How many boys of ten years of age know what they want to do when they
are grown? Surely there are some boys of that age who have planned
their future work or at least have dreamed about it. But how many ever
do in later life just what they had thought of doing when in the
fourth grade of the public school? Not many, you may be sure. However,
some years ago there was a boy living in England who had decided on
his life work by the time his tenth birthday passed. What is more, he
carried out his plans with great success. Today you may read many of
his books and look at interesting pictures he has drawn of wild
animals that are as familiar to him as are the pets most boys and
girls have in their homes. More than this, if a boy belongs to the Boy
Scouts, he is a member of an organization that this man helped to
found in the United States.
Ernest Thompson Seton was born in the northern part of England. His
family moved to Canada, but he attended school in England and did not
stay in America for any length of time until his schooling was
completed. His name was originally Ernest E. Thompson Seton, but some
years ago he changed it by turning the last two names around and
putting a hyphen between them. As he has written under both names,
persons sometimes wonder if there are two men who love the out of
doors and write with pleasure of their open air experiences.
Mr. Thompson Seton's wish was to spend a large part of his life
tramping over the country studying animals and learning woodcraft. The
rest of the time he would write and make pictures of what he had seen.
He felt he could stay within doors only part of each year. So as soon
as he finished school and returned to the province of Manitoba he went
to work in the fields. It did not take him long to earn enough money
to live on during the winter, as his wants were few; then he set out
to tramp all over the province. He watched the birds; he learned the
ways of all the animals and could tell wonderful stories of their
instinct and cunning. When he did live under a roof for a few weeks,
he was always busy drawing pictures of his friends in the open or
writing down accounts of their lives. One of his best known books was
published in 1898 and was called, "Wild Animals I Have Known." This
brought him to the attention of many readers; but he had been helping
make books long before this one, for when the Century Dictionary was
published he drew for it more than a thousand pictures of the animals
that he had watched and studied.
In the course of his life he has been a hunter, a day laborer, a
scientist, a naturalist, and an artist. At the same time he has been
able to carry out his plan of spending the greater part of each year
out of doors. Loving a free active life from his earliest boyhood, it
is not strange that Ernest Thompson Seton was the first man to
organize the Boy Scouts in America. In the Outlook for July 23, 1910,
he tells the story in a most interesting manner. He says:
"My friend John Moale, a rich man, had bought several thousand acres
of abandoned farm lands near Boston in the year 1900. This he made
into a beautiful park, all for his own enjoyment. Around this park he
built a strong fence twelve feet high so that no one could get into
the park. His prospects of peace and happiness were excellent. But the
neighbors resented his coming. He had fenced in a lot of open ground
that had been the common cow-pasture of the adjoining village. He had
taken from the boys their nutting-ground, and forbidden the usual
summer picnics. He was an outsider, a rich man despoiling the very
poor, and they set about making it unpleasant for him.
"They destroyed his fences, they stoned his notice-boards until they
fell, and they painted shocking pictures on his gates. Mr. Moale, a
peace-loving man, rebuilt the fences and restored the notice-boards
only to have them torn down again and again.
"All summer this had been going on, so I learned on visiting Mr. Moale
in September. Finally I said to him: 'Let me try my hand on these
boys.' He was ready for anything, and gave me a free hand. I bought
two tents, three old Indian teepees, and two canoes. I got some bows
and arrows and a target.
"Then I got a gang of men to make a campground by the lake on my
friend's grounds. On this I set up the tents and teepees in the form
of an Indian village.
"Now I went to the local school house and got permission to talk to
the boys for five minutes. 'Now boys,' I said, 'Mr. Moale invites you
all to come to the Indian village on his land next Friday, after
school, to camp with him there until Monday morning. We will have all
the grub you can eat, all the canoes necessary, and everything to have
a jolly time in camp.'
"At first the boys were bashful and suspicious, but finally they
accepted the invitation, and at 4:30 forty-two boys arrived in high
glee.
"'Say, Mister, kin we holler?'
"'Yes, all you want to.'
"'Kin we take our clothes off?'
"As the weather was warm I said, 'Yes, every stitch, if you like.' And
soon they were a mob of naked, howling savages, tearing through the
woods, jumping into the lake, or pelting each other with mud."
