Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-07-03
LIFE in THE SUMMER WOODS
The Benefits of Camp Life in the Wilderness Close
Natures Heart---A Lesson Learned

longer 90 we look OH every place Ol
swift waters as a spot made for factory
or offai pit.
Priceless forests have fallen. Pre-
cious waters have been turned into
walled drains. But ther, are enough
left still and many are Icing reclaimed
by man, who. having
robbed nature, finds that he has robbed
himself and is now trying to give the
spoil back to her tina: she may make it
beautiful once moro.
We makers of cities have discovered
that we were Frankensteins. making
monsters that demand Cur blood and
brain. Each year more thousands of us
flee for a time to sit under the patient.
thousands learn how easy it is to slip
off the thin drapery OF civilization and
become happy savages for I. space.
Twenty years ago the man who went
into the wilderness to camp was looked
upon by the rest Of his world as d dar-
ing person of an adventurous mold.
Today men and women make the an
nual camping trip as comrlacently as
they used to pack up to SO to Il summer
hotel.
Twenty years ago men went camping
for fun. Today they go not merely for
tun but as Il necessary part of their
life.
Frankcnsteins monster has scared
Frankenstain. He runs away to look
under the green trees for the big mcdi-
cine that wind and weather brew there
fore
FaraGoxi''a the growing scarcity
of game has increased the number of
campers.
Twenty years ago, when shooting
was fairly good still in hundreds of
places where no eye, however keen, can
find trail of game animal or feather of
game bird today. the men who sought
the wilderness went primarily to hunt.
So keen were they for shooting that
they begrudged the time spent in MAX
ing camp. Only the choicest spirits
loved the camp as we'll as they did the
hunt.
Many of the best sportsmen of that
day used to take men along for the OK
press purpose of pitching camp and
attending to it's duties-nOt because
they disliked the work, but because
they burned with the fever of the
chase. Hardly had The canoes touched
the shore of the camping place or the
packs been dropped at the end of the
trail, before they unbuckled the gun
case.
Today, sportsmen care more for The
finding and trailing of the game than
the killing. With the growing scarcity
of beast and fowl they have grown less
eager to make big bags" They have
more time for the camp. and with the
greater proportion Of them the camp
has become the chief part of the hunt
ing.
Again. while game has decreased i'll
most Places fishing has improved.
owing to wholesale restocking and in
telligent preservation. Thus more and
more men turn each year to the rod.
and the camp and angling go together
as placid twins.
The American business man awoke to
the love for camping, without loss OF
that time which is SO prominently
money in the United States of America.
He justified Kiplings rOetical reference
to him as one who turns a keen. I'M
troubled eye home to the instant need
of things" for today he offers tn"
camper everything from Il tent scarcely
bigger than a blanket when folded to
nails. staples, wate- BOTTLES and
matches, made especially tor campers.
Once catalogue Of thirty or fortJ
pages was ample to tell about every
thing that The sporting goods dealer
had to offer. Now there are scores of
houses that issue catalogues of $50
pages and more.
A man can walk into sporting deal
cr's store and in an hour be supplied
with an outfit that shall have every
thing in it from shoes to food for IL
three months trip into any tracklcss
place on earth.
So great has the business of Furnish
ing camping supplies hrccnre thdt the
hardest thing for the Would-b" camper
is to find out what not to take. Ii
man were to go through the catalogues
and buy everything that is
indispensable" he would need
a team of horses and a box wagon to
carry the material for weeks simple
life close to natures heart.
The hardest thing of all is the fact
IIldI IIlOSl vi ltit ucNiCtS i'diiy hiS -
cellent. Just the thing" as even old
will say. Indeed, the old
sees so many new things each
year that tempt him because they fill
the very wants that he has felt in camp.
that he has to steel his heart against
them anew each summer.
For instance. there are folding
shelves. made ingeniously of canvas
and iointed wooden rods. They weigh
only three pounds. Perfectly beautiful
they are-after you reach
camp. But the wise old stager knows
too well what three pounds mean when
you have to pack other pounds with
them over forest paths or roci.. canoe
portages.
There are folding beds, too; not the
CHASTITY monsters that look like a
calf when they are fold
Cd" but neat fat hurdles to carry.
They are good in camp without doubt.
When all is said and done, the bed of
balsam isn't always easy to make.
though nothing can beat it when made.
But even the best folding bed has the
of not being able to walk. !
1t must be carried. On a long trip, it
is too apt to become an old man of the
sea.