Chapter XXII: Part VI: Price 4d. net

SCOUTING
FOR BOYS

BY B-P (LIEUT. GEN. BADEN POWELL C.B.)

PUBLISHED BY HORACE COX, WINDSOR HOUSE,
BREAM'S BUILDINGS, LONDON, E.C.

NOTES for INSTRUCTORS.

SUMMARY.

_The Empire wants your help._

_Bad citizenship, which ruined the Roman Empire, is creeping in among us to-day._

_The future of our Empire will much depend on the character of the rising generation. For this too little is at present being done in the way of development._

_Peace Scouting is suggested as an attractive means towards developing character and good citizenship._

_Can be carried out by young men of all kinds without expense, each training a few boys._

_Experiment has already been successful._

_Hints to would-be instructors for carrying out the training._

_Books to read on the subject._

PLAY THE GAME: DON'T LOOK ON.

Every Briton who is worth his salt would like to help his country:

Firstly, if he thought it was wanted.

Secondly, if he saw a way by which he could do it.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE WANTS YOUR HELP.

Our great Empire is to-day to the rest of the world very much what the Roman Empire was two thousand years ago. But the Roman Empire, great as it was, fell.

"The same causes which brought about the fall of the great Roman Empire are working to-day in Great Britain."

These words were lately spoken by one of our best-known democratic politicians, and they have been confirmed in a recent lecture at Cambridge by Mr. Warde Fowler, as also in various pamphlets and writings. That they are true is practically admitted by those who have studied and compared the general conditions of both countries.

FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE WAS DUE TO BAD CITIZENSHIP.

The main causes of the downfall of Rome is similar to that which resulted in the downfall of other great empires, such as the Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Spanish, and Dutch, and that cause may be summed up in each case as the decline of good citizenship and the want of energetic patriotism. Each nation, after climbing laboriously to the zenith of its power, seemed then to become exhausted by its effort, and sit down in a state of repose, relapsing into idleness, studiously blind to the fact that other nations were gradually pushing up to destroy it. It is easy to push historical parallels too far, and whether or not these parallels are real or exaggerated, they give us food for reflection. The main point is for us to take the lesson to heart, and see, before it is too late, that our Empire also be not undermined by these defects.

I am not so pessimistic myself as to think with some people that we are already so far on the downward grade as to be in a hopeless condition. On the contrary, I think that we are only near to the parting of the ways where it becomes incumbent upon everyone of us who has the slightest patriotism in him to earnestly help, in however small a way, to turn the rising generation on the right road for good citizenship.

The aim may seem too big to attain, but most big things are only got by combination of small efforts. A coral island is erected by the work of myriads of sea-insects, the Pyramids of Egypt were the result of co-operation of thousands of workers.

BAD CITIZENSHIP IS BECOMING APPARENT IN THIS COUNTRY TO-DAY.

One form of bad citizenship among many is evident around us on the part of the people themselves, who, not having been taught to think of the future, or of their country, allow themselves to come under the despotic power of a few professional agitators whose living depends on agitating (whether it is needed or not); and, blinded by the talk of these men, they attack the hand that finds the money, till they force employers to spend fortunes, either in devising machinery that will take their place and not go on strike, or in removing their business to other countries, leaving the agitators fat and happy, and a mass of people unemployed and starving, and unable to provide for the crowds of children they continue improvidently to bring into the world.

FOOTBALL.

One of the causes of the downfall of Rome was that the people, being fed by the State to the extent of three-quarters of the population, ceased to have any responsibility for themselves or their children, and consequently became a nation of unemployed wasters. They frequented the circuses, where paid performers appeared before them in the arena, much as we see the crowds now flocking to look on at paid players playing football.

Football in itself is a grand game for developing a lad physically and also morally, for he learns to play with good temper and unselfishness, to play in his place and "play the game," and these are the best of training for any game of life. But it is a vicious game when it draws crowds of lads away from playing the game themselves to be merely onlookers at a few paid performers. I yield to no one in enjoyment of the sight of those splendid specimens of our race, trained to perfection, and playing faultlessly; but my heart sickens at the reverse of the medal--thousands of boys and young men, pale, narrow-chested, hunched-up, miserable specimens, smoking endless cigarettes, numbers of them betting, all of them learning to be hysterical as they groan or cheer in panic unison with their neighbours--the worst sound of all being the hysterical scream of laughter that greets any little trip or fall of a player. One wonders whether this can be the same nation which had gained for itself the reputation of being a stolid, pipe-sucking manhood, unmoved by panic or excitement, and reliable in the tightest of places.

Get the lads away from this--teach them to be manly, to play the game whatever it may be, and not be merely onlookers and loafers.

