252 RECREATION 



to end with rope and baling wire: touch of nature is felt by all; friendly 



these drawn by horses or mules, six, greetings are exchanged, and informa- 



four, two or one. There are also riders tion given cheerfully, if erroneously. 



with pack-horses, or burros, and, fi- Though sometimes there is a sign to 



nallv, wayfarers who are, in their own prohibit camping the few who live in 



graphic language, "hoofing it." Auto- these mountain fastnesses usually re- 



mobiles are uncommon — that speed is gard the visitors tolerably, answering 



not to be desired on these narrow moun- with such patient regularity hour after 



tain roads, whose turning places ap- hours, day after day, the question, 



pear to have been selected for their "How many miles to the next station?" 



steepness of grade and proximity to that if by chance the inquiry varies the 



precipices, many a wild-eyed passenger reply remains the same, 



on the stage would bear feeling testi- At night, while waiting for mosquito 



mony. activity to chill, there is neighborly vis- 



In camp the same picturesque diver- iting around camp fires. When the dif- 

 sity prevails, and again outward con- Acuities of the road have been dis- 

 ditions are misleading. A handsome cussed in language more or less vigor- 

 tent, provided with folding table, chairs ous, and the conversation becomes per- 

 and hammock may belong, not to the sonal, strangers not infrequently find 

 tenderfoot, who carries unnecessary that they have mutual friends, or that 

 luggage, but to the seasoned camper, the same State gave them birth ; this, 

 who knows how to make himself com- in the lonely forest, is like a letter of 

 fortable ; while a tent that is evidently credit, and, shut within their circle of 

 a veteran in service may shelter one firelight by the deepening shadows, 

 who has never before slept without en- they talk of "back East" and "home," 

 compassing walls of lath and plaster, as people do of dear ones who have 

 There are store tents, wall and fly; died, their faults long since forgfot- 

 home-made tents, round, square, tri- ten. 



angular; tents with poles and tents Somewhere on that last, long, steep 



swung from trees ; tents, white, descent into the valley, suspicion 



striped, weatherstained ; whole, patched against one's fellow disappears ; in the 



and needing patches. But whatever its presence of such divine loveliness the 



description each represents home for mind has no room for ignoble thoughts ; 



the nonce, and is, by its owner, or camps are left all day unguarded, and 



renter, regarded with affection. impedimenta — wraps, lunches, tripods, 



Albeit invested with such infinite va- and beloved cameras — along the moun- 



riety, and affording unexcelled oppor- tain trails await in safety their owners' 



tunity for speculative observation, return. 



these travelers are no addition to their Cameras are everywhere in evidence, 



surroundings, for frying-pans and cof- greatly to the annoyance of the occa- 



fee-pots hanging upon the trunks of sional Indian, who, with the supersti- 



forest trees do not appeal to the aes- tion of his race, will make a wide de- 



thetic sense, and the fringe of tin cans tour to avoid the carrier of a small 



that encircles every camping ground, black box. This is a paradise to the 



though speaking eloquently of civiliza- camera enthusiast, as it is to the ar- 



tion, is not decorative. There is also tist, as it is indeed to all lovers of the 



the mule, whose uplifted voice strikes beautiful. One finds one's self won- 



a discordant note in the twilight har- dering how it looks in fall, in winter, 



mony; happy day when science will in early spring, and longing to be a 



give us a brayless mule ! witness of all its seasons. Coming by 



A spirit of good-fellowship per- chance upon the cemetery there is a 



vades "the travel," as it is called ; the sudden conviction that here is the spot 



