THE BOY SCOUTS
I believe the treatment you have accorded the subject will be both interesting and instructive. It should prove readable and understandable to all classes and ages of readers.
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"Scout" used to mean the one on watch for the rest. We have made the scout an expert in Life-craft as well as Wood-craft, for he is trained in the things of the heart as well as head and hand. Scouting we have made to cover riding, swimming, tramping, trailing, photography, first aid, camping, handicraft, loyalty, obedience, courtesy, thrift, courage and kindness. Whether you be farm boy or shoe clerk, newsboy or millionaire's son, your place is in our ranks.
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A few years ago a committee of boys canvassed a city neighborhood to raise a small sum of money to be used in fitting up a club room. The first man they approached was a merchant who had been born on a pioneer farm. When the boys explained that they needed a gymnasium for their physical development, and a room for quiet games and reading in the evenings, the old man glared at them.
"Need exercise, do you? Go and saw wood for your mother."
Those twentieth century boys laughed. They lived in tiny cottages on twenty-foot lots, or in small flats in big tenement buildings. Not one of them had ever seen a stick of wood to burn, nor a garden to hoe and weed, nor a cow to milk.
"Then get a job in a store. I was sweeping out a country store and building the fires when I was twelve years old."
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