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with an additional vertical climb of twenty feet from the tent floor below it. To the uninitiated it might appear that the Juniors were duly punished for placing the Colonel at the head of Main street, in that they would be compelled to climb up that hill for consultations more often than the Colonel, but matters adjusted themselves when the Colonel ran out of tobacco. Then it was that his famous tent-to-tent visits became established facts in the history of Camp Maples.It was only natural and highly proper that the tent next to that of the professor should contain those persons most inclined to learning. And what is more suggestive of learning than a "Correspondence College," even though that correspondence may deal only in love letters that circulate between "Lizzie" Allen and his mamma, Cuddy and Daisy, or "Newlywed" Gardner and Mrs. Newlywed-not then wed, however.The snorting post stood in the center of Main street. Round about, and in a general way radiating from it, were the six centers of song, poker, rough house and medicine.Rough house and poker held forth in the Zoo and the Bakery; song in the Green Table and the Clipper, and medicine was well represented by the three stalwarts, Drs. "Heine" Meyerhoffer, "Dippy Snow and "Chissie" Alston. The trio in the Zoo have never been duplicated since the establishment of Camp Maples ; principally and undoubtedly because no one would care for such a combination, and, secondarily and of much less importance, because such a combination could not be formed if it were so desired. "Skyn" Lyon, true, loving and gentle as a lamb; "Braggo" Leger, surpassing "Braggo" of red ink and printers' fame; "Slim" Brighton, the only genuine, long-legged, slim-necked, singing giraffe, "Slim" Brighton, formed the rare and wonderful combination known as the Zoo.The "Green Table" was by no means what its name implied, for the name was only derived from a new piece of oil cloth which Snipe Herbst reluctantly purchased to cover a table "borrowed" by "Granny" Bowman and "Pet" Jensen. And, further, the Green Table was not a center of song, for Pet knew and sang but one song-"Papa loves Mamma." But the Green Table presented a rare combination, always having on exhibition one sacreligious Hebrew, one un-Godly Gentile and one pious Mormon. Religion was never discussed here, for when the three were in the tent together, all were asleep or else Pet was singing the camp lullaby.If it be judged by what transpired within its interior, the Bakery well deserved first rank as the joker center. All persons who so desired were privileged to enter this institution. "Weelum" Jones and "Aleck" Deming, "Honest George Sheets" Woolf and "Tiny" Higgins were on hand to greet them in truly Bohemian style, suggesting always a little game "with a "penny ante," in which the visitor was always fleeced of the wherewithal, which "Dad" intended should be paid to Lulu Sutton on the grub account.Bird seed in liberal quantities was always to be found at the "Clipper," where "Professor Anton" Peterson, "Josie Kelly" Bennion, and "Gold Dust" Schick held forth. Sweet songs, sour songs, loud songs, noisy songs, dull songs, no songs, and all other kinds of songs and noises were always placed at the disposal of the Juniors in Camp Maples when they but chose to enter the Clipper. |
