Scouting for Boys

by Baron Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell Baden-Powell of Gilwell

NOTES TO INSTRUCTORS

Religion.

Charles Stelzle, in his "Boys of the Streets and How to Win Them," says:

Sometimes we are so much concerned about there being enough religion in our plans for the boy that we forget to leave enough boy in the plans. According to the notions of some, the ideal boys' club would consist of prayer meetings and Bible classes, with an occasional missionary talk as a treat, and perhaps magic lantern views of the Holy Land as a dizzy climax.

Religion can and ought to be taught to the boy, but not in a milk-and-watery way, or in a mysterious and lugubrious manner; he is very ready to receive it if it is shown in its heroic side and as a natural every-day quality in every proper man, and it can be well introduced to boys through the study of Nature; and to those who believe scouting to be an unfit subject for Sunday instruction, surely the study of God's work is at least proper for that day. There is no need for this instruction to be dismal, that is, "all tears and texts." Arthur Benson, writing in the Cornhill Magazine, says there are four Christian virtues, not three. They are—Faith, Hope, Charity—and Humour. So also in the morning prayer of Robert Louis Stevenson:

The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man—help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces. Let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day. Bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonoured, and grant us in the end the gift of sleep.

Thrift.

A very large proportion of the distress and unemployedness in the country is due to want of thrift on the part of the people themselves; and social reformers, before seeking for new remedies, would do well to set this part of the problem right in the first place; they would then probably find very little more left for them to do. Mr. John Burns, in a recent speech, pointed out that there is plenty of money in the country to put everyone on a fair footing, if only it were made proper use of by the working man. In some places, it is true, there is thrift—workmen save their pay and buy their own houses, and become prosperous, contented citizens in happy homes. It is estimated that £500,000,000 of working-men's money is invested in savings banks and friendly societies. But there is a reverse to the medal. This great balance represents savings of many years, whereas it could be doubled in two or three years were men to give up drinking and smoking.

Where we deposit £4 per head per annum in savings banks, other countries deposit far more, although earning lower wages, and in Denmark such deposits amount, on an average, to £19 per head.

£166,000,000 were spent last year on drink, and £25,000,000 on tobacco. This alone would be enough, if divided amongst our thirty-five millions of poor, to give £22 a year to each family; and we know that this is only part of the extravagance of the nation. From £8000 to £10,000 a week is estimated to go into the pockets of the bookmakers at Liverpool and its surrounding towns at football. Holiday, or "Going Off" clubs, are common in Lancashire, where workers save up money to spend on their holidays. In Blackburn alone £117,000 was thus expended last year. At Oldham £25,000 was saved to be expended in festivities at the "Wakes."

The wastefulness in Great Britain is almost inconceivable, and ought to be made criminal. Men draw big wages of £3 and £4 on Saturday nights, but have nothing to show for it by Monday night. If they had thrift a large majority of our working-men and their families might be in prosperous circumstances to-day, but they have never been taught what thrift may be, and they naturally do as their neighbours do. If the rising generation could be started in the practice of economy, it would make a vast difference to the character and prosperity of the nation in the future.

In Manchester the school children are encouraged to save up their money by means of money-boxes, and 44,000 of them now have deposits in the savings banks. It has been found a very successful way of encouraging thrift. For this reason we have instituted money-boxes for Boy Scouts.

Politeness.

An instance of politeness in war occurred at the Battle of Fontenoy, when we were fighting against the French.

The Coldstream Guards coming up over a hill suddenly found themselves close up to the French Guards. Both parties were surprised, and neither fired a shot for a minute or two.

In those days when gallant men quarrelled, they used to settle their differences by fighting duels with pistols. At a duel both combatants were supposed to fire at the same moment when the word was given, but it often happened that one man, in order to show how brave he was, would tell his adversary to fire first. And so in this case. When both parties were about to fire, the officer commanding the British Guards, to show his politeness and fearlessness, bowed to the French commander, and said, "You fire first, sir."

When the French Guards levelled their rifles to fire, one of the soldiers of the Coldstreams exclaimed, "For what we are going to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful." In the volley that followed, a great number of our men fell, but the survivors returned an equally deadly volley, and immediately charged in with the bayonet, and drove the French off the field.

CHAPTER VIII.
SAVING LIFE;

or,

How to Deal with Accidents.

CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 23.
BE PREPARED FOR ACCIDENTS.

The Knights Hospitallers of St. John—Boy Heroes and Girl Heroines—Life-Saving Medals.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

The subjects in this chapter should not only be explained to the scouts, but should also, wherever possible, be demonstrated practically, and should be practised by each boy himself in turn.

Theoretical knowledge in these points is nothing without practice.

THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN.

The knights of old days were called Knights Hospitallers, because they had hospitals for the treatment of the sick poor and those injured in accidents or in war. They used to save up their money to keep these hospitals going, and they used to act as nurses and doctors themselves. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem especially devoted themselves to this work 800 years ago, and the St. John's Ambulance Corps is to-day a branch which represents those knights. Their badge is an eight-pointed white cross on a black ground, and when worn as an Order it has a black ribbon.