Indifferent citizenship is, and always has been, the progeny of indifferent government. With it there arises a crop of doctors to suggest remedies: faddists on feeding, faddists on Socialism, faddists like myself on scouting, and so on. Some may be right, some wrong; all mean well. A certain class of Socialist, for instance, has come to the fore lately. As a matter of fact we are all Socialists in that we want to see the abolition of the existing brutal anachronism of war, and of extreme poverty and misery shivering alongside of superabundant wealth, and so on; but we do not quite agree as to how it is to be brought about. Some of us are for pulling down the present social system, but the plans for what is going to be erected in its place are very hazy. We have not all got the patience to see that improvement is in reality gradually being effected before our eyes.

We have a parallel in London just now in the several railway stations, which, having been found to be out of date and inadequate for their increased traffic, are being reconstructed. The Man in the Street has demanded that they should be pulled down at once, and that afterwards something better should be devised and built up. But the management have been wiser; they have recognised the defects of the old, but before pulling down they have seen that it would be fatal to stop traffic during the alterations, and have therefore laid the new foundations outside the old; they have erected the new buildings over the effete ones, and have then pulled these away piecemeal, without interrupting the public convenience, trade, or routine for a moment.

It is easy to pull down; the difficulty is to do so without damage to the country. We ought to begin by building up on a sounder foundation before destroying the old.

OUR FUTURE CITIZENS.

That foundation seems to me to be in the rising generation. If the whole of our youth were taken in hand and taught good citizenship, we should have a solid foundation on which our nation could stand for a long time to come. But it does not exist at present.

We have at the present time in Great Britain two million boys, of whom one-quarter to one-half a million are under good influences outside their school walls.

(See Sir John Gorst's "Children of the Nation" and Dr. Macnamara's Report.)

2,000,000 boys.
270,000 under good influence.
----------
Remainder = 1,730,000 independent of such.

The remainder are drifting towards "hooliganism" or bad citizenship for want of hands to guide them the right way towards being useful.

It is this remainder, nearly two million boys, that we want to tackle and reduce.

They are boys, full of spirit and enthusiasm, approaching the cross-road, where they take the turn, either to good or evil. In spite of the improved school teaching and of the good work of Boys' and Church Lads' Brigades, Y.M.C.A., and kindred associations, a large proportion of them are drifting, owing to their environments, to evil, that is, to becoming "hooligans" and ultimately "wasters" for the natural term of their lives; no good to themselves, worse than no good to their country, just from want of a guiding hand or two at the turning point of their career.

Cannot we find these guiding hands amongst us?

PEACE-SCOUTING.

Here is one suggestion, at any rate, for a remedy by which every young man can help his country. I believe that under the attractive term and practice of "Scouting," a large number of boys might be taken in hand in a practical way, by every young man, without expense in time or money.

By "scouting" I do not mean the military work as carried on on active service. The scouting we are considering has nothing to do with this. There is another form, which one might term "peace-scouting," such as is usual with frontiersmen of our Empire in every corner of the world. The pioneers of civilisation in Central Africa; the ranchmen, cowboys, and trappers of the West; the drovers and bushmen of Australia; the explorers of the Arctic and Asiatic regions; the hunters and prospectors of South Africa; missionaries in all parts of the uncivilised world; and the constabularies of North-West Canada, South Africa, etc., are all "peace-scouts," men accustomed to live on their own resources, taking their lives in their hands, brave and loyal to their employers, chivalrous and helpful to each other, unselfish and reliable; MEN, in fact, of the best type. These are the peace-scouts of the Empire, and there is no reason why we should not train a large number of boys to follow in their footsteps as regards character and manliness.

A small book which I published a short time ago on the subject of scouting for soldiers has been so freely taken up by schools and boys' clubs in England that I am encouraged to think a system organised for the special purpose of teaching boys would be acceptable, and I am still further encouraged in the idea by the fact that a somewhat similar organisation founded by Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton in America has had a full and widespread success.

MILITARISM.

Two or three prominent authorities have written deprecating my attempt to "foster among the boys of Britain a bloodthirsty and warlike spirit."

I can only fear that either these gentlemen have not read the handbooks very carefully, or that I have expressed myself very badly. The whole intention of the Boy Scouts' training is for peaceful citizenship.

Even if I had advocated training the lads in a military way (which I have not done), I am impenitent enough to see no harm in it. I have not noticed that ex-soldiers are more inclined than other people to commit murders; all that I see in them, as a rule, is that they have been taught self-discipline, to sacrifice themselves, if need be, for others, to obey orders, to be sober, clean, and active, to make the best of things as they find them, to be loyal to themselves and their officers. All of which appear to me to be valuable assets in character for a citizen, whatever may be his grade or trade.

The fact that industrial employers now prefer ex-soldiers in very many of their departments speaks to the peace value of a military training. But when an eminent public man wrote to me that I ought not to teach boys soldiering because, as he puts it, "he hates war like the devil," I felt bound to reply that had he actually seen anything of war himself, he would, like most soldiers, hate it _worse_ than the devil. It is for that very reason that officers almost without exception urge upon their fellow countrymen to be prepared to defend their country. It is not that they wish to make the men bloodthirsty, but it is that they may avert from our own land that worst of all modern anachronisms--the horrors of war, brought on to our own homes, our women and children.

