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SUMMER IN THE
GIRLS' CAMP
N earing the summit
SUMMER IN THE
GIRLS' CAMP
BY
ANNA WORTHINGTON COALE
ILLUSTRATED WITH
PHOTOGRAPHS
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1919
Copyright, 1917, 1918, 1919, by •
The Centuby Co.
Published, August, 1919
AUG \b\)ji)j
©Ci.A530562
TO
MY SISTER
WHO FIRST INTRODUCED TO MB
THE JOYS OF SUMMER IN
THB GIRLS' CAMP
INTRODUCTION
The history of the organized camp for girls
covers a period of more than fifteen years. Be-
fore that time educators had long felt the need
of this form of outdoor life for growing boys,
and boys' camps had been in existence for nearly
a decade. But as for girls and the out-of-doors,
the popular idea had not advanced beyond the
summer hotel stage.
The suggestion came originally from some
parents who had had sons in a camp in Maine
conducted by Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Cobb of Provi-
dence, Rhode Island, and who felt that girls
ought to have the same freedom in their sports
as their brothers enjoyed, and that in order to
gain this it would be necessary to get away from
the beaten path, to live in the open and to adopt
some simple form of dress. The idea appealed
to Mr. and Mrs. Cobb, who were engaged in edu-
cational work, and especially interested in the
problem of the summer vacation, and they started
viii INTRODUCTION
the first organized camp for girls at Bridgeton,
Maine, in the summer of nineteen hundred and
two.
The idea became popular, and within three
years there were several others. Within ten
years there were nearly a hundred. Today the
number is increasing so rapidly that it is diffi-
cult to keep count. The educational aim of the
original leaders of the girls' camp movement is
being emphasized today by the National Asso-
ciation of Directors of Girls' Camps, and its edu-
cational value has been more and more recognized
until it has taken a place in the educational sys-
tem which is in the opinion of prominent edu-
cators second only to the school. In this con-
nection a course of lectures on Camping for
Girls was recently given at Teachers' College,
Columbia University, to prepare leaders for this
new kind of educational work.
Dating back to about the same period as the
camp in Maine is another type of camp which
has been developed by the Young Women's
Christian Association, to provide the same kind
of outdoor life for short vacation of the self-
supporting girl. Other movements, such as the
Camp Fire Girls, the Girl Scouts and the Wood-
INTRODUCTION ix
craft League have contributed much to the cause
of untrammelled freedom for girls in the out-of-
doors, and through cooperation of these move-
ments with the directors of the private camps, not
only are the standards for camp activities being
advanced in all camps but the general public is
coming to know more about the girls' camp.
Observation during a period of twelve years
of the effect of the camp life in the physical im-
provement and character development of upwards
of a thousand girls, and association in work and
play with girls of nearly every walk of life leads
to the sincere belief in the great mission of the
girls' camp in helping to solve some of the prob-
lems of our American life.
We wish to acknowledge the courtesy of the
Outlook Company in granting permission to re-
print Chapter I, which appeared first in the
pages of their magazine.
