"Do It Now," by Peter Keary. 1s. (C. A. Pearson Ltd.)
"Rabbits for Profit," by J. Brod. 1s.
"The Secrets of Success," by Peter Keary. 1s. (C. A. Pearson Ltd.)
"Bees for Pleasure and Profit," by Swanson. 1s.
"Esperanto for the Million." 1d. (Stead, 39 Whitefriars Street, London,
E.C.)
"Cassell's Handbooks." 1s. 6d. each. Joinery, Pottery, Painters' Work,
etc.
"Work Handbooks" series. 1s. each. On Harness-making, Tinplate, Pumps,
Bookbinding, Signwriting, Beehives, etc.
"How to Make Baskets," by Miss White. 1s.
"Rafia Work," by M. Swannell. 2s. (Geo. Philip & Son, Fleet Street.)
["Rafia" or "Bast" is the inner bark of a tree and is used for making
baskets, mats, hats, etc.]
"Self Help," by S. Smiles. 2s. (John Murray.)
See also "Papers on Trades for Boys" in Boys Brigade Gazette.
CONTENTS OF PARTS V. and VI.
PART V.
SAVING LIFE AND FIRST-AID.
PATRIOTISM AND LOYALTY.
PART VI.
SCOUTING GAMES, COMPETITIONS, AND PLAYS.
WORDS TO INSTRUCTORS.
_So great has been the success of this Handbook, "Scouting for Boys,"
that Lt.-Gen. Baden-Powell has decided to complete it with Part 6, and
make arrangements instead for a weekly penny paper for young men, to be
entitled_:
_THE SCOUT_,
_in order to get into quicker touch with the numerous scouting patrols
being formed_.
_Full particulars will be given later. Meanwhile all communications
should be addressed to Messrs. C. Arthur Pearson Ltd., 17-18 Henrietta
Street, Strand, London, W.C., who will be the publishers._
WHAT PARTS I., II., and III. CONTAIN.
Part I.--SCOUTCRAFT.
SPECIAL FOREWORD FOR INSTRUCTORS.--The BOY SCOUTS scheme and its easy
application _to all existing organisations_.
SCOUTCRAFT.--Its wide uses and wide interest.
SUMMARY OF SCOUT'S COURSE OF INSTRUCTION, showing the scope of Scout's
work.
ORGANISATION.--Dress, secret signs, scouts' songs, and tests for badges
of honour.
SCOUTS' LAW AND SCOUTS' HONOUR under the guiding motto "Be Prepared."
SCOUTING GAMES AND PRACTICES for indoors and out of doors, in town and
in country.
Part II.--TRACKING and WOODCRAFT.
OBSERVATION and its value; how to use your eyes, nose, and ears, and how
to follow a night trail.
SPOORING.--Tracks of men and animals and games in tracking.
READING "SIGN" and making deductions from it.
WOODCRAFT.--How to stalk and how to hide properly.
ANIMALS.--How to stalk and know them--a better game than stamp
collecting.
BIRDS, FISHES, AND INSECTS all scouts should know.
PLANTS AND TREES.
GAMES AND COMPETITIONS in Tracking, Stalking, and Woodcraft.
Part III.--LIFE IN THE OPEN.
CAMPS AND CAMPAIGNING.
PIONEER DODGES.--How to make huts, knots, and bridges.
CAMP COMFORT HINTS.--Right ways to make fires and to keep the camp
straight and clean.
COOKING.--How to use your cooking-tin; ideas for camp games.
OPEN AIR LIFE.--Water games; weather reading; exploration at home; night
work.
PATHFINDING.--How to find your way; methods of signalling by code,
whistle, smoke, flame, and flag; some good games.
Part V. FORTNIGHTLY. Price 4d. net.
SCOUTING FOR BOYS
BY
B-P
PUBLISHED BY HORACE COX, WINDSOR HOUSE,
BREAM'S BUILDINGS, LONDON, E.C.
Scouting for Boys.
A HANDBOOK FOR INSTRUCTION
IN
GOOD CITIZENSHIP.
BY
Lieut.-General R. S. S. BADEN-POWELL, C.B., F.R.G.S.
_All communications should be addressed to_--
LIEUT.-GENERAL BADEN-POWELL,
BOY SCOUTS' OFFICE,
GOSCHEN BUILDINGS,
HENRIETTA STREET,
LONDON, W.C.
_by whom Scouts will be enrolled, and from where
all further information can be obtained._
Copyrighted by Lieut.-General R. S. S. BADEN-POWELL, C.B., F.R.G.S.
1908.
_All rights reserved._
CONTINUATION OF PART IV.--Sobriety: Practise Observation; Fortitude;
Notes to Instructors.
PART V.
CONTENTS: CHAPTER VIII.
(_Commences on page 279._)
SAVING LIFE;
or, How to Deal with Accidents.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.
CAMP FIRE YARNS.
23.--BE PREPARED FOR ACCIDENTS: The Knights Hospitallers of St.
John; Boy Heroes; Girl Heroines; Life-Saving Medals.
24.--ACCIDENTS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM: Panic; Fire; Drowning;
Horses; Mad Dog; Miscellaneous.
25.--AID TO THE INJURED: First Aid; Prevention of Suicide.
PRACTICES, GAMES, and DISPLAYS IN LIFE-SAVING.
BOOKS TO READ.
CONTENTS: CHAPTER IX.
(_Commences on page 309_).
PATRIOTISM;
or, Our Duties as Citizens.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.
CAMP FIRE YARNS.
26.--OUR EMPIRE: How it Grew; How it must be Maintained.
27.--CITIZENSHIP: Duties of Scouts as Citizens; Duties as Citizen
Soldiers; Marksmanship; Helping the Police.
28.--UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL: Our Flag; Our Navy and Army;
Our Government; Our King.
BOOKS TO READ.
CONTINUATION OF PART IV.
SOBRIETY.
Remember that drink never yet cured a single trouble; it only makes
troubles grow worse and worse the more you go on with it. It makes a man
forget for a few hours what exactly his trouble is, but it also makes
him forget everything else. If he has wife and children it makes him
forget that his duty is to work and help them out of the difficulties
instead of making himself all the more unfit to work.
A man who drinks is generally a coward--and one used to see it very much
among soldiers. Nowadays they are a better class and do not drink.
Some men drink because they like the feeling of getting half stupid, but
they are fools, because once they take to drink no employer will trust
them, and they soon become unemployed and easily get ill, and finally
come to a miserable end. There is nothing manly about getting drunk.
Once a man gives way to drink it ruins his health, his career, and his
happiness, as well as that of his family. There is only one cure for
this disease, and that is--never to get it.
PRACTISE OBSERVATION.
A well-known detective, Mr. Justin Chevasse, describes how with a little
practice in observation you can tell pretty accurately a man's character
from his dress.
He tells the story of a Duke who used to dress very shabbily. One day
this nobleman was travelling by train with a friend of his, Lord A. A
commercial traveller who was in the carriage got into conversation with
them. At one station the Duke got out, and after he was gone the
commercial traveller asked "Who is the gentleman who has just got out?"
"Oh," said Lord A, "that is the Duke of X." The commercial traveller was
quite taken aback and said, "Fancy that! Fancy him talking so affably to
you and me. I thought all the time that he must be a gardener."
I expect that that commercial traveller had not been brought up as a
scout and did not look at people's boots: if he had he would probably
have seen that neither the Duke's nor Lord A's were those of a gardener.
The boots are very generally the best test of all the details of
clothing. I was with a lady the other day in the country, and a young
lady was walking just in front of us. "I wonder who she is" said my
friend. "Well," I said, "I should be inclined to say I wonder whose maid
she is." The girl was very well dressed but when I saw her boots I
guessed that the dress had belonged to someone else, had been given to
her and refitted by herself--but that as regards boots she felt more
comfortable in her own. She went up to the house at which we were
staying--to the servants' entrance--and we found that she was the maid
of one of the ladies staying there.
Dr. Gross relates the story of a learned old gentleman who was found
dead in his bedroom with a wound in his forehead and another in his left
temple.
Very often after a murder the murderer, with his hands bloody from the
deed and running away, may catch hold of the door, or a jug of water to
wash his hands.
In the present case a newspaper lying on the table had the marks of
three blood-stained fingers on it.
The son of the murdered man was suspected and was arrested by the
police.
But careful examination of the room and the prints of the finger-marks
showed that the old gentleman had been taken ill in the night--had got
out of bed to get some medicine, but getting near the table a new spasm
seized him and he fell, striking his head violently against the corner
of the table and made the wound on his temple which just fitted the
corner. In trying to get up he had caught hold of the table and the
newspaper on it and had made the bloody finger-marks on the newspaper in
doing so. Then he had fallen again, cutting his head a second time on
the foot of the bed.
The finger-marks were compared with the dead man's fingers, and were
found to be exactly the same. Well, you don't find two men in
64,000,000,000,000 with the same pattern on the skin of their fingers.
So it was evident there had been no murder, and the dead man's son was
released as innocent.
FORTITUDE.
In Japan, whenever a child is born, the parents hang up outside the
house either a doll or a fish, according as the child is a girl or boy.
It is a sign to the neighbours: the doll means it is a girl, who will
some day have children to nurse; the fish means it is a boy, who, as he
grows into manhood, will, like a fish, have to make his way against a
stream of difficulties and dangers. A man who cannot face hard work or
trouble is not worth calling a man.
[Illustration: Perseverance: Frogs in the Milk.]
Some of you may have heard the story of the two frogs. If you have not,
here it is:
Two frogs were out for a walk one day and they came to a big jug of
cream. In looking into it they both fell in.
One said: "This is a new kind of water to me. How can a fellow swim in
stuff like this? It is no use trying." So he sank to the bottom and was
drowned through having no pluck.
But the other was a more manly frog, and he struggled to swim, using his
arms and legs as hard as he could to keep himself afloat; and whenever
he felt he was sinking he struggled harder than ever, and never gave up
hope.
At last, just as he was getting so tired that he thought he _must_ give
it up, a curious thing happened. By his hard work with his arms and legs
he had churned up the cream so much that he suddenly found himself
standing all safe on a pat of butter!
So when things look bad just smile and sing to yourself, as the thrush
sings: "Stick to it, stick to it, stick to it," and you will come
through all right.
DUTY BEFORE ALL.--You have all heard of "Lynch-Law," by which is meant
stern justice by hanging an evil-doer.
The name came from Galway in Ireland where a memorial still commemorates
the act of a chief magistrate of that city named Lynch who in the year
1493 had his own son Walter Lynch executed for killing a young Spaniard.
The murderer had been properly tried and convicted. His mother begged
the citizens to rescue her son when he was brought out from the jail to
suffer punishment, but the father foreseeing this had the sentence
carried out in the prison, and young Lynch was hanged from the prison
window.
The elder Lynch's sense of duty must have been very strong indeed to
enable him to make his feelings as a father give way to his conscience
as a magistrate.
General Gordon sacrificed his life to his sense of duty. When he was
besieged at Khartum he could have got away himself had he liked, but he
considered it his duty to remain with the Egyptians whom he had brought
there although he had no admiration for them. So he stuck to them and
when at last the place was captured by the enemy he was killed.
NOTES TO INSTRUCTORS
RELIGION.
CHARLES STELZLE, in his "Boys of the Streets and How to Win Them," says:
Sometimes we are so much concerned about there being enough religion
in our plans for the boy that we forget to leave enough boy in the
plans. According to the notions of some, the ideal boys' club would
consist of prayer meetings and Bible classes, with an occasional
missionary talk as a treat, and perhaps magic lantern views of the
Holy Land as a dizzy climax.