Explorers and hunters and other scouts in out-of-the-way parts of the world have to know what to do in the case of accident or sickness, either to themselves or their followers, as they are often hundreds of miles away from any doctors. For these reasons boy scouts should, of course, learn all they can about looking after sick people and dealing with accidents.

My brother was once camping with a friend away in the bush in Australia. His friend was drawing a cork, holding the bottle between his knees to get a better purchase. The bottle burst, and the jagged edge of it ran deeply into his thigh, cutting an artery. My brother quickly got a stone and wrapped it in a handkerchief to act as a pad, and he then tied the handkerchief round the limb above the wound, so that the stone pressed on the artery. He then got a stick, and, passing it through the loop of the handkerchief, twisted it round till the bandage was drawn so tight that it stopped the flow of blood. Had he not known what to do, the man would have bled to death in a few minutes. As it was, he saved his life by knowing what to do, and doing it at once.

[Demonstrate how to bind up an artery, and also the course taken by the arteries, viz., practically down the inside seam of sleeves and trousers.]

Accidents are continually happening, and Boy Scouts will continually have a chance of giving assistance at first aid. In London alone during the past year 212 people were killed and 14,000 were injured in street accidents.

We all think a great deal of any man who at the risk of his own life saves someone else's.

He is a hero.

Boys especially think him so, because he seems to them to be a being altogether different from themselves. But he isn't; every boy has just as much a chance of being a life-saving hero if he chooses to prepare himself for it.

It is pretty certain that nearly every one of you scouts will some day or another be present at an accident where, if you know what to do, and do it promptly, you may win for yourself the life-long satisfaction of having rescued or helped a fellow-creature.

Remember your motto, "Be Prepared." Be prepared for accidents by learning beforehand what you ought to do in the different kinds that are likely to occur.

Be prepared to do that thing the moment the accident does occur.

I will explain to you what ought to be done in the different kinds of accidents, and we will practise them as far as possible.

But the great thing for you scouts to bear in mind is that wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, you should think to yourself, "What accident is likely to occur here?" and, "What is my duty if it occurs?"

You are then prepared to act.

And when an accident does occur, remember always that as a scout it is your business to be the first man to go to the rescue; don't let an outsider be beforehand with you.

Suppose, for instance, that you are standing on a crowded platform at a station, waiting for the train.

You think to yourself, "Now, supposing someone fell off this platform on to the rails just as the train is coming in, what shall I do? I must jump down and jerk him off the track on to the far side into the six-foot way—there would be no time to get him up on to the platform again. Or if the train were very close the only way would be to lie flat and make him lie flat too between the rails, and let the train go over us both."

Then, if this accident happened, you would at once jump down and carry out your idea, while everybody else would be running about screaming and excited and doing nothing, not knowing what to do.

Such a case actually happened last year. A lady fell off the platform at Finsbury Park Station just as the train was coming in; a man named Albert Hardwick jumped down and lay flat, and held her down, too, between the rails, while the train passed over both of them without touching them. The King gave him the Albert Medal for it.

When there is a panic among those around you, you get a momentary inclination to do as the others are doing. Perhaps it is to run away, perhaps it is to stand still and cry out "Oh!" Well, you should check yourself when you have this feeling. Don't catch the panic, as you see others do; keep your head and think what is the right thing to do, and do it at once.

Then last year that disgraceful scene occurred on Hampstead Heath, where a woman drowned herself before a whole lot of people in a shallow pond, and took half-an-hour doing it, while not one of them had the pluck to go in and bring her out. One would not have thought it possible with Englishmen that a lot of men could only stand on the bank and chatter, but so it was—to their eternal disgrace.

It was again a case of panic. The first man to arrive on the scene did not like going in, and merely called another. More came up, but finding that those already there did not go in, they got a sort of fear of something uncanny, and would not go in themselves, and so let the poor woman drown before their eyes.

Had one Boy Scout been there, there would I hope have been a very different tale to tell. It was just the opportunity for a Boy Scout to distinguish himself. He would have remembered his training.

Do your duty.

Help your fellow-creature, especially if it be a woman.

Don't mind if other people are funking.

Plunge in boldly and look to the object you are trying to attain, and don't bother about your own safety.

Boys have an idea that they are too young and too small to take any but an outside part in saving life. But this is a great mistake. In the Boys' Brigade last year nine boys got the Cross for saving life, eight of them for saving other people from drowning. All aged between 13 and 16.

Cyril Adion (13) and Newlyn Elliott (17) also saved lives from drowning last year, and a small boy only nine years old, David Scannell, was given a silver watch at St. Pancras for saving a child's life at a fire.

In addition to this, a boy named Albert Abraham was recommended for the highest honour that any man can get for saving life, and that is the Albert Medal.

Three boys were climbing up some cliffs from the seashore, when one of them fell to the bottom and was very badly hurt. Another climbed up the rest of the cliff and ran away home, but told nobody for fear of getting into trouble. The third one, Albert Abraham, climbed down again to the assistance of the boy who had fallen, and he found him lying head downwards between two rocks, with his scalp nearly torn off and his leg broken.