A. W. C.
New York.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I Life in a Girls' Camp 3
II Going to Camp 20
III Fitting into the Environment . . .32
IV Camp Activities — Sports 49
V Camp Activities — Crafts 64
VI Camp Activities — ^Trips 79
VII War Times in the Summer Camps . . 98
VIII Are You a Life Saver? 112
IX Outside the Schedule . . . . . .127
X The Councilor 153
XI Inter-Camp Days 167
XII The Short Vacation Camp . . . .184
XIII Singing 200
XIV What Counts v^^ith Camp Girls . . .232
XV Honors 244
XVI Camp Periodicals ....... 254
Jests 283
XVII Educational Values and the Summer
Camp 298
XX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Nearing the summit Frontispiece
FACING
PAGE
Enjoying an open fireplace in an Adirondack camp . 8
Ten camps uniting for a patriotic celebration . . 9
Fun at a sea-shore camp 24
A camp in the pine woods of Michigan .... 24
Around the fire in one living room 25
Starting out on a hike .40
Tent-mates and visitors 41
A swimming party making the camp letter . . .52
Tennis in a Michigan camp 53
The girls can put up a game of baseball that will
hold the side-lines in suspense 53
The joy of the slide 60
A war canoe fully manned 60
Knitting as a handicraft 61
A popular place for craft workers 61
A sketching party in a junior camp 84
You look out on a scene of vast wonder and beauty . 85
Viewing Mount Washington from Mount Jefferson . 92
Working in the war-time gardens at a girls' camp . 93
A class in signaling 96
The racing dive to start 97
Breaking the wrist hold 112
Making contacts with subjects 112
xiii
xiv ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
The double arm carry 113
The tired swimmf's carry 113
Scene from "Every-Camp" 144
A tow of canoes on the way to Field Day at a neigh-
boring camp 144
Getting the last directions for the trail . . . .145
They came down the field in the final formation six-
teen abreast 176
At a point held by a figure in bloomer costume they
turned 177
Down they went in the midst of the puddles . . .177
The Ice Cream Shack, Altamont 192
Getting ready for inspection 192
Fatigue squad at a Girl Scout Camp 193
Learning to tie knots at a Girl Scout Camp . . .196
Singing on the side lines to cheer the team . . . .197
Camp girls like a girl who goes out to win . . . 240
A day of field sports 241
The riders from a Vermont camp 272
A camp girl is not taught theories, but how to do
things 273
SUMMER
IN THE GIRLS' CAMP
SUMMER
IN THE GIRLS' CAMP
CHAPTER I
LIFE IN A girls' CAMP
TEN years ago girls' camps were rare.
Five years ago you heard of a few of
them in Maine and New Hampshire.
Nowadays we hear of a hundred, and they are lo-
cated in all parts of the country — in the Adiron-
dacks and the White Mountains, at the seashore,
in Arizona and other parts of the Far West.
The girl camper may be twelve or twenty. She
usually comes from a home of luxury and hugely
enjoys the novelty of sleeping in tents, the un-
hampered opportunities for learning to swim, to
row, to paddle — in short, to live close to friendly
Mother Nature — through eight or nine happy
weeks of the camp season. And, best of all, she
learns the value of girl friendships. A camp girl
4 SUMMER IN THE GIRLS' CAMP
who is now in college writes: ''More important
than experience with wind and wood is the inti-
mate association with people which camp affords.
I have known college girls who wasted most of
their freshmen year in learning the simple prin-
ciple of community life — toleration, cooperation,
and normal friendliness — which the camp girl
has already been taught." Another girl said
that at home she had known only one girl well.
Camp taught her to understand other girls.
Every summer one whole camp has an oppor-
tunity to vote for just one girl. It is not the
most popular girl — though she is sure to be that;
nor the most athletic; nor yet the best-looking.
Not any of these. The highest honor the camp
has to bestow is given for Camp Spirit — and it
goes to the girl who has proved to be the most
thoughtful, generous, and kind — in short, the
best friend.
The girls' camp has proved that there can be
just as great esprit de corps among girls as among
boys. Not only that, but among girls of varying
ages and circumstances. When one camp is
"out together," there is always an older young
woman who seems to be the leader. It is hard
to decide whether she is a camp girl or not.
LIFE IN A GIRLS' CAMP 5
There is a big-sister air about her, and yet an
air of frank comradeship. She is a councilor —
a college girl, full of life and spirit. She is the
close friend and adviser of the younger girls.
Then there is the honor girl, who has been chosen
by a committee of councilors because of her
''camp spirit" of thoughtfulness, friendliness, and
leadership. She can swim and row, and is al-
lowed to go in a canoe without a councilor, and
sometimes to take other girls. There are also
in this company the timid little mother's darling
and the prim little city girl. Yet in spite of
these varying types, so strong is the spirit of
friendship that there is rarely a note of discord
or maladjustment.
Camp routine is much the same in all camps.
The bugle call which awakens the girls is fol-
lowed ten minutes later by another, which sum-
mons all the campers to assemble for a short cal-
isthenics drill and a run around the open court
or a lively folk-dance. At one typical camp, ''If
you don't go to 'cal' you can't go swimming all
day." If you come in a bathing suit, you can
have a dip in the lake before breakfast.
After breakfast there is a lively scramble to
put the tents in ship-shape order for inspection.
8 SUMMER IN THE GIRLS' CAMP
Then follows the reading hour, under a big
tree, with sewing, if you like; and the afternoon
excursions are planned. It may be a long trip
on foot or horseback; a night in the open, a trip
to some distant mountain, with three nights on
the way ; a three-day gypsying trip with a wagon
for the baggage ; or it may be merely a quiet pad-
dle along the lake shore.