Religion can and ought to be taught to the boy, but not in a
milk-and-watery way, or in a mysterious and lugubrious manner; he is
very ready to receive it if it is shown in its heroic side and as a
natural every-day quality in every proper man, and it can be well
introduced to boys through the study of Nature; and to those who believe
scouting to be an unfit subject for Sunday instruction, surely the study
of God's work is at least proper for that day. There is no need for this
instruction to be dismal, that is, "all tears and texts." Arthur Benson,
writing in the _Cornhill Magazine_, says there are four Christian
virtues, not three. They are--Faith, Hope, Charity--and Humour. So also
in the morning prayer of Robert Louis Stevenson:
The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns
and duties. Help us to play the man--help us to perform them with
laughter and kind faces. Let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give
us to go blithely on our business all this day. Bring us to our
resting beds weary and content and undishonoured, and grant us in
the end the gift of sleep.
THRIFT.
A very large proportion of the distress and unemployedness in the
country is due to want of thrift on the part of the people themselves;
and social reformers, before seeking for new remedies, would do well to
set this part of the problem right in the first place; they would then
probably find very little more left for them to do. Mr. John Burns, in a
recent speech, pointed out that there is plenty of money in the country
to put everyone on a fair footing, if only it were made proper use of by
the working man. In some places, it is true, there is thrift--workmen
save their pay and buy their own houses, and become prosperous,
contented citizens in happy homes. It is estimated that £500,000,000 of
working-men's money is invested in savings banks and friendly societies.
But there is a reverse to the medal. This great balance represents
savings of many years, whereas it could be doubled in two or three years
were men to give up drinking and smoking.
Where we deposit £4 per head per annum in savings banks, other countries
deposit far more, although earning lower wages, and in Denmark such
deposits amount, on an average, to £19 per head.
£166,000,000 were spent last year on drink, and £25,000,000 on tobacco.
This alone would be enough, if divided amongst our thirty-five millions
of poor, to give £22 a year to each family; and we know that this is
only part of the extravagance of the nation. From £8000 to £10,000 a
week is estimated to go into the pockets of the bookmakers at Liverpool
and its surrounding towns at football. Holiday, or "Going Off" clubs,
are common in Lancashire, where workers save up money to spend on their
holidays. In Blackburn alone £117,000 was thus expended last year. At
Oldham £25,000 was saved to be expended in festivities at the "Wakes."
The wastefulness in Great Britain is almost inconceivable, and ought to
be made criminal. Men draw big wages of £3 and £4 on Saturday nights,
but have nothing to show for it by Monday night. If they had thrift a
large majority of our working-men and their families might be in
prosperous circumstances to-day, but they have never been taught what
thrift may be, and they naturally do as their neighbours do. If the
rising generation could be started in the practice of economy, it would
make a vast difference to the character and prosperity of the nation in
the future.
In Manchester the school children are encouraged to save up their money
by means of money-boxes, and 44,000 of them now have deposits in the
savings banks. It has been found a very successful way of encouraging
thrift. For this reason we have instituted money-boxes for Boy Scouts.
POLITENESS.
An instance of politeness in war occurred at the Battle of Fontenoy,
when we were fighting against the French.
The Coldstream Guards coming up over a hill suddenly found themselves
close up to the French Guards. Both parties were surprised, and neither
fired a shot for a minute or two.
In those days when gallant men quarrelled, they used to settle their
differences by fighting duels with pistols. At a duel both combatants
were supposed to fire at the same moment when the word was given, but it
often happened that one man, in order to show how brave he was, would
tell his adversary to fire first. And so in this case. When both parties
were about to fire, the officer commanding the British Guards, to show
his politeness and fearlessness, bowed to the French commander, and
said, "You fire first, sir."
When the French Guards levelled their rifles to fire, one of the
soldiers of the Coldstreams exclaimed, "For what we are going to receive
may the Lord make us truly thankful." In the volley that followed, a
great number of our men fell, but the survivors returned an equally
deadly volley, and immediately charged in with the bayonet, and drove
the French off the field.
CHAPTER VIII.
SAVING LIFE;
or,
How to Deal with Accidents.
CAMP FIRE YARN.--No. 23.
BE PREPARED FOR ACCIDENTS.
The Knights Hospitallers of St. John--Boy Heroes and Girl
Heroines--Life-Saving Medals.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.
_The subjects in this chapter should not only be explained to the
scouts, but should also, wherever possible, be demonstrated practically,
and should be practised by each boy himself in turn._
_Theoretical knowledge in these points is nothing without practice._
THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN.
The knights of old days were called Knights Hospitallers, because they
had hospitals for the treatment of the sick poor and those injured in
accidents or in war. They used to save up their money to keep these
hospitals going, and they used to act as nurses and doctors themselves.
The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem especially devoted themselves to
this work 800 years ago, and the St. John's Ambulance Corps is to-day a
branch which represents those knights. Their badge is an eight-pointed
white cross on a black ground, and when worn as an Order it has a black
ribbon.
Explorers and hunters and other scouts in out-of-the-way parts of the
world have to know what to do in the case of accident or sickness,
either to themselves or their followers, as they are often hundreds of
miles away from any doctors. For these reasons boy scouts should, of
course, learn all they can about looking after sick people and dealing
with accidents.
My brother was once camping with a friend away in the bush in Australia.
His friend was drawing a cork, holding the bottle between his knees to
get a better purchase. The bottle burst, and the jagged edge of it ran
deeply into his thigh, cutting an artery. My brother quickly got a stone
and wrapped it in a handkerchief to act as a pad, and he then tied the
handkerchief round the limb above the wound, so that the stone pressed
on the artery. He then got a stick, and, passing it through the loop of
the handkerchief, twisted it round till the bandage was drawn so tight
that it stopped the flow of blood. Had he not known what to do, the man
would have bled to death in a few minutes. As it was, he saved his life
by knowing what to do, and doing it at once.
[_Demonstrate how to bind up an artery, and also the course taken by the
arteries, viz., practically down the inside seam of sleeves and
trousers._]
Accidents are continually happening, and Boy Scouts will continually
have a chance of giving assistance at first aid. In London alone during
the past year 212 people were killed and 14,000 were injured in street
accidents.
We all think a great deal of any man who at the risk of his own life
saves someone else's.
He is a hero.
Boys especially think him so, because he seems to them to be a being
altogether different from themselves. But he isn't; every boy has just
as much a chance of being a life-saving hero if he chooses to prepare
himself for it.
It is pretty certain that nearly every one of you scouts will some day
or another be present at an accident where, if you know what to do, and
do it promptly, you may win for yourself the life-long satisfaction of
having rescued or helped a fellow-creature.
Remember your motto, "BE PREPARED." Be prepared for accidents by
learning beforehand what you ought to do in the different kinds that are
likely to occur.
Be prepared to do that thing the moment the accident does occur.
I will explain to you what ought to be done in the different kinds of
accidents, and we will practise them as far as possible.
But the great thing for you scouts to bear in mind is that wherever you
are, and whatever you are doing, you should think to yourself, "What
accident is likely to occur here?" and, "What is my duty if it occurs?"
You are then prepared to act.
And when an accident does occur, remember always that as a scout it is
your business to be the first man to go to the rescue; don't let an
outsider be beforehand with you.
Suppose, for instance, that you are standing on a crowded platform at a
station, waiting for the train.
You think to yourself, "Now, supposing someone fell off this platform on
to the rails just as the train is coming in, what shall I do? I must
jump down and jerk him off the track on to the far side into the
six-foot way--there would be no time to get him up on to the platform
again. Or if the train were very close the only way would be to lie flat
and make him lie flat too between the rails, and let the train go over
us both."
Then, if this accident happened, you would at once jump down and carry
out your idea, while everybody else would be running about screaming and
excited and doing nothing, not knowing what to do.
Such a case actually happened last year. A lady fell off the platform at
Finsbury Park Station just as the train was coming in; a man named
Albert Hardwick jumped down and lay flat, and held her down, too,
between the rails, while the train passed over both of them without
touching them. The King gave him the Albert Medal for it.
When there is a panic among those around you, you get a momentary
inclination to do as the others are doing. Perhaps it is to run away,
perhaps it is to stand still and cry out "Oh!" Well, you should check
yourself when you have this feeling. Don't catch the panic, as you see
others do; keep your head and think what is the right thing to do, and
do it at once.
Then last year that disgraceful scene occurred on Hampstead Heath, where
a woman drowned herself before a whole lot of people in a shallow pond,
and took half-an-hour doing it, while not one of them had the pluck to
go in and bring her out. One would not have thought it possible with
Englishmen that a lot of men could only stand on the bank and chatter,
but so it was--to their eternal disgrace.
It was again a case of panic. The first man to arrive on the scene did
not like going in, and merely called another. More came up, but finding
that those already there did not go in, they got a sort of fear of
something uncanny, and would not go in themselves, and so let the poor
woman drown before their eyes.
Had one Boy Scout been there, there would I hope have been a very
different tale to tell. It was just the opportunity for a Boy Scout to
distinguish himself. He would have remembered his training.
Do your duty.
Help your fellow-creature, especially if it be a woman.
Don't mind if other people are funking.
Plunge in boldly and look to the object you are trying to attain, and
don't bother about your own safety.
Boys have an idea that they are too young and too small to take any but
an outside part in saving life. But this is a great mistake. In the
Boys' Brigade last year nine boys got the Cross for saving life, eight
of them for saving other people from drowning. All aged between 13 and
16.
Cyril Adion (13) and Newlyn Elliott (17) also saved lives from drowning
last year, and a small boy only nine years old, David Scannell, was
given a silver watch at St. Pancras for saving a child's life at a fire.
In addition to this, a boy named Albert Abraham was recommended for the
highest honour that any man can get for saving life, and that is the
Albert Medal.
Three boys were climbing up some cliffs from the seashore, when one of
them fell to the bottom and was very badly hurt. Another climbed up the
rest of the cliff and ran away home, but told nobody for fear of getting
into trouble. The third one, Albert Abraham, climbed down again to the
assistance of the boy who had fallen, and he found him lying head
downwards between two rocks, with his scalp nearly torn off and his leg
broken.
Abraham dragged him up out of reach of the tide, for where he had fallen
he was in danger of being drowned, and then replaced his scalp and bound
it on, and also set his leg as well as he could, and bound it up in
splints, having learned the "First Aid" duties of the St. John's
Ambulance Society. Then he climbed up the cliff and gathered some ferns
and made a bed for the injured boy.
He stayed with him all that day, and when night came on he still
remained with him, nor did he desert him even when a great seal climbed
on to the rocks close to him and appeared to be rather aggressive. He
drove it off with stones.
Parties went out and eventually rescued both boys, but the injured one
died soon after, in spite of the efforts that Albert Abraham had made to
save him.
In talking of boys I may as well state that the same remark applies to
women and girls, that they are not only capable of doing valuable work
in saving life, but they have done so over and over again.
For the Albert Medal a small girl aged nine has been recommended. Kate
Chapman endeavoured to rescue two small children from being run over by
a runaway cart. She succeeded in doing so, but was herself run over and
badly injured in the attempt.
Mrs. Ann Racebottom was awarded the Albert Medal in 1881 for rescuing
some school children when the roof of the schoolhouse had fallen in upon
them and she got them out by crawling in under the falling ruins at the
greatest risk to her own life.
