, of touch, and of taste are 
involved in it. Sight has little to do with it at first, but is soon 
awakened. Coincident with this act among the lower animals is 
that of locomotion. Man, whose desire to annihilate space has 
become a supreme passion, approaches the act of locomotion 
later than all other animals. Young ducks and geese fly from the 
Arctic Circle to Florida a few months after they have been 
hatched. Babies do not often begin to crawl until they are twice 
as old, and rarely walk until more than a year of life has been 
passed. There is nothing more interesting than the sight of a 
child just beginning to walk. The look of glad surprise and 
immense satisfaction which is displayed when a few successful 
steps have been taken is delightful to the observer. The triumphs 
of the most successful men do not in later years afford them so 
much momentary pleasure as is experienced by the little fellow 
who realizes that at last after many failures he has “got his 
legs.” 
In much of our going to and fro on this small globe we are 
aided by adventitious helps. Stephenson, Fulton, and the fathers 
of the science of magnetism and electricity have done much to 
pave the way for our rapid transportation from one spot to 
another. But there are some places to which we cannot be 
hauled, and we have not yet reached the point where we can 
dispense with the use of our pedal extremities. 
Happy is the man who has acquired the love of walking for 
its own sake! There is no form of exercise more health-giving, 
none which tends more thoroughly to invigorate, if it be wisely 
undertaken. The effect of the act is to quicken the venous 
circulation; to send the blood to the lungs, there to be purified 
by contact with the oxygen of the atmosphere; to harden and 
strengthen theYnuscles of the legs and to bring those of the arms 
and the chest into play. People who walk do not have over¬ 
loaded veins. The shop-girl who stands behind the counter all 
day suffers from varicosis, but the man or woman who walks 
avoids it. Standing is harder than walking; it is more fatiguing, 
and brings no return of health to the system. 
