Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-02-08
Father and Son
4 taGaia n - s#
a Mans Candid Revelation Of Some
Phases Of Their Reldtions.-H0w
Scouting Fits Into the Argument

IL. HOW, Il Wututl Nihsl ~ NAAAMVpt Ian ~ -
who. had any real companionship with boys were the
sort who could do boys little good. cannot remem-
Der that my busy father ever told me a story; but
| remember distinctly that the booty harnessmaker.
whose back room was a. great' resort for boys, told
me a great many--at any one of which my mother,
had she known / was listening TO 1t, would have
tainted dead away. l cannot remember that l ever
told my boys a story-excepts when they were little;
but l have no doubt now that some other man did.
II remember well enough now what a bundle Of
bristing curiosity ! was in boyhood. The water sup.
ply in our town was pumped from an artesian well
into a tank. The little plant was an object Of endless
interest to us. We used to drop in there-especially
in cold weather-to watch Pat throw coal into the
blazing furnace and observe the mysterious piston
strokes of the engines.
"One day the; good.natured@ Irish engineer exhibit
ed and explaind It all to three or four of .us-the
generation of steam In the boilers the action of the
engine and pump; the gravity pressure Of the water.
Nothing that 4 ever learned in school made such an
impression OF me as that. We went away bursting
with knowledge, which we proudly impaired to other
boys.
snow, we we're; exactly as ready to absorb that us
we were to absorb the incorrect physiological infor-
nation the booty harnessmaker favored JUS with and
with we, bursting with knowledge, impaired to otler
boys; but it was not only by accident that Pat told
us about the waterworks. 5H-
"One Of my pals was a son Of the cashier of the
bank. Two or three times l accompanied him into
the mysterious establishment presided over by his
father. It was a tremendously fascinating place-a
shop much finer than any other shop In town, which
detlt in, money as much as the one next door dealt
in commonplace boots and shoes. can remember
staring r0und-eyed at the stack of veritable green
backs behind the glass screen
II am sure that any intelligent man could have
held my attention indefinitely by explaining the sim.
pier facts of banking to ,me-and incidentally no
doubt, have furnished me with more lasting histori.
cal knowledge than 1 ever gained in school.
Intelligent men, however, were all too busy to
bother with boys; SO we slipped over to >Prescott's
livery stable, where Pete, the hostler, had an extra
ordinary command of profane and obscene language
which also was very interesting to us.
There was nothing whatever in school that coulo
compare in interest with the waterworks, the bank,
the printing office and a great many other objects
outside .The, school had no engine, actually pumping
water; no ~veritable greenbacks: that were handed out
to grown men, no printing press. 1T had only stupid
books about those things. Our interest was instantly
caught by the things. themselves and as instantly re.
PEELED by the books about them.sss n
How little trouble it would have been-as i look
back at it now---fors0u our fathers toAhave given us much
education by simply taking the pains to explain-not
PCun6O6ACduy, VI UuAoc Y Just Ill tAe $W8ySOI COM.T
panionable talk-a great many phenomena of the
mans world about us. which they understood and we
did not.
l also look back with humiliation on the indubit-
able fact that I never took. the pains to explain any
thing in particular TO my boys III was busy. = had a
sort of nervous aversion to starting anything with
them, being generally we'll enough content II they did
not start something with me-"
Those who know the Boy Scout method of in.
%structing boys know that this element in boy nature
has been provided for In pretty nearly every step of
the Boy Scout PLAN tits because of this dealing
with the material things Of life, and the actualities
Of it, rather than with mere records o.. the past and
theories as to the future, that has given the Boy
Scout movement its immense popularity. with. boys,
and has obtained for it the enthusiastic praise of
parents and pedagoglcalse experts the world over.
Gsa&@, 49, ~
The public man who sticks to q set speech instead
Of talking out loud shows wisdom
Owing to the high ccost of living, Mexico will try
to get along with. only two %dictators.
If one may he killed by a thought wave, how does
DR.. Lindberg account for Huerta's endurance?
Mr.. Pindell will have 10 start right away for 81.
Petersburg or he will nle4tahimself coming back.
Hot Springs 3is7to have saloons without the neces-.
.sity: for visitors taking. up their. residence theirs:
E$#as l=EEa4
A girl has captured a husband by writing her
name on an egg, working an unusual Kind of shell
game. - 81
The barring Of thieves: from the Panama-Pacifc
Exposition viii permit the visitors to stay a little
- g.. &-4t~-