Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, September 27, 1903, Page 37

An Adirondack Stag Party | i.Gutig Lot Summer %he Governor went to his istand Kamp, Whoop her up, Rebecca! The fire was warm and the lake was damp, Whoop her up, Rebecca! He paddled after a big cow-moose, Her nose hooked up and her lip hung looze, And heading her off with many a ruse, Cried, Whoop her up, Rebecca! EBECCA was a big, wild, stilt- legged, bump-faced, female mo.se, " who broke upon us darkly in the early dawn, just as we were turn- ing over for a final beauty sleep on the fragrant balsam boughs of an open island camp on Lake Kora, a part of Gov- ernor Woodruff's famous Kamp Kill Kare, Every night the governor invited a small party of us to this island, far distant from the main camp, =0 that we might rea'ize how deep we were in the heart of the wilderness. Lying here, with only the shel- ter of an open ‘lean-to’” above us and a log fire blazing at our feet, we knew that all the strange denizens of the forest were prowling about us in the most approved ‘‘deer-slayer’” fashion. If any of us thought we were drawing a bit on our imaginations, that idea was startled out of us when Re- becca loomed up out of the lake in the starry dawn, logking as big as a block of houses to our astonished gaze. Wow, moose is big game and bull moose i{s sometimes dangerous game, but the closed season and Rebecca's sex prevented any shooting. Rebecca disappeared for the time, but at daylight the governor sent guides to beat up the bush and drive her into the lake, where ensued a lively canoe chase, in which the governor skillfully drove the creature on to the shore, where one of the party managed to get a camer shot at her curious elongated physiognomy which here comes bunting fo intrusively into the foreground. The present story turns upon Kamp Kill Kare and the governor—or, to be pre- cise, Hon. Timothy L. Woodruff, three times lleutenant governor of New York, re- publican leader, successful merchant and manufacturer and enthusiastic lover of outdoor life. If you read the papers you know that the governor is always doing something, but it is never his fellow man. If you imagine him as only or chiefly a politician, you miss the larger side of one of the most in- teresting and forceful personalities in American public life, Politics is only one ftem in his account. He is one of the few whe can hold polities in one hand and business in the other without ever crossing his hands. He has won his way manfully step by step to prosperity, not through politics, but by unflagging energy in com- mercial life and sound business judgment. He started after graduation from Yale col- lege as a clerk in a wholesale establishment downtown in New York City He is now a director in many banks and trust com- panies and president and treasurer of a number of large manufacturing corpora- tions. Every affair he has touched has felt the force of his enthusiasm and industry. When the 8mith Premier Typewriter com- pany was reorganized last winter h: was made its president and has accomplished the feat of putting up a factory building containing 200,000 feet of floor space in three months, when it was generally be- lieved it would take ecight to ten months, The company’s branch office managers all over the United States became imbued w.th this spirit and were hustling for orders all summer as they had never hustled before “Now," said President Woodruff, one au- tumn ds “‘stop hustling for a« week. Come up to Kamp Kill Kare and enjoy yourgelves, every man of you Jet out of the heat @nd dust and grind; get away from biicks GENERAL PROSPECT AT KAMP KILL KARK and mortar, stone pavements and targains and sales, Come to the mountains for a week and live.” When the governor comes into that cort of game, the limit is off They came from all over; spent a day at Syracuse inspecting the new big plant and then “plunged” per Ad.rondack sypecial into the wilderness, For a week those forly men lived. Kamp Kill Kare, on the borders of beau- tiful Lake Kora, is by long odds the most picturesque of the famous Adirondack camps. It i8 about ten miles from Ra- quette Lake station, and more than fifteen miles in every direction from any human habitation except the camps of Alfred G. Vanderbilt and J. Plerpont Morgan, each about three miles d.stant. The country is s0 wild that it cost from $4,00) to $5,(0) per mile to build the twenty or so miles of wagon roads leading to these different camps, Governor Woodruff's domain here consists