Doris Kay, of Leytonstone, is only eight years old, but she was awarded
the diploma for life saving by the Royal Humane Society last year.
LIFE-SAVING MEDALS.
In war, as you know, the Victoria Cross is awarded to soldiers for
performing acts of valour.
So, in peace, a decoration is given to anybody who distinguishes himself
by bravery in saving life at the risk of his own.
The Albert Medal is the highest of these rewards.
The Royal Humane Society also give medals or certificates.
The Edward Medal is granted for gallantry in accidents which so
frequently happen in mines.
In the Boys' Brigade medals are given for acts of daring and
self-sacrifice in saving life or marked courage in the face of danger.
In the Boy Scouts we have a medal for gallantry, which is granted for
similar acts.
But of all these the Albert Medal and the Edward Medal are the most
valued, being given by the King himself, and only in very special cases.
So let every Boy Scout prepare himself to win one of these. Some day,
most probably, an accident will happen before you to give you your
chance. If you have learnt beforehand what to do, you can step forward
at once and do the right thing; you may find yourself decorated with the
medal. In any case, you will have what is far greater than a mere
medal--you will have the satisfaction of having helped a fellow-creature
at the risk of your own life.
PRACTICE FOR LIFE SAVING.
FLINGING THE SQUALER.
The squaler is a piece of cane, 19 inches long, loaded at the butt with
1-3/4lb. of lead, and having attached to it at the other end a
life-saving line of six-thread Italian hemp. The target is a crossbar
and head, life-size, representing the head and arms of a drowning man,
planted in the ground twenty yards away. Each competitor throws in turn
from behind a line drawn on the ground; he may stand or run to make the
throw. Whoever throws the furthest wins, provided that the line falls on
some part of the dummy, so that it could be caught by the drowning man.
Or have heats to find out who is the worst thrower.
Practise throwing a life-belt in the same way.
Practise making two lines of bucket-men, for full and empty buckets.
Each line to relieve the other frequently by exchanging duties.
Practise carrying, unrolling, and rolling up hose. Joining up lengths.
Affixing to hydrants. Throwing on water, and directing its fall.
Practise use of ladders, poles, ropes, lowering people from window by
ropes or bed-clothes. Jumping sheet and shoot-escape; how to rig, hold,
and use carpets or double blankets, but not flimsy ones or sheets.
CAMP FIRE YARN.--No. 24.
ACCIDENTS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM.
Panic--Fire--Drowning--Runaway Horse--Mad Dog--Miscellaneous.
PANICS.
Every year numbers of lives are lost by panics, which very often are due
to the smallest causes, and which might be stopped if only one or two
men would keep their heads. One evening, two years ago, on board a
ferry-boat in New York, a man who had been catching some crabs thought
it would be a good joke to let one of them loose on board the boat. This
crab caught hold of the ship's cat and made it squeal, and it jumped
into the middle of a crowd of schoolgirls, who at once scattered
screaming. This started a panic among the hundreds of passengers on
board; they rushed in every direction, and in a moment the railings
broke and eight people fell overboard, and before anything could be done
they were swept away by the tide and drowned.
In Germany, a girl who was bathing suddenly pretended to be drowning,
just for fun. Three men sprang into the river to rescue her, but one
began to sink, and another went to his help, and both were drowned. And
only last September a tobacconist in a town in Russia, on opening his
shop in the morning, saw a big black bomb lying on the counter. He
rushed out into the street to get away from it, and a policeman seeing
him running mistook him for a thief, and when he would not stop he fired
at him. The bullet missed him, but hit another man who was a Jew; the
remainder of the Jews immediately collected and made a riot, and many
lives were lost. After it was over, the tobacconist went back to his
shop and found the bomb still on his counter, but it was not a bomb, it
was only a black water-melon!
Only the other day occurred a case of panic among children in a theatre
at Barnsley, when a crush and panic occurred from no cause at all except
overcrowding, and eight children were crushed to death. More lives would
certainly have been lost had not two men kept their heads and done the
right thing. One man named Gray called to a number of the children in a
cheery voice to come another way, while the man who was working a
lantern-slide show threw a picture on the screen and so diverted the
attention of the rest, and prevented them catching the panic. That is
the great point in a panic. If only one or two men keep their heads and
do the right thing on the spur of the moment, they can often calm
hundreds of people and thus save many lives.
This is a great opportunity for a Boy Scout. Force yourself to keep calm
and not to lose your head. Think what is the right thing to do and do it
at once.
RESCUE FROM FIRE.
Instances of gallant rescues of people from burning houses are frequent.
One sees them every day in the newspapers, and scouts should study each
of these cases as they occur, and imagine to themselves what they would
have done under the circumstances, and in this way you begin to learn
how to deal with the different accidents. An instance occurred only the
other day where a young sailor named George Obeney stationed at Chatham
in H.M.S. _Andromeda_ was walking along the Kingsland Road, when he
suddenly saw a house on fire, and a woman on the second storey was
screaming that she had some children there who could not get out. The
sailor rushed from his friends and somehow scrambled up the face of the
wall till he reached the window on the first storey and broke in that
window so that he could obtain room to stand. The woman at the window
above was then able to lower a child so that he could catch it, and he
again passed it down to the ground. Child after child was thus handed
down till he passed six of them to the ground, and finally two women,
and then he, overcome by smoke himself, fell insensible, but was caught
by the people below. His act was an example to you of how to do your
duty AT ONCE without thinking of dangers or difficulties.
In January, 1906, at Enfield Hospital, the Children's Ward caught fire
in the middle of the night, and a number of children would probably have
been burnt before the firemen arrived on the spot had it not been that
the matron, Miss Eardley, rushed over from her house in her nightdress
and fixed up the fire-hose and played it on the flames while the two
night nurses set to work and rescued twenty children out of the burning
building.
The Boys' Life Brigade have taken up the instruction of boys in what to
do in cases of fire.
DIRECTIONS.
These are some of their directions:
If you discover a house on fire you should
1st. Alarm the people inside.
2nd. Warn the nearest policeman or fire brigade station.
3rd. Rouse neighbours to bring ladders, mattresses, carpets, to
catch people jumping.
After arrival of fire engines the best thing boys can do is to help the
police in keeping back the crowd out of the way of the firemen, hose,
etc.
The Boys' Life Brigade are taught a certain drill called "Scrum" for
keeping back the crowd. They form a line or double line, and pass their
arms round each other's waists, and shove, head down, into the crowd,
and so drive it back.
If it is necessary to go into a house to search for feeble or insensible
people, the thing is to place a wet handkerchief or worsted stocking
over your nose and mouth and walk in a stooping position, or crawl along
on your hands and knees quite near the floor, as it is here that there
is least smoke or gas. Also, for passing through fire and sparks, if you
can, get hold of a blanket and wet it, and cut a hole in the middle
through which to put your head, it forms a kind of fireproof mantle with
which you can push through flames and sparks. [_Practise this._]
When a fire occurs anywhere near the Boy Scouts should assemble their
patrols as quickly as possible, and go off at scouts' pace to the fire,
guided by the glare or the smoke. Then the patrol leader should report
to the police or firemen, and offer the help of his patrol either to
keep the crowd back or to run messages or guard property or to help in
any way.
If you find a person with his clothes on fire, you should throw him flat
on the floor, because flames only burn upwards, then roll him up in the
hearthrug or carpet, coat or blanket, and take care in doing so that you
don't catch fire yourself. The reason for doing this is that fire cannot
continue to burn when it has no air. Then pour water over the patient to
put out all sparks.
[Illustration: Dragging Insensible Man: Both heads down near the floor.]
When you find an insensible person (and very often in their fright they
will have hidden themselves away under beds and tables, etc.), you
should either carry him out on your shoulder, or what is often more
practicable in the case of heavy smoke, gas fumes, etc., harness
yourself on to him with sheets or cords, and drag him out of the room
along the floor, crawling on all fours yourself.
[_Practise this by tying a bowline round the patient's waist,
another round his ankles, and another round your own neck. Turn your
back to him, go on all fours with the rope underneath you, and thus
drag him out. Also practise the "Fireman's Lift" for getting an
insensible person on to your shoulders._]
RESCUE FROM DROWNING.
The list of Boys' Brigade heroes shows you what a large proportion of
accidents are due to not knowing how to swim. It is therefore most
important that every boy should learn to swim, and having done so to
learn how to save others from being drowned.
Mr. Holbein, the great Channel swimmer, writing in _The Boys' Own
Paper_, points out that a boy, when learning to swim, should learn first
how to get in and out of a boat, _i.e._, by climbing in over the stern.
Secondly, how to support himself on an oar or plank, _i.e._, by riding
astride on it, or by catching hold of one end and pushing it before him
and swimming with his legs. Thirdly, how to get into a floating
lifebuoy, _i.e._, by shoving the nearest side of it down under water and
capsizing it over his head and shoulders, so that he is inside it when
it floats. Fourthly, how to save life.
[_Practise these at swimming baths or bathing parade._]
A moderate swimmer can save a drowning man if he knows how, and has
practised it a few times with his friends. The popular idea that a
drowning person rises three times before he finally sinks is all
nonsense. He often drowns at once, unless someone is quick to help him.
The important point is not to let the drowning person catch hold of you,
or he will probably drown you too. Keep behind him always. If you find
yourself clutched by the wrist, turn your wrist against his thumb, and
force yourself free. Your best way in helping a drowning man is to keep
behind and hold him up by the hair, or by the back of the neck, or by
putting your arms under his armpits, and telling him to keep quiet and
not to struggle; if he obeys, you can easily keep him afloat; but
otherwise be careful that in his terror he does not turn over and catch
hold of you. If he should seize you by the neck, Holbein says, "Scrag
him, and scrag him quickly. Place your arm round his waist, and the
other hand, palm upwards, under his chin, with your finger-tips under
his nose. Pull and push with all your might, and he must perforce let
go." But you will never remember this unless you practise it frequently
with other boys first, each taking it in turns to be the drowning man
rescuer.
[_Practise this._]
Among the innumerable cases of saving life from drowning, Mr. Scullion
was recommended for the Albert Medal. He sprang into the river to save a
boy from drowning who had fallen between the wharf and the ship's side.
When he got hold of the boy there was no room for him to swim in that
narrow space, and the tide was very strong, so he dived down, taking the
boy with him, under the ship's bottom, and came up in open water on the
other side of the ship, and then easily swam to a boat and thus rescued
him. Had he not kept his head and dived under the ship, it is probable
that both would have been drowned.
Any of you who cannot swim as yet, and who fall into the water out of
your depth, remember that you need not sink if you can remember to do
the following things. First, keep your mouth upwards by throwing the
head well back. Secondly, keep your lungs full of air by taking in long
breaths, but breathe out very little. Thirdly, keep your arms under
water. To do this you should not begin to shout, which will only empty
your lungs, and you should not throw your arms about or beckon for help,
else you will sink.
[_Practise this position._]
If you see a person fall into the water and begin to drown, and you
yourself are unable to swim, you must throw him a rope, or an oar, or
plank right over him, so that when he comes up again he may clutch at it
and hold it. If a person falls through ice, and is unable to get out
again because of the edges breaking, throw him a rope, and tell him not
to struggle. This may give him confidence until you can get a long
ladder or pole which will enable him to crawl out, or will allow you to
crawl out to catch hold of him.
