Scouting, Volume 2, Number 14, November 15, 1914 Page: 8
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8
SCOUTING.
insure a proper censorship, and perhaps the
best way of doing this is where the citizens
themselves are asked to report any films
which they do not consider desirable for
children to see, and where three such com-
plaints made against a picture palace, if
properly founded, will endanger its license.
But, as it can be a power for evil, so it can
just as well be made a power for good.
There are excellent films now on Natural
History and Nature Study, which give a
child a far better idea of the processes of
Nature than its own observation can do,
and certainly far better than any amount
of lessons on the subject. History can be
taught through the eye, as is already being
done by such films as Queen Victoria's
"Sixty Years a Queen," "The Life of
Charles I.," and many others of the kind.
Then there are dramas of the pathetic or
heroic kind, and others of genuine fun, hu-
mor, and laughter. Agat*i, there are more
of them bringing what is bad into condem-
nation and ridicule. There is no doubt that
this teaching through the eye can be adapt-
ed so as to have a wonderfully good effect
through the children's own inclination and
interest in the cinema palace.
Juvenile smoking and its destruction to
health; gambling on football and races, and
all the dishonesty that it brings in its train;
the evils of drink; of loafing with girls, un-
cleanliness, etc., can only be corrected by
the Scoutmaster who knows the usual en-
vironment of his lads.
Juvenile crime is not naturally born in
the boy, but is largely due either to the
spirit of adventure that is in him, to his
own stupidity, or to his lack of discipline,
according to the nature of the individual.
Natural lying is another very prevalent
fault among lads; it does not come entire-
ly from the idea of evading punishment, but
almost as a habit, for when a slum boy is
asked a question his first impulse is to tell
a lie, possibly to find out what you are driv-
ing at by asking the question. This is un-
fortunately a pervading disease all over the
world. You meet it particularly among
uncivilized tribes, as well as in the civilized
countries of Europe, and perhaps it is a
distinguishing characteristic about the En-
glishman that he of all nations is less prone
to this habit and may be most easily cured
of it, if only it is taken in time. Truth
speaking, and its consequent elevation of a
man into being a reliable authority, makes
all the difference in his character and in the
character of the nation. Therefore, it is in-
cumbent upon us to do all we can to raise
the tone of honor and truth speaking
among the lads.
Club and Camp.
The main antidote to a bad environment
is naturally the substitution of a good one,
and this is best done through the clubroom
and the camp for Boy Scouts. By club-
room I do not mean half an hour's drill
once a week in a big schoolroom lent for
the occasion—which has so often appeared
to be the aim of those dealing with boys—
but a real place which the boys feel is their
own, even though it may be a cellar or an
attic; some place to which they can resort
every evening, if need be , and find congen-
ial work and amusement, and a bright and
happy atmosphere. If a Scoutmaster can
only arrange this, he will have done a very
good work in providing the right'environ-
ment for some of his lads which will be the
best antidote tfor the poison that otherwise
would creep into their minds and charac-
ters.
Then the occasional camp (and this
should be as frequent as possibly can be
managed) is a still further and even more
potent antidote than the clubroom. The
open and breezy atmosphere and the com-
radeship of continued association under
canvas, in the field, and round the camp fire,
breathes the very best spirit among the
lads, and gives the Scoutmaster a far bel-
ter opportunity than any other of getting
hold of his boys and of impressing his per-
sonality upon them.
The -Scoutmaster's Duty.
Success in training the boy, as I have said
before, largely depends upon the Scout-
master's own personal example. It is easy
to become the hero as well as the elder
brother of the boy. We are apt, as we
grow up, to forget what a store of hero
worship is in the boy. Personally I happen
to remember it by the fact that when at
school I had a fight with another boy be-
cause I did not share his everlasting hero
worship of Henry Irving. It was not on
the question of his ability as an actor that
we differed, but as regards his physical per-
fection down to his finger tips. It was
actually on the question as to whether he
had taper fingers or not that we quarreled.
The Scoutmaster who is a hero to his
boys holds a powerful lever to their develop-
ment, but at the same time brings a greater
responsibility on himself. They are quick
enough to see the smallest characteristic
about him, whether it be a virtue or a vice.
His mannerisms becomes theirs, the
amount of courtesy he shows, his irrita-
tions, his sunny hapoiness, or his impatient
glower, his willing self-discipline or his oc-
casional moral lapses—all are not only
noticed, but adopted by his followers.
Therefore, to get them to carry out the
Scout Law and ail that underlies it the
Scoutmaster himself, even if he does not
formally and openly take the promise,
should scrupulously carry out its profes-
sions in every detail of his life. With
scarcely a word of instruction his boys will
follow him.
Loyalty to the Movement.