Abraham dragged him up out of reach of the tide, for where he had fallen he was in danger of being drowned, and then replaced his scalp and bound it on, and also set his leg as well as he could, and bound it up in splints, having learned the "First Aid" duties of the St. John's Ambulance Society. Then he climbed up the cliff and gathered some ferns and made a bed for the injured boy.

He stayed with him all that day, and when night came on he still remained with him, nor did he desert him even when a great seal climbed on to the rocks close to him and appeared to be rather aggressive. He drove it off with stones.

Parties went out and eventually rescued both boys, but the injured one died soon after, in spite of the efforts that Albert Abraham had made to save him.

In talking of boys I may as well state that the same remark applies to women and girls, that they are not only capable of doing valuable work in saving life, but they have done so over and over again.

For the Albert Medal a small girl aged nine has been recommended. Kate Chapman endeavoured to rescue two small children from being run over by a runaway cart. She succeeded in doing so, but was herself run over and badly injured in the attempt.

Mrs. Ann Racebottom was awarded the Albert Medal in 1881 for rescuing some school children when the roof of the schoolhouse had fallen in upon them and she got them out by crawling in under the falling ruins at the greatest risk to her own life.

Doris Kay, of Leytonstone, is only eight years old, but she was awarded the diploma for life saving by the Royal Humane Society last year.

LIFE-SAVING MEDALS.

In war, as you know, the Victoria Cross is awarded to soldiers for performing acts of valour.

So, in peace, a decoration is given to anybody who distinguishes himself by bravery in saving life at the risk of his own.

The Albert Medal is the highest of these rewards.

The Royal Humane Society also give medals or certificates.

The Edward Medal is granted for gallantry in accidents which so frequently happen in mines.

In the Boys' Brigade medals are given for acts of daring and self-sacrifice in saving life or marked courage in the face of danger.

In the Boy Scouts we have a medal for gallantry, which is granted for similar acts.

But of all these the Albert Medal and the Edward Medal are the most valued, being given by the King himself, and only in very special cases.

So let every Boy Scout prepare himself to win one of these. Some day, most probably, an accident will happen before you to give you your chance. If you have learnt beforehand what to do, you can step forward at once and do the right thing; you may find yourself decorated with the medal. In any case, you will have what is far greater than a mere medal—you will have the satisfaction of having helped a fellow-creature at the risk of your own life.

PRACTICE FOR LIFE SAVING.

Flinging the Squaler.

The squaler is a piece of cane, 19 inches long, loaded at the butt with 1-3/4lb. of lead, and having attached to it at the other end a life-saving line of six-thread Italian hemp. The target is a crossbar and head, life-size, representing the head and arms of a drowning man, planted in the ground twenty yards away. Each competitor throws in turn from behind a line drawn on the ground; he may stand or run to make the throw. Whoever throws the furthest wins, provided that the line falls on some part of the dummy, so that it could be caught by the drowning man.

Or have heats to find out who is the worst thrower.

Practise throwing a life-belt in the same way.

Practise making two lines of bucket-men, for full and empty buckets. Each line to relieve the other frequently by exchanging duties.

Practise carrying, unrolling, and rolling up hose. Joining up lengths. Affixing to hydrants. Throwing on water, and directing its fall.

Practise use of ladders, poles, ropes, lowering people from window by ropes or bed-clothes. Jumping sheet and shoot-escape; how to rig, hold, and use carpets or double blankets, but not flimsy ones or sheets.

CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 24.
ACCIDENTS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM.

Panic—Fire—Drowning—Runaway Horse—Mad Dog—Miscellaneous.

PANICS.

Every year numbers of lives are lost by panics, which very often are due to the smallest causes, and which might be stopped if only one or two men would keep their heads. One evening, two years ago, on board a ferry-boat in New York, a man who had been catching some crabs thought it would be a good joke to let one of them loose on board the boat. This crab caught hold of the ship's cat and made it squeal, and it jumped into the middle of a crowd of schoolgirls, who at once scattered screaming. This started a panic among the hundreds of passengers on board; they rushed in every direction, and in a moment the railings broke and eight people fell overboard, and before anything could be done they were swept away by the tide and drowned.

In Germany, a girl who was bathing suddenly pretended to be drowning, just for fun. Three men sprang into the river to rescue her, but one began to sink, and another went to his help, and both were drowned. And only last September a tobacconist in a town in Russia, on opening his shop in the morning, saw a big black bomb lying on the counter. He rushed out into the street to get away from it, and a policeman seeing him running mistook him for a thief, and when he would not stop he fired at him. The bullet missed him, but hit another man who was a Jew; the remainder of the Jews immediately collected and made a riot, and many lives were lost. After it was over, the tobacconist went back to his shop and found the bomb still on his counter, but it was not a bomb, it was only a black water-melon!