of 1,500 acres and the main camp Is situ- ated in a clearing of perfectly kept grounds in the midst of fragrant mountain balsams, spruce, cedar and birch, and consists cf nearly a dozen picturesjue cottages and other buildings, large and small, built of well matched, rough-sawn cedar logs with- out, but finished and equipped inside (o the limit of civilized comfort and con- venience and consummate taste Some of the most prominent figures in public life have been among the fortunate guests of Kamp Kill Kare. When Frank P, Black was governor of New York in '97-'98 he was here a great deal. Governor Odell has been here geveral times, and twice for quite a visit with Senator Platt. C, P Huntington, who had a camp in Raquette Lake, in which he died two years ago, often came here, In front of the main camp a green slope reaches down through a balsam to Lake Kora, a mile long mirror, wherein the hill gods make their daily toilet, where the wild deer and moose swim unmolested till the hunting season opens, and spe k.ed trout joyously wag their little tails and sometimes swallow a gorgeous fly with a governor or a United States senator at the other end of the line. Two big blick bears—Dick and Marie—are chained neir the lake and a beautiful little spot.el fawn trots confidently about the piths and grassy banks and even occasionally ventures indoors. To this woodland paradise came the forty weary and dusty typewriter pluggers to “loaf and invite their souls,” and, as one of the forty, the writer can attest that while our sohuls may have bheen along they never gave us a moment's uneas. ness from the instant of entering the charrel domain, Our stomachs were the principal features in evidence. The air, clear, cold and tonie as rare wine, gives one a raven- ous appetite and when we were not eating or drinking we were generally getting ready to, We fished, swam, paddled or rowed, and roamed at will over the beautiful grounds, accompanied by proficient guides, ven- tured deeper into the forest At night we were duly installed under much-needed blanke main camp, except those of us who pre- in the various cottages of the ferred an open camp, or ‘lean-to,” on balsam boughs before one of the roaring log fires, blazing everywhere about the camp, indoors and out, after dark until morning. And hore we the just-arrived lept the sleep of One day we climhed the mountain west of the lake to a smaller camp with a bal- cony built over the sheer face of the wountain and from which we beheld a ghining lux<s and stretching awe misty blue. This magnificent wonderful observation the fashion of everything possible the watershed or three lakes an equal-sid<d exactly two Morgan's camp, Vanderbilt's and the host and hostess complete and tactful captured all our hearts, the camp is similar hospitality In its general aspect Adirondack individuality prevails scheme of Kamp in every func- captivating throughout perfect entertaine everywhere pervaded charming hostess, turn the hearty, good-fellowship You see and spontaneous, democratic comrade and a leader of men, impossible than the faintest idea of decoration iron work well as an axe hundreds of colored lanterns, is Kill K: a huge rustic playhouse equipy ON BEAUTIIUL. LAKE KORA. T is well called on the: back- St. Lawrence between each. of the head- part of our Our own we camps, but a The Kamp 13 rare spirit of Woodruff at not visited the Kamp it on paper mo e its infinite variety with every means of enjoyment and art. Th tertainment which a lively stag party could Indian hunting imagine or desire. Here the “boys days of Fenimorn ered daily on the wide piazza overlooking Many of the in- the lake and nightly around ured in the stone fireplace to swap yarns, or about the of the Kamp piano to acclaim melodiously heads, axes, locality “Down Where the horns, were Flows"' with appropriate cellars, in plow drawn from a keg skillfully dynamiting stumps the scene on a wheelbarrow exceptions, al] natives of the the handle a saw employes together upon. a interested. C w WATCHING REBECCA Wurzburger fllustrations conveyed into One of the most interesting things about the cyriously this whole hilarious expedition everywhere in evidencs, that it was a sterling example of the Governor Woodruft's ern spirit in business affairs which heads of great enterprises mutual respect and recognition, Kora, reached by to the benefit of humanity rustic bridge, lighted at night with fellowship, but to the immense advantage of the business in which they are mutually ECKERMAN,