ARE WE BREEDING WEAKLINGS?

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 723, 9 May 1914, Page 6

ARE WE BREEDING WEAKLINGS?

Grave Considerations that Spring from Recent Events. DISCOURAGED by recent events at Territorial camps, some people are expressing fears that the new generation of our youth is lacking; in the old fire and stamina of the race. When, we buffers were boys, a boy in camp enjoyed hardship, and was not afraid of getting his pants wet. Indeed, to the boy of twenty years ago hardship was in itself a joy. Still, there need be no serious fears ' for the physique and spirit of our boys as a whole. The fear is that modern conditions make for laziness and lassitude: that our boys, having too good and comfortable a time, are becoming infected- with the characteristic vices of.thei. coddled. A healthy boy, healthy of mind as of body, loves a camp. Accidents of wind and weather may buffet, but they cannot depress him. He laughs in the face of discomfort, and. enjoys his.own laugnter. That is. the sort of boy we want to not the slouching, .cigarette-smoking bov who dodges and whimpers and hates discipline and control as his forefathers hated the devil. It is a matter that all parents and guardians of growing boys will do well to consider. Boys bred too softly naturally dislike discomfort, and sooilt boys cry out before they're hurt.