Those who preach shutting our eyes to what is quite patent to all who dare to look out will themselves be guilty of tempting the enemy on, of bringing war upon our country, and of the blood and ruin which will assuredly follow--if there is any truth in history.

With our rising generation brought up as good citizens, sensible of their responsibilities and duties in return for the benefits which they enjoy in a free country, there would be no danger for the State; but without manliness and good citizenship we are bound to fall.

Manliness can only be taught by men, and not by those who are half men, half old women.

HOW TO TEACH SCOUTING.

The first point is to get men to take up the instruction of the boys in the art of peace-scouting. The men I have in my mind as the best qualified and able to do this are schoolmasters, clergymen, members of the Y.M.C.A., Legion of Frontiersmen, officers of Cadet Corps, Boys' and Church Lads' Brigades, Rifle Clubs, country squires, ex-army officers, telegraph-masters, etc. These could carry out the training of a few boys apiece, with very little expense of time or money, by devoting, say, Saturday afternoons and Sundays to the work, which, I can promise them, they will find a pleasure rather than a labour in practice.

My suggestion to them would be for each to select a party of six or eight youths or smart boys, and carefully instruct them in the details of peace-scouting. These boys could then act as assistant instructors or "patrol leaders" in training each five or six more in the same art in the progressive course of instruction in this handbook.

The instruction is designed for boys of every class.

To help the lowest from drifting into hooliganism and to give them
health, character, and aims.

To teach the middle class how to work well, and to be patriotic
first and political second.

To teach the wealthier to be chivalrous and sympathetic with their
less-favoured brothers, and ultimately to help in spreading the
training.

One wants to bring all classes more in touch with each other, to break down the existing barriers, which are only artificial after all, and to teach them to give and take in the common cause instead of being at snarls of class against class, which is snobbery all round and a danger to the State.

The training is applicable to town or country, indoors as well as out.

NOT IN OPPOSITION TO EXISTING ORGANISATIONS FOR BOYS.

The scheme is not in any way intended to be in opposition to any existing organisation. On the contrary, we want amalgamation rather than rivalry, and scouting is only intended to be used as an additional attraction by those in charge of boys' organisations of any kind. If scouting is taken up by several it may prove a bond between all. Where such organisations do not already exist it can supply a particularly simple and effective one for catching a number of boys who would otherwise have no hand to guide them.

EXPERIMENTAL CAMP.

I have already made a preliminary trial of the scheme with a camp of boys of all sorts, from Eton as well as from the streets, and the results were such as to encourage very great hopes as to the possibilities of the scheme when carried out on a larger scale. A large island was lent for the purpose by the late Mr. Charles Van Raalte, Brownsea Island, near Poole.

PATROL SYSTEM.

The troop of boys was divided up into "Patrols" of five, the senior boy in each being Patrol Leader. This organisation was the secret of our success. Each patrol leader was given full responsibility for the behaviour of his patrol at all times, in camp and in the field. The patrol was the unit for work or play, and each patrol was camped in a separate spot. The boys were put "on their honour" to carry out orders. Responsibility and competitive rivalry were thus at once established, and a good standard of development was ensured throughout the troop from day to day. The troop was trained progressively in the subjects of scouting given on page 8. Every night one patrol went on duty as night picket--that is, drew rations of flour, meat, vegetables, tea, etc., and went out to some indicated spot to bivouac for the night. Each boy had his greatcoat and blankets, cooking pot and matches. On arrival at the spot, fires were lit and suppers cooked, after which sentries were posted and bivouac formed. The picket was scouted by patrol leaders of other patrols and myself, at some time before eleven p.m., after which the sentries were withdrawn and picket settled down for the night.

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION.

We found the best way of imparting theoretical instruction was to give it out in short instalments with ample illustrative examples when sitting round the camp fire or otherwise resting, and with demonstrations in the practice hour before breakfast. A formal lecture is apt to bore the boys.

The practice was then carried out in competitions and schemes.

For example, take one detail of the subject, "Observation"--namely, tracking.

1. At the camp fire overnight we would tell the boys some interesting instance of the value of being able to track.

2. Next morning we would teach them to read tracks by making foot-marks at different places, and showing how to read them and to deduce their meaning.

3. In the afternoon we would have a game, such as "deer-stalking," in which one boy went off as the "deer," with half-a-dozen tennis balls in his bag. Twenty minutes later four "hunters" went off after him, following his tracks, each armed with a tennis ball. The deer, after going a mile or two, would hide and endeavour to ambush his hunters, and so get them within range; each hunter struck with his tennis ball was counted gored to death; if, on the other hand, the deer was hit by three of their balls he was killed.

This was our principle for teaching most of the items.