Only the other day occurred a case of panic among children in a theatre at Barnsley, when a crush and panic occurred from no cause at all except overcrowding, and eight children were crushed to death. More lives would certainly have been lost had not two men kept their heads and done the right thing. One man named Gray called to a number of the children in a cheery voice to come another way, while the man who was working a lantern-slide show threw a picture on the screen and so diverted the attention of the rest, and prevented them catching the panic. That is the great point in a panic. If only one or two men keep their heads and do the right thing on the spur of the moment, they can often calm hundreds of people and thus save many lives.

This is a great opportunity for a Boy Scout. Force yourself to keep calm and not to lose your head. Think what is the right thing to do and do it at once.

RESCUE FROM FIRE.

Instances of gallant rescues of people from burning houses are frequent. One sees them every day in the newspapers, and scouts should study each of these cases as they occur, and imagine to themselves what they would have done under the circumstances, and in this way you begin to learn how to deal with the different accidents. An instance occurred only the other day where a young sailor named George Obeney stationed at Chatham in H.M.S. Andromeda was walking along the Kingsland Road, when he suddenly saw a house on fire, and a woman on the second storey was screaming that she had some children there who could not get out. The sailor rushed from his friends and somehow scrambled up the face of the wall till he reached the window on the first storey and broke in that window so that he could obtain room to stand. The woman at the window above was then able to lower a child so that he could catch it, and he again passed it down to the ground. Child after child was thus handed down till he passed six of them to the ground, and finally two women, and then he, overcome by smoke himself, fell insensible, but was caught by the people below. His act was an example to you of how to do your duty AT ONCE without thinking of dangers or difficulties.

In January, 1906, at Enfield Hospital, the Children's Ward caught fire in the middle of the night, and a number of children would probably have been burnt before the firemen arrived on the spot had it not been that the matron, Miss Eardley, rushed over from her house in her nightdress and fixed up the fire-hose and played it on the flames while the two night nurses set to work and rescued twenty children out of the burning building.

The Boys' Life Brigade have taken up the instruction of boys in what to do in cases of fire.

DIRECTIONS.

These are some of their directions:

If you discover a house on fire you should

1st. Alarm the people inside.

2nd. Warn the nearest policeman or fire brigade station.

3rd. Rouse neighbours to bring ladders, mattresses, carpets, to catch people jumping.

After arrival of fire engines the best thing boys can do is to help the police in keeping back the crowd out of the way of the firemen, hose, etc.

The Boys' Life Brigade are taught a certain drill called "Scrum" for keeping back the crowd. They form a line or double line, and pass their arms round each other's waists, and shove, head down, into the crowd, and so drive it back.

If it is necessary to go into a house to search for feeble or insensible people, the thing is to place a wet handkerchief or worsted stocking over your nose and mouth and walk in a stooping position, or crawl along on your hands and knees quite near the floor, as it is here that there is least smoke or gas. Also, for passing through fire and sparks, if you can, get hold of a blanket and wet it, and cut a hole in the middle through which to put your head, it forms a kind of fireproof mantle with which you can push through flames and sparks. [Practise this.]

When a fire occurs anywhere near the Boy Scouts should assemble their patrols as quickly as possible, and go off at scouts' pace to the fire, guided by the glare or the smoke. Then the patrol leader should report to the police or firemen, and offer the help of his patrol either to keep the crowd back or to run messages or guard property or to help in any way.

If you find a person with his clothes on fire, you should throw him flat on the floor, because flames only burn upwards, then roll him up in the hearthrug or carpet, coat or blanket, and take care in doing so that you don't catch fire yourself. The reason for doing this is that fire cannot continue to burn when it has no air. Then pour water over the patient to put out all sparks.

Dragging Insensible Man: Both heads down near the floor.

When you find an insensible person (and very often in their fright they will have hidden themselves away under beds and tables, etc.), you should either carry him out on your shoulder, or what is often more practicable in the case of heavy smoke, gas fumes, etc., harness yourself on to him with sheets or cords, and drag him out of the room along the floor, crawling on all fours yourself.

[Practise this by tying a bowline round the patient's waist, another round his ankles, and another round your own neck. Turn your back to him, go on all fours with the rope underneath you, and thus drag him out. Also practise the "Fireman's Lift" for getting an insensible person on to your shoulders.]

RESCUE FROM DROWNING.

The list of Boys' Brigade heroes shows you what a large proportion of accidents are due to not knowing how to swim. It is therefore most important that every boy should learn to swim, and having done so to learn how to save others from being drowned.

Mr. Holbein, the great Channel swimmer, writing in The Boys' Own Paper, points out that a boy, when learning to swim, should learn first how to get in and out of a boat, i.e., by climbing in over the stern. Secondly, how to support himself on an oar or plank, i.e., by riding astride on it, or by catching hold of one end and pushing it before him and swimming with his legs. Thirdly, how to get into a floating lifebuoy, i.e., by shoving the nearest side of it down under water and capsizing it over his head and shoulders, so that he is inside it when it floats. Fourthly, how to save life.

[Practise these at swimming baths or bathing parade.]

