Laudator Temporis Acti

The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries, edd. Curt Meine and Richard L. Knight (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), p. 41:

A gadget industry pads the bumps against nature-in-the-raw; woodcraft becomes the art of using gadgets.

Id., pp. 42-43:

The recreationist arrives in the wilds draped and festooned with gadgets, each tending to destroy the contrast value of his vacation. I am not such a purist as to disdain all of them, but I do claim that the presence or absence of gadget inhibitions is a delicate test of any man's outdoor education. Most tourists have no gadget inhibitions whatever.

Id., p. 43:

Then came the gadgeteer, otherwise known as the sporting-goods dealer. He has draped the American outdoorsman with an infinity of contraptions, all offered as aids to self-reliance, hardihood, woodcraft, or marksmanship, but too often functioning as substitutes for them. Gadgets fill the pockets, they dangle from neck and belt. The overflow fills the auto-trunk, and also the trailer. Each item of outdoor equipment grows lighter and often better, but the aggregate poundage becomes tonnage.