i8 THE IDYL OF THE SPLIT-BAMBOO 



you have experienced in a hotel, superinduced by late 

 hours and the plethora of over-eating without suffi- 

 cient exercise. 



" Remember that there is no better exercise for 

 anyone than walking. It gives the rambler time to 

 learn needed lessons from nature, and it is free from 

 the excitement of high speed, which is the very thing 

 that a vacation should avoid. The man who hurls 

 himself through space in a high-powered automobile 

 is not resting. He simply is substituting one form 

 of mental stimulation for another. He is like those 

 unfortunate victims of the drug habit who go from 

 morphine to cocaine and from both to whisky. 

 Their diseased nerves crave some sort of artificial 

 stimulus. So it often is with our business-men in 

 their ' relaxations.' 



" What these men need is the repose of the woods, 

 the calmness of spirit that comes to the tired mind 

 only amidst mountain solitudes. To invite a man 

 of active mind to a ramble through the forest with- 

 out an incentive is, however, almost as bad as to ad- 

 vise him to saw wood for exercise. Such an occu- 

 pation affords exercise, but it is a nauseous dose 

 which is too often taken submissively if not with 

 cheerfulness. There is no better motive for the 

 forest wanderer, whether his paths be by mountain 

 stream or highland tarn, than the time-honored sport 

 of good old Izaak Walton. Go a-fishing. 



4 The angler's art is but a pretext or rather the 