Discipline was very satisfactory indeed. A "court of honour" was instituted to try any offenders against discipline, but it was never needed. In the first place, the boys were put "on their honour" to do their best; in the second place, the senior boys were made responsible for the behaviour of the boys forming their patrol. And this worked perfectly well.

RESULTS OF THE CAMP EXPERIMENT.

Since this experimental camp I am more than ever convinced of the possibilities which underlie the scouts' training as an educator for boys of all classes. Prepared as I was for enthusiastic endeavour on the part of the lads, I was surprised at the effect on their character, which became visible even in the few days we were at work. I have not trusted merely to my own observation, but have had reports from all the parents, bearing out this conclusion, and giving incidentally some very useful hints from the parents' point of view. That the boys enjoyed the training is evident from the letters which I have had from them, and some of them, at any rate, have remembered what they learnt. One of the boys--a working boy--writes: "The most important thing that a great many boys need to learn is to look at the bright side of things, and to take everything by the smooth handle. I myself found that a great lesson, and I shall never find words enough to thank you for teaching me it. I have already found it a great help even in everyday life."

AUTHORITIES WHO MIGHT FIND THE SCHEME USEFUL.

LORD MAYORS AND MAYORS.--This scheme might suggest some useful forms of instruction for the newly-authorised vacation schools.

SCHOOLMASTERS AND TEACHERS.--This scheme may, I hope, supply an additional means by which to get hold of the more unruly boys and to continue out of hours the practice of the theory which they have learnt in school. Unruly boys are often the best, once you have got the right side of them. A Commission on our schools has recently shown that there is an excess of book instruction in many of them; possibly if one day a week were devoted to scouting it would greatly benefit both the teachers and the scholars mentally and physically.

CLERGYMEN.--Clergymen would, I think, find in scouting a good means of keeping the wilder spirits among their boys in some kind of order, and also of arousing the loafers among them into some sort of energy and interest in life.

PARENTS.--Parents might be apprehensive that this course would lead their sons to imbibe too much the spirit of adventure and romance, and those whose sons are wage-earners would fear for their getting unsettled and wasting their working hours on a useless fad. But to such I would point out that the course is purposely designed to teach the boys useful knowledge in a form that will attract them, and it can be carried out entirely on Saturday afternoons and Sundays as a counter-attraction to that Sunday loafing which is the ruin of so large a proportion of our young men.

LADIES.--To ladies interested in the care and education of girls, I think this scheme might supply a suggestion for an attractive organisation and valuable training. The experiment of a somewhat similar camp for factory girls has been such an unqualified success as to lead one to hope that scouting camps might with advantage be employed for the rising generation of girls as well as boys.

BOYS' CLUBS AND BRIGADES.--Officers of Boys' Clubs, Boys' Brigades, Church Lads' Brigades, University and Public Schools Missions, Cricket Clubs, and Cadet Corps, but most especially officers of Rifle Clubs, will, I hope, find in this scheme an additional means of attracting recruits and of maintaining their interest in their corps after the first glamour of it has worn off.

LEGION OF FRONTIERSMEN.--The Legion includes many an old scout in its ranks who could at once take up the instruction of a few boys and youths and do really valuable work for the Empire, while reviving for himself many a delightful experience of camp and prairie life.

EX-ARMY OFFICERS.--Then there are a number of ex-Army officers, keen and capable, but without occupation, who would here have a great opportunity for the exercise of their special gifts and of their prestige among boys for doing a great national good with very little trouble and expense to themselves.

COUNTRY SQUIRES.--Members of county families might do much among their tenants and villagers by making good Englishmen of their lads, somewhat on the old feudal lines, by means of scouting.

Y.M.C.A.--Everyone recognises the keenness and go-a-head manliness of the members of the Y.M.C.A. and Polytechnics in all parts of the kingdom, and I am convinced that if these men could see their way to do a good turn to the rising generation of their countrymen they would take it up with ardour, especially since this kind of work is becoming a part of their policy. It is these gentlemen that I have specially in my eye in suggesting this scheme, as being the men who can, if they wish, get hold of practically the whole of the British boyhood by means of scouting. If every member of the Y.M.C.A. took a friend as his second-in-command and six boys as pupils, each of them being required to bring in another recruit, and then acting as leaders and instructors to further patrols of six, there would at once be the commencement of a great "snowball" movement for good.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

I do not in these "Hints" propose to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, and, therefore, I only address them to those who have had no previous practice in teaching boys. They are merely a few notes from my own experience in that line, and tend to explain some of the arrangement of details in the Handbook.

When you are trying to get boys to come under good influence you are as a fisherman wishful to catch fish.

If you bait your hook with the kind of food that you like yourself it is probable that you will not catch many--certainly, not the shy, game kind of fish. You, therefore, use as bait the food that the fish likes.

So with boys, if you try to preach to them what you consider, elevating matter you won't catch them. Any obvious "goody-goody" will scare away the more spirited among them, and those are the ones you want to get hold of. The only way is to hold out something that really attracts and interests them. And I think you will find that scouting does this.

