In Denmark the Boy Scouts are strong in numbers and keen and good at
their work. Those of Copenhagen gave a Rally in my honour, and twenty
troops paraded and gave very good shows of scout work, each troop
doing its own in turn. They seemed very good, especially in their
cooking.
There were two very smart troops of Girl Guides also present at the
parade, who cooked, too.
[Illustration: AVENUE OF CROSSED STAVES. Formed by Boy Scouts and Girl
Guides at Copenhagen. I drove through it in a motor-car.]
The consequence was that when I began tasting some of their good
dishes, I had to go and taste all, so that when the time came for the
official dinner I had to attend in the evening I was already so
"crowded" that I could not eat any of it!
When I drove away from the parade-ground after it was over, the Scouts
and the Girl Guides made an avenue, crossing their staves overhead,
through which I drove in my motor-car.
In Copenhagen, the Town Hall is the great "thing" to see. It is quite
modern, only lately built, and is a magnificent building. One of the
features about it is the lifts, which keep running slowly up and down.
They have no attendants in them. You simply have to jump in or out
fairly quickly. I saw one stout old lady come and look at the lift.
She did not seem to like trying to jump in, but there seemed no way
for getting it to stop for a minute; she looked helplessly around;
then she had another look at it. The more she looked the less she
liked it, and finally she gave up the idea of visiting the upper
floors of the building, and went sorrowfully away.
[Illustration: The lift in the Town Hall at Copenhagen is a continuous
moving one--you have to jump in or out of it pretty smartly. Old Lady:
"Shall I venture?"]
The Scouts in Copenhagen have been trained in first aid work by a
First Aid Corps which exists in that city.
The Danish First Aid Corps is very much like our Fire Brigade. At the
first aid station are motor-cars fitted up with things needed for
almost every kind of accident, and they are ready to turn out at any
moment that their services may be required. Their office is on the
telephone with every police station, and when they get a call to an
accident, the motor, with all appliances, leaves the station within
thirty seconds of the alarm.
When I was there the alarm came that a man had been run over by a
tramcar in Market Street. In a few moments a motor lorry ran out of
the station equipped with lifting jacks and levers to raise the
tramcar, while a second followed it immediately with stretcher and
first aid appliances for the injured man.
In the station were kept all the things necessary for dealing with
railway accidents, for rescuing people overcome with gas, for saving
people in the water, and for pumping air into them when apparently
drowned; there were derricks for raising fallen horses, and fire
escapes of every kind. In fact, it was fitted up and manned by thirty
men, all trained and prepared to deal with every kind of accident that
could well happen.
Well, that's just what I should like to see done by Boy Scouts in our
country towns and villages. They might make their club-room a first
aid station, with as many appliances they could get together in the
shape of bicycles, hand-carts, ladders, jumping-sheets, stretchers,
bandages, spare harness, and with every Scout trained to deal with
every kind of accident, or to form fence while others rendered first
aid, and so on.
There might be some way of sending round or sounding the "alarm" when
an accident was reported, to bring together in a few minutes the
patrol whose turn it was for duty.
In this way Scouts would do most valuable work.
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