A moderate swimmer can save a drowning man if he knows how, and has practised it a few times with his friends. The popular idea that a drowning person rises three times before he finally sinks is all nonsense. He often drowns at once, unless someone is quick to help him. The important point is not to let the drowning person catch hold of you, or he will probably drown you too. Keep behind him always. If you find yourself clutched by the wrist, turn your wrist against his thumb, and force yourself free. Your best way in helping a drowning man is to keep behind and hold him up by the hair, or by the back of the neck, or by putting your arms under his armpits, and telling him to keep quiet and not to struggle; if he obeys, you can easily keep him afloat; but otherwise be careful that in his terror he does not turn over and catch hold of you. If he should seize you by the neck, Holbein says, "Scrag him, and scrag him quickly. Place your arm round his waist, and the other hand, palm upwards, under his chin, with your finger-tips under his nose. Pull and push with all your might, and he must perforce let go." But you will never remember this unless you practise it frequently with other boys first, each taking it in turns to be the drowning man rescuer.

[Practise this.]

Among the innumerable cases of saving life from drowning, Mr. Scullion was recommended for the Albert Medal. He sprang into the river to save a boy from drowning who had fallen between the wharf and the ship's side. When he got hold of the boy there was no room for him to swim in that narrow space, and the tide was very strong, so he dived down, taking the boy with him, under the ship's bottom, and came up in open water on the other side of the ship, and then easily swam to a boat and thus rescued him. Had he not kept his head and dived under the ship, it is probable that both would have been drowned.

Any of you who cannot swim as yet, and who fall into the water out of your depth, remember that you need not sink if you can remember to do the following things. First, keep your mouth upwards by throwing the head well back. Secondly, keep your lungs full of air by taking in long breaths, but breathe out very little. Thirdly, keep your arms under water. To do this you should not begin to shout, which will only empty your lungs, and you should not throw your arms about or beckon for help, else you will sink.

[Practise this position.]

If you see a person fall into the water and begin to drown, and you yourself are unable to swim, you must throw him a rope, or an oar, or plank right over him, so that when he comes up again he may clutch at it and hold it. If a person falls through ice, and is unable to get out again because of the edges breaking, throw him a rope, and tell him not to struggle. This may give him confidence until you can get a long ladder or pole which will enable him to crawl out, or will allow you to crawl out to catch hold of him.

RESCUE FROM RUNAWAY HORSES.

Accidents are continually recurring from runaway horses running over people. In fact, on an average, the number of runaway horses that are stopped by policemen during the year amounts to over two hundred; and it is well that everybody should know how to stop a runaway horse, and thus to save numerous accidents and injuries.

Private Davies, of the 16th Lancers, was awarded the Albert Medal, at Aldershot, for stopping the horses of an artillery wagon, which had become unmanageable and run away. The driver, who was riding one of them, had been thrown off, and the horses were careering down hill towards the married quarters of the cavalry barracks, where a number of children were at play, when Private Davies, seeing the danger to the children, ran to the horses, and seizing the off horse with his right hand, held on to the shaft with his left, and endeavoured to stop the waggon. He was dragged in that position for some yards when the chain fastening the shafts to the waggon gave way and let the shafts fall, bringing Davies also to the ground.

The waggon passed over his legs, and very severely injured him, and, though he did not actually succeed in stopping the horses, he so diverted them from their course that time was given for the children to be saved from being run over.

Not long ago a lady was being run away with by her horse in Hyde Park. The animal was tearing along quite mad with fright, and though she was a good rider and kept her head, she had no control over him whatever.

The danger was that the road on which he was galloping, though straight for a good distance, turned at the end very sharply, and was bounded by a high iron railing. Now a horse when he is thoroughly frightened seems to lose his sight as well as his wits; he will run over a cliff or into a wall without trying to stop, and on this occasion it seemed most likely that he would charge into the great iron railings at the end of the road, and the consequences to the girl on his back would have been too awful to think of.

In front of her as she came thundering along were two gentlemen riding quietly along talking together, heading in the same direction that she was going. One of them—it was the Hon. George Wyndham, at that time Chief Secretary for Ireland—turned his head to see what was happening behind him, and in one moment he grasped the whole situation, saw what to do, and did it. He saw that a girl was being rushed to her death by the maddened horse if something were not done to stop it, or to make it turn round the corner at the end of the road which was now not far away.

Now what would any of you have done had you been in Mr. Wyndham's place?

He saw that to put his horse across her path would be easy, but if he did so it would probably throw both horses down, and possibly kill both riders; so what he did was to put his own horse at once into a gallop, and for a moment it looked as if he were running away, with the lady chasing him at full speed. But it soon became evident what he was doing.

He gradually let the lady's horse overtake him until its head was abreast of him and close alongside him, then he gradually turned his own horse for taking the corner, and, pressing all the time against the shoulder of the lady's horse, forced it also gradually to turn with him till it was safely directed away from the railings and into the new direction of the road, and here, while still keeping partly ahead of it, he got hold of its reins, and in a short time succeeded in pulling it up and bringing it to its senses.

