The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-08-26
Hints ON Camping Out.

B dozen young men, WHO nave Decu
penned up in the billiard-rooms, offices,
beer-gardens and other hot and BRAIN
exhausting business dens of the great
cities, conclude to desert the luxuries
and comforts of a pleasant home and
seek the sylvan dells and inviting
shades of the groves on the banks OF
rural streams.
They resolve to camp out for a few
weeks-resort to some secluded and
vernal spot where they can drink in the
beauties of Nature-and bad water;
catch fish three inches long-and colds
that will cling to them six months; fight
mosquitoes and other annoying insects;
have their noes and necks blistered by
the hot sun, sigh in vain for the morn
ing papers, and return home a week
earlier than they contemplated, dis
gusted with the internal vernalness, and
fully convinced that they have had
enough camping OUT to last them two
hundred and fifty years.
But camping out is fashionable, and
to those who mediate spending por-
ton of the summer in shady hooks by
babbling brooks, Puck offers a few
hints of a more practical character
than those found in his esteemed con-
temporaries.
First, select some spot not more than
six miles from your homes, for the prob
abilities are that you will become dis
gusted with your sleeping accommoda-
tons the first night in camp, and, after
an hour devoted to quoting profane
history. you will resolve to walk into
the city to spend there the remainder
of the night. If your camping place is
fifteen miles distant, you will, rather
lose nights sleep than undertake the
tramp.
Do not burden yourself with too
many articles. A pool-table, portable
gas-works, bath tub with hot and
cold water, sofa, an Eastlake bed
stead and feather-bed, a grand piano,
several oil paintings by the old masters,
a base-drum, and few pieces of brio a.
brac are all that is actually needed.
Some persons lug along spoons, knives,
fishing-tackle, drinking-cups and soap;
but these articles can be safely dis
pensed with, for on such occasions no
one catches any fish or shoots any
game, and it is waste of time and
soap to wash ones self before returning
home.
Do not attempt to carry glassware
and a gilt-frame mirror in your coat-tail
pockets. In an unguarded moment
you might sit down before removing
the vitreous articles.
Don't take any more money with you
than you are able to borrow, for, al
though miles from the marts of the city,
you will be tempted to make monetary
investments in divers ways. For in
stance, after fishing four hours with a
twenty-dollar tackle without getting a
bite, you may see barefoot urchin
with a willow rod, store-string line
and thirty pounds of fish. You win
give him two dollars-if you have so
much money-for the fish, and return
to your companions and brag about
your ''splendid catch"
1t is not necessary to take a change
OF clothing. A camper-out' s-or q
camper scout clothing looks about as
clean at the expiration of two weeks as
it does at the end of the first day.
After the first day it doesn't get any
soiled-er.
Carefully conceal your whereabouts
from your bootmaker and tailor, for q
dun by mail every two or three days
tends to mar the pleasure of country
life and divert the thoughts into q
business channel-the business of hunt
ing up new tailor to make your fall
suit.
When it rains, and rains, and rains
for two days and two nights, you may
lose your baggage, but don't lose your
temper. A young man miles from home
without either baggage or temper is not
pleasant spectacle to contemplate.
And the rain is good for the crops.
Carry with you bottle of stuff la
belled medicine" in case of sick
ness, and to prevent sunstroke and a
drought
Don't whistle Pinafore tunes. nor con-
struct a Fifteen Puzzle. 1t might shock
your family to see you come home a
corpse.
Should a Changers pretty daughter
stroll near your camp, don't inconti-
nently imagine that she is .smashed !"
on every mothers son of you, and mis-
takes you for English lords and dukes.
The chances are that she will return
home and inform her parents that there
is a crowd of dirty tramps down at the
river, and suggest that heavier bolts be
put on the doors and watch kept on
the chicken house.
Don't write poetry while in camp and
send it to country editor. The C. E.,
poor devil, can't afford summer vaca-
ton, and what little happiness he en-
joys remaining at his desk molding pub
lie opinion and calling his contemporary
whirlpool of infamy" should not be
wrecked
Don't leave an unloaded gun stand
ing against tree, unless your party is
too large.
When out cunning, don't mistake a
farmers chickens for snipe. The latter
bird, in this part of the country, does
mt grow as large as chicken--but
q chicken is just as good as snipe, if
the farmer doesn't trace it to your
LAIR, and compel you to pay four prices
IT, after one day in camp, you discov-
er that there is a beer saloon three
miles distant. get up walking match Of