Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/346

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CAMPING OUT.
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living. Ko wonder gypsies continue generation after generation to follow their nomadic lives, and just think how long it has taken to break the Indian of his love of roughing it outdoors! It is said that frequently it happens that a young Indian will go through the Oarlisle University, in Pennsylvania, or the Haskell Institute, at Lawrence, Kansas, and notwithstanding he has acquired considerable learning, and for several years worn boiled shirts, with collars and cuffs, yet upon returning to the place of his nativity, he will develop into a blanket Indian; that is, will leave off all surplus clothing and just wear a red blanket which can be dropped off at a moment is notice, thus leaving the balmy summer zephyrs to cool his body. Those who have never experienced the strange sensation the freedom such a life gives have no possible conception of the satisfaction it causes; eveii the rough food tastes good; and if you are ill or under the weather, thus outdoor life is the finest tonic that can possibly be procured. Many, yea numerous, are the individuals who will vociferously exclaim, Amen! to this statement. But these we cannot quote, since they are unknown to yon, but when a character like President Roosevelt is appealed to for a substantiation of this assertion, then you may know there is some force in the statement, and should these few lines ever be seen by him, he will surely smile and perhaps would be "de-lighted," and at least think, if not audibly exclaim: "Right you are!" Everyone knows how he loves to go into the wilds and commune with nature and rough it. And, Mr. President, after you have been harassed to death by a lot of fool polit-