Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-09-01
CHAPTER XIV
AS to the Boy Scouts.

Bows in our modern life, especially
in big cities, do not have the opportu-
mites of getting back to nature as boys
did years ago.
However, through this great move
ment of theirs they come together ana
talk of outdoor life, and at every op-
portunity they go into the woois and
learn the great lesson of nature. Big
men who know have written books on
the woods and the animals that live
within these woods. The boy scout is
Obliged to learn about these various
animals and things about nature in or
der to qualify as a first class scout.
am particularly interested in the
different stages of the movement
There are three degrees which the boy
must take before he becomes a first
class scout. This part of it is splen-
did feature, inasmuch as the boy just
starting in TO be scout constantly mas
the incentive of becoming a bigger ana
better one l even advocate more de-
grees so that a scout can always look
forward to something bigger.
The Boy Scouts of America first be-
come what they call tenderfeet. Here
they make a start and start is a big
thing.
A boy must serve at least month to
be eligible to enter the ranks of the
second class scouts, and all the While
he must learn necessary, practlcal
things of life in order to qualify. He
must know how to aid those who are
injured. how to cook, how to build
fires in the open, how to use a knlfe
and a hatchet and other practical
things that thousands of boys do not
know today.
Such knowledge makes the boy in
dependent. 1t gives him an education
that will stand back of him in after
life. 1t brings him closer to Mother
Nature, whom, in the onward marc
along the roads of civilization, he has
run away from. 1t gives him health,
and health means stronger generations
to come.
the boy must know how to swim, TO
earn a certain sum of money and de-
post it in a bank, to make maps, to
understand the growing things in the
woods and how to live in the open.
What movement can be greater
along educational lines? Where does
book learning compare with this prac-
tical experience in the great outdoors?
OF course have the book learning too
but divide this learning with the learn
ing from the open book of nature.
| understand that there are over
100000 boy scouts in the world today.
| believe it to be the duty of every
parent to encourage his boys in this
work, and l certainly approve of any
such movement for the girls along this
line.
| realize only too well that the av-
erage boy scout will not go into the
depths of the woods as l did. However
| feel that the average American boy
of reasonably good health and with n
reasonable amount of resOurcefulneSS
could accomplish things in the forest
that he and his parents would never
dream Of
The boy scout will go into the forest
where man has been and where there
is ample opportunity to get close to
nature. He will learn the different
growing things and the habits of the
animals that frequent his domain. He
will learn how to utilize the different
materials all about him.
He will come to love the woods, and
all fear will leave him. He will get TO
feel as safe and comfortable in the
forest at night as in his own home.
In the summer time the boy in the
woods knows he cannot freeze. If he
is lost all he has to do is to keep his
head. The best place to choose Il
camp if night overtakes him is in Il
thicket. If he feels cold he knows
enough to get up and run around.