This is a lesson to everyone to Be Prepared, even at most ordinary moments of strolling along, talking to a friend, to spring at once to the assistance of a fellow-creature who is in danger.

The other day I myself found a horse and cab running away over Westminster Bridge, but I stopped it without any difficulty. The way to stop a runaway horse is not to run out in front of it and wave your arms, as so many people do, but to try and race alongside it, catch hold of the shaft to keep yourself from falling, and seize the reins with the other hand, and drag the horse's head round towards you, and so turn him until you can bring him up against a wall or house, or otherwise compel him to stop. But, of course, for a boy, with his light weight, this is a very difficult thing to do. The share he would have in such an accident would probably be to look after the people injured by the runaway horse.

MISCELLANEOUS ACCIDENTS.

One cannot go through the whole list of accidents that might come under your notice, but the point is that a scout should always remember to keep his head, and think what is the right thing to do at the moment, and be the man to do it, even under the most unexpected circumstances.

Police-Sergeant Cole was awarded the Albert Medal some years ago for removing a dynamite bomb, which he found in Westminster Hall. It was already lit for exploding, and instead of running away and taking cover himself he snatched it up and rushed out of the place and flung it away, and very nearly lost his life in the explosion which followed immediately after. Had he hesitated to think what would be the best thing to do he would probably have lost his own life, and have allowed the place to be smashed up.

A man named John Smith was awarded the Albert Medal, because one day, when at his work in a steel-casting factory, a great, red-hot steel ingot, weighing 26 tons, was about being hoisted out of a casting-pit, when one of the workmen named Stanley slipped, and fell into the pit, which was fifteen feet deep, alongside the ingot in a space of about two feet, which existed between the ingot and the wall of the pit. John Smith immediately got a ladder and ran down into the next pit, from which there was a passage communicating into the first one, and in this way he managed to get into the lower part of the ingot pit and drag Stanley out of it into the empty one. Stanley died of his burns two days later, but Smith, though badly burnt himself, recovered to wear the Albert Medal.

MAD DOG.

A dog that is mad runs along snapping at everybody in his path. Every scout should know what to do when there is a mad dog about, and should be prepared to do it.

Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was one day out for a ride when his dog, which was running with him, went mad, and started to run through the town.

Sir Thomas edged him off the road and drove him into a garden. He then jumped off his horse, ran at the dog, and succeeded in grabbing him by the neck without getting bitten. Then followed a tremendous struggle between man and dog.

At last the gardener came and brought a chain which Sir Thomas then clipped on, and only when the other end had been securely fastened to a tree he let go his hold of the dog. The dog was then raving mad and tore at his chain so badly that it was in danger of breaking, when Sir Thomas went at him again with a second and stronger chain, and pinning him down by the neck with a pitchfork he fastened it on to him. When this was done and the pitchfork removed the dog sprang at him with such force that it burst the old chain. Luckily the new one held. And soon after the dog died.

The way to prevent a dog biting you is to hold a stick, or even a handkerchief, in your two hands across your front, and the dog will generally try to paw it down before he actually bites you, and you may thus get a chance of landing him a kick under the jaw.

PRACTICES IN LIFE-SAVING.

Practise scrum for keeping back crowd at fire.

Practise holding and wrestling with drowning men.

How to prevent a man shooting another with pistol.

Make ladders out of poles, twine, and cross sticks.

Instruct scouts to know the position of neighbouring fire plugs and hydrants, police points, fire alarms, fire stations, ambulances, hospitals, etc.

BOOKS TO READ.

"Manual of Boys' Life Brigade": Life-saving Drill. Price 2d. (56 Old Bailey, London.)

"Manual of Fire Drill" of London County Council. 1s. (P. King and Son, 9 Bridge Street, Westminster.)

"Swimming." By Prof. Holbein. 1s. (A. Pearson, Ltd.)

CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 25.
HELPING OTHERS.

Rendering First Aid—Suicides—How to Carry a Patient.

RENDERING FIRST AID.

[Note to Instructor.—It is impossible in the short space at one's disposal to give all the details of First Aid. These can be found in any of the books mentioned at the end of this Camp Fire Yarn.]

In an accident when you are alone with the injured person, if he is unconscious lay him on his back with his head a little raised and on one side so that he does not choke, and so that any vomit or water, etc., can run out of his mouth. Loosen the clothing about his neck and chest. See where he is injured and treat him according to what you are taught in learning "First Aid."

If you have found the man lying insensible you should carefully examine the ground round him for any "sign," and take note of it and of his position, etc., in case it should afterwards appear that he had been attacked by others.

[Practise above, one boy as patient, the other to find him. Make "sign" round the patient.]

If you are out with a patrol and an accident happens, or you find an injured man, the patrol leader should direct one scout to go for a doctor; he himself will attend to the patient with one scout to help him. The corporal will use the other scouts in assisting by getting water or blankets, or making a stretcher, or keeping the crowd back.

As a rule, it is best to keep the patient quite quiet at first; unless it is necessary, do not try to move him; and don't bother him with questions until he recovers a bit.

[Practise above.]