After supper, Mr. Thompson Seton tells us, the boys gathered around
the camp fire while he told them one Indian story after another. For
two days the boys ate, swam, canoed, and, what was most important of
all, they became acquainted with the two men. There was no harm done
the boats, teepees, or outfit other than fair wear and tear during
that camping, and before it was over Mr. Moale, instead of having a
gang of bandits to combat the year round, had now a guard of staunch
friends, ready to fight his battles and look out for his interests
when he was away.
That was the beginning of it. Every boy in the village is now a member
of the tribe, and three other bands have been formed in the
neighborhood. All this was in 1900. Since then thousands of workers
have become interested and the work has spread, until today the Boy
Scouts of America is one of the best known organizations of the
country.
One reason for the growth of the Boy Scout movement is the fact that
scouting usually makes boys cleaner and more manly than they were
before. Should you like to know the Scout Laws that they learn and
practice? The first law is this: "_A scout is trustworthy._" This
means a scout's honor is to be trusted. Boy Scouts everywhere make a
great deal of the word _honor_. The following story shows the scout's
idea of honor: "A little newsboy boarded a crowded car the other night
with a very large bundle of papers, and the conductor, with coarse
good-nature, tried to favor him by not taking his fare, although of
course he could not do this without cheating the railway. The boy
looked at him with indignation, and could not believe that he was the
conductor. He went all through the car hunting for the real conductor
to whom he might pay his fare."
"_A scout is loyal_," is the second law. _Loyalty_ is another word
that is dear to the scout. Have you ever heard a scout say bad things
about his scout master or about his fellow scouts behind their backs?
Not very often, I am sure. If a scout has anything to say against any
one, he goes directly to him and talks it over. The Scout Law explains
loyalty saying: "He is loyal to all to whom loyalty is due, his scout
leader, his home and parents and country." He must stick to them
through thick and thin against any one who is their enemy, or whoever
talks badly of them.
Have you ever seen the scouts salute the flag? The smiling faces and
beaming eyes show that they love the flag dearly. Few can sing better
than the scouts, for they mean every word they sing.
The instant our nation entered the great world war the Boy Scouts
offered themselves to their country to do whatever the president
asked. Since most of them were too young to enlist, it was at first
thought that they could not do much. As the months passed, however,
the boys have found one task after another, until now they are so busy
that they put to shame many older people.
Then, too, the Boy Scouts have worked so silently, without making a
fuss about what they were doing. In many of our large cities they have
planted "war gardens" on every vacant lot they could get. In most
cases all they raised in these gardens was given to the Red Cross.
Furthermore, they have been the best friends the farmers have had.
These scouts in large numbers have left their comfortable city homes
to work on farms. They have not asked for the easy, pleasant jobs,
but have been willing to do the thing that needed to be done most
whether it was pleasant or not. Have you ever wondered who put up the
thousands of posters asking the people to save food and buy bonds? In
many cases this work has been done by the scouts.
The Boy Scout has been able to do so much because he is taught to be
brave. The coward has no place among the scouts. The lad who is not
willing to rough it soon drops out. Long hikes, coarse food, and hard
work try the _stuff_ that's in a boy. If he can stand up to all these
he is sure to develop the endurance that makes him brave.
As soon as the war began, the educated young men of our country went
to the officers' training camps to learn to become officers. After
thousands of these young men who had tried to become officers had
failed, the people began to wonder what the trouble was. Finally they
asked the great army officers who had examined them, and received this
answer: "Your young men are slouchy; slouchy in the way they hold
their shoulders, slouchy in the way they walk, slouchy in their use of
the English language, slouchy in the way they think." Should you like
to know how the young men who had once been scouts fared? Almost
without exception they passed, for the training they had received as
scouts had cured them of much of their slouchiness.
A scout is not only brave but he is also courteous and helpful to
others. Nothing delights a scout more than to be able to help a child
or an old man or woman across a busy street. For these little services
he must not receive tips. Major Powell, the great English Scout
organizer, tells of a little fellow who came to his house on an
errand. When offered a tip the lad put up his hand to the salute and
said, "No, thank you, sir, I am a Boy Scout."
About the hardest thing a scout is expected to do is to smile and
whistle under all circumstances. "The punishment for swearing or using
bad language is, for each offense, a mug of cold cold water poured
down the offender's sleeves by the other scouts."
Much more could be written in favor of the Boy Scouts. They are a body
of boys of whom we are proud. And we shall ever be grateful to Ernest
Thompson Seton for his noble work in organizing the Boy Scouts in
America.
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"_Be Prepared_"