SCOUTS! WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21156, 1 October 1938, Page 10

SCOUTS! WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Perhaps the most vital application of our Motto, "Be Prepared,” is in all First-aid and rescue work. The suddenness with which accidents happen and the absence of any other immediate help or urgent necessary equipment can throw the “unprepared” onlooker off his balance and cause him to lose at least valuable time, even though he may know quite a bit about Firstaid. We can seldom practise under

real conditions. Here is an idea which may be worth a Scout’s while to try for himself or, with his Patrol. When you are next walking along the street with a minutei or two to spare, stop suddenly and imagine that an accident has just taken, place in front of you. Anything will do, but as an example 1 let’s say that a motor-cyclist, swerving* to avoid a dog, has skidded and crashed, heavily. Inside of two or three seconds! there is a man lying motionless in the? road, one arm twisted under him and* blood pouring from a gash in his head.! Not nice—but there it is, and you must! do something at once. Several things*! in fact.

The street is a fairly quiet one, say about 200 yards long: there are one or two people scattered up and down it—an old lady, two small boys, a man pushing a barrow. At the same time, following the noise of the crash, windows are thrown up and heads appear; then doors open and people come run ning out But you are on the spot first. Now try and see the whole thing as it would actually develop, with yourself “in charge,” so to speak. There are many variations of the same idea —you are walking by a river or on the seashore and hear cries for help; or are passing a house and see smoke pouring from a window; you are in church when a woman faints. And so on. Try thinking out in every little detail what might happen next and what yon would do about it. Accidents happen everywhere, under all sorts of coirditions. and you have to make the best of things as you find them. BE PRE-. PARED. —"The Scout-”