FORESt AKD STREAM, 
aslced eithei-'to coinis'ashore At bnce or to call at their first 
cbrvenlehce. 
Perhaps before this? ha*? been boncluf^ed there is a, hurried 
fc^iU from one side. "Look out! Somet^hing comin'." Then 
step back to the rear of the trap. It may be that caref"! 
inspection inclines the inembers iiot to spring the trap, tf 
the group of summer girls approaching along. the path oflFer 
^iceptionally attrafctive fl^jpearanbe, it is concluded that the 
ti-ap inust be sprung. As they approach the flag statf and 
step oyer the line which runs back from it. a proper and de- 
cent interval is allowed thein and then the cannon is pjjrung. 
pf course the loud report, causes much screamipg and con- 
fusion. Really thin would sefem a mb«t rude and distressful 
thing to do; but witness how the sailorman disarms all such 
accusation! At once, upon the screaming and commotion 
baused by the rudfe cannoii. shot, there falls upon the air 
strains of music of so bewitching a quality that no summer 
kirl, even though she were of the haughtiest, even though 
she were of the homeliest, could by any possibility be able to 
tesisfc its spell! The confused group again assembles, stands 
looking, trembling, as do a number of fawns frightened at a 
rifle shot. Behind them is noise and terror, ahead of thetb 
is safety, safety announced by soft mu«ic, entrancing, allur- 
ing, comforting. How, nnder circumstances such as these, 
can any wofnan, any summet girl for an instant hesitate? 
"Hello, girls,'* croons some dulcet voice from nt) the hill > 
And silently, at first slowly, then with mote eager and fol- 
lowing footsteps, they start toward safety, start toward that 
point from which emanate sweet music and alluring smiles. 
No introductions are ever necessary. The girls who ate at 
these summer hotels are not thete to trifle. It is a stern ne- 
cessity for each to accumulate at an early date a man, a 
^ood-looking and gentlemanly and tnusical and sailing aPd 
ice cream -buying man. if that be possible. What is it that 
nbe wishes? Is not the conclusion easily to be foreseen? 
When this group of summer girls separates the name of no 
one of them is known, but the hotel of each is accurately 
charted. Then the trap is set again. 
In common with all exalted souls, I have more than often 
been compelled to deplore the popular tendency to the use of 
.slang words and phrases. Yet, it must be admitted with an 
equal candor, I have also, as must every other exalted soul, 
at times been compelled to feel the exceeding aptness and 
nicety of many phrases which are to be classified only as 
slang. Without these expressions, indeed, the English lan- 
guage were not what it now is as an organ for the expression 
of human thoughts and human emotions. Of all the slang 
expressions I ever heard, I think the word "rubber neck" is 
the rudest and most unspeakably common and impossible of 
any. (This I am advised is derived from the verb "to rub- 
ber; to stretch, to gaze, to gawjj, to stare, to evince an un- 
necessary and unseemly curiosity in all immediately con- 
tiguous events, circumstances or happenings"). For many 
moons I have been hearing this expression, though in igno- 
rance of its real significance. Thus, an acquaintance of 
mine, a very vulgar fellow who hasn't got a thing but 
money, met me the other day. he carrying his hand in a 
sling. He told me he had a broken thumb, and naturally I 
asked him how it happened. He then explained that while 
out riding on his wheel he had seen a vision go flittering by 
in the opposite direction, said vision being of such character 
as to evoke interest upon his part. "I turned round to rub- 
ber after it, and down I went," said he. From this I later 
gathered that he had turned abont to stare at a passing lady, 
and so had fallen from his wheel. 
I had still further insight into the use of this expression 
while observing the members of our camp watching their 
trap upon the bank of Delavan Lake. When a lot of small 
boys won Id come along the path and stare up at the camp, 
very often T heari some voice or the other calling out, 
"Oh, rubber, would vou bounce!" Again, I neard 
certain other parties described as "rubbering around." 
At first this word was very appalling to me, but soon I grew 
familiar with its face, and so came to admire it, as a phrase 
without which life at a .summer resort could never ever be 
adequately described. At a summer resort you rubber, he, 
she or it rubbers; we, you and they rubber, and also every- 
body rubbers. It doesn't mean anything. In the city you 
would fall dead rather than stare at a lady. At a summer 
resort she would fall dead if you didn't; so you do. All the 
groups of summer girls who passed the canoe camps rub- 
bered and were rubbered at. All the occupants of 
passing boats were rubbered at and in return rubbered. 