RESCUE FROM RUNAWAY HORSES.
Accidents are continually recurring from runaway horses running over
people. In fact, on an average, the number of runaway horses that are
stopped by policemen during the year amounts to over two hundred; and it
is well that everybody should know how to stop a runaway horse, and thus
to save numerous accidents and injuries.
Private Davies, of the 16th Lancers, was awarded the Albert Medal, at
Aldershot, for stopping the horses of an artillery wagon, which had
become unmanageable and run away. The driver, who was riding one of
them, had been thrown off, and the horses were careering down hill
towards the married quarters of the cavalry barracks, where a number of
children were at play, when Private Davies, seeing the danger to the
children, ran to the horses, and seizing the off horse with his right
hand, held on to the shaft with his left, and endeavoured to stop the
waggon. He was dragged in that position for some yards when the chain
fastening the shafts to the waggon gave way and let the shafts fall,
bringing Davies also to the ground.
The waggon passed over his legs, and very severely injured him, and,
though he did not actually succeed in stopping the horses, he so
diverted them from their course that time was given for the children to
be saved from being run over.
Not long ago a lady was being run away with by her horse in Hyde Park.
The animal was tearing along quite mad with fright, and though she was a
good rider and kept her head, she had no control over him whatever.
The danger was that the road on which he was galloping, though straight
for a good distance, turned at the end very sharply, and was bounded by
a high iron railing. Now a horse when he is thoroughly frightened seems
to lose his sight as well as his wits; he will run over a cliff or into
a wall without trying to stop, and on this occasion it seemed most
likely that he would charge into the great iron railings at the end of
the road, and the consequences to the girl on his back would have been
too awful to think of.
In front of her as she came thundering along were two gentlemen riding
quietly along talking together, heading in the same direction that she
was going. One of them--it was the Hon. George Wyndham, at that time
Chief Secretary for Ireland--turned his head to see what was happening
behind him, and in one moment he grasped the whole situation, saw what
to do, and did it. He saw that a girl was being rushed to her death by
the maddened horse if something were not done to stop it, or to make it
turn round the corner at the end of the road which was now not far away.
Now what would any of you have done had you been in Mr. Wyndham's place?
He saw that to put his horse across her path would be easy, but if he
did so it would probably throw both horses down, and possibly kill both
riders; so what he did was to put his own horse at once into a gallop,
and for a moment it looked as if he were running away, with the lady
chasing him at full speed. But it soon became evident what he was doing.
He gradually let the lady's horse overtake him until its head was
abreast of him and close alongside him, then he gradually turned his own
horse for taking the corner, and, pressing all the time against the
shoulder of the lady's horse, forced it also gradually to turn with him
till it was safely directed away from the railings and into the new
direction of the road, and here, while still keeping partly ahead of it,
he got hold of its reins, and in a short time succeeded in pulling it up
and bringing it to its senses.
This is a lesson to everyone to BE PREPARED, even at most ordinary
moments of strolling along, talking to a friend, to spring at once to
the assistance of a fellow-creature who is in danger.
The other day I myself found a horse and cab running away over
Westminster Bridge, but I stopped it without any difficulty. The way to
stop a runaway horse is not to run out in front of it and wave your
arms, as so many people do, but to try and race alongside it, catch hold
of the shaft to keep yourself from falling, and seize the reins with the
other hand, and drag the horse's head round towards you, and so turn him
until you can bring him up against a wall or house, or otherwise compel
him to stop. But, of course, for a boy, with his light weight, this is a
very difficult thing to do. The share he would have in such an accident
would probably be to look after the people injured by the runaway horse.
MISCELLANEOUS ACCIDENTS.
One cannot go through the whole list of accidents that might come under
your notice, but the point is that a scout should always remember to
keep his head, and think what is the right thing to do at the moment,
and be the man to do it, even under the most unexpected circumstances.
Police-Sergeant Cole was awarded the Albert Medal some years ago for
removing a dynamite bomb, which he found in Westminster Hall. It was
already lit for exploding, and instead of running away and taking cover
himself he snatched it up and rushed out of the place and flung it away,
and very nearly lost his life in the explosion which followed
immediately after. Had he hesitated to think what would be the best
thing to do he would probably have lost his own life, and have allowed
the place to be smashed up.
A man named John Smith was awarded the Albert Medal, because one day,
when at his work in a steel-casting factory, a great, red-hot steel
ingot, weighing 26 tons, was about being hoisted out of a casting-pit,
when one of the workmen named Stanley slipped, and fell into the pit,
which was fifteen feet deep, alongside the ingot in a space of about two
feet, which existed between the ingot and the wall of the pit. John
Smith immediately got a ladder and ran down into the next pit, from
which there was a passage communicating into the first one, and in this
way he managed to get into the lower part of the ingot pit and drag
Stanley out of it into the empty one. Stanley died of his burns two days
later, but Smith, though badly burnt himself, recovered to wear the
Albert Medal.
MAD DOG.
A dog that is mad runs along snapping at everybody in his path. Every
scout should know what to do when there is a mad dog about, and should
be prepared to do it.
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was one day out for a ride when his dog, which
was running with him, went mad, and started to run through the town.
Sir Thomas edged him off the road and drove him into a garden. He then
jumped off his horse, ran at the dog, and succeeded in grabbing him by
the neck without getting bitten. Then followed a tremendous struggle
between man and dog.
At last the gardener came and brought a chain which Sir Thomas then
clipped on, and only when the other end had been securely fastened to a
tree he let go his hold of the dog. The dog was then raving mad and tore
at his chain so badly that it was in danger of breaking, when Sir Thomas
went at him again with a second and stronger chain, and pinning him down
by the neck with a pitchfork he fastened it on to him. When this was
done and the pitchfork removed the dog sprang at him with such force
that it burst the old chain. Luckily the new one held. And soon after
the dog died.
The way to prevent a dog biting you is to hold a stick, or even a
handkerchief, in your two hands across your front, and the dog will
generally try to paw it down before he actually bites you, and you may
thus get a chance of landing him a kick under the jaw.
PRACTICES IN LIFE-SAVING.
Practise scrum for keeping back crowd at fire.
Practise holding and wrestling with drowning men.
How to prevent a man shooting another with pistol.
Make ladders out of poles, twine, and cross sticks.
Instruct scouts to know the position of neighbouring fire plugs and
hydrants, police points, fire alarms, fire stations, ambulances,
hospitals, etc.
BOOKS TO READ.
"Manual of Boys' Life Brigade": Life-saving Drill. Price 2d. (56 Old
Bailey, London.)
"Manual of Fire Drill" of London County Council. 1s. (P. King and Son, 9
Bridge Street, Westminster.)
"Swimming." By Prof. Holbein. 1s. (A. Pearson, Ltd.)
CAMP FIRE YARN.--No. 25.
HELPING OTHERS.
Rendering First Aid--Suicides--How to Carry a Patient.
RENDERING FIRST AID.
[NOTE TO INSTRUCTOR.--_It is impossible in the short space at one's
disposal to give all the details of First Aid. These can be found in any
of the books mentioned at the end of this Camp Fire Yarn._]
In an accident when you are alone with the injured person, if he is
unconscious lay him on his back with his head a little raised and on one
side so that he does not choke, and so that any vomit or water, etc.,
can run out of his mouth. Loosen the clothing about his neck and chest.
See where he is injured and treat him according to what you are taught
in learning "First Aid."
If you have found the man lying insensible you should carefully examine
the ground round him for any "sign," and take note of it and of his
position, etc., in case it should afterwards appear that he had been
attacked by others.
[_Practise above, one boy as patient, the other to find him. Make
"sign" round the patient._]
If you are out with a patrol and an accident happens, or you find an
injured man, the patrol leader should direct one scout to go for a
doctor; he himself will attend to the patient with one scout to help
him. The corporal will use the other scouts in assisting by getting
water or blankets, or making a stretcher, or keeping the crowd back.
As a rule, it is best to keep the patient quite quiet at first; unless
it is necessary, do not try to move him; and don't bother him with
questions until he recovers a bit.
[_Practise above._]
[Illustration: Artificial Breathing: Schäfer System.]
ARTIFICIAL BREATHING.--To restore anyone who is apparently drowned, it
is necessary at once to clear the water out of his lungs, for which
purpose therefore you should incline him face downwards and head
downwards, so that the water may run out of his mouth, and to help it
you should open his mouth and pull forward his tongue; take off the wet
clothing and wrap him in blankets if possible, and rub and move his
limbs as much as possible to get back the circulation of the blood.
After running the water out of the patient, place him on his side with
his body slightly hanging down, and keep the tongue hanging out. If he
is breathing let him rest; if he is not breathing, you must at once
endeavour to restore breathing artificially. Lay him flat on his front
with his arm bent and placed under his forehead to keep his nose and
mouth on the ground. Put a folded coat or pillow under his chest and let
his head hang down. In this way his tongue will not block his throat,
and any water or slime can run out. Then either stand astride of him or
kneel alongside him, and, placing both your hands on his lower ribs,
press steadily down and forwards to drive any air out of his body for
three or four seconds, and then ease up to let the air come in again
through the throat, then press down again. Continue this pressing and
easing, counting four to each movement, until the patient begins to
breathe again. Sometimes this doesn't happen till you have been trying
for an hour or even more.
This is called the Schafer method, and can be used equally well for
drowned people or for those overcome with smoke or gas fumes.
[_Make the scouts, in pairs, practise above._]
SMOKE OR FUMES.--Accidents are continually occurring from escapes of gas
in mines, sewers, and houses.
In endeavouring to rescue a person, keep your nose and month well
covered with wet rags, and get your head as close to the floor as
possible, and drag the insensible person out as I have suggested in case
of a fire. Drag your patient as quickly as possible into the fresh
air--(I say as quickly as possible, because if you delay about it you
are very apt to be overcome by the noxious gas yourself)--then loosen
all his clothing about the neck and chest, dash cold water in his face
and apply burnt feathers under his nose. If you find that he is no
longer breathing, then treat him as you would a drowned person, and try
and work back the breath into his body.
BURNS.--In treating a man who has been burnt, remove his clothes, not by
peeling them off, but by cutting them with a SHARP knife or scissors. If
any part of the dress sticks to the skin from having been burnt there,
do not tear it away but cut the cloth round it, then as quickly as
possible protect the burnt parts from the air which causes intense pain.
The best way to protect them is by dusting them with powdered chalk or
flour, or by laying strips of lint well soaked in sweet oil or linseed
oil, and covering the whole with cotton wool. Keep the patient warm, and
give warm drinks, such as hot tea, hot milk, or spirits and water.
Major John Garroway, M.D., strongly recommends, instead of flour or oil
to stop the pain of a burn, to put a piece of paper firmly over the
wound, and the pain will be relieved in a few seconds.
ACID BURNING.--A case occurred only the other day of a woman throwing
vitriol over a man's face. This is an awful acid which burns and eats
away the flesh wherever it touches. Fortunately a policeman happened to
be on the spot at the time and knew what to do. He at once applied water
to wash off the acid, and then applied flour or whitening to protect the
wound from the air and ease the pain.
BROKEN LIMBS.--You may get persons with broken limbs or stunned. In the
case of broken limbs you would learn what to do in passing your
ambulance course, which every boy scout ought to pass before he can be
considered to be fully trained. You would there learn how to know when a
limb was broken, and how to tie it up between splints made of pieces of
wood, rolls of newspaper or rushes, bundles of twigs, walking sticks, or
any other articles that will make a straight support for the limb.
