Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1882-10-12
n DORMITOEY SCENE.

Southern Girls at a Camp Meeting.
From the Cincinnati Enquirer.
1t was in Kentucky. 1.-The Camp Of
the Woman" we christened it when we
were ushered into the neat clearinghouse
for ladies on the camp-meeting prem
ises Twenty white single beds, with
spring mattresses and good hard pillows;
four nails driven into the joist by each
headboard, to hang up petticoats and
bonnets; clean pine floors, sweet pine
walls, open pine rafters, above which the
new pine roof spread protecting hands,
with tinger-tips touching on the ridge
pole, among the upper tree-boughs.
There was motherly woman in charge.
Mankind had been banished to outer
darkness, and we abandoned ourselves
to that delightful 'we-can-do-as-we-
please" feeling, which the presence of
the masculine element invariable de-
stroys.
Oceans of space" chirruped the trim
little woman next door. She had put
her watch in one shoe, and her switch
and net in the other, and placed them
both like little soldiers on guard, under
the bed rail; her long, bright hose flut-
tered from the post, her hustle was coiled
trinity under the bed; her skirts that
ratified like chimes of faint bells when
she lifted them over her head, were
hung with their dainty ruffies and rick
rack, on the pailM wall. oceans of
space! Isn't it jolly to crowd into close
quarters, and get along with six feet in
stead of twenty?'
Eyes, ma'am. 1t reminds me of the
Centennial" says shrill voice from the
farther corner. 1--WE had to roll up our
clothes in bundles and lay them on the
floor, and but one could move about and
dress at a time"
The time is ten o'clock; we are ready
for the lights to be turned out, when up
the stairs. all talking at once, as only wO-
men, southern women, know how to do,
without discord, comes a bevy of girls
from friends cottage-six, eli hit, ten,
| eleven, we count, as their heads appear
| above the floor. from the unlocked stair
way.
All cousins, Kentucky cousins, met by
appointment on the old camp-ground.
Eleven girl cousins. And how they did
rattle on!
cousin Halle, Cousin Tom was might
Pooh. Cousin Bette, I reckon its
Cousin Sally you mean. Cousin Sally is
perfectly devoted to Cousin Tom, so
Cousin Billy says"
'Why, Cousin Halle, YOU don't know
what you're talking about-me! Why,
Cousin Tom is paving his addresses to
Cousin Henri Voolfolk; didn't you know
that? Yes'm.'
Cousin Mettie and Cousin John are
coming tomorrow from Lexington;
they stayed for the frolic at Crab Or
chard Springs. They say Cousin Mettie
was the prettiest girl on the floor. l
reckon she was"
don't doubt it, as these sample cous-
ins disrobe. LuXuriant hair. silken and
soft, about ther shoulders; exquisite
arms, tapering, slender, white, and
shining as ivory, cleaning above their
heads, as they brush their loosened
locks; white foreheads, all alike, all with
dark eyes; such pretty embroidered
cloth ng-'' rutfles and lace and snowy
putis," which Watterson asserts or la
ments THAT only the angels see" Such
harmless, innocent gir.s, all bound by
interlacings of family ties, all with
marked family resemblance.
After all the hair is plated, and all the
shining arms are hidden under muslin
sleeves, they take their stockings-this
queer band OF girls-and going close to
the lamp, examine them for holes as if
dainty hose. Every left hand is trust
in the foot of a long-legsed stocking
Some of the cousins discover wee holes
in the toes, and they stand darning, with
their heads bent toward the lamp, while
the other cousins press around.
| Nonsense. darning stockings after
eleven o'clock; some women in this dor
mitory want to get to sleep before morn
ing" growls an elderly lady.
| doze from sheer fatigue, although
the lights ar, bright and the talking un-
abated. From time to time I rouse
enough to see that the cousins are
rouped three and five in a bed,
sitting upright, with their arms about
ea"h other, and their heads together
Their talk has grown lower, but anon
spouts up with little CYCLES and exclama-
tons. Then they fit up and down the
long room, back and forth mysterious
and mischievous. Their moving forms
and the white clothing hung high on the
walls, and the rafters towering above,
change in my sleepy brain to the ladder
reaching from the earth to heaven, upon
which the angels ascend and descend
When | am roused-by the silence, !
suppose find each pretty head bent
reverently in prayer, in the sweet child
ish fashion of the past, ana the old lady
who resented their darning is sitting up
right, her arms clasped grimly about her
knees. her nightcap in frenzied peak,
her spectacles awry, muttering, 81 Won
der what them gals will do next. Twelve
o'clock, and they've been chatterin
straight along. l reckon they'll pop up
from their knees and begin war dance
| VT ,in n1c
But at last everything is still. The
lantern isturned low: Mrs. Brannin, the
ianitress, is tip-toeing about, when a
bows.
"Oh, Mrs. Brannin! do you think there
are any snakes inJlere?"
Snakes, miss? Shure and there
couldn't be-"
Then the whole eleven appeal to Mrs.
Brannin to tell them there are no rats
around; they are $50 afraid of rats"
My distracted neighbor puts on her
specs again, sits up in bed, hugs her
knees, and wagging her ghostly nightcap
declares plaintively that she is "a stran.
ger in these parts" and then announces
her intention of arising and preparing to
be burned at the stake.
Toward morning it is quiet in "the
camp of the wo men," The stars slip
along and peep through a knot-hole near
the roof. An Owl boots in his wide
eyed dreams, and the railroad trains
rumble and grulnble along the track 9
mile away. Then the stars tremble like
dew-drops amid the pink cloud blossoms
of the dawn. A mocking-bird taxes up
the song the whip-poor-will has dropped
A fresh breeze springs up te meet the
| SIM audtha phattar 0f tho co1sins ra-
commences. They all tell their d eeams,
and ha w, q, SIGN fal. auaru draaIn