Judge, 1923-02-24 · page 12 of 36
Judge — February 24, 1923 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "The Open Road" - Sport Page Satire This is a humorous piece by Heywood Broun about planning walking trips. The satirical drawings by Weed illustrate the absurdity of different "walking enthusiasts": **The figures represent types:** - "The one-block walker taxi-bound" - someone who talks big about walking but takes a cab after one block - "The health bug" - a fitness-obsessed person - "Exercising the latest fashion" - someone doing it for trendy reasons rather than genuine interest - "The rubber boot glide" - poorly equipped for actual hiking **The satire:** The article mocks how modern urbanites romanticize "getting back to nature" through walking trips. They plan elaborate expeditions while sitting indoors drinking and playing poker, argue about distances, lack genuine outdoor experience, and ultimately lack the practical commitment or physical capability for real hiking. The joke targets the gap between fashionable aspirations and actual follow-through—a timeless critique of armchair adventurers.
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The health bug. a SPORT PAGE The one-block walker taxi-bound. T h e O p e Nn R O a d by Heywood Broun Sketches by Weed Ne of the pleasantest things in the “How far is that?” asks another, there- O world is to plan a walking trip. by setting himself down as an undesirable ‘ow is just about the time to recruit for the expedition. Your tru: begin. It should be done ina warm room — walker should be an optimist and also a overlooking the current rain, sleet or little unbalanced. snowstorm, There ought to be tobacco “Doesn't look more than about an inch and some one of the milder forms of near- and a half to me,” says the first speaker. beer. You must keep a clear head about We shall call him Bob. Of course, that you for upon the perfection of the plans is an arbitrary thing to do, but we believe which you draw up to-« ourcomfortand — that courage is one of the most important your very life may depend later on when qualities which a writer should cultivate. the time for walking has actually arrived. Reticence has ruined much of the world’s First of all best literature. And while we're about in the center of the floor. After it has been securely fastened so that it won't flap, gen conversation and a_ little drinking is the order of the day. Perhaps a poker game might not be amiss. After all, there is no use starting the plans for a walking trip until you are quite in the mood, I ris one of the best prelim- inaries which we know. Upon scores of oceasions we have known young men to get up from the table and ‘say : I'm living is all wrong. It's fev artificial. What I want to dc t uy out into the open. I want to get my toes into the soil.” F A COUPLE of others feel exactly the same way the time has come to begin to plan the walking trip. The map should cover territory unknown to the trio of Argonauts. There is no adventure in simply going over familiar ground, “I think, s the moving spirit in » “that we might start out this and walk from Gilchrist to Exercising the latest fashion. South Fairfield Junction.” 10 comicbooks.com