Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-07-01
CAMPING OUT.

CAMPING OUT.
The instinct of barbarism that leads
people periodically to throw aside the
habits Of civilization and seek the Free
dom and discomfort of the woods is ex-
plicable enough. But it is not SO easy to
understand why this passion should be
strongest in those who are refined and
most trained in intellectual and social
fastidiousness. Philistinism and shoddy
do not like the woods, unless it becomes
fashionable to do so, and then as speed
lily as possible they introduce their arti-
fetal luxuries and reduce the life in the
wilderness to the vulgarity of a well-fed
picnic. 1t is they who have strewn the
Adirondacks with paper collars and tin
cans. The real enjoyment of camping
and tramping in the woods lies in re-
turn to primitive conditions of lodging,
dress and food-in as total an escape as
may be from the requirements of civili-
zation. And it remains to be explained
why this is enjoyed most by those who
are most highly civilized. It is wonder
full to see how easily the restraints of So
ciety fall off. Of course it is not true
that courtesy depends upon clothes with
the best people, but with others behav-
Tor hangs almost entirely upon dress.
Many good habits are easily got rid Of
| in the woods. Doubt sometimes seems
to be felt whether Sunday is legal hol-
iday there. 1t becomes question of
casuistry with clergyman whether he
may shoot at a mark on Sunday if none
of his congregation are present. He in
tends no harm he only gratifes a curl
osity to see if he can hit the mark.
Where shall he draw the line? Doubt
less he might throw stone at chip
munk. or shout at loon. Might he fire
at mark with an air-gun that makes
no noise !? He will not fish or hunt on
Sunday-although he is no more likely
to catch anything that day than any
other-but he may eat trout that the
guide has caught on Sunday, if the
guide swears that he caught them Sat
urday night? Is there such thing as
a vacation in religion? +? How much Of
our virtue do we owe to inherited hab.
its?
By the time twilight falls the cook
has prepared supper. Everything ha;
been cooked in tin pail and skillet
potatoes, tea, pork, mutton, fapjacks
You wonder how everything could have
been prepared in so few utensils. Wher
you eat the wonder ceases /; everything
might have been cooked in one pail. l
is noble meal, and nobly it is disposed
of by these amateur savages sitting abou
upon logs and roots of trees. Never wer,
there such potatoes never beans tina
seemed to have more of the bean il
; them; never such curly pork; neve
trout with more Indian meal on them
never mutton more distinctly sleepy
and the tea, drunk out of tin cup
with a lump of maple sugar dissolved il
tit is the sort of tea that takes hold
, lifts the hair. and disposes the drinke
, to anecdote and hilariousness. Their
; is no deception about it; it tastes Of tan
D min and spruce and creosote. Everythin
. in fact has the flavor of the wildernes
n and free life. 1t is idyllic. And ye
t with all our sentimentality, there
nothing feeble about the cooking. Th
e slapjacks are solid job of work, mad
e to last, and not to 60 to pieces in a pei
n sons stomach like a trivial bun; "
n might record on them, in cuneiforl
v characters, our incipient civilization
Is and future generations would doubles
q turn them up as Acadian bricks. Goot
q robust victuals are what the primitlN
" man wants.-Charles Dudley Warm
IN June atlantic.