The Boy Scout.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14042, 28 October 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Boy Scout.

VALUE OF HIS PLAY

(London Times.)

As a sport scouting is a most useful addition to the outdoor pursuits ot English boyhood. It. w absurd to underrate the physical training and mental discipline and sense oi esprit de corps which justify the compulsory plaving of cricket and football at our puhlir schools. The cricketers bam and eve. the football-player s speed and stamina are invaluable to every voung fellow who enters any open-air profession in after life. Even for those who. like the majority oi young Englishmen, are compelled to earn theTr livin" in some office, the time devoted by lade to the playing of cooperative pastimes has not been squandered. Their physique has been tempered by sunshine and sea-borne breezes and all" the sweet influences of green meadows; tbev have made undying friendships; thev have acquired the essentially Eng'lish virtue of .sportsmanship." These are imponderable things, not to be bought or sold in anv "market: yet surely the zest they add to living lasts to the end of life, and helps a man to bear the burden of his life's work. The Gradgrinds who think that all snort /is a waste of time forget that civilized nations should be concerned with the art of living, and merely with the science of earning a livelihood. However, it is necessary to remember that cricket and football "are somewhat artificial games, and that, beyond a certain point, skill in the playing of them does not appreciably quicken the player's natural faculties. Shooting and hunting and other country sports in which the individual has to depend on his own efforts for success, and matches his own cunning against that of Nature's pensioners, are required to supplement the training supplied by games in the allimportant quality of adaptability. In England, at any rate, this supplementary education in Nature's continuation schools is too costly for all save a small minority of well-to-do persons. It follows that there is room for another and less artificial sport, which is within the reach of all, and can be enjoyed by all. Scouting—the most inclusive of all nastimos, if General Baden-Powell's definition of the " good cout" be accepted—certainly fills the gap; and will do much to exonerate, the next generation of Englishmen from the charge, so often heard in the Colonies, and certainly proved to some extent in the course of the South African war, that they are slow to adant themselves to the novel necessities of a new environment.

A kindlv Canadian critics. Professor Andrew Macphail, of McGill TJniversitv, has touched on the causes of this lack of adaptability in a recentlypublished book of essays, which contains the following humorous passage: — "An Englishman loves to believe tbnt he can do nothing for himself—wh—> he is in. England. No man in the world can do more when he is abroad. He pretends that lie is the most helpless person in the world, that he cannot carry his bag. open the door of his cab, find an address in the directory, or use a telephone. He loves to believe that be is living in the eighteenth century. He carries a bundle of rugs lest the conch may be mired and himself compelled to "spend the night in the open. He imagines that he may be attacked by footpads, so lie cvrries a bludgeon for protection; in every cit" which he visits he buys a new one. and comes home laden 'down with a bundle of faggots. He expects that his luggage may be stolen, so he places it bv his side "or above his head in the railway carriage. He thinks that rain is universal, so he carries an umbrella, even to the Sahara or Los Angeles: and, knowing it may be stolen, he carries two. If England got rid of her half-employed Englishmen would lie obliged to alter somewhat their domestic and social arrangements; to do for themselves what is now done for them by bi<: footmen and other indolent servants." ' Making due allowance for the picturesque exaggeration of this entertaining passage, we must admit that there is some truth in the contention. Most of us rely too much on the services of others* in everydav emergencies, and are apt to lie rather helpless when there is urgent need of a handyman. It has been the writer's experience that the well-born, well-educated Englishman, when he settles on the verge of some oversea wilderness, soon learns as a rule to turn his hand to anv kind of work that requires doing. Br«t the same cannot be said of English Emigrants drawn from the working classes, in these days the slaves of machinery, or from the multitudinous ranks of the mechanical brainworkers, clerks, shop assistants, etc., whose badge of servitude is a black coat. Not onlv are these cmirrants strangely lacking in manual adaptability, but it. often hanpens that, they regard the doing of "chores" (the unending succession of odd jobs th*»t must be done at the proper time if life in a "new country" is to be dcentlv comfortable) as "a personal indignity. The truth is that the Board school system of education abolishes in its subjects the power of adapting themselves to the necessities of any manner of life save that of great urban communities, where the wage-earner is merely a cog or screw in a vast industrial mechanism. A small percentage play football, fewer still play cricket; the vast majority are content with watching others play! quite half the huge crowds assembling at League matches consisting of mere lads, who have often sacrificed a meal to save the coppers required at the turnstile. Whenever and wherever an exhibition of spectacular football is given, there is a gang of ill-clad bovs hanging about the entrances to the ground and beseeching late arrivals to give them the price of admission. The vicissitudes of a match between hired players satisfy in some degree, no doubt, the instinct for adventure which is possessed by every health- boy. So does the street warfare between gam's of hooligans —the nervous excitable products of urban life —which is a feature of the circumstantial undertow of all great cities from London to Melbourne and from Paris to Bnenos Avres. But no good quality, least of all adaptability, can be acquired in thc«<e wavs. Even if it were not an educational activity, scouting would lie better thin street fighting or attendance at exhibitions of professional football. It appeals more strongly than either of those diversions to the natural hoy's love of adventure —the typically English instinct which caused all of us at one time, or other to play at Indians or decide to adopt the pirate's profession. To this fact must be attributed the swift and surprising success of the

movement, which is beyond sill prccedcnt. Already it is impossible to visit any of tlu- open spaces in the London district on a half-holiday without seeing companies <if boy scouts: and extended inquiries on the writer's pari have brought to light very few complaints of I heir conduct .and not one of them at all serious. It is one oi the prerogatives of boyhood tos^t 1 ' '"to mischief —let lis hope it will always he so—but the amazing truth must be confessed that scouting jinnies keep the average boy out of it. Indeed his uniform is more than a distinctive dress; it actually represents a habit of the mind which makes the wearer helpful to strangers ami courteous in speech and hearing. The other day the writer was engaged in house-huntiilg, and on his way to a suburban station (to catch a train that had to he caught) met a boy scout and, as an experiment, askhim to visit a house a mile away and make a map of the garden. The lioy took the stranger's card, saluted, and went off: in the course of the following day a neat little map was duly received. No reward was offered' and none was demanded; of course, a letter of thanks was duly sent to the mapmaker. Apain. an instance —one of many in all probability—came to the writer's knowledge of "a liny hov lost on Hampstead Heath bv careless companions anil brought back to bis parents in Kilburn by "a big bov with a big stick." The scout carried the child and the child carried the stick: so the tedium of the journey home was wiled away. Clearly scouting must be classed among the more humane noslimes; the bov scoi'ls mav be regarded a« a new order of everydav rbivab-v. If onlv as a corrective of the Hoard pr»} 10 .--.l roimier. scouting would be we.rthv of all encouragement.