trip consider themselves well fed on
such food as we had to eat expect to starve to death if placed on the
same diet once within sound of the trolley cars. And on the camping
trip they do ten times the physical labor and do it month after month
in air that whets the appetite. Then they come back and boast how
strong they've grown, and begin to eat like hogs again and wonder why
they get sick.

We camped out in the city--that's all we did. And we did just what
every man in camp does; we stripped down to essentials. We could have
lived on pork scraps and potatoes if that had been necessary. We could
have worried along on hard tack and jerked beef if we'd been pressed
hard enough. Men chase moose, and climb mountains and prospect for
gold on such food. Why in Heaven's name can't they shovel dirt on the
same diet?

So, too, about amusements. When a man is trying to clear thirty acres
of pine stumps, he doesn't fret at the end of the day because he
can't go to the theatre. He doesn't want to go. Bed and his dreams are
amusement enough for him. And he isn't called a low-browed savage
because he's satisfied with this. He's called a hero. The world at
large doesn't say that he has lowered the standard of living; it
boasts about him for a true American. Why can't a man lay bricks
without the theatre?

As a matter of fact however we could have had even the amusements if
we'd wanted them. For those who needed such things in order to
preserve a high standard of living they were here. And I don't say
they didn't serve a useful purpose. What I do say is that they aren't
absolutely necessary; that a high standard of living isn't altogether
dependent on sirloin steaks, starched collars and music halls as I've
heard a good many people claim.

This third year finished my course in masonry. I came out in June with
a trade at which I could earn from three dollars to five dollars a day
according to my skill. It was a trade, too, where there was pretty
generally steady employment. A good mason is more in demand than a
good lawyer. Not only that but a good mason can find work in any city
in this country. Wherever he lands, he's sure of a comfortable living.
I was told that out west some men were making as high as ten dollars a
day.

I had also qualified in a more modest way as a mechanical draftsman. I
could draw my own plans for work and what was more useful still, do my
work from the plans of others.

By now I had also become a fa