Artificial Breathing: Schäfer System.

Artificial Breathing.—To restore anyone who is apparently drowned, it is necessary at once to clear the water out of his lungs, for which purpose therefore you should incline him face downwards and head downwards, so that the water may run out of his mouth, and to help it you should open his mouth and pull forward his tongue; take off the wet clothing and wrap him in blankets if possible, and rub and move his limbs as much as possible to get back the circulation of the blood. After running the water out of the patient, place him on his side with his body slightly hanging down, and keep the tongue hanging out. If he is breathing let him rest; if he is not breathing, you must at once endeavour to restore breathing artificially. Lay him flat on his front with his arm bent and placed under his forehead to keep his nose and mouth on the ground. Put a folded coat or pillow under his chest and let his head hang down. In this way his tongue will not block his throat, and any water or slime can run out. Then either stand astride of him or kneel alongside him, and, placing both your hands on his lower ribs, press steadily down and forwards to drive any air out of his body for three or four seconds, and then ease up to let the air come in again through the throat, then press down again. Continue this pressing and easing, counting four to each movement, until the patient begins to breathe again. Sometimes this doesn't happen till you have been trying for an hour or even more.

This is called the Schafer method, and can be used equally well for drowned people or for those overcome with smoke or gas fumes.

[Make the scouts, in pairs, practise above.]

Smoke or Fumes.—Accidents are continually occurring from escapes of gas in mines, sewers, and houses.

In endeavouring to rescue a person, keep your nose and month well covered with wet rags, and get your head as close to the floor as possible, and drag the insensible person out as I have suggested in case of a fire. Drag your patient as quickly as possible into the fresh air—(I say as quickly as possible, because if you delay about it you are very apt to be overcome by the noxious gas yourself)—then loosen all his clothing about the neck and chest, dash cold water in his face and apply burnt feathers under his nose. If you find that he is no longer breathing, then treat him as you would a drowned person, and try and work back the breath into his body.

Burns.—In treating a man who has been burnt, remove his clothes, not by peeling them off, but by cutting them with a SHARP knife or scissors. If any part of the dress sticks to the skin from having been burnt there, do not tear it away but cut the cloth round it, then as quickly as possible protect the burnt parts from the air which causes intense pain. The best way to protect them is by dusting them with powdered chalk or flour, or by laying strips of lint well soaked in sweet oil or linseed oil, and covering the whole with cotton wool. Keep the patient warm, and give warm drinks, such as hot tea, hot milk, or spirits and water.

Major John Garroway, M.D., strongly recommends, instead of flour or oil to stop the pain of a burn, to put a piece of paper firmly over the wound, and the pain will be relieved in a few seconds.

Acid Burning.—A case occurred only the other day of a woman throwing vitriol over a man's face. This is an awful acid which burns and eats away the flesh wherever it touches. Fortunately a policeman happened to be on the spot at the time and knew what to do. He at once applied water to wash off the acid, and then applied flour or whitening to protect the wound from the air and ease the pain.

Broken Limbs.—You may get persons with broken limbs or stunned. In the case of broken limbs you would learn what to do in passing your ambulance course, which every boy scout ought to pass before he can be considered to be fully trained. You would there learn how to know when a limb was broken, and how to tie it up between splints made of pieces of wood, rolls of newspaper or rushes, bundles of twigs, walking sticks, or any other articles that will make a straight support for the limb. [Practise this.]

Pulling in a Dislocated Shoulder—an actual experience of mine in India.

Bleeding.—When a man is bleeding badly from a wound, squeeze the wound or the flesh just above it—that is between the wound and the heart—press it hard with your thumb to try and stop the blood running in the artery. Then make a pad with something like a flat rounded pebble, and bind it over the wound. If bleeding violently, tie a handkerchief loosely round the limb above the wound and twist it tight with a stick. [Demonstrate this.] Keep the wounded part raised above the rest of the body if possible. Apply cold water, or ice if possible, wet rags, etc.

Fainting.—If your patient faints and is pale—fainting comes from too little blood in the head—let him lie flat down with head on the ground. If his face is flushed raise the head—there is too much blood in it, as in apoplexy or sunstroke.

Fits.—A man cries out and falls, and twitches and jerks his limbs about, froths at the mouth, he is in a fit. It is no good to do anything to him but to put a bit of wood or cork between his jaws, so that he does not bite his tongue. Let him sleep well after a fit.

Poisoning.—If a person suddenly falls very ill after taking food, or is known to have taken poison, the first thing to do is to make him swallow some milk or raw eggs. These seem to collect all the poison that is otherwise spread about inside him. Then, if the mouth is not stained or burnt by the poison, make him sick if possible by giving him salt and warm water, and try tickling the inside of his throat with a feather. Then more milk and eggs and weak tea. If the poison is an acid that burns, the patient should not be made to vomit, but milk or salad oil should be given. The patient should be kept awake if he gets drowsy.

Blood-Poisoning.—This results from dirt being allowed to get into a wound. Swelling, pain, red veins appear. Fomenting with hot water is the best relief.