When we walked down to the hotel for breakfast, 
luncheon or dinner, we all rubbered at the girls in the 
hammocks, on the porches on the lawn; and they all rub- 
bered in return. At the hotel tables everybody rubbered at 
everybody else when they came into the door or rose to go 
out. This is part of the game. It is a necessity that at a 
summer resort all persons rubber, else they would not know 
what was going on. You go to a summer resort to see what 
is going on. 
THE DUTIES OF A DAT. 
It is perhaps due to this acknowledged elasticity of vision 
(or shall one more properly say, -of neck?) that another cus- 
tom of summer resorting has taken its rise. By this I refer 
to the constant changing of one's apparel, which is part of 
the duties of the day for either man, woman or summer girl. 
By no means shall one see the same summer person in the 
same clothing from day to day, even from meal to meal. 
When we had arisen and made our toilets in the morning at 
the camp, we all went down to the hotel for breakfast, but 
immediately after breakfast we changed our collars, our 
neckties and those portions of our apparel immediately con- 
tiguous to the collar and tie. We dared not, feeling as we 
did that much depended upon us, allow it to be said that we 
wore the same hose twice in" succession; and as to caps, it 
was a disgrace to wear one over half a day. For collars we 
for the most part wore the high, split-ended affairs we call 
the "Charley boy" collar, because that is the most uncom- 
fortable kind of collar a man can put on, and when you go 
to a summer resort you want to be as uncomfortable as pos- 
sible. As we sat At the table we saw all the other fellows 
wearing this same sort of collar, and looking rather un- 
happy. Most of the young men had longish hair and cher- 
ished sunburn, and each young man had at least one summer 
girl, the latter always looking perfectly cool, no matter what 
was the temperature, and as smooth and well laundered as 
though just taken but of a box. 
During the day the guests at a summer hotel dress up four 
or five or six times, and when not so occupied sit around in 
the hammocks or on the chairs or on the docks, each look- 
ing as pretty as possible, and each doing all in power to give 
his or her best points a chance. A few carry books, and 
some affect other means of passing the time, but this is not 
serious, and is, indeed, only pretense. The one real and act- 
ual calling of each and all is to "rubber." After "rubber- 
ing" around on the greensward, on the docks, on the boats, 
on the verandas, on the stairways, all day long, and having 
a very ^bad time, it comes to be night. Then everybody 
dresses up again all over, eap a pie, and starts out for the 
discomforts of the evening. Some play euchre or whist, and 
are very miserable, and some dance the lancers, or the gay 
quadrille, at the bi-weekly; hop, which is one of the cruelties 
of a summer resort. A^ain, there may be a game of tenpins. 
This latter, like everytnjng else at a summer resort, is eio 
grand tenue, which is to say, with flounce and frill, and 
plenty of starch. 'I saw one such game in company with 
a friend, one evening at our summer resort. There were 
two sides chosen up by the two lady captains (each of whom 
was chosen captain for her wide assortment of gowns). Each 
captain chose her lady assistants in the order of her appro- 
bation of their gowns. All starched and ruffled and 
beribboned, they made a long row down either side 
of tiie alley, all very correct and -very wretched. 
The captain of one side.. I .remember very well, 
for her costume of stiff marseilles skirt and tight satin waist 
was very becoming to her stately figure, and about a,s bad 
for the gaihe as anything could have been. I can not forget 
the, elegant grace and solemn dignity with which she 
beckoned to, each lady in, turn to come forward and g'6 
through the formalities of the game. It was like dancing a 
minuet, and I felt my blood run cold, Of course, the.se 
ladies couldn't i-oll ten pins for a bent, and nobody ever said 
they could This is only a description of the customs of a 
Slimmer resort. They made no attempt to roll ten pins. 
Each lady, some with timidity,, soine with self-tionsciousnessi 
some with dignity and apJnrnb, took the nasty ten pin ball 
in her two hands and cast it daintily forth from her, Each 
sought to do this attractively. Some smiled, afew squealed, 
and all felt that they were doing their duty. When by any 
chance the ball remained on the platforna for a brief space, 
«r when by extreme stress or fortune it happened to hit a 
ten pin at the other end of the short alley, it was a treat to 
see the attempt to be dignified and not to blush or to look 
self-conscious! When you play ten pins at a summer resort 
i t is not etiquette to show any emotion. The game is a sort of 
soletnn ceremony. In the progress of this game it is bad form 
to rubber at anj'thiog but the costumes of the ladies upon 
the opposite side of the alley. Yet, as I noted with some 
interest in my studies of the inhabitants of this institution, 
it is not regarded as bad form for masculine persons nbt 
engaged in the gatne, to come up behind the soletnn lines of 
victims and rubber at thens. 
