On That March My Own
Outfit Was As Unwieldy As A Gypsy's Caravan.
It consisted of an
enormous cart, two oxen, three Basuto ponies, one Australian horse,
three servants, and four hundred pounds of supplies and baggage.
When it moved across the plain it looked as large as a Fall River
boat.
Later, when I joined the opposing army, and was not expected
to maintain the dignity of a great London daily, I carried all my
belongings strapped to my back, or to the back of my one pony, and I
was quite as comfortable, clean, and content as I had been with the
private car and the circus tent.
Throughout the Greek war, as there were no horses to be had for love
or money, we walked, and I learned then that when one has to carry
his own kit the number of things he can do without is extraordinary.
While I marched with the army, offering my kingdom for a horse, I
carried my outfit in saddle-bags thrown over my shoulder. And I
think it must have been a good outfit, for I never bought anything to
add to it or threw anything away. I submit that as a fair test of a
kit.
Further on, should any reader care to know how for several months one
may keep going with an outfit he can pack in two saddle-bags, I will
give a list of the articles which in three campaigns I carried in
mine.
Personally, I am for travelling "light," but at the very start one is
confronted with the fact that what one man calls light to another
savors of luxury. I call fifty pounds light; in Japan we each were
allowed the officer's allowance of sixty-six pounds. Lord Wolseley,
in his "Pocketbook," cuts down the officer's kit to forty pounds,
while "Nessmut," of the Forest and Stream, claims that for a hunting
trip, all one wants does not weigh over twenty-six pounds. It is
very largely a question of compromise. You cannot eat your cake and
have it. You cannot, under a tropical sun, throw away your blanket
and when the night dew falls wrap it around you. And if, after a day
of hard climbing or riding, you want to drop into a folding chair, to
make room for it in your carry-all you must give up many other lesser
things.
By travelling light I do not mean any lighter than the necessity
demands. If there is transport at hand, a man is foolish not to
avail himself of it. He is always foolish if he does not make things
as easy for himself as possible. The tenderfoot will not agree with
this. With him there is no idea so fixed, and no idea so absurd, as
that to be comfortable is to be effeminate. He believes that
"roughing it" is synonymous with hardship, and in season and out of
season he plays the Spartan. Any man who suffers discomforts he can
avoid because he fears his comrades will think he cannot suffer
hardships is an idiot.
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