Robert Robert - Scouting for Boys

A Scout is “clean in thought, word and deed.”

He knows what to do to the fellow who talks smut.

You would probably be surprised if you knew how many boys have written to me thanking me for what I have written on this subject, so I expect there are more who will be glad of a word of advice against the secret vice which gets hold of so many fellows. Smoking and drinking and gambling are men’s vices and therefore attract some boys, but this secret vice is not a man’s vice—men have nothing but contempt for a fellow who gives way to it.

Some boys, like those who start smoking, think it is a very fine and manly thing to tell or listen to dirty stories, but it only shows them to be little fools.

Yet such talk and the reading of trashy books or looking at lewd pictures are very apt to lead a thoughtless boy into the temptation of self-abuse. This is a most dangerous thing for him, for, should it become a habit, it tends to lower both health and spirits.

But if you have any manliness in you, you will throw off such temptation at once. You will stop looking at the books and listening to the stories, and will give yourself something else to think about.

Sometimes the desire is brought on by indigestion, or from eating too rich food, or from constipation or from sleeping in too warm a bed with too many blankets. It can therefore be cured by correcting these, and by bathing at once in cold water, or by exercising the upper part of the body by arm exercises, boxing, etc.

It may seem difficult to overcome the temptation the first time, but when you have done so once it will he easier afterwards.

If you still have trouble about it, do not make a secret of it, but go to your father, or your Scoutmaster, and talk it over with him, and all will come right.

Early Rising

The Scout’s time for being most active is in the early morning. because that is the time when wild animals do their feeding and moving about.

So a Scout trains himself to the habit of getting up early. When once he is in the habit it is no trouble at all to him, as it is to some fat fellows who lie asleep after the daylight has come.

The Duke of Wellington, who preferred to sleep on a little camp bed, used to say, “When it is time to turn over in bed it is time to turn out”.

Many men who manage to get through more work than others in a day, do so by getting up an hour or two earlier. By getting up early you also can get more time for play.

If you get up one hour earlier than other people, you get thirty hours a month more of life than they do. While they have twelve months in the year, you get 365 extra daylight hours, or thirty more days—that is, thirteen months to their twelve.

The old rhyme has a lot of truth in it when it says—

“Early to bed and early to rise,

makes a man healthy, and wealthy, and wise.”

Smile

Want of laughter means want of health. Laugh as much as you can—it does you good. So whenever you can a get good laugh, laugh on. And make other people laugh, too, when possible, as it does them good.

If you are in pain or trouble, make yourself smile at it. If you remember to do this, and force yourself, you will find it really does make a difference.

If you read about great scouts like Captain John Smith, the “Pathfinder”, and others, you will generally find that they were pretty cheery old fellows.

The ordinary boy is apt to frown when working hard at physical exercises, but the Boy Scout is required to smile all the time. He drops a mark off his score whenever he frowns.

GAMES

Relay Race

One Patrol pitted against another to see who can get a message sent a long distance in shortest time by means of relays of runners (or cyclists). The Patrol is ordered out to send in three successive notes or tokens (such as sprigs of certain plants), from a point, say two miles distant or more.

The leader in taking his Patrol out to the spots, drop Scouts at convenient distances, who will then act as runners from one post to the next and back.

If relays are posted in pairs, messages can be passed both ways.

Throwing the Assegai

Target, a thin sack, lightly stuffed with straw, or a sheet or cardboard, or canvas stretched on a frame.

Assegais (spears) to be made of wands, with weighted ends pointed, or with iron arrow- heads on them.

Throwing the assegai, or a simple spear, gives good exercise for the ar ms. The native of Australia uses a piece of wood as an extension to his arm, to send off the spear with greater force.

CAMP FIRE YARN NO. 19

PREVENTION OF DISEASE

Germs, and How to Fight Them –

Proper Food – Clothing –

Troop Formations

A number of years ago, when I was in Kashmir, Northern India, some natives brought to me a young man. They said he had

fallen off a high bank. He was in great pain, and his friends and relatives were already considering him as good as dead.

On examination I found no bones broken, but his right shoulder out of joint at the socket. I told them to lay him flat on his back, and then took off my right shoe. I sat down alongside the patient, facing towards his head, with my right leg against his right side so that my heel came into the armpit of the injured shoulder.

I got one of his friends to sit on the other side of him to hold him down. Then I caught hold of his wrist with both hands and gave a long, steady pull at his arm, using my heel as a lever, till the shoulder suddenly clicked into its place again. Then he fainted.

His mother howled, and said that I had made a nice mess of the job, and had killed him. But I grinned and put on my shoe, and told her that I would now bring him to life quite sound and well—which I proceeded to do by sprinkling a little water over his face. He gradually came to his senses and found that his arm was practically all right.

Then the natives thought I must be no end of a doctor. So they sent round the country for all the sick to be brought in to be cured, and I had an awful time of it for the next two days. Cases of every kind of disease were carried in, and I had scarcely any drugs with which to treat them. But I did the best I could, and I really believe that some of the poor creatures got better from simply believing that I was doing them good.

But most of them were ill from being dirty and letting their wounds get poisoned with filth. Many were ill from bad drainage, and from drinking foul water, and so on.

This I explained to the headmen of the villages, and I hope that I did something for their future health.

At any rate, they were most grateful, and gave me a lot of help ever afterwards by getting me food and good bear-hunting.

If I had not known a little doctoring I could have done nothing for these people.

While talking about doctoring I want to warn you against the excessive use of patent medicines and drugs. If you are ill, go to a qualified doctor who will know what is wrong with you, rather than buy some remedy which the advertisement says will cure whatever you may think is wrong with you.

Germs and How to Fight Them