Part 2 (2/2)
”The original test of 50 ood It decreased by thousands of dollars the reater sum the amount expended over the bar It eliht officers to walk; it forced them to learn the care of their feet and that of their eneral health and was rapidly for a taste for physical exercise”
The enclosed letter ran in part as follows:--
”I a under separate cover 'The Soldiers' Foot and the Military Shoe'
”The book contains knowledge of a practical character that is valuable for the men who HAVE TO MARCH, WHO HAVE SUFFERED FROM FOOT TROUBLES, AND WHO MUST AVOID THEM IN ORDER TO ATTAIN EFFICIENCY
”The words in capitals express, according to ards military ets a black eye The one whose ets a bouquet
”To such er that they will neglect it They will actually learn it, for exactly the saunnery instructions--or did learn them before they ithdrawn and burned
”B U T, I have not been able to interest a single naval officer in this fine book They will look at the pictures and say it is a good book, but they won't read it The marine officers, on the contrary, are very much interested, because they have to teach their men to care for their feet and they must kno to care for their own But the naval officers feel no such necessity, simply because their men do not have to demonstrate their efficiency by practice marches, and they themselves do not have to do a stunt that will show up their own ignorance and inefficiency in thewith soh and wide enough, etc, and one of them said: 'I have no use for such shoes, as I never walk except when I have to, and any old shoes do for the 10-mile-a-month stunt,' so there you are!
”When the first test was ordered, Edton shoeshoes to naval officers in threeyears I know three officers who lost both big-toe nails after the first test, and another alked nineshoes that were too small and was laid up for three days--could not come to the office I know plenty of er men until their feet 'went down' to their normal size
”This test may have been a bit too strenuous for old hearts (of men who had never taken any exercise), but it was excellent as afeet--and in an eency (such as we soon ood if the feet won't stand
”However, the 25-mile test in two days each quarter answered the same purpose, for the reason that 125 miles will produce sore feet with bad shoes, and sore feet and laood shoes, if there has been no practice125 MORE MILES ON THE SECOND DAY WITH SORE FEET AND LAME MUSCLES that , made 'em avoid street cars, buy proper shoes, show soeneral
”All this passed out with the introduction of the last test of 10 miles a month As one fellow said: 'I can do that in sneakers'--but he couldn't if the second day involved a tramp on the sore feet
”The point is that whereas forive soear, now they don't have to, and the natural consequence is that they don't do it
”There are plenty of officers who do not walk any more than is necessary to reach a street car that will carry them from their residences to their offices Some who have motors do not do so much They take no exercise They take cocktails instead and are getting beefy and 'ponchy,' and so should be done to remedy this state of affairs
”It would not be necessary if service opinion required officers so to order their lives that it would be coe that they were 'hard,' in order to avoid the danger of being selected out
”We have no such service opinion, and it is not in process of formation On the contrary, it is known that the 'Principal Dignitaries' unanimously advised the Secretary to abandon all physical tests He, a civilian, ise enough not to take the advice
”I would like to see a test established that would oblige officers to take sufficient exercise to pass it without inconvenience For the reasons given above, 20 miles in two days every other month would do the business, while 10 miles each month does not touch it, simply because nobody has to walk on 'next day' feet As for the proposed test of so many hours 'exercise' a week, the flat foots of the pendulous bellyinto the question of pedo one of these on their wheezy chests and let it count every shuffling step they take out of doors
”If we had an adequate test throughout 20 years, there would at the end of that time be few if any sacks of blubber at the upper end of the list; and service opinion against that sort of thing would be established”
These tests were kept during h perversity or viciousness; but through weakness, and inability to understand the need of preparedness in advance, if the eencies of war are to be properly met, when, or if, they arrive
In no country with an ar such is there a chance for a man physically unfit to stay in the service Our countrymen should understand that every arht to be suo far severer tests than those which, as a beginning, I imposed To follow any other course is to put a pre to the Nation
I have mentioned all these experiences, and I could rew my philosophy--perhaps they were in part caused by or of soul without which vigor of the body counts for nothing
The dweller in cities has less chance than the dweller in the country to keep his body sound and vigorous But he can do so, if only he will take the trouble Any young lawyer, shopkeeper, or clerk, or shop-assistant can keep hiood condition if he tries Some of the best men who have ever served under iment were former clerks or floor-walkers Why, Johnny Hayes, the Marathon victor, and at one time world champion, one of my valued friends and supporters, was a floor-walker in Bloo depart orous ave the title ”The Strenuous Life”
Afterwards I published a volume of essays with this for a title There were two translations of it which always especially pleased lish well, and who had carried the essay all through the Manchurian can, and later translated it for the benefit of his countrymen The other was by an Italian lady, whose brother, an officer in the Italian arreatly liked the article and carried it round with hi the title the lady rendered it in Italian as _Vigor di Vita_ I thought this translation a great iinal, and have alished that I hadto indicate what I was trying to preach, instead of the heading I actually did use
There are two kinds of success, or rather two kinds of ability displayed in the achieve things or ss which comes to the man who has in him the natural power to do what no one else can do, and what no a, no perseverance or will poill enable any ordinary man to do This success, of course, like every other kind of success,scale or on a small scale The quality which the man possesses may be that which enables him to run a hundred yards in nine and three-fifths seconds, or to play ten separate games of chess at the saures at once without effort, or to write the ”Ode to a Grecian Urn,” or to deliver the Gettysburg speech, or to show the ability of Frederick at Leuthen or Nelson at Trafalgar No aood ordinary man to perform any one of these feats Of course the proper perfor, but in no one of theether exceptionaladditional which the ordinary man does not have