[_Practise this._]
[Illustration: Pulling in a Dislocated Shoulder--an actual experience of
mine in India.]
BLEEDING.--When a man is bleeding badly from a wound, squeeze the wound
or the flesh just above it--that is between the wound and the
heart--press it hard with your thumb to try and stop the blood running
in the artery. Then make a pad with something like a flat rounded
pebble, and bind it over the wound. If bleeding violently, tie a
handkerchief loosely round the limb above the wound and twist it tight
with a stick. [_Demonstrate this._] Keep the wounded part raised above
the rest of the body if possible. Apply cold water, or ice if possible,
wet rags, etc.
FAINTING.--If your patient faints and is pale--fainting comes from too
little blood in the head--let him lie flat down with head on the ground.
If his face is flushed raise the head--there is too much blood in it, as
in apoplexy or sunstroke.
FITS.--A man cries out and falls, and twitches and jerks his limbs
about, froths at the mouth, he is in a fit. It is no good to do anything
to him but to put a bit of wood or cork between his jaws, so that he
does not bite his tongue. Let him sleep well after a fit.
POISONING.--If a person suddenly falls very ill after taking food, or is
known to have taken poison, the first thing to do is to make him swallow
some milk or raw eggs. These seem to collect all the poison that is
otherwise spread about inside him. Then, if the mouth is not stained or
burnt by the poison, make him sick if possible by giving him salt and
warm water, and try tickling the inside of his throat with a feather.
Then more milk and eggs and weak tea. If the poison is an acid that
burns, the patient should not be made to vomit, but milk or salad oil
should be given. The patient should be kept awake if he gets drowsy.
BLOOD-POISONING.--This results from dirt being allowed to get into a
wound. Swelling, pain, red veins appear. Fomenting with hot water is the
best relief.
CHOKING.--Loosen collar; hold the patient's nose with one hand and with
the forefinger of the other, or with the handle of a spoon try and pull
out whatever is stuck in his throat. By pressing down the root of the
tongue you may make him sick and throw out the obstruction. For slight
choking make patient bend head well back and swallow small pills made of
bread, and sip of water. Sometimes a good hard smack on the back will do
him good.
SNAKE BITE.
Fortunately poisonous snakes are uncommon in England, but if you travel
in a colony you are sure to come across them, and you ought always to
know how to deal with bites from them. The same treatment does also for
wounds from poisoned arrows, mad dogs, etc. Remember the poison from a
bite gets into your blood and goes all through your body in a very few
beats of your pulse. Therefore, whatever you do must be done
immediately. The great thing is to stop the poison rushing up the veins
into the body. To do this bind a cord or handkerchief immediately round
the limb above the place where the patient has been bitten, so as to
stop the blood flying back to the heart with the poison. Then try and
suck the poison out of the wound, and, if possible, cut the wound still
more, to make it bleed, and run the poison out. The poison, when sucked
into the mouth, does no harm unless you have a wound in your mouth. The
patient should also be given stimulants, such as coffee or spirits, to a
very big extent, and not allowed to become drowsy, but should be walked
about and pricked and smacked in order to keep his senses alive.
[_Practise this process in make-believe._]
GRIT IN THE EYE.
Do not let your patient rub the eye; it will only cause inflammation and
swelling, and so make the difficulty of removing the grit all the
greater.
If the grit is in the lower eyelid, draw down the lid as far as you can,
and gently brush it out with the corner of a moistened handkerchief, or
with a paintbrush, or feather.
If it is under the upper lid, pull the lid away from the eyeball and
push the underlid up underneath the upper one. In this way the eyelashes
of the lower lid will generally clean the inside of the upper one.
Another way, which every scout must practise, is to seat your patient
and stand behind him yourself with the back of his head against your
chest. Lay a card, match, or any flat substance under your own thumb on
the upper part of the upper eyelid and then catch hold of the edge of
the eyelid and draw it upwards over the match so that it turns inside
out; gently remove the grit with a feather or wet handkerchief, and roll
the eyelid down again.
If the eye is much inflamed, bathe it with lukewarm weak tea.
If the grit is firmly embedded in the eye, drop a little oil (olive or
castor oil) into the lower lid; close the eye and bandage it with a soft
wet pad and bandage, and get a doctor to see it.
[_Practise above._]
SUICIDES.
I was once travelling in the train in Algeria, a part of North Africa
which belongs to the French, and there was with me only one other
passenger in the carriage, a French farmer, with whom I got into
conversation. He became very communicative, and told me that if I had
not come into the carriage he would by this time have been a dead man,
as he had got into the train with the intention of killing himself. So I
asked him about his troubles, and, as he unfolded them to me, I was able
to tell him various remedies which promised success for him in the
future, for he was chiefly upset over his recent failures in farming.
After we had been going on for some time, he quite cheered up, and told
me that he was going to get out at the next station, and go back and set
to work in the way suggested.
You may have opportunities of saving people who are thinking of killing
themselves. The newspapers give cases of suicides almost every day, and
go into details of them, because they know that so many people have a
foolish love of reading horrors.
Most people at one time or the other of their lives get a feeling that
they will kill themselves; as a rule they get over it in a day or two,
and find that it comes from nothing worse than an attack of indigestion,
liver, or influenza, or from disappointment, or over-anxiety; but there
are others with weaker minds, who read these newspaper accounts, and
brood over them till they can think of nothing else. They hug the idea
to themselves, although with horror, and get panic-stricken. They think
too much of their own trouble, without thinking how the rest of the
world is doing.
It only needs a sympathising friend to come along and take command of
the would-be suicide, and to give him something else to think about and
to do. You can point out that suicide does no good to anybody; that it
generally comes from something wrong with the bodily health, which makes
the patient hysterical; that he has only got to command his own mind
firmly, and the attack will pass off again. Then, if possible, try to
get a Salvation Army officer to see him; he will probably set him right.
In this way you may be able to save lives.
[_The Salvation Army have now a department which gives advice to people
who are feeling inclined to kill themselves. This past year 1125 men and
90 women have applied to their London office alone; and of these
probably three-quarters would have killed themselves if it had not been
for the sympathy and advice of the officers who reasoned with them, and
found for them ways out of their difficulties. The official returns of
suicides for the past year show a much smaller number than usual._]
Where a man has gone so far as to attempt suicide, a scout should know
what to do with him. In the case of a man cutting his throat, the great
point is to stop the bleeding from the artery, if it be cut. The artery
runs from where the collarbone and breast-bone join, up to the corner of
the jaw, and the way to stop bleeding is to press hard with the thumb on
the side of the wound nearest to the heart, and pressure should be kept
up as hard as possible until assistance arrives. [_Demonstrate this._]
In a case where the would-be suicide has taken poison, give milk and
make him vomit, which is done by tickling the inside of the throat with
the finger or a feather, or pouring down his throat a tumbler of water
mixed with a tablespoon of mustard or salt.
In the case of hanging, cut down the body at once, taking care to
support it with one arm while cutting the cord. Cut the noose, loosen
all tight clothing about the neck and chest. Let the patient have as
much fresh air as possible, throw cold water on the face and chest, or
cold and hot water alternately. Perform artificial breathing as in the
case of apparently drowned people.
A tenderfoot is sometimes inclined to be timid about handling an
insensible man or a dead man, or even of seeing blood. Well, he won't be
much use till he gets over such nonsense; the poor insensible fellow
can't hurt him, and he must force himself to catch hold of him; when
once he has done this his fears will pass off. And if he visits a
butcher's slaughterhouse he will soon get accustomed to the sight of
blood.
At Reading, not long ago, two men were severely reprimanded by the
coroner for being afraid to go and cut down a man who had hanged
himself--they only ran and fetched someone else, and so he was killed.
What would you have done had you been one of the men?
HOW TO CARRY A PATIENT.
(See National Health Society's Manual.)
TO CARRY SINGLE-HANDED AN UNCONSCIOUS PERSON.--Turn patient on his face.
Raise him into a kneeling posture. Kneel, and place yourself across and
under him, so that his stomach rests on your right shoulder. Pass your
right arm between his thighs and behind his right thigh. With your left
arm draw his left hand forwards under your left, and grasp the wrist
with your right hand; then raise yourself to an erect position.
[_Make scouts practise this in pairs._]
[Illustration: Lifting Insensible Man.]
WITH TWO HELPERS TO CARRY A CONSCIOUS PERSON. (See Manual.)
STRETCHERS may be arranged in some of the following ways:
(a) A hurdle, shutter, door, gate, covered well with straw, hay,
clothing, sacking.
(b) A piece of carpet, blanket, sacking, tarpaulin, spread out, and two
stout poles rolled up in the sides. Put clothes for a pillow.
(c) Two coats, with the sleeves turned inside out; pass two poles
through the sleeves; button the coats over them.
(d) Two poles passed through a couple of sacks, through holes at the
bottom corners of each.
[Illustration: Carrying Insensible Man.]
In carrying a patient on a stretcher be careful that he is made quite
comfortable before you start. Let both bearers rise together; they must
walk _out of step_, and take short paces. It should be the duty of the
hinder bearer to keep a careful watch on the patient.
[_Practise these different methods._]
HOW TO PRACTISE.
_In practising First Aid it is a great thing to bespatter the patient
with blood to accustom the rescuer to the sight of it, otherwise it will
often unnerve him in a real accident. Sheep's blood can be got from the
butcher's shop._
_Prepare a heavy smoke fire in a neighbouring room or building (if
possible on the first floor), while you are lecturing in the club room.
Secretly arrange with two or three boys that if an alarm of fire is
given they should run about frightened and try to start a panic._
_Have the alarm given either by getting someone to rush in and tell you
of the fire, or by having some explosive bombs fired. Then let a patrol,
or two patrols, tackle the fire under direction of their patrol leaders.
They should shut windows and doors. Send scouts into different parts of
the building to see if the fire is spreading, and to search for people
in need of rescue._
_These scouts should have wet handkerchiefs over their months and noses.
"Insensible" people (or sack dummies) should be hidden under tables,
etc._
_Scouts rescue them by shouldering or dragging them out and getting them
down to the ground. Use jumping sheet, shoot, etc._
_Other parties lay and connect the hose, or make lines for passing fire
buckets._
_Another party revive the rescued by restoring animation. Another party
form "scrum" to help the police and fire brigade by keeping the crowd
back._
GAMES.
"DRAGGING RACE." A line of patients of one patrol are laid out at one
hundred yards distance from start. Another patrol, each carrying a rope,
run out, tie ropes to the patients, and drag them in. Time taken of last
in. Patrols change places. The one which completes in shortest time
wins. Knots must be correctly tied, and patients' coats laid out under
their heads.
BOOKS TO READ.
"Aid to the Injured or Sick." H. W. Gell, M.B. Twopence. (Published by
G. Gill & Sons, 13, Warwick Lane, London, E.C.)
National Health Society's Booklets, one penny, on hygiene and
sanitation. Same publishers.
CHAPTER IX.
PATRIOTISM;
or,
Our Duties as Citizens.
CAMP FIRE YARN.--No. 26.
OUR EMPIRE.
How it Grew--How it Must be Held.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.
_The use of a large Map of the Empire is very desirable for illustrating
this. The Arnold Forster or the Navy League or the League of the Empire
Map are very good, and we hope to issue one specialty designed for the
Boy Scouts._
_Look up the local history of your neighbourhood, and give your scouts
the more interesting and dramatic bits of it, on the actual scene of the
events if possible._
OUR EMPIRE.
