Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-11-02
BOY SCOUT ARMY
ROUSES PATRIOTISM
OF YOUNG HEARTS
Schoolboys Thrilled With
Wonder at Performances
of Lads in Khaki, Rough
and Ready.

What an army OF little experts the Boy
Scouts are, anyway! II you saw them
out at the Ball Park Saturday afternoon.
you won't think Of asking "why?" Like
industrious little brown-cad ants. 25O0 OF
them perfectly disciplined, perfectly
trained dotted the field here, there and
everywhere performing their various
stunts and the hearts OF 2JOO mothers
thrilled with pride as they did It, Here
is one uniform that any boy may don
without causing his mothers heart to
twinge with grief.
And among the thousands OF schoolboys
who assembled in the gallaries to watch
the fcld-day exercises was there n single
one who did not envy the scouts on the
field and who did not make the secret
resolution that not another year should
pass before he, too, should be stalking
around with military tread, an army
slouch hat fixed rakishly on one ear, his
manly form encased in a snug-fttinE
Khaki suit?
Hey mister" said one little chap, who
could not have been more than 6, how
much does 1t cost for fellow to join the
Boy Scouts?"
And the mister so addressed, who was
none other than an orderly intent on the
business of the day, halted In his tracks
to answer the question.
much Any boy could make those about
20 or 80 cents a year. I should say. It's
the uniform that costs the most 81 and
something Is the price"
The llttlc fellow sat down. and chin n
hand constituted a ways and means COM
mittec all by himself, and pondered just
how he was going to get that 81 and
mysterious something which IL is neces-
sary to have in order to belong to the
grand and glorious order of Boy Scouts.
Meanwhile the events of the day were
on. y band composed of scouts. of all
sizes, all the way from the little .taclSer.
knee high to o grasshopper. who welded
the baton, up to the man-S2ed scout who
carried the drum struck up the Star
Spangled Banner" while a battalion OF
scouts over at far end of the field
slowly hauled Old Glory into the autumn
sky.
1t was what the novoltists call a big
moment. The most cynical. the most
patriotic, even the most rheumatic on
locker. got to his feet. There was no
resisting the magnet of the Stars and
Stripes being raised by Boy Scout hands
to the tune of Boy Scout music.
WHAT THE BOYS CAN DO.
But raising the flag and playing the
band are but two Of the many things in
the long category of a Boy Scouts ac-
complishments. In fact, after few
hours spent at the fourth annual field
day exercises, one is apt to wonder If
there is anything really useful that they
cannot do. They can chop n log of yell
low pine in as clean as a whistle in less
time than it takes to say Jack Robinson:
they can build signal tower high into
the air I'm the twinklinE OF an eye, and
without so much as uttering n word they
can communicate the most complicated
messages by the mere waving of few
tags which constitutes what the initiated
call tho scmnphore code.
They can move a whole camp, pitched
tents and all, across streams and over
hillocks, with a speed and facility that
would put the German army and its
much vaunted efficiency to shame. They
can joust and tilt with each other from
the tops of barrels with a skill that
makes the tournament of Ivanhoe and
Brian de Bois Guilbert look tame by
comparison They know not only how to
take care of themselves, but equally well
how to take care of the other fellow i'm
every emergency, be he wounded on the
battlefield or suffocated in a burning
house.
TRAINED FOR PEACE, BUT
All of their training has been along the
lines Of peace and yet, If it is true, as the
rcdouhtable Colonel would have us be-
lieve, that two foreign nations have laid
plans TO attack several of our large
cities and think that they can do It sue
Ccssfully because of our insufficient army.
what rude awakening they will have
All that Uncle Sam would have to do.
Judging from Saturdays field day exer-
cisos. would be TO fortify the city with
the Philadelphia Boy Scouts, each and
every one with the motto "be prepared
on his sleeve, and then he could proceed
leisurely about the business of mobilizing
his army.
At least that is what the spectators at
the ball park thought.