Abstract
Soon after the founding of Czechoslovakia in October 1918, tramps started to roam the countryside of the young republic. These were not the unemployed vagrants or seasonal workers mostly known as the tramps in the early 1870s USA.
In the newly formed Central European state, "tramp" became the term used for the young men and later also women who spent their short weekends out in the countryside, recharging after the working week in the city, camping, playfully pretending to be characters out of adventure novels, playing sports. Simply having fun and living their own way in the nature.
The word "tramp" was adopted into the Czech language under a different meaning from its English original, although its inspiration came from the romantic depictions of North America in contemporary literature for Czech youths. The path beyond the city limits for the first Czech tramps had already opened before the First World War: the Czech public first started to read about camping (tenting, bivouacking) in the periodicals at the turn of the 20th century, where camping was described as a leisure time activity beneficial to body and mind.
Following the contemporary opinions and hygienic recommendations regarding the public health across national and state boundaries, the first Czech Scout groups recognized the healing power of nature and integrated camping into its outdoor activities. Organized hikers and canoe campers would also camp out during their overnight expeditions.
Czech tramping was born spontaneously after the WWI among young people camping under the forest canopy and on the riverbanks. The most obvious inspiration came from the romanticized idea of the Wild West - tramping drew on its depictions in the popular adventure novels and American Westerns.
Many tramps admired the works of Jack London. In the afterwar years, a lot of tramps kept on roving the Czech countryside in regular clothes, however, others put on Western-like outfits and for the weekend's short duration even transformed themselves into gold-diggers, trappers or sailors.
They often adopted nicknames that sounded exotic to the Czech ear (John, Bill, Jerry) and ventured out of the city into the countryside, seeing the nature as a reflection of faraway lands, renaming it and giving it a thrill of adventure. The birth of the tramping movement is inextricably bound to the contemporary popular culture.
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