TWENTIETH
ANNIVERSARY DINNER OF THE CANADIAN CAMP
Motel Astor
March third,
Nineteen Hundred Twenty-two
New York
Featuring
our Camp Builders on the cover of the program.
A
COMMEMORATIVE WORD OF WELCOME
Twenty years
ago tonight, in Madison Square Gardens, New York, the Canadian Camp Fire Club –
gave its initial dinner. Almost 350 men
and women, lovers of the Canadian wilds, were present, and enthusiastically
indorsed the proposal that the membership be increased to 1000, which number
was attained the following year. The
roll has now reached about 4000, and includes most of the best known sportsmen, naturalists, explorers
and scientists in the United States and Canada and a few across the seas.
At that
first banquet we sat in our camp togs, each looking the part of a regular
huntsman, feasting on our “kills”, as it were, in the very heart of the
Canadian bush, for we were surrounded by evergreen and birch trees. Among the decorations and accessories were an
artificial lake and a number of wild animals and waterfowl, while two-score
Ojibway Indians, in bark canoes, entertained us with aquatic sports and a scene
from Longfellow’s “Hiawatha”.
It was a
most unusual function and a novel innovation in the social life of New
York. That it was also a most enjoyable
success is attested by the progress, popularity, achievements, and rapid growth
of our organization during the last two decades. Attending to-night’s dinner are quite a
number of those who sat around our camp-fire on that historic occasion, and
many who are able to boast that they have never missed a single dinner of the
Camp, although in some cases attendance has involved many hundreds of miles of
travel.
Since our
last gathering (February, 1921) the Advisory Board has lost three members by
death – Admiral Brattenburg, John Burroughs, and Louis A. Jette. Among other members of note who have recently
died was Sir Ernest H. Shackleton. These
names are sufficient in themselves to suggest the importance of our work, its
educational value to our urban citizenship, its contribution to science and
exploration, and the distinguished character of the Camp’s constituency. All
four were loyal supporters of the organization and their advice and counsel
will be seriously missed.
Listed in
the following pages will be found the names of a number of invited guests –
persons of real eminence in the fields of literature, statesmanship,
transportation, and the learned professions – to whom a cordial invitation is
also extended to become active members of the Camp. This applies with equal urgency to those
ladies and gentlemen who are present to partake of the hospitality of
individual members; for both sexes are
equally eligible, and applications from the younger generation are especially
desired. No initiation fee is charged, and no dues are collected, although
testamentary bequests and voluntary donations to the trust fund for development
and maintenance of the organization, and the procurement of the very best
slides and motion pictures of suitable type and real educational value, are
invited to cope with the perpetual need.
The
importance of such an institution as the Canadian Camp in fostering a rational
love for “God’s great outdoors” and inculcating the ideals of generosity,
humaneness, square dealing, and true brotherhood that characterize
sportsmanship of the genuine sort was early and vividly recognized by the
officers and members whose portraits appear on the front cover page of this
Menu. They realized what it would men to future generations of city dwellers to
bring the woods and streams, the denizens of the forest, the flora of the broad
expanse of Nature, the sports and healthful pastimes of the outer world, to
their very back doors – through the camera and the utterances of real lovers of
life in its natural setting assembled at regular intervals by such an
organization as this.
The Camp has
demonstrated that true sportsmanship has no elements of cruelty; its insistence
upon legislative measures for the protection of wild game has led to the
creation of bird sanctuaries in various parts of the country and in a few
states prohibition of the use of torturing mechanical devices by brutal
trappers. It urges rational and humane
methods for the extermination of pests and predatory animals, and scientific
regulations of hunting and the national fisheries.
The
aesthetic side of our American life is not neglected by the Canadian Camp. The growing number of patriots who are
interesting themselves in the preservation of our great National Parks in all
their wild beauty have our enthusiastic co-operation. We oppose the selfishness that would despoil
the venerable redwoods and colossal sequoias of the Pacific Coast not less than
the sordid ambition to harness for commercial purposes the inspiring waterfalls
that help to make the people’s playgrounds a paradise.
An
intellectual topic not directly related to the “sporting” interests of the Camp
is always a valuable feature of our assemblies.
Last year it was “Anglo-Saxonism”, a subject that is of even more vital
significance in 1922 as a result of recent happenings in Washington. For this reason it will be discussed to-night
by our guest of honor and toastmaster – a distinguished Canadian and an eminent
American citizen. These gentlemen are in full accord with the “platform” of the
Canadian Camp – the welding of a closer bond of union between the
English-speaking races in general and the United States and Great Britain in
particular, in the interest of world progress and civilization.
Our
membership, therefore, is made up of Nature-lovers of practical bent and of
sympathetic relationship not only with all races but with every living
species; of men and women whose
instincts and natural impulses accord with the beautiful poem that our valued
co-worker, Dr. Oastler, has contributed to this menu – “Outdoors”.
Without the
hearty co-operation and energetic support of the officers and committee
members, past and present, that he has received without stint during the last
twenty years, the efforts of the Camp’s Founder and President would have been
wholly futile; and he takes this
opportunity to tender his sincerest thanks and make public acknowledgement of
his indebtedness to them for their splendid assistance.
A word of
appreciation is also due to the Winchester Arms Company, whose large and
magnificent “Sportsmen’s Headquarters” on Fifth Avenue were so generously
placed at our disposal of the Dinner Committee for the preliminary work in
connection with this function.
It was at
the suggestion of the Committee and the Advisory Board that this brief review
of the history and purpose of the Canadian Camp is printed as part of the Menu’s
contents instead of being delivered in the usual form as an introductory
address from the speaker’s table – the thought being that many of our members
might wish to preserve it among the mementoes of deeper significance and wider
individual interest. G. Lenox Curtis
(So this Menu has come
down through the years as a memento from
attendee John G. McKirdy, Canadian Guide – to his son John and thus to
the Nipigon Historical Museum Archives in January 2018.)
