{"id":3660,"date":"2012-06-20T02:22:21","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T08:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=3660"},"modified":"2012-06-21T09:20:18","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T15:20:18","slug":"maud-revenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=3660","title":{"rendered":"Maud gets her revenge while camping in Yellowstone in 1913"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Louise
A century ago, "hotel snobs" sometimes scoffed at ladies who camped in Yellowstone National Park. (Bozeman Pioneer Museum)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By M. Mark Miller<\/h3>\n

In 1913, Louise Elliott published\u00a0a book about a young schoolteacher<\/a> from Lander, Wyo., who took a job as a camp assistant for a mobile camp tour. In her preface, Elliott confesses that she used several techniques that critics now might label \u201cnew journalism.\u201d She created composite characters by combining traits of her camp companions, and made up a \u201clittle romance\u201d for her protagonist.<\/p>\n

We can forgive Elliott because she provided an explicit disclaimer\u2014and an entertaining portrait of travel to Yellowstone Park in the early 20th century. While her tales must be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, we probably can take her word that \u201cthe camp episodes and jokes, the weather and scenery, and the statistics\u201d were all accurate descriptions copied from her diary.<\/p>\n

Elliott gives interesting details of her trip: a cook who makes biscuits \u201ccharred on the outside and doughy in the middle,\u201d a guide who carries \u201cthe scratchiest flannels\u201d to be worn by anyone who didn\u2019t heed his warning to bring warm clothing and snobbish hotel guests who refuse to return the greetings of lowly campers.<\/p>\n

At one point during the story, Elliott says her protagonist, Violet, and her friend, Maud, became irritated with one of their guests\u2014a Boston lady that they called \u201cThe Spinster.\u201d Here\u2019s Louise\u2019s story about that.<\/p>\n

Maud and I baked enough biscuits for supper and some cup cakes while the Spinster complained of all the discomforts of camp life as compared with her home conveniences. Neither did she forget to mention her lovely twenty-eight dollar and fifty-cent air mattress.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat settles it once for all,\u201d whispered Maud. \u201cNever again!\u201d<\/p>\n

Well Maud had her revenge\u2014and not once today has the Spinster boasted of her comfortable pneumatic mattress. I wondered last night why Maud was anxious to retire early as she is usually the last one to bed.<\/p>\n

The great pine fire was lighting our tent, and the Spinster was peacefully enjoying her first snore when I saw our Irish lassie get stealthily out of bed\u2014and crawl over to the hated mattress. She certainly must have made a thorough study of the mechanism\u2014she knew just where to find the valve screw. She gave a few turns\u2014crept back into bed again\u2014and began breathing hard and steady.<\/p>\n

Maud had not let me into her proposed vengeance because she feared I would not countenance it. But I suspected that the air was slowly leaking out of the mattress under the sleeping Bostonian. Soon that lady stopped her regular breathing and sat up in bed. She began fumbling under her and muttered, \u201cWell, I never.\u201d Finally she got up, punching the mattress, muttering something and reached into her bag.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pump, pump, pump\u2014I tried so hard to keep from giggling that a snort escaped from my throat. Maud began to talk incoherently and to toss and throw her arms about to cover my tell-tale noises. \u201cNo sir, I told you before that I will not dance\u2014no\u2014no\u2014.\u201d Then her voice died away and she snored vociferously while the\u2014pump, pump, pump\u2014continued. At last the wonderful pneumatic was restored to its proper stage of plumpness and the weary Spinster was soon resuming her snores where she left off.<\/p>\n

She was more silent than usual this morning and did not allude in any way to her mattress. But while Maud and I were doing up the dishes, she went into the tent and gave her bed a thorough examination. She became more talkative after she had read the little pamphlet of directions, which had been attached to the mattress. After that she told the party how Maud had discussed her secrets and love affairs in her sleep.<\/p>\n

Maud asked innocently, \u201cWhat did I talk about?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

From L. Louise Elliott’s,\u00a0Six Weeks on Horseback\u00a0Through Yellowstone Park,<\/em>\u00a01913.\u00a0For more stories about early visitors to Yellowstone National Park, see M. Mark Miller’s\u00a0Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1913, Louise Elliott published a book about a young schoolteacher from Lander, Wyo., who took a job as a camp assistant for a mobile camp tour. In her preface, Elliott confesses that she used several techniques that critics now might label \u201cnew journalism.\u201d She created composite characters by combining traits of her camp companions, and made up a \u201clittle romance\u201d for her protagonist.<\/p>\n

We can forgive Elliott because she provided an explicit disclaimer \u2014 and an entertaining portrait of travel to Yellowstone Park in the early 20th century. While her tales must be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, we probably can take her word that \u201cthe camp episodes and jokes, the weather and scenery, and the statistics\u201d were all accurate descriptions copied from her diary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":3866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[447,10],"tags":[578,147,577,14,504],"yoast_head":"\nMaud Gets her revenge while camping in Yellowstone in 1913 - Yellowstone Gate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of Louise Elliott's humorous memories of a 1913 camping trip in Yellowstone National Park recalls a vengeful air mattress prank.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=3660\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maud Gets her revenge while camping in Yellowstone in 1913 - Yellowstone Gate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of Louise Elliott's humorous memories of a 1913 camping trip in Yellowstone National Park recalls a vengeful air mattress prank.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=3660\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Yellowstone Gate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-20T08:22:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-06-21T15:20:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/ladiescamping3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"432\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"M. 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