At a summer resort nobody ever goes fishing, because how 
can he if he has to be changing his clothes all the time? 
Meli are hired to do the fishing, and when thev catch any 
fish the string is soletonly carried up to the photographer 
and photographed. This is business. We had no time to 
fish ourselves, because we were busy changing our clothes 
when we were bot Watching the trap; but once we saw a 
string of fish, and are therefore prepared to say that at this 
lake the fish are not all merely photographic ones. Indeed, 
through a very pleasant acqu aintance a few of us formed with 
Carrie, the colored cook, we were able to secure some nice 
wall-eyed pike from an ice barrel, and ate them at our camp. 
1 never heard of anybody catching any fish at a summer re- 
sort, but yon can see plenty of photographs of fish, and this 
is much better, because a photograph of a fish is far cleaner 
than the fish itself. It is rude to go fishing, anyhow, and 
sunburn so obtained is apt to be too violent. The sort ac- 
quired in a hammock is far more becoming and more gener- 
ally popular. 
FtrUTHER CUSTOMS. 
There are cottages and hotels and camps strung all around 
any good summer resort lake, and such we found to be the 
case about ours After dinner, and after we had all changed 
our clothes again, we would get the orchestra together and 
start out to visit cottages and hotels. From Woodlawn to 
the Log Cabin Hotel, wB had the entire coast charted and 
sounded and buoyed, so that even in case the moon was be- 
calmed behind a cloud, we could nearly always get to the 
hotel or cottage we wanted to reach. If perchance one 
passed a recumbent figure in a hammock it was not con- 
sidered unseemly to sing out the watchword of "Hello, 
girls!" No offense was ever taken at this, nor is ever taken 
at a summer hotel. If it happened that one party of sum- 
mer people failed to keep an appointment to meet and sing 
and trip the light fanta.stic toe over the tent ropes, it was 
really not far on to another party equally adorable and more 
accessible. All was gay and cheerful. The summer girl who 
was forsaken turned blitliely to the next man and was as 
pleased with him. Ah! if life could always go on thus, 
ephemeral, gay, unheeding of the morrow! At such a spot 
one sees the ephemera it.self, that spirit of life and death, 
soulless, unthinking, willing to die so that it may live one 
day. Folding its gauzy wings, this beautiful, tender, tran- 
sient, evanescent, fickle creature sits now upon this leaf, then 
on that, above you as you walk these shady paths. Even so 
this flitting and evading summer girl whom one sees to-day 
comes to-morrow to her death. She rolls up into the form of 
a mere cashier, clerk, typewriter; or worse yet, perhaps, into 
a young woman of fashion and wealth. She rubbers no 
more. Her day is done. These ephemeras, who shall con- 
demn them, who shall smile at them. Rather let us suffer 
them to rubber through their brief day of light and joy. 
He, she or it rubbers, you rubbers, we rubber. We gather 
at the table of some little hotel which we have found tucked 
away under a corner of the shore. Here is a very goddess of 
summer girl, one which should really be adopted as the 
totem of the W. C. A., so trim, so tall, so firm, and yet so 
willowy is she, of teeth and smile so dazzling, of eye-alike so 
laughing or demure. About this divinity gather all the 
younger sailor men. The sound of music arises and the 
sailor men sing melodies calculated to melt a heart more of 
stone than that of the divinity. Said divinity edges away 
from her chaperon and grows engrossed with handsome 
sailor man whose shirt is. a perfect dream. The chaperon 
grows uneasy at last and calls attention of the divinity to 
the fact that her "steady" is getting sulky. "Let him alone," 
.says the divinity, "I can square him in a minute" The 
'steady" grows morose at witnessing the wiles of the sailor 
man, and at last arises and goes to seek solace elsewhere. 
The divinity of course does not see this. Close observer ad- 
vises her that "one of her .staff is getting away." Divinity 
says that is all right, and that presently she will go after 
him. Only she doesn't. He comes back by himself, 
and is received so sweetly that he wonders where he 
is or has been, anyhow. Da cwpo. Repeat softly. Do it 
all over again. Encore. Thus you have an evening on the 
lake. The next day (for party calls must be made within two 
days at the lake) everybody calls on everybody, and the 
above scene is repeated. Nobody knows anybody's real 
name. We called on all the really nice cottagers about the 
lake, but we did not use cards, and there is blissful ignorance 
on both sides. We were always making some call or other, 
and it was very trying work to be so constantly forced to 
change one's attire. Let no man think that canoeing is an 
easy sport. Those who engage in it must possess a certain 
durability of constitution and a power of withstanding 
fatigue. The canoeist should have a hand of iron in a glove 
of velvet, and a neck of rubber in a collar of severest starch. 
