The story
“Several young married couples, all intimate friends, decide that it would be fun to have a camp of their own for the summer. One of the party discovered an ideal little island, they lease it, and joyfully proceed there. The men were thoroughly happy. They arose early, ate enormous breakfasts, and then went fishing and hunting. Finally the wives began to ask themselves where they came in. ‘It is a picnic for the boys,’ remarked one woman, addressing the others. ‘We do the cooking, washing, and the general housework.’ Finally they agreed that the best thing for them to do was to institute a lock-out. That evening when the husbands returned, there were no wives or supper to greet them, just a note informing them that their ‘ex-slaves’ had taken up a camp for themselves on the next island. It struck the husbands as a good joke—that is, it did until they sat down to a frightfully prepared supper—then they saw the sorrow of it. One of the husbands had an idea and the others cheered as they adopted it.
“Late that evening, while the wives were supposedly sleeping, two ‘vicious tramps’ crept into ‘petticoat camp.’ They expected that the women would shriek with terror but they didn’t. Later the ‘tramps’ were picked up far from shore. ‘When we screamed,’ they said, ‘all those girls got up at once, pulled revolvers and fired at us. They didn’t know us and we had to run for our lives. When we took to the water, they stood on the beach firing at us.’ Their plot having failed and starvation staring them in the face the husbands waved the white flag which was graciously received, and the terms of capitulation arranged. All the wives wanted was a share of the fun, and the transfer of some of the work to the broad shoulders of the husbands.”
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 19 October 1912