The lovely camp evening, with its basket-ball,
tennis, a bonfire with camp songs and stories (or
the fireside, if it rains), or a *'sing" on the lake
with all the campers in canoes, is brought to an
end by the bugle again sounding in the deepening
twilight. Taps, '' lights out," find all quiet, ex-
cept a giggle or two, hushed by an honor girl, and
the happy day is done.
In a suburban town a committee of parents re-
cently held a serious and prolonged discussion
over the question of the recreation of the children
of the community.
A playground expert from a national associa-
tion was called in to make a survey of the recrea-
tional facilities of the town. The survey re-
vealed that ^'one-third of the leisure life of that
town's boys and two-fifths of the leisure life of
LIFE IN A GIRLS' CAMP 9
its girls are taken up in going down town, walk-
ing and loafing." At this point an exasperated
parent suggested that if children could have du-
ties, tasks, and a child's measure of responsibility
they could utilize what time they would have left
for sport and recreation without suggestion from
adults; and they would not be found wasting the
precious hours of playtime in aimlessly strolling
down town and about the streets. Perhaps this
wise parent had known in his boyhood days the
joy of turning work into play.
At a certain camp in New England there was
an accumulation of rubbish to be disposed of
soon after arrival. The camp leader suggested
a bonfire. The idea was enthusiastically re-
ceived, and rubbish was brought from all quar-
ters of the camp grounds. Many hands piled
it ''high as the sky." When night came, there
was a wild Indian dance and war-whoop, all
joining hands, as the huge pile was lighted.
That was a fine instance of making play out of
work.
It was some years ago when Janet came to camp.
She came from a large city in the Middle West.
Her ''set" at home had parties almost every night.
Janet was popular, too, with the boys. When
10 SUMMER IN THE GIRLS' CAMP
she saw the campers in their bloomer costume,
her face fell. They seemed so young. The camp
leader found her weeping tears of homesickness
when the train left which took her mother back
to her Western home. *'J^^^^ dear," she said,
cheerily, ignoring her tears, "I want you to organ-
ize a basket-ball team. I have been depending
on you for our team. Will you come out now
and look over your material?" Janet came out.
She looked over her ^'material." Somehow, in
the bloomer costume, with her hair in braids, she
looked just as young as they. And they were
such nice-looking girls, she noticed. She soon
had a good team chosen, and during that summer
she developed qualities, not only of leadership,
but of thoughtfulness and genuine friendliness.
So popular was she that her name has been
handed down through several summers, and still
clings to the tent which she occupied. And when
every once in a while she returns to visit the old
camp, she is welcomed by all the campers, old
and new.
In the democracy of camp life a girl finds her-
self in an environment of simplicity and freedom
which stimulates her to activity. In place of lan-
guidly accepting a ready-made programme of
LIFE IN A GIRLS' CAMP 11
play she must provide play activities for herself
and others. There is no distinction in dress, for
the camp costume is alike for all. A girl is rated
by her achievement, not by externals. More-
over, she has a distinct advantage in being rated
well at the start, for, as one older brother put it,
"Your camp takes it for granted that a girl is a
good fellow till she proves that she is n't."
Gwendolyn was one of the few girls who failed
to appreciate all this. She ought to have gone
to camp sooner. For she had been around the
world twice, had wintered in Japan, and had a
yacht and an automobile. Yet these accessories,
which stood her in such good stead at home,
failed to make any impression at camp.
Then Gwendolyn started stories about the
other girls. The first one passed unheeded in
the friendly atmosphere of camp democracy.
She tried it again — unhappy Gwendolyn! The
second time the stories were repeated. The third
time they were doubted; but the fourth time,
alas! they were believed. But there was a re-
action immediately. The stories were traced
straight to Gwendolyn, and she became so un-
popular that she actually became so miser-
able that she had to leave. "I had a hard rub,"
12 SUMMER IN THE GIRLS' CAMP
she wrote afterward, ''but I know it did me
good." She had found that trips around the
world, yachts, and automobiles count for naught
when a girl fails to be thoughtful, kind and gen-
erous.
In camp a girl learns, like her brother, to be
a ''good sport." One way is to take defeat cheer-
fully and to honor your successful competitor.