You can afterwards season it with what you want them to have.

To get hold of your boys you must be their friend; but don't be in too great a hurry at first to gain this footing until they have got over their shyness of you. Mr. F. D. How, in his "Book of the Child," sums up the right course in the following story:

"A man whose daily walk led him down a certain dingy street saw a tiny boy with grimy face and badly-developed limbs playing with a banana-skin in the gutter. The man nodded to him--the boy shrank away in terror. Next day the man nodded again. The boy had decided there was nothing to be afraid of, and spat at the man. Next day the little fellow only stared. The day after he shouted 'Hi!' as the man went on. In time the little fellow smiled back at the greeting which he now began to expect. Finally the triumph was complete when the boy--a tiny chap--was waiting at the corner and seized the man's fingers in his dirty little fist. It was a dismal street, but it became one of the very brightest spots in all that man's life."

"BE PREPARED."

In this book I suggest as subjects to teach your boys such things as Observation of Details and consequent ability to read character and thereby to gain sympathy, the value of patience and cheery good temper, the duty of giving up some of one's time and pleasure for helping one's country and fellow men, and the inner meaning of our motto "Be Prepared."

But as you come to teach these things you will very soon find (unless you are a ready-made angel) that you have to acquire them yourself before you can succeed with the boys, and when once this is accomplished the occupation is intensely interesting and improving.

You must "Be Prepared" yourself for disappointments at first, though you will as often as not find them outweighed by unexpected successes.

You must from the first "Be Prepared" for the prevailing want of concentration of mind on the part of boys, and if you then frame your teaching accordingly I think you will have very few disappointments. Do not expect them to pay great attention to any one subject for very long until you have educated them to do so. You must meet them half-way and not give them too long a dose of one drink--a short, pleasing sip of one kind and then off to another, gradually lengthening the sips till they become steady draughts.

Thus a formal lecture on the subject which you want to practise very soon palls on them, their thoughts begin to wander and they get bored because they have not learnt the art of switching their mind where they want it to be and _holding it there_.

This making the mind amenable to the will is one of the important inner points in our training.

For this reason it is well to think out beforehand each day what you want to say on your subject and then bring it out a bit at a time as opportunity offers--at the camp-fire or in intervals of play and practice, not in one long set address.

The lectures in this book are broken up into sections for this purpose.

Frequent practical demonstrations and practices should be sandwiched in between the sections of the lectures to hold the attention of the boys and to drive home your theory.

CLUBROOM.

Half the battle is to get a room lent for certain nights in the week, or hired as a club for the scouts, even if they only consist of a patrol in a village.

It must be well lit and well ventilated to prevent depression and boredom. Pictures of incidents (not landscapes or old portraits) help to make attraction.

A _bright_ fire in winter.

Interesting illustrated books and magazines.

This can generally be got, furniture, games, etc., being given in the first instance by well-wishers.

A coffee-bar, commencing on the smallest lines, will generally succeed, and if carefully managed may develop a regular income for the upkeep of the clubroom.

The scouts themselves must do the cleaning and decorating, and making furniture.

Discipline and good order should be kept inside the room, and neatness insisted on, Patrol leaders being made responsible, Patrols taking it in turn to be responsible for cleanliness and good order of the room for a week at a time.

If a bit of ground, even waste ground or a backyard, is available as club ground so much the better. You want some place where the scouts can make huts, light fires, play basket-ball, make tracks, etc.

Make the boys themselves manage the club affairs, as far as possible, by committees, and putting boys in responsible charge of room, equipment, papers, etc. Sit back yourself and let them make their mistakes at first till they learn sense and responsibility. Committee and annual meetings are very useful for giving self-respect and responsibility to a number of boys.

In America small, self-managed boys' clubs are becoming exceedingly numerous and popular in all towns and villages. And the education authorities help them by allowing them the use of classrooms in the school buildings in the evenings. This might easily be done in England too.

At the same time, when you can get your own clubroom, no matter how small, it gives the boys more a sense of proprietorship and responsibility, especially if they have taken a hand themselves in making the furniture, putting up pictures, etc.

The clubroom must not be made cosy like a lady's boudoir, as the boys must be able to romp in it occasionally, or play handball or "Bang the Bear," etc. So you want furniture that will pack away into a corner, such as folding wooden chairs, small tables, and a cupboard in which to put away books, games, etc., when the romp comes on.

The ideal club is one of two rooms--one for quiet games, reading and talking; the other for romping, gymnastics, etc.

The boys must of course pay subscription towards rent, lighting, furnishing, etc., and the major expenses must be provided for by means of some joint work by them, such as garden produce, toys, displays or bazaars (as described in Appendix).

One penny weekly, paid strictly in advance, is sufficient as a membership subscription.

A Penny Savings Bank should be started to enable boys to put by money to pay for outings and eventually to start them in the practice of thrift.

A piano is of great help in a club, if you have some one who can play it, to help out songs, musical drill, war-dances, etc.