Any of you who have travelled much about this country by train, going
for your holidays and so on, know how two or three hours will take you a
good long distance and six or eight hours will take you to the other end
of England.
Well, if instead of hours you travelled for as many days, even six or
eight days would take you a very little way over our Empire. It would
get you into Canada, but you would want several more days--not hours--to
get you across that country. Eighteen days' hard travelling day and
night would get you to India or South Africa, but either of these are
little more than half way to Australia. And all that distance off,
across the seas, on the other side of the world, we have a British
country into which you could put nine Great Britains and Irelands.
9 United Kingdoms = 1 Australia.
10 " = 1 Canada.
6 " = 1 India and Burma.
5 " = East Africa, Uganda,
and Soudan.
5 " = South Africa.
1 " = New Zealand.
1-1/2 " = Nigeria.
Then there are numbers of smaller Colonies or Dependencies, such as
Guiana (nearly as big as the United Kingdom), North Borneo, New Guinea,
Somaliland, Straits Settlements, Gold Coast, West Indies, Tasmania,
etc., and numbers of islands in ever sea all over the world.
Our Colonies together are something like forty times the size of the
United Kingdom at home.
Our fellow-subjects amount to four hundred millions, and comprise almost
every known race. Almost every known species of wild animal occurs in
British territory.
It is a magnificent Empire over which the Union Jack flies, but it is
still only at the beginning of its development. The territories are
there, but the people are only coming. The white population of all these
Colonies only amounts to a little over a quarter of the population of
our crowded little island. We have nearly forty-four millions here; they
have among the colonies a little over eleven millions.
Many of you scouts, as you grow up, will probably become scouts of the
nation, and will find your way to some of the Colonies to help to push
them up into big prosperous countries. Your scout's training will come
in very useful to you there. But when you go there you must be prepared
to work, and to work hard, and to turn your hand to any kind of job.
HOW OUR EMPIRE GREW.
All those vast Colonies did not come to England of themselves. They were
got for us by the hard work and the hard fighting of our forefathers.
AMERICA.--When we first got to America it took Sir Walter Raleigh,
Captain John Smith, and other great pioneers four or five months to get
there in their little cockleshells of ships, some of them only 30 tons
measurement--no bigger than a Thames barge. Nowadays you can get there
in five or six days, instead of months, in steamers of 30,000 tons.
Think of the pluck of those men tackling a voyage like that, with very
limited supply of water and salt food. And, when they got to land with
their handful of men, they had to overcome the savages, and in some
cases other Europeans, like the Dutch, the Spaniards, and the French;
and then they had hard work to till the ground, to build settlements,
and to start commerce.
Hard sailoring, hard soldiering, hard colonising by those old British
sea-dogs, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Hawkins, Frobisher,
and, best of all to my mind, Captain John Smith.
He left Louth Grammar School in Lincolnshire to become a clerk in an
office, but he soon went off to the wars. After two years' fighting he
returned home.
He admitted he had gone out as a "tenderfoot," and had not properly
prepared himself as a boy for a life of adventure; so he set to work
then and there to learn scouting. He built himself a hut in the woods,
and learnt stalking game, and killing and cooking it for himself; he
learnt to read maps and to draw them, and also the use of weapons; and
then, when he had made himself really good at scoutcraft, he went off to
the wars again.
He afterwards became a sailor, fought in some very tough sea-fights, and
eventually, in 1607, he went with an expedition to colonise Virginia in
America. They sailed from London in three ships, the biggest of which
was only 100 tons, the smallest 30 tons. But they got there after five
months, and started a settlement on the James River.
Here John Smith was captured by the Red Indians one day when out
shooting (as you have seen by the play in Chapter I.), and they were
proceeding to kill him when the King's daughter, Pocahontas, asked for
him to be spared. After this the Red Indians and the Whites got on good
terms with each other. Pocahontas became a Christian, and married
Smith's lieutenant, Rolfe, and came to England. After many strange and
exciting adventures in America, John Smith got much damaged by an
accidental explosion of gunpowder, and came home ill. He eventually died
in London.
He was a splendid character--and always did his duty in spite of all
temptations to let it slide. He was a tremendous worker, very keen, and
very brave. He was never defeated by any difficulty however great,
because he was always cheery under the worst of circumstances. His motto
was, "We were born not for ourselves, but to do good to others," and he
acted up to it.
IN SOUTH AFRICA we had to drive out the Dutch and then fight the natives
for our foothold, which once gained we never let go--and though it has
cost us thousands of lives and millions of money we have got it now.
AUSTRALIA was got by our sailor-adventurers, like Captain Cook,
outstripping all other nations in their plucky navigation of immense
unknown oceans.
INDIA was practically in possession of the French when Clive and
Wellesley drove them out, and then in turn had to fight the hordes of
fighting natives of the interior, and gradually, foot by foot, by dint
of hard fighting, we have won that country for our Empire.
EAST AFRICA, Uganda, and the Soudan beyond Egypt, and Somaliland have
also been fought for and won in quite recent times.
And now in all of these we are spreading the blessings of peace and
justice, doing away with slavery and oppression, and developing
commerce, and manufactures, and prosperity in those countries.
Other nations could formerly only look on and wonder, but now they too
are pressing forward in the race for empire and commerce, so that we
cannot afford to sit still or let things slide.
We have had this enormous Empire handed down to us by our forefathers,
and we are responsible that it develops and goes ahead, and above all
that we make ourselves fit and proper men to help it to go ahead. It
won't do so of itself, any more than it would have become ours of
itself. If we don't do this some other nation will take it from us.
If our island of England were attacked and taken, down comes our Empire
like a house built of cards.
We have had this danger always, even before our Empire was a paying one
and worth taking. Nowadays it is much more tempting for other people to
take. We defeated determined attacks of the Dutch upon us in the old
days. The Spaniards with their Armada attempted to invade us, when,
largely thanks to a storm, we defeated them utterly. Then the French,
after a long struggle to best us, had their invasion stopped by Nelson's
victory at Trafalgar, and their harmfulness ended by Wellington at
Waterloo. The French Emperor had been so sure of success that he had had
medals got ready to commemorate the capture of England. And since
helping in the defeat of the Russians in the Crimea we have been at
peace with our Continental neighbours.
Let us hope that this peace will remain permanent.
HOW THE EMPIRE MUST BE HELD.
Peace cannot be certain unless we show that we are always fully prepared
to defend ourselves in England, and that an invader would only find
himself ramming his head against bayonets and well-aimed bullets if he
tried landing on our shores.
The surest way to keep peace is to be prepared for war. Don't be
cowards, and content yourselves by merely paying soldiers to do your
fighting and dying for you. Do something in your own self-defence.
You know at school how if a swaggering ass comes along and threatens to
bully you, he only does so because he thinks you will give in to him;
but if you know how to box and square up to him he alters his tone and
takes himself off. And it is just the same with nations.
It is much better that we should all be good friends--and we should all
try for that--no calling each other names, or jeering; but if one of
them comes along with the idea of bullying us, the only way to stop him
is to show him that you _can_ hit and _will_ hit if he drives you to it.
Every boy should prepare himself, by learning how to shoot and to drill,
to take his share in defence of the Empire, if it should ever be
attacked. If our enemies saw that we were thus prepared as a nation,
they would never dare to attack, and peace would be assured.
Remember that the Roman Empire 2000 years ago was comparatively just as
great as the British Empire of to-day. And though it had defeated any
number of attempts against it, it fell at last, chiefly because the
young Romans gave up soldiering and manliness altogether; they paid men
to play their games for them, so that they themselves could look on
without the fag of playing, just as we are doing in football now. They
paid soldiers to fight their battles for them instead of earning the use
of arms themselves; they had no patriotism or love for their grand old
country, and they went under with a run when a stronger nation attacked
them.
Well, we have got to see that the same fate does not fall upon our
Empire. And it will largely depend upon you, the younger generation of
Britons that are now growing up to be the men of the Empire. Don't be
disgraced like the young Romans, who lost the Empire of their
forefathers by being wishy-washy slackers without any go or patriotism
in them.
Play up! Each man in his place, and play the game! Your forefathers
worked hard, fought hard, and died hard, to make this Empire for you.
Don't let them look down from heaven, and see you loafing about with
hands in your pockets, doing nothing to keep it up.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.
Teach the words and choruses of:
"The Maple Leaf" (Canada), "The Song of Australia," and other
Colonial songs.
"God Bless the Prince of Wales."
"Rule Britannia."
"Hearts of Oak."
"The Flag of Britain."
"God Save the King."
(J. S. Maddison, 32 Charing Cross.)
Apply to Secretary, League of the Empire, Caxton Hall, Westminster, S.W.
Explore Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Temple Church,
etc., with following books:
BOOKS TO READ.
"St. Paul's Cathedral" and "Westminster Abbey," both by Mrs. Frewen
Lord, 1s. (Published by Clowes and Son, Charing Cross.)
(Excellent short histories of our famous men and their deeds.)
"Travels of Captain John Smith," by Dr. Rouse. 6d. (Blackie.)
"The Story of Captain Cook." Edited by John Lang. 1s. 6d.
"Deeds that Won the Empire," by Fitchett.
"Heroes of Pioneering" (in America, India, Africa), by Sanderson.
(Seeley.) 2s. 6d.
Excellent Lantern Slide Lectures can be got on hire from the League of
the Empire, Caxton Hall, Victoria Street, London, on the history of our
Colonies and Empire.
DISPLAY.
John Nicholson was one of the finest among many fine Britons who helped
to rule India. On one occasion he had a meeting of a number of chiefs at
a time when they were beginning to show some signs of mutiny. The most
important one of these chiefs was called Mehtab Singh, and just before
the meeting he told the others that he for one was not afraid of the
Englishman, and that he meant to swagger into the room with his shoes
on. (It is the custom in India for natives to take off their shoes on
entering the presence of a superior just as in England you take off your
hat on coming in.) And he did so. He walked in before them all with his
shoes on.
Nicholson did not appear to take any notice of it and went on with the
meeting; but at the end of it, just as they were all leaving, he
suddenly stopped Mehtab Singh, and ordered the others to wait. He then
reprimanded him for his insolence, and ordered him to take off his shoes
then and there and to walk out with them in his hand before all the
other chiefs. And so he had to go, hanging his head with shame,
disgraced and humbled by the firmness of the British ruler.
This makes a good subject for a display.
Scene in a great tent or hall in India.
Nicholson (with a black beard), in a dark suit, sitting on a throne in
the centre, with several British and native officers in red tunics
grouped behind him. Native princes, seated in chairs in semi-circle to
either side of him, all with white socks or bare feet, except Mehtab
Singh, who has black shoes on, put out well before him for all to see.
Nicholson rises, signs to the chiefs that they may go.
All rise and bow to him, with both hands to the forehead.
As they turn to go he stops them.
"Stay, gentlemen, one moment. I have a matter with you, Mehtab Singh!
Thou camest here intent to show contempt for me, who represent your
Queen. But you forget that you are dealing with a Briton--one of that
band who never brooks an insult even from an equal, much less from a
native of this land. Were I a common soldier it would be the same; a
Briton, even though alone, amongst a thousand of your kind, shall be
respected, though it brought about his death. That's how we hold the
world. To plot against your master brings but trouble on yourself. Take
off those shoes."
[Illustration: Mehtab Singh.]
