Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-21
EVERYDAY LIFE IN CAMP. /.
The Pleasure Hours of the
Trackless Forest.
Economy in Catering, and the Va
riety it Affords.
Jim Messenger and His SOLDERING IRON
MY Old Partner, Tony" and His
venison sausages-A Little
Labor Necessary.

In my last gave sketch of a sur
mer camp in the Blue mountains. wbe
four. of US went out in the hone
shooting "big horns," or mounta;
sheep; and every man in the party an
ceeded in doing so but the writer. wh
shot neither "big horn," elk nor bea
but caught three trout to anybody else
one. That camp is gone forever. an
the little quartette scattered far an
wide; but there is glow of sunset ne,
vading its memories which come back +
the writer after lapse of twelve vears
laden with the dewy incense of thos
ancestral pines. Back OF the camp wa
a rugged peak clad with snow. an,
when we got through fishing w,
used to cut grass and dig snow
In which to pack our fish. In this way
we carried back to Canyon Citv nearIy
1000 trout, and delivered them az sweat
as rose. From the top of this peak we
mad such view as one sees about twice
IN Lifetime. Far below us to the east-
ward, like thread of gold, the Snake
river rolled onward to the more maiestic
Columbia, but bore away the golden
sands OF Idaho, Utah and Nevada in its
sluggish course. To the west the fem.
pestscrowned SUBMITS of Hood. Jeffer-
son and Adams reared their smokeless
nostrils into the zenith as if to say. ssNo
people ever lost their liberties who
looked upon our towering FORMS"
BUT THE OLD CAMP is GONE,
And with it thousand lovely recollec-
lions. And in the twilight years ap-
proac hing look back upon these snow
white memories of by-gone days in the
trackiess forests, just as I used to stand.
IN the days long before we had any rail-
ioads mere, upon the summit Of some
hlgh mountain and watch the white
covered immigrant wagons toiling ma.
tlently upward through the canon
Delow. Ninety and nine out of every
hundred men that you meet, do not
seem to comprehend the nature of a
camp. 1t is natures hospital for the |
man OF overworked brain, and for him |
whose lungs have become impaired bv |
long months of residence in q poorly
ventilated house. Then there should be
employment of some kind for an hour /
Or two every day, either in picking
The best camp cookI ever saw was
James Messenger, OF Wai,a wal;s.
Born on Vlu 0ohS AcA"A.~ ~S~o-
shore" he became addicted TO
a Bedouin life at 10 year sold. and
at 13 was cook on smack
nivinp to the Goldfish banks OF New
foundland. There was never restaur-
ant between here and the North Pole
that eoualled Jim's camp for cleanliness
of dishes. purity of the table linen, and,
being firm believer in the old maxim
that
UvARIETY rs THE SPICE OF LIFE,
he could get up an endless change OF his
hill of fare. 1 had read of 'planked
shad,n but / never understood how it
was done until Jim showed me his way
of preparing 'shingled trout" Any
man who has ever been in camp knows
that the great trouble ia what to DO
with the big ish-the little ones are
always delicious, even when trled 10
crisp. My own way OF ,cooklng pig
trout was to stuff him with bread crumps
and either roast him in q hole IN the
.around with several thicknesses Of
Srown paper wrapped over him, to pull
s off with the skin Of the fish, or else to
make a court -bouillon out of the Zorro
aster of the stream, by stuffing him and
iavine him in pan with strips OF bacon
and onions over him. Just as the fish
Is cooked. stir together wineglass OF
mort wine. a tablespoonful OF
Worcestershire sauce (Which you
viii fnd in Worcester's diction-
arvl. a wineglass full of black coffee
and a salt spoon of cayenne. II you
have a lemon, add the peel of it and
keep the Juice for the punch. Jim's
way OF handling big trout, however.
was to take small granite-iron pan
and cut in potatoe into small Dice
This he would set over small bed o.
Goals, about foot from the ire: liner
he would whittle the thin end OF SHIN
gle down to 9 point and bore . noi' on
fhronch the thick end, into which holt
he wonld insert hazel wand abou
fortv inches in length. With this ~
wo'ild elevate the shingle, on which tn
~ront was baked, 80 that it would cool
siowlv before the fire. While the tis
las cooking he would butter it so ths
tha bntter would run down through tn
f;sh into the pan, and cook the potatoe
ali at the same time. Under
inns SCHOOL OF COOKERY
4hara was no such meal as luncheo
contemplated. He cooked big prea'
fast and those who went out to hunt
fsb took along snack in their fishir
creels, enough to last I'LL dinner I'LL
which was 5 O'Clock. ne was ms
who never allowed anything to go
waste. I have seen him come aero 2
the carcass of q deer from which y
hunters had cut the loins and hind let
and left the head and fore quarters
rot upon the ground; and then u
would swear like pirate. he utiilz
every bit of the deer's flesh. and II W
ison became too plenty in camp,
would come his soldering irons and
shears, and he would have dozen ca
of veniaon put up before you could c
upon the late lamented John Robins
His real object in taking kit OF 70
to camp was to can whortleberrles
winter use; and never knew won
that could beat him when it came
putting up fruit. His pride was in his
iron Dutch oven that he always carr
with him to camp, and which finisl
the corn bread as we'll as the disl
baked beans which he prepared the
thing before bedtime, and placed
hole in the ground. to cook over nil
In this vast receptacle of cast-iror
cooked his spot t-roasts'' OF venison,
onions, and bear meet with sweet p