THE HANDBOOK.

The Handbook is merely intended to offer suggestions, not to tie instructors to one set course.

In such brief space it can only touch sketchily upon subjects whose detail as instructor you must fill in for yourself, according to your own imagination and resourcefulness, to suit your particular local circumstances.

I give with each lecture the titles of books bearing on the subject, to which you can probably get access in your public library, but you will also find every day as you read your newspaper fresh things worth cutting out to use in your lectures. Indeed, if you are ever hard up for a subject, take the leading news items of the past week, and explain them in an interesting way with maps, etc.

I have found the value of this also in dealing with grown-ups in men's clubs, hospitals, etc.

The "History of England" by H. O. Arnold-Forster will at all times give you useful subjects in most interesting form. For your own information read "Duty," by Samuel Smiles.

I have endeavoured to make the Handbook readable by the boy himself, since a boy should be encouraged to read for himself. The worst of it is that the literature to which as a rule he has access is the cheap and nasty press with little else than crimes and tragedies and big football matches to catch his attention.

He thus becomes educated downwards instead of being elevated by good examples to higher deeds.

The reading of such books as "Golden Deeds," "Deeds that Won the Empire," and so on, are the best of antidotes, especially if impressed by means of modern examples, illustrations and lantern slides, and acting the incidents.

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.

I suggest the following scheme of work, to be altered according to local circumstances.

Give a week to each chapter of the book.

On Saturday evening give a lecture with practical demonstrations and, where possible, _with lantern slides_, on the subject of the following week's instruction.

Among the worst classes in our slums Sunday is, unfortunately, perhaps the most unholy day of the week, but by using it for instruction of the proposed kind I believe that a good proportion of these lads might be won and led to better things than the loafing and vice which are at present incidental to the day.

So, for such lads, I advocate using Sunday morning for teaching the minor practices, and the afternoon for the consequent scouting exercises.

It is true that this suggestion has been criticised in some quarters, but it has, in the end, been generally accepted on the plea that it makes for saving souls, for which work there need be no Sunday closing.

The details thus taught could then be carried out and perfected by the boys individually in their own time during the week, or by occasional parades when possible under their patrol leaders, till the following Saturday afternoon, when you could have a final competition or games on that subject before starting on the next chapter that evening.

This is only a suggestion on the supposition that you and your boys are at other work all the week. If you would thus devote eight Saturday afternoons and Sundays to this work you will have completed a course of instruction which will guide a number of boys for life, and will take them from that present school of loafing which is to be found, to our great disgrace, at the corner of every village street in England on Sunday afternoon.

If funds are then forthcoming amongst the boys a camp of a week or ten days, or for two or three week-ends in the summer, would complete their instruction and put it to a practical test, while serving as a great reward for good preliminary work. And it need not be very expensive if the boys work for it and save up, as suggested in Chapter IV.

As I have before remarked, the training laid down in this book is merely suggestive.

The instructor should use his own knowledge and imagination and enlarge upon it.

There is much useful technical knowledge which he might incidentally impart to his boys, either himself or by getting friends to come and demonstrate (I don't say "lecture") on such points as the principles of steam or petrol-engines, or electricity; the work of sailors, soldiers, firemen, police, and so on; pioneer work such as bridging with models, road making, building, etc., also carpentering, modelling, casting, plumbing, gardening, etc.

Excursions from town into country, and seeing farm life, mining, fisheries, etc.; or from country to town and visiting the Zoological Gardens, interesting portions of museums, picture-galleries, armouries, etc., would be valuable and popular.

With a carefully-laid programme of such items the scouts' training can be carried out indefinitely in an interesting way, and on lines that will be of use to them in their future career.

I even advocate taking the boys to a theatre to see something really good, as a very great inducement to them to save the money necessary to pay for their seats. It can be made the first step towards thrift.

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION.

The way to teach a language is not to bore your pupil at first with the dry bones of elementary grammar, but to plunge into fairly deep water with phrases and conversation; the grammar will then quickly follow of itself.

So also with most other subjects of instruction, including scouting. For instance, take tracking. After preparing the boys' minds with a few good tracking yarns and showing a few actual tracks and their meaning, don't wait till they get bored in trying to learn the elementary details, but take them for a real piece of practical tracking. After they have found out for themselves how weak they are at it, give them further "sips" of the elementary part.

IMAGINATION.

Boys are full of romance, and they love "make-believe" to a greater extent than they like to show.

All you have to do is to play up to this and to give rein to your imagination to meet their requirements. But you have to treat with all seriousness the many tickling incidents that will arise: the moment you laugh at a situation the boys are quick to feel that it is all a farce, and to lose faith in it forthwith and for ever.

For instance, in instructing a patrol to make the call of its tutelary animal (page 355), the situation borders on the ridiculous, but if the instructor remains perfectly serious the boys work at it with the idea that it is "business"--and once accomplished the call becomes a fetish for _esprit de corps_ among the members of the patrol.

