Not long ago a benevolent rich man, impressed with this idea, chartered a steamer and took some hundreds of slum boys up to the Catskills for a day in the woods. They were duly landed and told to “go in now and have a glorious time.” It was like gathering up a netful of catfish and throwing them into the woods, saying, “go and have a glorious time.”
The boys sulked around and sullenly disappeared. An hour later, on being looked up, they were found in groups under the bushes, smoking cigarettes, shooting “craps,” and playing cards, — the only things they knew.
Thus the well-meaning rich man learned that it is not enough to take men out-of-doors. We must also teach them to enjoy it.
The purpose of this Roll is to show how Outdoor Life may be followed to advantage.
Nine leading principles are kept in view:
(1) This movement is essentially for recreation.
(2) Camp-life. Camping is the simple life reduced to actual practice, as well as the culmination of the outdoor life.
Camping has no great popularity to-day, because men have the idea that it is possible only after an expensive journey to the wilderness; and women that it is inconvenient, dirty, and dangerous.
These are errors. They have arisen because camping as an art is not understood: When intelligently ..text pokračuje