Any canoeist should, if convenient, have a canoe; but it is 
not imperative. He should have many bicycle hose and 
shirts; oh, dear! If he can sing and play he is so much the 
better off. 
That is to say, such are the qualifications for the youug 
summer resort canoeist (not including the older and more 
dignified members who remain in camp). If that is all ca- 
noeing is to be, at Ballast or at Delavan, our members do not 
need any further qualiflcations. 
It is far to the pine woods, and life there is different. 
Canoeing is a dress parade sport anyhow, the most pictur- 
esque of all sports, the most beautiful. The dash and gal- 
lantry and daring of it go straight to the heart of woman- 
kind. Against the skipper of one of these small ships let no 
man, even the best of "steadies," attempt to compete. Who 
shall say that there are not temptations at the summer re- 
sort places for the owners of these craft which always carry 
one to fortune and to smiles? 
For my part, I shall no longer attempt to say what is or 
what is not good for the growth of the W. C. A. I know 
very well that these same men who touch the light guitar at 
midnight all along the shores of Delavan can sail an A class 
canoe in half a gale, and they are not afraid of anything that 
walks or floats. They could swing a meet up in the pine 
woods, far from the summer girl, just as well as anybody, i 
they wanted to. But do they want to? That is a questio 
whibh it IS their rigiit to answer for thehiselves. If ttey 
think they want to try onfe meet np in the pine country 
where they are alone in their own cariip, wb may or we may 
not ha^e to record an interesting and somewhat differeiit 
story. If they prefer to ihake theii- annual bam^ a little 
jolly vacatibn near at home, where they can enjoy them- 
selves less sternly, where they can for the time join the cloud 
of the epheinerag, it is very likely that tho story of their 
meets, if truthfully told, would read much like the abovr . 
ThuS.it seems hardly likely that we shall see another neW/ 
at an inland lake. If the next meet goes to Ballast, it m ill 
not gather any showing much more impressive. At Mullet 
Lake there was no gathering. At Charlevoix we might have 
had no more tha.n we had at Delavan. It is much atjuestion 
what or where the next meet will be. As for the jolly fel- 
lows who made the meet this year, they did with their 
might what their hands found to do. and cultivated resort- 
ing and resorters because there was nothinc else to do. Had 
other members turned out, we could have had more sailing and 
less "resorting." But there were several who said that they 
would not mind trying a tneet further away from the towns 
and hotels. A few thought they might like to try the small 
tents, and not the Mg ones, for a change. No one of them 
claimed that this tneet was atypical or good canoe catnp, but 
they tutned it into a sum tner vabation trip, and so enjoyed it 
for what it was worth upon the only possible or practical 
basis at hand. Even if we can have no better or nb dif- 
ferent tneet from this, let us have the meet again next 
year. These problems sometimes solve thetnselves, and 
let us hope the problem of the W. C, A. will be solved; 
and find at the end a good body of hearty and hardy 
fresh water sailors. This Association is too good to go 
by the board. There is too much fun at a canoe camp for 
any one who has ever been there to tolerate for a moment 
the thought that there are to be no more of them. Let us 
have a full turnout next year, no matter where the meet 
may go. If we can discover a few trout or bass there, or 
flnd some new sailing waters, very well. If we must puf- 
sue the summer girl, very well. To an impartial view, how- 
ever, it would certainly seem that a series of meets at ot 
near summer resorts has not, during the past few years, 
been productive of growth and development in the W. C. A. 
in the least consonant with its merits and deserts. It will 
take individual hustling now for a time, quite as much as 
Association activity, if we are to see success perch on the 
burgee of the .setting sun. B. HoUGH. 
1206 BoYCB BiTii.nlNG, Chicag'O. 
The British Canoe Asso<iiation Meet. 
We reproduce from the Field the following report of the 
recent meet of the British Canoe Association meet; a cruising 
meet on Lough Derg, Ireland. It was written by Mr, Alfred 
E Wale, Rear-Com., B. C. A.: 
Camp I. (July 10 to July 14), Athlone, Was held in the 
beautiful grounds of the Ranelagh School, by permission of 
the principal, Mr Baile, a gentleman whose many kindnesses 
the Association will not soon forget. After the very careful 
preparations which had been made by our vice-commodore, 
Mr. Percy Nisbet, it was disappointing for him to flnd only 
ten members and flve craft present at the opening of the 
meet. They were Vestal II., canoe yawl, Messrs. Nisbet and 
Prosser; Vestal I., canoe yawl, Mr. Pair; Spruce, canoe yawl, 
Mr. Kipling; Jub-Jub, canoe yawl, Messrs. Crawford ana 
Huston, and one of the Mermaids with the four Messrs. 