Bacon said that play-acting was one of the best means of educating children, and one can quite believe him.

It develops the natural power in them of imitation, and of wit and imagination, all of which help in the development of character; and at the same time lessons of history and morality can be impressed on their minds far better by their assuming the characters and acting the incidents themselves than by any amount of preaching of the same on the part of the teacher.

The recent craze for historical pageants is, in reality, one of the best ideas, educationally, that has come over us of late years. In places where pageants have been held, both old and young have learnt--and learnt for the rest of their lives--something of the history of their forefathers, their town, and their country.

Instructors will similarly find it a genuinely useful practice to make their scouts act scenes from history or of incidents with which they desire to impress them. Such, for instance, as "Wilson's last Stand," "The Wreck of the _Birkenhead_," "The Sentry at Pompeii," and so on.

For this reason a few suggestions for pageants are given in the Appendix.

It is also easy to get up real plays, such as _To Parents and Guardians_ (See Messrs. Samuel French's List), for which the organisation, rehearsals, and performance are all good, useful practice, especially in the long winter evenings. Begin with a small play first, such as _Box and Cox_ or _Area Belle_.

When these performances attain some degree of merit they might be used as a means of gaining funds.

RESPONSIBILITY TO JUNIORS.

The great thing in this scheme is to delegate responsibility--mainly through the patrol leaders.

Have, if possible, a good Second in Command to yourself to ensure continuity of instruction should you be unable on occasions to be present yourself, and to relieve you of many minor details of administration.

_Give full responsibility and show full confidence in your patrol leaders._ _Expect_ a great deal from them, and you will get it.

This is the key to success in scout-training.

Foster the patrol spirit and friendly rivalry between patrols and you will get immediate good results in an improved standard of the whole. Don't try to do everything yourself or the boys will merely look on, and the scheme will flag.

DISCIPLINE.

Insist on discipline and strict obedience; let them run riot only when you give leave for it, which is a good thing to do every now and then.

A nation to be powerful and prosperous must be well disciplined, and you only get discipline in the mass by discipline in the individual. By discipline I mean patient obedience to authority and to other dictates of duty.

This cannot be got by repressive measures, but by educating the boy first in self-discipline and in sacrificing of self and selfish pleasures for the benefit of others. This teaching is largely effected by means of example, and by expecting it of him. There lies our work.

Smiles gives in his book on "Duty" Baron Stoeffel's report comparing the discipline of the Germans and the French before the war, 1870-71, in which he foretold the victory of the Germans, on account of their superior discipline; and, in commenting on this, Mr. Smiles writes:

"Can it be that we are undergoing the same process in England as in France; that the ever-extending tide of democracy is bearing down the best points of a very vain-glorious people?

"We are a very vain-glorious people.

"We boast of our wealth, our naval and military strength, and our commercial superiority. Yet all these may depart from us in a very few years, and we may remain, like Holland, a rich and yet powerless people. The nation depends on the individuals who compose it; and no nation can ever remain distinguished for morality, duty, adherence to the rules of honour and justice whose citizens, individually and collectively, do not possess the same traits."

Sir Henry Knyvett, in 1596, warned Queen Elizabeth that the State which neglects to train and discipline its youth produces not merely rotten soldiers or sailors, but the far greater evil of equally rotten citizens for civil life; or, as he words it, "For want of true discipline the honour and wealth both of Prince and countrie is desperatlie and frivolouslie ruinated."

Discipline is not gained by punishing a child for a bad habit, but by substituting a better occupation that will absorb his attention and gradually lead him to forget and abandon the old one.

RELIGION.

An organisation of this kind would fail in its object if it did not bring its members to a knowledge of religion--but the usual fault in such cases is the manner in which this is done. If it were treated more as a matter of everyday life and quite unsectarian, it would not lose its dignity and it would gain a hold. It is often the best not to have religious instruction as a special feature, but to introduce it by "sips" here and there among other instruction, as I suggest in the chapter on "Chivalry" and elsewhere in this book.

CONTINENCE.

In the Handbook I have touched on many important items of a boy's education, but there is scarcely one more important than this, which, under advice, I have relegated from the body of the book to these "Notes for Instructors."

The training of the boy would be very incomplete did it not contain some clear and plain-spoken instructions on the subject of continence.

The prudish mystery with which we have come to veil this important question is doing incalculable harm.

The very secrecy with which we withhold all knowledge from the boy prompts him the more readily to take his own line, also secretly, and, therefore, injuriously.

I have never known a boy who was not the better for having the question put to him frankly and openly. It can quite well be done without indelicacy.

You can warn him that "indulgence" or "self-abuse" is a temptation more likely to assail him than any other vices, such as drinking, gambling, or smoking, and is more harmful than any of them, since it brings with it weakness of heart and head, and, if persisted in, idiocy and lunacy.

Show him that it is not even a manly vice, but is everywhere looked down upon with contempt; and that it can be overcome by determination and strength of will.