[Mehtab starts, draws himself up, and glares at Nicholson angrily.]
Nicholson [very quietly and deliberately]--"Take--off--those--shoes."
[Points at them.]
A pause. Mehtab looks round as if for help, takes a step towards
Nicholson, but catches his eye, and stops. He sinks slowly on one knee,
head down, and slowly takes off his shoes.
Rises, keeping his head down, slowly turns--Nicholson still
pointing--and walks slowly out, shoes in hand.
[If a longer scene is required Nicholson might then address the chiefs
on the might of Britain, which, though a small country, is all powerful
for good of the world, and so he, as representing her, stands one among
them for the good of the whole. And that if they want peace and
prosperity they themselves must be loyal and true to the hand that is
arranging it. Nicholson's words are splendidly rendered in the poem by
Henry Newbolt.]
CAMP FIRE YARN.--No. 27.
CITIZENSHIP.
Duties of Scouts as Citizens--Duties as Citizen
Soldiers--Marksmanship--Helping the Police.
SCOUT'S DUTY AS A CITIZEN.
There are two ways by which every good Briton ought to be prepared to
keep up our Empire.
The first is by peaceful means as a citizen.
If every citizen of the Empire were to make himself a really good useful
man, our nation would be such a blessing to the civilised world, as it
has been in the past, that nobody would wish to see it broken up by any
other nation. No other nation would probably wish to do it. But to hold
that position we must be good citizens and firm friends all round among
ourselves in our country.
A house divided against itself cannot stand. If a strong enemy wants our
rich commerce and Colonies, and sees us in England divided against each
other, he would pounce in and capture us.
For this you must begin, as boys, not to think other classes of boys to
be your enemies. Remember, whether rich or poor, from castle or from
slum, you are all Britons in the first place, and you've got to keep
England up against outside enemies. You have to stand shoulder to
shoulder to do it.
If you are divided among yourselves you are doing harm to your country.
You must sink your differences.
If you despise other boys because they belong to a poorer class than
yourself you are a snob; if you hate other boys because they happen to
be born richer and belong to higher class schools than yourself, you are
a fool.
We have got, each one of us, to take our place as we find it in this
world and make the best of it, and pull together with the others around
us.
We are very like bricks in a wall, we have each our place, though it may
seem a small one in so big a wall. But if one brick gets rotten, or
slips out of place, it begins to throw an undue strain on others, cracks
appear, and the wall totters.
Don't be too anxious to push yourself on to good billets. You will get
disappointments without end if you start that way.
Work for the good of the State, or of the business in which you are
employed, and you will find that as you succeed in doing this you will
be getting all the promotion and all the success that you want.
Try and prepare yourself for this by seriously taking up the subjects
they teach you at school, not because it amuses you, but because it is
your duty to your country to improve yourself. Take up your mathematics,
your history, and your language--learning in that spirit, and you'll get
on.
Don't think of yourself, but think of your country and your employers.
Self-sacrifice pays all round.
DUTIES AS CITIZEN-SOLDIER.
A cuttle-fish is an animal with a small, round body and several
enormously long arms which reach out in every direction to hold on to
rocks to enable it to keep its position and to get food.
Great Britain has been compared to a cuttle-fish, the British Isles
being the body and our distant Colonies the arms spread all over the
world.
When anyone wants to kill a cuttle-fish he does not go and lop off one
of its arms; the other arms would probably tackle him and hold him for
the cuttle-fish to eat. No, the way to kill a cuttle-fish is to suddenly
stab him in the heart, and then his arms fall helpless and dead.
Well, we have many powerful enemies round about us in Europe who want
very much to get hold of the trade in our great manufacturing towns, and
of the vast farm-lands in our Colonies. If they tried to lop off one of
our Colonies it would be like trying to lop off one of the arms of the
cuttle-fish. All the rest would tackle him at once, as happened in the
last war in South Africa.
Their only way--and they know it--is to stab suddenly at the heart of
the Empire, that is to attack England. If they succeeded, the whole of
the Empire must fall at once, because the different parts of it cannot
yet defend themselves without help from home.
For this reason every Briton who has any grit in him will BE PREPARED to
help in defending his country.
When Mafeking was attacked by the Boers, the boys of the town made
themselves into a Cadet Corps, and did very useful work in the defence.
It is quite likely that England will some day be attacked just as
Mafeking was, unexpectedly, by a large number of enemies.
[Illustration: Cuttle Fish.]
If this happens, every boy in the country should be prepared to take his
place and help in the defence like those Mafeking boys did.
We don't think much of a fellow who is no good at cricket or football,
and who only loafs about trying (without success) to look like a man by
smoking cheap cigarettes. But we ought really not to think too much of
any boy, even though a cricketer and footballer, unless he can also
_shoot_, and _can drill_ and _scout_.
That is the fellow who is going to be useful if England is attacked.
I hope that before long every eleven, whether football or cricket, will
also make itself a good eleven for shooting and scouting and therefore
useful for defence of our King and country when needed.
In the Colonies boys think more of their shooting than of their games,
because the shooting is for their _country_, the games for _themselves_.
Mr. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, writes:
"The qualities that make a good scout are, in large part, the qualities
that make a good hunter. Most important of all is the ability to shift
for one's self--the mixture of hardihood and resourcefulness which
enables a man to tramp all day in the right direction, and, when night
comes, to make the best of whatever opportunities for shelter and warmth
may be at hand. Skill in the use of the rifle is another trait;
quickness in seeing game, another; ability to take advantage of cover,
yet another; while patience, endurance, keenness of observation,
resolution, good nerves, and instant readiness in an emergency, are all
indispensable to a really good hunter."
Roosevelt is not, like certain men I know of, a man who pays others to
do his fighting for him, but, when America went to war with Spain about
Cuba, he went to the front as a soldier--like many good Britons did in
South Africa--and was of greatest value to his side because he had begun
life as a scout.
So make yourselves good scouts and good rifle shots in order to protect
the women and children of your country if it should ever become
necessary.
MARKSMANSHIP.
Lord Roberts, who has seen more of war than almost anybody alive, knows
how terrible a thing it would be if war came into England, and he urges
everybody to join in preventing it by becoming a good marksman with the
rifle. Thanks to him, all those who have patriotism in them are taking
it up everywhere.
The value of non-smoking again comes in rifle shooting. I used to smoke
myself as a youngster, but I had to do some rifle shooting, and when in
training I found my eyesight was better when I did not smoke. So I gave
up smoking altogether, and am very glad I did.
The boys of the International Anti-Cigarette League bind themselves not
to smoke, in order to make themselves better men for their country--that
is the best reason for doing it.
I heard another reason given the other day for not smoking, and that was
that St. Paul did not smoke. I don't suppose he did. Tobacco wasn't
invented in his time.
[Illustration: Boer Boys Shooting with Crossbows.]
The Boers are all good shots, and so are the Swiss. In both countries
the boys begin learning marksmanship at an early age by using crossbows.
They have much the same action for the firer as the rifle, since they
are aimed from the shoulder and fired by pulling a trigger when the aim
is taken. Boys trained with the crossbow have no difficulty in shooting
accurately with a rifle directly it is put in their hands.
To be able to shoot well, a great secret is to hold your rifle properly;
if it leans over a little bit to one side or the other the bullet will
fly low over to that side. Keep your left arm well underneath the rifle
to support it, and hold it well into the shoulder with your left hand.
The right hand should have the thumb on the top of the stock, and the
forefinger as far round the trigger as you can get it; then in firing
don't give a pull with your forefinger or you will pull the aim off the
target just as you fire; you should squeeze the woodwork of the rifle
between your thumb and forefinger, and that will fire it with
steadiness.
Then when your rifle has gone off, don't throw up the muzzle in a hurry,
but do like all old scouts, continue to look along your sights after
firing to see how much you have jumped off your aim in firing, and try
and correct it next time.
Shooting at a fixed target is only a step towards shooting at a moving
one like a man. Firing at moving objects is, of course, more difficult,
but more real, because you will not find a deer or an enemy as a rule
kind enough to stand still while you shoot at him, he will be running
and dodging behind cover, so you have to get your aim quick and to shoot
quick.
The very best practice for this is always to be aiming at moving objects
with your staff, using it as if it were a rifle.
Aim first at the man, then moving the muzzle a little faster than he is
moving, and fire while moving it when it is pointing where he will be a
second or two later, and the bullet will just get there at the same time
as he does and will hit him.
HELPING POLICE.
Boy Scouts can be of special use in assisting the police in towns. In
the first place every Boy Scout ought to know where the fixed police
points are--that is, where a constable is always stationed, apart from
the policemen on their beats. He ought also to know where to find the
fire alarm; also where is the nearest fire brigade station, and the
nearest hospital or ambulance station, and chemist.
On seeing an accident, if you cannot help at it you should run and
inform the nearest policeman, and ask him how you can help him, whether
you can call a doctor, a cab, and so on. If you hear a policeman's
whistle sounding, run and offer to help him, it is your duty, as he is a
King's servant. If you should happen to see a door or window left open
and unguarded at night, it is as well to inform a policeman on that
beat, but you should on no account attempt to do detective work by
watching people or playing the spy.
If you find a lost child, or lost dog, or any lost property, you should
take them at once to the police station.
Sir H. Poland, K.C., had his watch snatched by a pickpocket the other
day. The thief darted away down the street; but a small boy jumped on to
a bike and followed him, crying, "Stop thief!" till he was caught--with
the watch on him.
Not only can boys help the police, but girls also. Within the last few
months I have noticed three cases of girls going to the assistance of
constables who were in difficulties with violent men. In each case the
girl got the policeman's whistle and blew it for him until assistance
arrived. These heroines were Miss Edith Harris at Southampton, Miss
Bessie Matthews in Clerkenwell, and Mrs. Langley at Brentford.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.
Marksmanship can be taught indoors with the Blanchette Air Gun Tube.
Price four guineas with Air Rifle. Targets 10d. per 100.
CROSSBOW.--Scouts can make their own crossbows and learn marksmanship
with them.
Get leave to use, or join, a Miniature Rifle Club range.
GAMES.
"SHOOT OUT."--Two patrols compete. Targets: Bottles or bricks set up on
end to represent the opposing patrol. Both patrols are drawn up in line
at about 20 to 25 yards from the targets. At the word "fire" they throw
stones at the targets. Directly a target falls the umpire directs the
corresponding man of the other patrol to sit down--killed. The game goes
on, if there are plenty of stones, till the whole of one patrol is
killed. Or a certain number of stones can be given to each patrol, or a
certain time limit, say one minute.
"French and English," or "Tug of War."--One patrol against another.
THE STORMING OF BADAJOZ.--One patrol (French) mounts on a very strong
kitchen-table, or bank, and holds it against all comers. The British
attack, and try to gain possession of the fortress by pulling the
defenders off. Defenders may have half their number on the ground behind
the "rampart." If the defenders pull a Briton over the rampart on to the
ground behind he is dead. No hitting or kicking allowed.
[Badajoz was a Spanish fortress held by 5,000 French and Spaniards. It
was attacked, and stormed, and taken by the British, who lost 3,500 in
the assault, on March 17th, 1812.]
BOOKS TO READ.
"The Boys' Book of Bravery." By Power Berry. (C. A. Pearson.)
"The Boys' Book of Battles." By Herbert Cadett. (C. A. Pearson.)
"Rules for Miniature Rifle Clubs." Secretary National Rifle Association,
Bisley, Surrey.
