The Chief Scout Talks

Taranaki Daily News, 11 June 1932, Page 17 (Supplement)

The Chief Scout Talks

BACK GARDENS.

(By Lt.-Gen. Lord Baden Powell of Gilwell.)

A little boy in the train the other, dav nut a poser to the rest of us in thl carriage when he said “Why does the train run on an embankment whenever it comes to a town?’’ . ~ , The correct answer, I think, though nobody thought of it at the moment, was, of course, “So that the travellers can see into the back gardens of the houses.” . The reason for doing this is so that the traveller can judge the character of the people in the place, he can read of the joys and tragedies of life as they stand cheek by jowl with one another. The back garden is the open book in which one can read, the character of the people who live in the place. Yonder back wall of the wash-house has its little awning of striped canvas as shelter from the —usually imaginary —stm-glare. There are cane deck chairs and a little table with its white c!6th and tea-tliings, just cornered off from sight of the dust-bin, and wash-tub, where only the trim little grass plot and small border of bright flowers are visible to the occupants. This garden to my mind spells a mind that sees a bright lining. to the darkest cloud and makes the best of things. . • I pray for the sun ter shine there in reality. One recognises there the presence of : a home heaven maker like to the unknown him who owns that cverbright roof-garden near the railway lino in Southwark.

RUTTING OW TILL TO-MORROW.

Another “garden” is blocked up with more or less dilapidated wooden shanties and hen runs, with old bicycle tyres and other rubbish heaped upon their roofs.

Here, evidently, dwells one of the tribe whose motto is, “Never do to-day what you can put off till to-morrow.” Another garden gorgeous with, a yellow riot of dandelions and buttercups

'sill show you either intense aesthetic taste for colour or abject laziness on the part of the owner—-possibly. and probably both. Between two smart little rose-gardens with their orchard of three trees, and their rows of peas. and potatoes lies a wilderness of Weeds whose rank, tangle is mercifully shut out from our view as the train comes to a stand by an intervening empty truck. The observation of a Sherlock might deduce here that the owner is a, night employee on the railway, with no daylight time for making a garden grow, and who, feeling a bit ashamed of his neglect, has .moved a. truck to stand on the line at the critical spot. And so on. The index to the character of a householder is to be found not so much in a pretentious front door as in the solid facts of th® back garden. If you read this book that is open to you on your journey to town you will enjoy carrying out this true scouting practice of observation and deduction.