Let him remember that in addition to his
duty to his boys the Scoutmaster has a
duty also to the movement as a whole. Our
aim in making boys into good citizens is
partly for their own individual benefit and
partly for the benefit of the country, that
it may have a virile trusty race of citizens
whose amity and sense of " playing the
game " will keep it united internally and at
peace with its neighbors abroad. Just now
we have before us, as an object lesson, the
danger of internal dissension, where exag-
geration of party politics and disregard of
the wants of others are making for social
disruption, and thus causing commercial
depression and financial panics to the weak-
ening of the nation in its progress and pros-
perity.
It is the same thing on a smaller scale
in a corporate association like the Boy
Scouts. If the movement is to exerc:se to
the full the effect of its being a great body,
it can only do so if every single member
of it is working entirely in loyal support of
its aims and rules. We have no room in
our brotherhood for those petty squabbles
which one hears of in so many political
and other organizations, where questions
of precedent, personal ambition, difference
of view, etc., bring about dissension..
Charged with the duty of teaching self-
abnegation and discipline by their own prac-
tice of it, Commissioners and Scoutmasters
must necessarily be above petty personal
feeling, and must be large-minded enough
to subject their own personal views to the
higher policy of the whole. Theirs is to
teach their boys to " play the game," each in
his place like bricks in a wall, by doing the
same themselves. Each has hjs allotted
sphere of work, an! the better he devotes
himself to that, the better his Scouts will
respond to his training. Then it is only by
looking to the higher aims of the move-
ment, or to the effects of the measures ten
years hence that one can see details of to-
day in their proper proportion. Where a
man cannot conscientiously take the line re-
quired, his one manly course is to put it
straight to his Commissioner or to me, and
if we cannot meet his views, then to leave
the work. He goes into it in the first place
with his eyes open, and it is scarcely fair if
afterwards, because he finds the details do
not suit him, he complains that it is the
fault of the executive. Fortunately, in our
movement, by decentralization and giving a
free hand to the local authorities, we avoid
much of the red tape which has been the
cause of irritation and complaint in so
many other organizations. We are also for-
tunate in having a body of Scoutmasters
who are large-minded in their outlook and"
in their loyalty to the movement as a whole.
This feature was very abundantly proved at
the recent conference at Manchester, and
gave me a new feeling of confidence and
hope towards tackling the great future
which lies before our movement.
A man dared to tell me the other day that
he was the happiest man in the world! I
had to tell him of one who is still happier.
You need not suppose that either of us in
attaining this happiness had never had dif-
ficulties to contend with. Just the opposite.
It is the satisfaction of having successfully
faced difficulties and borne pin-pricks that
gives completeness to the pleasure of having
overcome them. Don't expect your life to
be a bed of roses; there would be no fun in
it if it were. So in dealing with the Scouts
you are bound to meet with disappointments
and set-backs. Be patient: more Britons
ruin their work or careers through want of
patience than do so through drink or other
vices. You will have to bear patiently with
irritating criticisms and red tape bonds to
some extent; but your reward will come.
The satisfaction which comes of having
tried to do one's duty at the cost of self-
denial, and of having developed characters
in the boys which will give them a different
status for life, brings such a reward as can-
not well be set down in writing. The fact
of having worked to prevent the recurrence
of those evils which, if allowed to run on,
would soon be rotting the nation, gives a
man the solid comfort that he has done
something, at any rate, for his country,
however humble may be his position.
SCOUT TRAINING SAVES A LIFE.
Training which he had received in his
Boy Scout work enabled Scout Morris Stit-
anovic to save the life of Scout Harold
Graham, near Houston, Tex., recently when
Scout Graham was bitten by a copperhead
snake. Scout Stitanovic sucked the poison
from the wound, applied a tourniquet, and
then hurried the boy to a near-by house,"
where he telephoned for an automobile. This
prompt action prevented the spread of the
poison, and Scout Graham is now recover-
ing from its effects. Both boys are mem-
bers of Troop 2 of Houston.
(Continued from page 5, column 3.)
Henry V. Bradburn, Mass,
Roger Millen, N. Y.
Ben B. Pope, 111.
Arthur L. Rice, 111.
Donald Stuart McGlash-
on, Mo.
F. R. Morse, N. J.
Dr. Will H. Johnston,
N. Y.
Charles R. Weeks, S. C.
Otis Elwin Smith, 111.
Osca G. Worman, Pa.
,A. C. Richardson, N. Y.
Richard H. Curley, Pa.
John Paul Jones, Pa.
George K. Taylor, Conn.
J. S. Welch, Ida.
Lawrence Lowry, Utah.
J. Winter Smith, Utah.
Robert B. Jeffers, Can.
Thomas "Carvine Sam-
worth, Del.
Rev. S. M. Johnson, N. C.
William E. Coon, Pa.
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 2, Number 14, November 15, 1914, periodical, November 15, 1914; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth282704/m1/8/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.