CAMP FIRE YARN.--No. 28.
UNITED WE STAND. DIVIDED WE FALL.
Our Fleet and Army--Our Union Jack--Our Government--Our King.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.
_Hoist the flag and salute it every morning when in camp, and on special
days get up a show, or sports, or competitions, etc., on such as King's
Birthday, Empire Day, May 24th, annually, or on the day of the Patron
Saint of your Country: St. George, April 23rd; St. Patrick, March 17th;
St. David, March 1st; St. Andrew, Nov. 30th._
_Get up tableaux or small pageants by the scouts to illustrate scenes
from history of your town, or of Britain, or of Greater Britain._
_These interest the boys and impress the incident upon them, and they
educate spectators, and bring in money for your funds._
_Take scouts to see meeting of town council and how business is carried
out._
_If in London, take your boys to the Museum of the Royal United Service
Institution, Whitehall, and show them the models of Waterloo and
Trafalgar; the gun which we manufactured in Mafeking; the medals of
different campaigns; and a hundred other interesting relics._
_Take your scouts round and explain each statue in your town._
_Hold debates on questions of the day._
OUR NAVY AND ARMY.
The British Navy and Army have made our Empire for us, and if it had not
been for their help the Empire would have been broken up by our enemies
long ago.
So we must be careful to keep those Services supplied with good men who,
like the scouts, must BE PREPARED to give their lives for their country
at any time.
There are always members of Parliament who try to make the Navy and Army
smaller, so as to save money. They only want to be popular with the
voters in England so that they and the party to which they belong may
get into power. These men are called "politicians." They do not look to
the good of the county. Most of them know and care very little about our
Colonies. If they had had their way before, we should by this time have
been talking French; and if they are allowed to have their way in the
future we may as well learn German or Japanese, for we shall be
conquered by these.
But fortunately there are other better men in Parliament, who are called
"statesmen"; these are men who look out for the welfare of the country,
and do not mind about being popular or not so long as they keep the
country safe.
THE BRITISH NAVY.--Every British boy should study the Navy as much as
possible, and learn the history of the different ships, and their power
and guns, etc. A collection of postcard portraits of all His Majesty's
ships is a very interesting one to make.
You should know the badges of rank of the officers, because it is the
duty of a scout to salute officers of His Majesty's service.
Badges of rank on the sleeve or shoulder-strap are these.
[Illustration: Admiral, Captain, Lieutenant, Sub-Lieutenant.]
Perhaps you may like to know some facts about the dress of the sailors.
The reason they wear that flap collar on their back is a relic of the
time when they wore their hair in pig-tails. The grease used to come off
and spoil their jackets, so they wore big linen flaps, which could be
easily taken off and washed.
They wear a black silk tie round their neck as a mark of mourning for
the death of Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar.
They wear three lines of white braid to commemorate Nelson's naval
victories, The Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar.
They wear baggy trousers so that they can easily roll them up above
their knees when they want to wade.
Soldiers and sailors tattoo their arms with the idea that when they are
killed in battle they can be identified the more easily.
THE BRITISH ARMY.--The Army is made up of--
The Regulars or Active Army, which includes infantry, cavalry,
artillery, engineers, and many other branches of both white and native
soldiers.
The Militia at home are to help the Regulars in time of war.
The Militia exist also in most of our Colonies for their own defence.
The Territorial Force is made up of volunteers to protect the British
Isles in case of the Active Army being called away for war in other
parts.
In the Army, field-marshals and generals (including major-generals and
lieutenant-generals) wear cocked hats, with long white cock's feather
plumes, and red tunics or black frock-coats. Their swords are curved
scimitars, with ivory handles. Colonels wear the uniform of their
regiment with crown and star on the shoulder strap, or, in khaki, on the
cuff; majors, one crown; captains, three stars; lieutenants, two stars.
You can tell what wars soldiers or sailors have been in by the colours
of their medal ribbons. These I will show you later on.
OUR FLAG.
Scouts will always salute the colours (or standard) of a regiment when
they pass. There are generally two such standards, one the "King's
Colour," the other the "Regimental Colour."
Men-of-war carry a pennant, _i.e._, a long thin flag like a whip lash.
You may remember that the Dutch fleet under Van Tromp, after defeating
ours, carried a broom at their mastheads to show that they had swept us
off the seas. But when we shortly after defeated them we put up a whip
at the masthead to show that we had whipped the enemy, and this whip has
been carried ever since by men-of-war.
The Royal Navy fly the White Ensign; no one else is allowed to except
yachts belonging to the Royal Yacht Squadron. The White Ensign is a
white flag with the Red Cross of St. George on it and a Union Jack in
the corner. It is flown at the stern of the ship, a small Union Jack at
the bow.
The mercantile navy flies the Red Ensign; or if the captain of the ship
belongs to the Royal Reserve, the ship flies a Blue Ensign.
The Army and Government buildings fly the Union Jack. Private houses and
individuals should only fly the Red Ensign.
The Royal Standard, which shows the Lions of England, the Harp of
Ireland, and the Lion of Scotland, is only flown when the King is
present.
The Union Jack is the national flag of England, and is made up
originally of the flag of St. George, a red cross on a white ground. In
1606 King James I. added to it the banner of Scotland, which was a blue
flag with a white St. Andrew's Cross diagonal, that is from corner to
corner.
In 1801 the Banner of St. Patrick of Ireland was added to the flag; St.
Patrick's Cross was a red diagonal cross on a white ground, so that the
flag now means the union of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
But there is a right way and a wrong way of putting it up, which all of
you ought to know and understand, because so very frequently one sees it
hoisted the wrong way up, which literally means that you are in
distress; but people put it that way by mistake or from ignorance. You
will notice that the red diagonal arms of the flag have a narrow white
band on one side of them and a broad one on the other. Well, the broad
one should be to the top of the flag on the side nearest to the
flagpost, that is the "hoist" of the flag, and towards the bottom of the
flag in the loose end, or, as it is called, the "fly" of the flag. (See
picture, Part 1, page 29.)
It was called a "Jack," either from "Jacques," the nickname of King
James I., who first started it; or, more probably, from the "jack" or
"jacket," which the knights used to wear over their armour to show which
nation they belonged to. The English knights wore a white Jack with the
red cross of St. George upon it. This was also their flag.
If the flag is flown upside down it is a signal of distress. If it is
half-mast it is a sign of mourning.
On going on board a man-of-war, when you reach the quarter-deck--that is
the upper stern deck--always salute the ensign.
In the Navy, flags are hoisted at eight o'clock and saluted. With the
Boy Scouts when in camp the same practice will be observed.
Of course you will always rise and salute or take off your hat on
hearing the National Anthem played.
The 24th of May, the birthday of the great Queen Victoria, is "Empire
Day," and we all hoist the flag and salute in special honour of the
Empire on that occasion.
Remember it is going to be the business of everyone of you to keep the
old flag flying, even if you have to bleed for it--just as your
forefathers did before you.
We have all got to die some day; a few years more or less of our own
lives don't make much matter in the history of the world, but it is a
very great matter if by dying a year or two sooner than we should
otherwise do from disease we can help to save the flag of our country
from going under.
Therefore think it over--BE PREPARED to die for your country if need be;
so that when the moment arrives you may charge home with confidence, not
caring whether you are going to be killed or not.
If your enemy sees that you are bent on either killing or being killed,
the probability is that he won't wait to oblige you.
Don't merely talk, like some gas-bags do, about shedding the last drop
of your blood for your country--the difficulty with them, when the time
comes, is to get them to shed the FIRST drop of their blood.
The Union Jack stands for something more than only the Union of England,
Ireland, and Scotland--it means the Union of Great Britain with all our
Colonies across the seas; and also it means closer comradeship with our
brothers in those Colonies, and between ourselves at home. We must all
be bricks in the wall of that great edifice--the British Empire--and we
must be careful that we do not let our differences of opinion on
politics or other questions grow so strong as to divide us. We must
still stick shoulder to shoulder as Britons if we want to keep our
position among the nations; and we must make ourselves the best men in
the world for honour and goodness to others so that we may DESERVE to
keep that position.
Unite the Empire; make it stand compact,
Shoulder to shoulder let its members feel
The touch of British Brotherhood, and act
As one great nation--strong and true as steel.
OUR GOVERNMENT.
Of all the different kinds of government in the world, ours is the
easiest and fairest for everybody.
Some countries have kings who make their laws for them whether the
people like the laws or not; other countries make their own laws, but
have not a king or a head who can carry on dealings on equal terms with
other foreign countries.
With us the wants of the people are made known through Parliament. The
House of Commons is made up of men chosen by the people to make known
their wants and to suggest remedies, and the House of Lords sees whether
these are equally good for all and for the future of the country; and
what they recommend the King makes into law.
When you grow up you will become voters and have a share in putting
members into the House of Commons.
And you will many of you be inclined to belong to Conservative or
Liberal or Radical or other parties, whichever your father or friends
belong to. I should not if I were you. I should hear what each party has
to say. If you listen to one party you will certainly agree that that is
the only right one, the rest must all be wrong. But if you go and listen
to another you will find that after all that one is quite right, and the
first one wrong.
The thing is to listen to them all and don't be persuaded by any
particular one, for they all tell fibs; they each want to get into
power. And then be a man, make up your mind and decide for yourself
which you think is best for the country and future of the Empire--not
for some two-penny-halfpenny little local question--and vote for that
one so long as it works the right way, namely, for the good of the
country.
Many people get led away by some new politician with some new extreme
idea. Never believe in one man's idea till it has been well considered
from all points of view. Extreme ideas are seldom much good; if you look
them up in history you will see almost always they have been tried
before somewhere. The Socialists are right in wishing to get money more
evenly distributed so that there would be no millionaires and no
paupers, but everyone pretty well off.
But they go the wrong way to work; they want to fight all other people
to get themselves up, instead of joining in with everybody in doing a
great thing for the whole country by a way which is fair and good for
all. They do not read history, which shows that their plans have been
tried before, and failed, because they made life a kind of slavery for
everybody, and left the country an easy prey to another stronger one.
More thrift rather than change of government will bring money to all.
And a strong united Empire, where all are helpful and patriotic will
bring us power, peace, and prosperity such as no Socialistic dream could
do.
OUR KING.
The word Empire comes from an old Roman word "Imperium," which means
"well-ordered rule."
And the title Emperor, or ruler of the Empire, comes from the Roman word
"Imperator." The King signs himself "R. I.," which means "Rex," or King
of England, and "Imperator" or Emperor of India and the Colonies.
Imperator comes from two Roman words, "Im" and "Parere," which together
mean "To prepare for"--that is, to BE PREPARED. An Emperor is one who
has to be prepared to face any difficulty or danger that may threaten
the country.
Scouts have in the same way to BE PREPARED to _help_ their country in
any difficulty or danger; and, therefore, we are all working to back up
our King.
GOD SAVE THE KING.
BOOKS TO READ.
"The Union Jack and How It Was Made." By F. Wintour. One penny. (St.
Dunstan's Road, West Kensington, London, W.)
Leaflets at one penny from the Empire Day Association, 83, Lancaster
Gate, London, W.
"History of the British Empire." By Arnold Forster. (Cassell.)
_So great has been the success of this Handbook, "Scouting for Boys,"
that Lt.-Gen. Baden-Powell has decided to complete it with Part 6, and
make arrangements instead for a weekly penny paper for young men, to be
entitled_:
_THE SCOUT._