The Canadian Camp 1922

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.)