'I' 1 1 L OUTDOOR WORLD 
XI 
daughter answered, “He saw that we 
were happy.” That tribute to your kind 
care is better than anything I can say. 
The Camp was most satisfactory in 
its results and I thank you cordially for 
bringing it to my notice. 
Mr. William D. Andrews, Quintard 
Avenue, Sound Beach, Connecticut. 
I should like to express to you my 
most sincere thanks for the care and 
attention you showed Susan and Polly 
on their journey to Camp this summer, 
whilst they were there, and on their 
return journey. Both of the girls had 
a wonderful time and have many times 
told us that you were most largely re- 
sponsible for this happy state of affairs, 
and Mrs. Andrews and I are deeply in- 
debted to you. 
Mrs. John Colby, Stanstead, Province 
of Quebec, Canada. 
I have been promising myself for 
some time the pleasure of writing to 
express my thanks and appreciation of 
what you did for my little daughter at 
Camp last summer. 
I had heard so much about you be- 
forehand — that you possessed a gift 
with children second only to Lewis 
Carroll ; that you bewitched the littlest 
campers out of their first homesickness 
and fascinated big and little girls alike 
with your Nature talks and interesting 
woodland expeditions — so much in fact 
that it would have been difficult indeed 
not to have been disappointed when 
actually seeing you, having expected 
so much. 
To say that my anticipations were 
more than realized is paying you a high 
compliment. But I could see that you 
were a very distinctive part of the 
Camp life. I saw also why you were 
called “Daddy Bigelow.” Never was a 
bona fide daddy more besieged with 
affection than you seemed to be, and 
wherever you moved you were sur- 
rounded with girls, while a tactful 
word here or suggestion there helped 
to make the camp machinery run 
smoothly. 
I am sure that Harriet will remem- 
ber the astronomy she learned from 
you in such an interesting way that she 
probabl} r did not realize that she was 
learning anything. 
Dr. Colby and I will be pleased to 
enroll her with vou for next summer. 
Advice and Personal Aid to Campers 
and Their Parents. 
Camps for boys and especially for 
girls are comparatively modern insti- 
tutions. Most of these are still in the 
chaotic, formative, experimental stage. 
Sometimes magazine advertisements 
and other announcements of the 
crudest sort of camp convey the im- 
pression that these are as good and 
attractive as the old established and 
famous centers. 
Camps have not been in existence 
long enough to make their merits 
known to the general public ; probably 
Darwin was right in a broad generality 
on the survival of the fittest but one 
must also take into consideration his 
further teaching about the struggle for 
existence. It is during that struggle 
in the development of anything, espe- 
cially of summer camps, that the inex- 
perienced needs a friend. 
Mowing machines and sewing ma- 
chines have been in use long enough 
to become well established. Some other 
things are approaching that placid 
stage, notably cameras and automo- 
biles. But flying machines, dish wash- 
ing machines, aeroplanes and camps for 
boys and girls are still in an unsettled 
condition. Many methods are on trial ; 
only a few have yet justified their ex- 
istence. The experimental stage of 
anything is painfully trying. Many 
discouragements must be mingled with 
a few satisfactory phases. 
Leaving that thought, let us consider 
another. The camp proverbially acts 
as a melting pot and as a developer of 
loyalty. There is in even the most in- 
ferior camp an admirable military or 
class spirit. In the crudest kind of 
camp the selective spirit soon develops. 
I have known campers, and indeed 
some parents of campers, who have 
cherished intense loyalty for a camp 
that embodied chiefly the primitive 
conditions of savagery. Such camps 
were devoid of all comforts and were 
handicapped with every possible hard- 
ship. Seemingly these hardships, like 
trouble and sorrow in a family, tend 
only to make the bond of sympathy 
tighter and stronger. Loyalty is com- 
mendable, but sometimes the object to 
which one is devoted is not commend- 
able by the well-informed. To lavish 
affection on an unworthy object is a 
misfortune. Manv a woman in her de- 