Froggarty on board. From this camp some most delightful 
day cruises were made on Lough Ree, a mile or so up river, 
and at Ballyglass Regatta, a splendid silver bowl, kindly 
presented by the Lough Ree Yacht Club, was won by Ves- 
tal II,, after a desperately close finish with Spruce, only .5sec. 
separating them. 
Camp II. (July 14 to July 15), Clonmacnoise.— A very pleas- 
ant twelve-mile sail (in which the canoes were accompanied 
by the usual fleet of yachts, raters, steamboats and house- 
boats), and tents were pitched by the ruins of the Seven 
Churches, by kind permission of Mr. Charlton. On the fol- 
lowing morning these interesting antiquities were examined, 
and the canoes got under way. After a dead peg of fifteen 
miles to windward, they arrived at 
Camp ni. (July 15 to July 16), near Banagher, on the 
property of Major Bernard, On the following day a move 
was made down river on to 
Camp IV, (July 16 to July 19), Porbnmna, at the entrance 
to Lough Derg. Here the B. C. A, spent a most enjoyable 
time, and again received the greatest hospitality, not only 
from their many friends on other craft, but from the in- 
habitants of this town. By this time Messrs. Thorp had 
joined them with the Vita, a very pretty cruising canoe 
yawl. By request of the Lough Derg Y. C, who were hold- 
ing a regatta, two races were sailed, and some handsome 
prizes won by Spruce I. and Vestal II. Tents were struck 
on Saturday, and all the sailing fleet and steamers left for 
Camp V. (July 19 to July 27), Dromineer — The 15 miles 
cruise hither was made the subject of two distinct races, one 
for yachts and another for canoes, etc. After a lon§ and 
almost windless peg, the latter was won by Spruce, Jub-Jub 
being second. Here the numbers were increased by the 
arri%'al of the two Messrs. Clayton, Oliver and Gibson, with 
two of the Penarth 18 footers, Watermouse and Waitangi, 
and Mr. Wale with the cruising canoe Solitaire. An incident 
which greatly tickled the natives was that on hearing of 
Solitaire's arrival at Nenagh Station, 7 miles off, her skip- 
per, on a borrowed bicycle, rode thither, and, after putting 
the canoe on her wheel!^ and the bicycle in the well, walked 
off with her. Three miles from camp she was tied on behind 
a friendly car, and, after a smart trotj the procession arrived 
at Dromineer, amidst the cheers and laughter of the crowd. 
The week that followed was a busy "one indeed. Regattas 
were the order of the day; dinners and impromptu smoking 
concerts the order of the night. The weather, up till now 
perfect, suddenly changed, and race after race was sailed in 
heavy wind and rain and a sea that would not have felt 
small in the English Channel. 
On Sunday, July 30, two of the members, representing the 
B. C. A,, accepted the kind invitation of Mr. Lloyd Vaughan 
to camp near his bungalow, about seven miles up the lake, 
and were most hospitably entertained by him. They re- 
turned next day with the message that he had two valuable 
prizes to be sailed for by them. Monday and Tuesday were 
.spent in cruising on the lake, fishing and other amusements. 
On Wednesday the B C. A. men competed in one of the 
Lough Derg Y. C. races, but without success, there being a 
smart fleet of cutters on the lake. Among the other races of 
this memorable week in which the B. C. A. were invited to 
compete were, first, the Shannon Development Cup, eighteen 
starters; this was very nearly won by the Watermouse. A 
race for prizes presented by the L. D. Y. C, Spruce won. 
Vestal second; a race for prizes presented by the L, D. C. Y. 
C. (winners' names misbiid); an impromptu race for cash 
prizes given by the L. D. Boat Club. This was very kindly 
arranged by them in order to give a sudden influx of visitors 
the chance of seeing the B. C. A. fleet under sail; Jub-Jub 
first. A yacht race for prizes presented by the B. C. A., and 
a sprit-sail race for fishermen, ditto. This was the most ex- 
citing one of all, and most of the open craft came back half 
full of water. 
Saturday, the day appointed for the Lough Erne Chal 
lenge Cup race, turned out so wet and stormy that the com- 
mittee decided to suspend the condition requiring men lo 
take on board the whole of their camping outfit. After a 
very punishing race in heavy wind and sea, the cup was 
won by Mr. Kipling with the Spruce. In the tvening the 
usual sports were held. These were not improved uy » 
