Litchfield enquirer., 1875-09-02

AAouS aAC ouOue tO pctltlOA 1Ak. NuhA " continue hisEnnual encampments of tie Gunnery, with the condition, however, that he select seasons of drought for his camping out For his encampment has the same effect upon the weather as does the annual gathering of Quakers in New York. The flood gates of heaven are in- variably opened and the rainy season commences. This year it was regarded as little overdone. All New England had been crazy for rain. Prayers, public and private, without number had been offered, about four times as much rain as was needed had already fallen, when Mir. Gum mustered his company to the num- Der of eighty, marched to Point Beautiful and pitched their tents on this noted promontory. All indications of clearing off were Immediately suspended, and the rain which had before fallen in sheets on- ly, now came down by the. .bucket-full. For four days we had a continuous series of what were facetiously styled ''cleariDg off showers" Noah's forty days of damp suspense found here slight parallel. It was good test for the discipline and pa thence of the campers out There was considerable boating and fishing between the dashes, and the Point was made me- lodious in the evenings, by an informal choir of young voices whose rendering of college and slave songs was not behind the unrehearsed performances of Yale and Harvard.
 On the fifth day it cleared off ostensibly, and the bow of promise gave assurance of at least moderately respectable weather. Of course this much coveted sequence brought out the doggerel poet, one of whom is sure to be found in every camp, who ground ont thefolloving, and had it sung in. the choir to the tane of "Wheh Johnny comes marching home" The To- cal hits created some amusement and as- sisted in driving away the clouds from the faces of the novices whose ideas of camp life were associated only with sunshine, dry tents, warm cots, and undlloyed hap 
 In something hundred before the flood,
 Hurrah hurrah
 Tn something hundred before the flood,
 Hurrah hurrah! F Y In something hundred before the flood,
 old Noah taught school in Eden's Wood,
 And the rain came a-pouring down, . When the Gunnery marched to camp.
 He had such a set of rascaly boys,
 Hurrah hurrah
 The flood was sent to stop their noise, |
 And the rain Sc.
 In eighteen hundred and seventy-nve, Another Noah is now alive. e .,. e. ',.
 His ''maiden" name is Pater Gum,
 And he started the Gunnery just for fun. ,.
 And Mrs. Noah is Mrs. Gum,
 The '.butlest' woman under the sun.
 They beat old Noah. and SO tEcy ought ter,
 Though Noah had sons. he hadn't daughter.
 In Molly the school doth all rejoice, q
 She's engaged to bo married Co an the boys.
 Tine same kind of boys attended the school.
 That disregarded old Noah 2 rule.,
 So Paser he vowed that each rascally scamp,
 Should be drowned as Of old. so he took them to
 camp.
 For thirty.nine days, or less, it rained. I
 Till the sweetest natures were warped and F strained. "a
 But on the fortieth day, or less, A
 The sun sank golden in the West. -f
 
 And abow came out of the Northers cloud,
 And angry Pater, he roared aloud. -a And ever since that day which the young folks .r ... blessed. ..f-.ty =,
 Old Pater Gunn has been doWn Ol the West.
 And the boys gave three cheers and . yell,
 When old Pater went home from camp.
 Of course this is nonsense, but that kind of nonsense which is relished by the "wisest men" in the proper season; and 1t was trotted out and exhibited several times during the encampment. ...4 There were several gala evenings, but the most noteworthy was the entertain ment preferred by Col Robert Q.Johnson of Albany, whose son is pupil and whose family were quartered at the modest but cheerful Cheere Point House, kept by MT. Carter. we'll known and esteemed by all the country round. The camp was brilliantly illuminated with Chinese lan- terms, on which Grant and Colfax'' and "Union Forever" recalled the memories of the last heated campaign and its tragic termination in the death of Greeley. Messrs. Coggswell and Cable with fiddles and flute. and supported by a small4but strong lunged Mason & Hamlin organ. furnished the musical inspiration. The "German was the piece dc rcsistance" (as the French say) of the evening", and was carried through its 7intertninablel fig ure treminding one to quote MT. Gum, of eternity) with becoming gravity and decorum, not unmixed with as much fun as the quaint ''favors" were, donned by the dancers. These, as were also the lanterns and the music, were the gift of Col John son. and created great amusement. There were caps. boys. mems. girls and night, of all varieties; aprons, masonic and do- nestle; capes, talmas, eswsine cloaks,  hoods. aad other paraphernalia. all giving to the scene grotesqueness never before witnessed at Point Beautiful The vir. ginia Reel. introduced in this was the terpsichorial success of the evening. Elderly ladies were inveigled from their decorum. and meandered madly through the maze. t 0. e .~aa. r1 There were . large number of guests from Washington and also from this inn mediate vicinity. who were warmly well cotned and hospitasly entertained by MT. and Mrs. Gum. with the easy grace and genial heartedness which characterizel all they do. Among the many present were ECol Johnson and family already mention cd, Mr. Alex. J. Center. of New York.