28 With Feet to the Earth 



many windows were hot broken they pre- 

 ferred not to see these goings-on. And to 

 this day I have never learned the cause of 

 the enmity, though I think it was bred in 

 part from race dislikes, for the Porters were 

 Americans. 



At one time young America walked with 

 a feverish energy. This was due to Ed- 

 ward Payson Weston. This remarkable 

 pedestrian walked from Portland to Chi- 

 cago in thirty days, and he passed through 

 my town, with a crowd of boys about 

 him, be sure. By following him out on 

 the old pike I discovered that I could walk 

 as fast as he, though not to Chicago. He 

 was fresh-faced, smooth-shaven, youthful, 

 lightly dressed, and he carried a little whip 

 with which he slapped his own legs now 

 and then. His march started a veritable 

 craze for walking, and it lasted two or three 

 years. These fads : what a corporate qual- 

 ity they show in the race ! How we follow 

 a leader ! Yet if they are good fads it 

 might as well be compliance as conquest, 

 so far as results and the multitude are con- 

 cerned. They beget competition, too, and 



