Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-12-05
Bill Nye On the Dug0ui.

There's no use talking, roughing it in
pleasant weather with good company.
and as little civilization as possible Is
pleasant and healthful. Shooting or
fishing all day in the mountains. with
plenty Of blankets. bonfire AMI & Uriar
pipe at night. after sage chicken, or
trout, or elk supper, is not really
rouching it after all. but dugout is
certainly the abominatiOn of dc-ola-
ton. | can stand a grown persons
dose of poverty. l believe, and never
squcal; but will never sleep in dug
ont until this mortal has put on immor-
talitv. I've slept in a log cabin with
no roof over it whatever. in logg ng
camps where could count the prlnci-
pal stars in the armament while the
thermometer was below forty degrees,
and haze rolled myself up IN q pair OF
Government blankets and the zodiac at
height Of nine thousand feet above the
hieh water mark, with the Uriah llecp
coyote Sinking in the distance and
singing anon that weird style of solo
that makes your hsart sink, but never
slept in dugout. That is a JOY that |
never have experienced. The dobe IS
not a very bad house. whether it be the
original Mexican dobe of sun-dr;e
brick, or the corruption thereof, which
is found further north, and which is
sod. These houses are built of the
tough. square block cut from Il grassy
lia,, and some of them are good look
inc and comfortable, but the dugout is
hole in the ground with Dirt roof
over it in which you live like n pra ric
dog and get good fresh air on ground
hog dav, if the Indians will let you
The rustic dugout L am glad
to see is not holding its
place in our modern architecture. and
looks now as though it might some day
disappear entirely. 1t had its good
points and it had its disadvantages. In
the days when valley tan roamed up
and down the land seeking whom it
might devour the dugout was boon
to many, for the householder could
come home at any hour OF the night
and fall into his house. But here the
way was opened for serious drawback.
Tne architecture of the house allowed
the vagrant mule and the high-spirited
Texas steer to fall into the house also,
and no one knew, when he sat down TO
dine, whether it would be stray pack
ack or an absent-minded grizzly that
would fall through the roof into the
pork gravy or fill the slumgullion with
hair and gravel. Others may like en-
element ut meals, but do not. 1t GER
tainly does not aid dige 'tion. and q
man who has once picked a grizzly out
OF his coffee does not wish to do so
again.
But the deserted dugout is the most
cherries place know. The drainage
of dugout is never good. and after the
inhabitants have gone and there is no
one to get the water out on bail the
home like and cheerful air thai should
dwell there is gone. Dear reader, if
you are disposed to brag on 20 II steady
nerve an regular pulse let me ask you
10 spend the night in a deserted dugout
in the bosom of the earth, n hundred
miles from feed or water. If you do
not hope before rosy morn that some
border ruilian will como and kill you
you must be, indeed. hardened. l
would rather crawl into the sarcopha-
gus Of total stranger than to spend
the night in the deserted dugout of my
most intimate friend.-N. y. Mercury.