Another way to be a "good sport" in a girls' camp
which some brave girls have learned is to refrain
from doing things which you are not able to do.
One girl with a weak heart learned this only
when she had to be rescued because she tried to
swim too far. But the spirit of restraint which
she afterward showed was recognized by the
campers to be just as fine as the spirit of daring
in others.
Unfailing good humor is a strong characteris-
tic of the girl camper. Any mention of discom-
fort is frowned upon, and an uncomfortable ex-
perience, whether in camp or abroad, is always
made romantic in a song.
The mountain trip, which involves several
days' travel and some degree of hardship, is a
good test of spirits and power of endurance.
A party from one camp started out one fine
LIFE IN A GIRLS^ CAMP 13
day to climb a famous mountain, whose high
peaks they had often viewed from afar at their
camp home. They walked many miles to the
base, and then traversed the long side of the
mountain before they began to climb. Lunch
and supper were eaten from knapsacks on the
way. It was nearly dark when they reached the
hut half-way up the mountain where arrange-
ments had been made to spend the night. The
hut, they found, had accommodations for but
thirty. Another party had preceded them, and
there were fifty- four. ^'We '11 have to sleep like
sardines," said one of the girls. And they did.
By morning they had a jolly good song to take
back to camp, as every party must, and every
verse ended in *'Roll over!"
Next morning they started the long climb.
Before they had gone far it began to rain. A
car passed them half-way up, filled with people
comfortably seated on dry seats.
"Only towering peaks and rocky paths can
sturdy climbers thrill," the girls sang, "though
others do their climbing in a car."
Nearly drenched, but in excellent spirits, they
reached the summit, again to find that the best
rooms of the tip-top house were occupied by some
14 SUMMER IN THE GIRLS' CAMP
gentlemen from New York. The gentlemen of-
fered to vacate, but our girl campers stoutly re-
fused. After being dried by a smoky fire, and
passing a night on some extra bunks, they started
down the mountain, singing :
"How many miles have we got to go, got to go, got to go,
How many miles have we got to go,
To catch the train to ?"
It was afterwards learned that the gentlemen
from New York caught cold on the way up the
mountain, but never so much as a sneeze was re-
corded among the girl campers.
Camp has valuable lessons for us all, the ex-
periences of some parents being as significant as
those of their offspring. A fond father brought
his motherless little girl to camp. The mother's
death was very recent, and Patty had never been
away from home before. Papa stayed at the inn
across the lake as long as business in the city
would permit. The first night he looked out
across the lake and saw the camp lights twinkling
on the shore, he wondered about Patty. How
would she get along without her maid to undress
her? "But it will be a good experience for her,"
said he, shaking his head sadly. In the middle
LIFE IN A GIRLS' CAMP 15
of the night a storm arose — wind, rain, thunder,
and lightning. The waves beat against the
rocks. Papa arose and paced the floor. "My
poor little girl over there among the rocks and
caves!" he groaned. "She will be frightened to
death!" He wrung his hands. He continued
to pace the floor until dawn. At the earliest pos-
sible moment he tried to reach the camp by tele-
phone, only to find that no one from the outside
could break into that camp, by telephone or oth-
erwise, for another hour. He waited. He
called again. Patty's voice came back, fresh
and clear. "Yes, papa." "My darling," said
papa, "were you frightened?" "At what,
papa?" "The dreadful storm — thunder and
lightning." There was a pause. He waited
anxiously. After a minute came the reply.
Patty's voice sounded puzzled. "I didn't hear
it, papa."
There are other parents who have learned the
value of looking carefully into the management
of the camp to which they wish to send their
young daughter. For, although a camp may
have an ideal location and beautiful scenery and
model equipment, if it has not also wise leader-
ship and the highest ideals of character, it will
16 SUMMER IN THE GIRLS' CAMP
fail in its greatest obligation — the development
of the highest type of womanhood.
The result of camp training should be, and
usually is, a sound mind in a sound body. At the
same time, the camps reveal, by contrast, a de-
plorable lack in the present system of education
for women. It is the failure to put the proper
emphasis on physical development. The school
and college — and the home as well — are not
sending forth their daughters with a reserve of
strength and steady nerve as a preparation for
living. And there are other evidences of a need
for revision of the educational system. Just as
in industry women have been working under con-
ditions designed for men, so it would seem, in the
school and college, a man's program is being
imposed upon the girl student. Courses and
methods which ignore the physical have been
handed down from the past without proper adap-
tation to the needs of girls.
