Connecticut western news., 1891-08-27
s0AMP NEE7IN' IN THEM DAY YS."

Thefollowing from Canaan appeared over the signature. ''J. R." in Fridays Bridgeport Farmer "A grizzled old pilgrim in long lin en d dpster, with 8 benevolent face and 8 pear-shaped nose, paced up and down l the.plstform of the Pine Grove camp ! ground station yesterday, waiting for a outh- bound train. Occasionally he would halt, look intently toward the | Grove glance over the sandy road I along the foot of the mountain, shake his head dubiously and resume his leis- urely march. At last he accosted fell low passenger, also waiting, and enter | taiDed hlm as follows
 ''I used to live near here years ago. I live on Long Island now. This is the first time I've been to camp meetin' here in twenty eight years.
 l '.Notice any change, !" he repeated in reply to an intarrogatory. "Well, I should think SO. Why. it ain't no more like goin' to camp meetin' in them days than plaJin' on fiddle with a rip-saw. Aud with this harmonious comparison he heaved sigh. deep and heavy with | the flavor of onions, in the contempla- tion of the deplorable decline of camp lneetin' r ~
 'sThere sint much of anything about camp meetin' nowadays that's jest the same as it nsed to be-" he continued, lexceptin' tho collections, and the sandy roads to the grounds. and the thick. ahokin' dust, and the bushes and briars in the shortcut paths-them all seem to be here yet. But most of the old fla miliar landmarks are gone, even to the little huts along that blisterin' road yen- tier, that swarmed with little woolly- topped nigs-and what sights of little nigs there was along here then, and and how they used to stream ont of the huts to look at every passer-by. The I hufs are all in ruins now, and those lit tie nigs are all grown up, some are lock- ed up, and others strung up for all l know, for it never seemed tn better their moral or spiritual, any more than thelr temporal condition. to live under the very droppin's of this forest sanctuary"
 Here the dolesome pilgrim pulled in wind enough for another deep sigh and blew it out so suddenly that it set him to coughing and snorting as if he had an ammonia bottle somewhere in bis in- sides and the exhaust had pulled out the cork.
 "And then the ground itself," he pro. ceeded as soon as he could, s'the ground ! itself makes me feel more than ever like . stranger. In them days the wor- shippers come from miles around in their teams and brought their big bas- kets of lunch, and if they came to stay all night they brought along a piece oi carpet or & couple of sheets or somethin to make tent of There wasn't no big hotel on the ground, with 8 regular landlord and lot of walters and 8 bill of fare, and there wasn't no city man. siors in the grove with fancy styles o1 architecture, Gothic and Queen Anne Charlotte Russe and gaudy towers and terraces and conservstories and things, They come for some good in them days. They come to worship and to pray and te feel the power and to save souls, and they sat around on rough boards and stumps to hear the preachin' and they knelt in big heaps of straw and on the bare ground to pray. They didn't come for picnic nor to have fun. They come for hard and earnest work and privation in the good cause, ,and in them days they measured the intensity ot religious fervor and sincerity by the hardships they had to undergo to show
 it. Why, I we never, to this day, goi over the rheumatiz that I caught on this camp ground most 30 years ago. , Here the old fellow began to spit and
 splutter, but finally had to gulp down 6 venturesome fly that had flown into hit mouth and was walking around on his epiglotis, trying to find out where tha, onion flavor came from.
 GAS was sayin," he proceeded, as ht crammed the fly into the ammonia bot tie with an extra gulp, "they didn't have no big auditorium with comfort able seats facing an opera house stage
 in them days, and they done their owr
 singin' without hired help nor organs
 They didn't have to have no lookup jai
 on the ground then, nor no policemen patrolling their beats to keep order
 They didn't have no cigar shops and pop beer saloons and prize package cookie stands and everything else but
 merry -go-round and 8 wheel of fortune
 to make camp meetin' regular ConeJ
 Island picnic. But in spite of all these
 draw backs they saved souls then. and
 the shouts of the redeemed conld be
 heard mile. They didn't-but hello here's the train goodbye"
 And the sincere and critical old pa
 triarch scrambled aboard, leaving tho
 listeners in perplexitY and doubt as tt whether it were better to burn dowr i, tho 1o~oporufoA sokklovnnok nk D..<