At the station the voyagers were told by the Reiseleiter (in this case a young desk official from the Labor Front) to take their places in compartments bearing on the window the number of their tickets. In this way there was no confusion or rush for seats and the train was able to leave on schedule at 1:30 on Saturday afternoon. The five hour and a half train journey was passed by the writer in conversation with his compartment companions who were respectively a bank messenger and his wife and a department store clerk. (The writer would hazard a guess that about 80 per cent of the participants were low-salaried employees of the white collar class and only about 20 per cent were actual everyday laborers. The party was composed mostly of the young and middle-aged with very few older people.) An interesting fact ascertained was that many of the travelers had been in the habit for the last three years of regularly taking their vacations on Strength through Joy trips. They were generally enthusiastic about the organization and in particular with the arrangement whereby they could save up for their vacations by putting aside a few pfennigs a week for Strength through Joy savings stamps. The general opinion seemed to be that while the shorter journeys, such as that going to Helgoland were very. strenuous, a real rest could be obtained on the long Strength through Joy vacations at the seaside or in |