Many of these courses are not related to the
needs of the girl's after life. For instance, the
study of dead languages and higher mathematics
may be good mental exercise, but may be wholly
unrelated to the life of the girl who is preparing
to make a home.
LIFE IN A GIRLS' CAMP 17
And much of the girl student's work is still
done by assimilation and imitation, rather than
by methods which develop the imaginative, cre-
ative, and reasoning faculties.
We hear in these days of the "nervous strain
of college life" — and sometimes we hear the same
thing from school-girls. The reason for this, in
the case of too many girls, is a lack of discrim-
ination in not knowing how properly to balance
their time with work, rest, and play. Girls need
to be taught how to relax. A camp girl said she
found at college tired, overworked girls who did
not know when they needed rest — not realizing
that the mind and body, to keep healthy, must
have complete quiet at times. "Some girls
here," she says, "do not know the treasures in a
long walk over hill and dale, along the brook-
side, through the woods, when all thoughts of
lessons are left behind."
The camp girl is taught how to divide her time.
Play has a large place in her program, and
it furnishes valuable educational training.
Through play she learns some of the first prin-
ciples of the fine art of living — adaptability, re-
liability, initiative, and good fellowship.
She also realizes the great value of rest — some-
18 SUMMER IN THE GIRLS' CAMP
times solitude — and its relation to work and play.
Off in a pine wood, beside a mountain stream, in
a canoe, along shore, alone with nature or a com-
panionable book, a camp girl can be happy for
hours. ^'Invite your soul," is a familiar expres-
sion in a girls' camp.
And then the camp girl works! She goes in
for things, and works for the sake of working.
It may be organizing sports, or some unfinished
craft work, or a part of the domestic work of the
camp assigned to her. Sometimes she puts in an
hour or two on lessons which have to be made up
for school in the fall. With superb health, ex-
uberance of spirits, and pleasant companionship,
she gets joy out of working. And a definite part
of each camp day is sacredly devoted to work.
Because she has learned the importance of ac-
complishing what she sets out to do and the ad-
vantage of team-work, the camp girl is depended
on in college for the executive work in non-aca-
demic activities. It is said in one college that
when a camp girl is made chairman of a commit-
tee that committee's work will be done well.
Camp life gives a girl also a good store of
knowledge as a preparation for her academic
work. She knows not only how to bandage a
LIFE IN A GIRLS' CAMP 19
cut and right an overturned canoe, but also how
to recognize the stars and appreciate the poetry
of scenery. Contact with the real world of na-
ture develops an interest in scientific explanations
and theories.
Good health and a balanced mind bring many
desirable qualities in their train — physical poise,
toleration, friendliness, power of achievement,
and that indefinable charm which is the glory of
every woman with glowing health.
CHAPTER II
GOING TO CAMP
HAD the authorities at the Grand Cen-
tral Depot but realized as they do now
the importance of the summer camps,
all the mix-up might have been avoided. As it
was, crowds of boys and girls had been start-
ing off from the big New York terminal for their
camps at the seashore and in the mountains at the
beginning of each summer without attracting very
much attention. And that was why Betty Brown
came very near being left behind when Camp B.
boarded the White Mountain Express one hot
morning in June.
Camp B. had arranged to meet the chaperon
at the information desk. But when Betty and
her grandmother arrived at the Grand Central,
all breathless and perspiring and just a little late,
they found the station a swarming mass of girls
and boys, mothers and fathers, grandmothers,
20
GOING TO CAMP 21
uncles, cousins, and aunts; and when, by dint of
much pushing, Betty finally succeeded in jostling
her way through the mob to the information desk,
it was only to find herself hopelessly separated
from her grandmother and locked tight in a jam
of girls, chaperons, and suitcases, while the clock
hands were pointing dangerously near to train-
time.
It was a desperate moment; for had the party
gone without her, Betty would have had to give
up going to camp for the summer. Something
had to happen! And it did. She never knew
just how, but all of a sudden something gave way,
the jam loosened, and the next moment she found
herself on the edge of the crowd, with a signifi-