The Holbrook news., 1910-08-19
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Great movements have silent begin
 hings, And so it is not strange that
 the organization of the Boy Scouts" in
 the United States should have been
 passed over with a bare mention in the
 press. The society had its birth in
 Washington, the latter part Of April,
 and its sponsors were Col. E. J. Spen-
 cer and Mir William II. Thomson, of
 St. Louis. and pr. Gunsaulus, w D. Boyce, R. O. West and c. II. Stoddard,
 of Chicago, and the bill of incorpora-
 tion was introduced in the House of
 Representatives by Congressman Graf.
 of Illinois, member of the Committee
 on Education.
 To the superficial observer the or
 ganization of a semi-military society among young boys may not appear of
 great moment. We have only to fol-
 low the effects of the society In Great
 Britain to foreshadow its effects here.
 The boy is the same. the world over, and he is to be appealed to in much
 the same manner on both sides of the Atlantic. It must not be supposed that the appeal is to his savage instinct, to
 the native barbarian that Is in him.
 Indeed the reverse of this Is true. The scouts are little soldiers; but they are taught so many other things besides scouting that the soldier is almost wholly lost in the embryo man.
 The British society, according to a writer in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat,
 was founded by Sir Robert Baden-Pow- ell, the hero of Mafeking. who had seen service in India, Afghanistan and all the British provinces of Africa before the Boer war and whose wide experi- ence as a soldier was linked with the most sympathetic understanding of the timber of which armies are made The need for some such organization among English boys was made unmistakably plain to him by the timber that pre- sented itself at the outbreak of hos
 ilities in South Africa, or rather at the time when the fight assumed such proportions that volunteers were called for. To his surprise and chagrin the general discovered that the English boy was not fitted to take up arms in behalf of his country. He was a poor campaigner because he had not learned to take care of himself. and he was in- clined to look upon this service to his country as great and unnatural hard ship. Gen. Baden-Powell studied the British youth during the trying days of the struggle, and when the war was over and he had been appointed to the post of inspector general of cavalry, he used this vantage ground to further study the soldier and to determine what it was that had been lacking in his early education. The younger boys were all around him. and with the silent plea of their appearance and at titude, he formulated a scheme that would transform indifferent and even vicious youngsters into the type of men of which Britain might be proud.
 Even Sir Baden-Powell, with his iri- descent dream of a great movement for the betterment of the English boy, builded better than he knew, for the work of the society has gone leagues beyond his dream in its splendid real ity It is making little men. not mere ly prospective soldiers, and it is devel- oping ideals of the highest and most helpful kind in the young boys of this generation, ideals that will prove an invincible power in the men or to- morrow All this seems extravagant to him who has preconceived notions of the work of the army scout. We look upon the scout as the daring pioneer in military engagement. He has courage and ingenuity. but beyond that we have given little thought to his oth- 1l, .6 1Nk consider the others, for courage and are enough to start with. l The scout is the idol of the small boy, | because he is brave and resourceful. and to call a boy a scout is to make | him desire to be these two things. | brave and resourceful
 Gen. Baden-Powell knew the boy na- | ture far too well to begin with high | ideals and practical work. 'He gath | cred together a small company of in- | teresting little chaps and told them l that he wanted to train them as scouts. | That was thrilling and the youngsters took to 1t with avidity. Others came | and when they had been on camp a | few weeks they spread the news that l they had had the time of their lives, | and that their friends could do the | same things next summer if they would | join the order and learn the prelim- lnary lessons The result was that the idea spread like an epidemic until there is no part of the British empire that does not boast its boy scouts.
 The scout badge Is not bestowed un- til the boy has acquired . great deal l