The temptation may arise from physical causes, such as eating rich foods, sleeping on the back in a soft bed with too many blankets on, or from constipation, or it may come from suggestion through pictures, stories, or dirty talk of others.

In any case, knowing their danger, these causes must be avoided, and the temptation met with a mental determination to fight it by substituting other thoughts, by washing in cold water, and by exercising the upper part of the body, with boxing or arm exercises, to draw away the blood, and so on.

The first occasion will be the difficult one, but once this is successfully overcome subsequent attacks will be more easy to deal with.

If the boy still finds difficulty about it he should come and speak quite openly to his officer, who can then advise him what to do.

But for an instructor to let his boys walk on this exceedingly thin ice without giving them a warning word, owing to some prudish sentimentality, would be little short of a crime.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

Priggishness or conceit is sure to come to some of your boys as they find themselves good at various games or branches of their work. These must be taken down by the skill and patience of the instructors. Don't get upset by having one or two of these to deal with, but, on the contrary, take it as a sporting adventure, and treat them as interesting subjects. It is far more satisfactory to turn one unruly character the right way than to deal with a dozen milk-and-water cases.

There are also boys who, though with other boys, are not of them. These need special individual study and special treatment, which will avail in almost every case.

Boys of rich parents need the training of a scout quite as much as any poor boy, and should, therefore, be taken in hand by those who are willing to deal with them.

In "The Boy Problem" it is shown how in the days of chivalry boys were pages to the esquires in order that they might learn knightly habits, and then they went to one of the young knight's castles to learn knightly ideas. In the same way boys of to-day need contact with chivalrous young men to make them into noble and courtly men.

FORMING CHARACTER.

Keep before your mind in all your teaching that the whole ulterior object of this scheme is to form character in the boys--to make them manly, good citizens.

For the individual it is useful, when describing a situation, to stop narration at the critical point and ask a boy what would be his action under the circumstances, in order to develop quick decision, and so on.

In the games it is of the greatest importance to so arrange that a boy imagines himself running a great danger in carrying out the mission given him. In this way he becomes accustomed to taking risks.

For the mass it is a useful practice frequently to give false alarms to see what they do and to accustom them to face sudden crises. Such alarms, for instance, as having smoke blown into the room and a sudden alarm of fire given, or getting a boy to rush in and report that Johnny Tomkins has fallen from a tree and hurt himself.

Instruction of the individual is the only really successful form of instruction.

In teaching your boy to be alert and energetic, teach him also how to be restful and not to worry.

The physical attitude of the natural man, as one sees it in the savage, is the one to cultivate in the boy in mind as well as body.

The normal attitude of the natural man is a graceful slackness of body, but with eyes and ears alert, able on the instant to spring like a cat from apparent inertness to steel-spring readiness.

Study the individual fads and characteristics of your boys, and, having found them, encourage their development on these directions; then when advising the boys as to their future line of life you will be in a position to direct the square boy to a square hole in the world, and the round boy to a round one. Don't, as many people do, make him aim for some sphere for which he is not really fitted. Aim for making each individual into a useful member of society, and the whole will automatically come on to a high standard.

One great cause of unemployment--in all walks of life in England--is the inability of our men to take up any line other than the one they have first attempted and failed in. We call a sailor the "handy man" with admiration, because he seems to be the only kind of man among us who can turn his hand to any kind of job. Well, so can anyone if he only has the idea put into his head and tries it for himself. Our aim should be, therefore, to make the boys "handy men."

But most of all we want to raise the lowest to a higher place. "Go for the worst" is the motto of the Salvation Army in its great work. "Our mission is to the bottom dog" says Colonel Ruston, Mayor of Lincoln.

Mr. A. J. Dawson, in his very able articles in the _Evening Standard_, has put the question of the loafer in clear and easy terms.

He points out that the very efficient work of our police in big cities has stopped thieves, but produced a class of criminally-inclined loafers.

"On the Canadian prairie," he says, "if a perfectly able-bodied man without means were deliberately to abstain from work for any considerable time he would die and would cease to cumber the earth." But in London it is different; a man can loaf for months, or years, leaning against a public-house--and they do it by the hundreds. He assigns two reasons for this:

1. Want of discipline in the lives of those who are not absolute
criminals.

2. Indiscriminate charity.

We want to save lads from drifting into this class of loafer who swells the ranks of the unemployed. The complaint has recently come from Canada that "No Englishmen need apply for employment" there. The subsequent Canadian explanation was to the effect that the average type of Englishman who came there was unsuitable, because:

1. He had no idea of discipline.

2. He was generally surly and ready to grumble at difficulties.

3. He could not be relied upon to stick to a job the moment he found
it at all distasteful.

These faults are, undoubtedly, very widespread among us, in all classes of society, owing to want of an education like that of the scouts. They are the result of putting self in the first place and ignoring duty or the interests of others; in other words, they mean _bad citizenship_.