Choking.—Loosen collar; hold the patient's nose with one hand and with the forefinger of the other, or with the handle of a spoon try and pull out whatever is stuck in his throat. By pressing down the root of the tongue you may make him sick and throw out the obstruction. For slight choking make patient bend head well back and swallow small pills made of bread, and sip of water. Sometimes a good hard smack on the back will do him good.

SNAKE BITE.

Fortunately poisonous snakes are uncommon in England, but if you travel in a colony you are sure to come across them, and you ought always to know how to deal with bites from them. The same treatment does also for wounds from poisoned arrows, mad dogs, etc. Remember the poison from a bite gets into your blood and goes all through your body in a very few beats of your pulse. Therefore, whatever you do must be done immediately. The great thing is to stop the poison rushing up the veins into the body. To do this bind a cord or handkerchief immediately round the limb above the place where the patient has been bitten, so as to stop the blood flying back to the heart with the poison. Then try and suck the poison out of the wound, and, if possible, cut the wound still more, to make it bleed, and run the poison out. The poison, when sucked into the mouth, does no harm unless you have a wound in your mouth. The patient should also be given stimulants, such as coffee or spirits, to a very big extent, and not allowed to become drowsy, but should be walked about and pricked and smacked in order to keep his senses alive.

[Practise this process in make-believe.]

GRIT IN THE EYE.

Do not let your patient rub the eye; it will only cause inflammation and swelling, and so make the difficulty of removing the grit all the greater.

If the grit is in the lower eyelid, draw down the lid as far as you can, and gently brush it out with the corner of a moistened handkerchief, or with a paintbrush, or feather.

If it is under the upper lid, pull the lid away from the eyeball and push the underlid up underneath the upper one. In this way the eyelashes of the lower lid will generally clean the inside of the upper one.

Another way, which every scout must practise, is to seat your patient and stand behind him yourself with the back of his head against your chest. Lay a card, match, or any flat substance under your own thumb on the upper part of the upper eyelid and then catch hold of the edge of the eyelid and draw it upwards over the match so that it turns inside out; gently remove the grit with a feather or wet handkerchief, and roll the eyelid down again.

If the eye is much inflamed, bathe it with lukewarm weak tea.

If the grit is firmly embedded in the eye, drop a little oil (olive or castor oil) into the lower lid; close the eye and bandage it with a soft wet pad and bandage, and get a doctor to see it.

[Practise above.]

SUICIDES.

I was once travelling in the train in Algeria, a part of North Africa which belongs to the French, and there was with me only one other passenger in the carriage, a French farmer, with whom I got into conversation. He became very communicative, and told me that if I had not come into the carriage he would by this time have been a dead man, as he had got into the train with the intention of killing himself. So I asked him about his troubles, and, as he unfolded them to me, I was able to tell him various remedies which promised success for him in the future, for he was chiefly upset over his recent failures in farming. After we had been going on for some time, he quite cheered up, and told me that he was going to get out at the next station, and go back and set to work in the way suggested.

You may have opportunities of saving people who are thinking of killing themselves. The newspapers give cases of suicides almost every day, and go into details of them, because they know that so many people have a foolish love of reading horrors.

Most people at one time or the other of their lives get a feeling that they will kill themselves; as a rule they get over it in a day or two, and find that it comes from nothing worse than an attack of indigestion, liver, or influenza, or from disappointment, or over-anxiety; but there are others with weaker minds, who read these newspaper accounts, and brood over them till they can think of nothing else. They hug the idea to themselves, although with horror, and get panic-stricken. They think too much of their own trouble, without thinking how the rest of the world is doing.

It only needs a sympathising friend to come along and take command of the would-be suicide, and to give him something else to think about and to do. You can point out that suicide does no good to anybody; that it generally comes from something wrong with the bodily health, which makes the patient hysterical; that he has only got to command his own mind firmly, and the attack will pass off again. Then, if possible, try to get a Salvation Army officer to see him; he will probably set him right. In this way you may be able to save lives.

[The Salvation Army have now a department which gives advice to people who are feeling inclined to kill themselves. This past year 1125 men and 90 women have applied to their London office alone; and of these probably three-quarters would have killed themselves if it had not been for the sympathy and advice of the officers who reasoned with them, and found for them ways out of their difficulties. The official returns of suicides for the past year show a much smaller number than usual.]

Where a man has gone so far as to attempt suicide, a scout should know what to do with him. In the case of a man cutting his throat, the great point is to stop the bleeding from the artery, if it be cut. The artery runs from where the collarbone and breast-bone join, up to the corner of the jaw, and the way to stop bleeding is to press hard with the thumb on the side of the wound nearest to the heart, and pressure should be kept up as hard as possible until assistance arrives. [Demonstrate this.] In a case where the would-be suicide has taken poison, give milk and make him vomit, which is done by tickling the inside of the throat with the finger or a feather, or pouring down his throat a tumbler of water mixed with a tablespoon of mustard or salt.

In the case of hanging, cut down the body at once, taking care to support it with one arm while cutting the cord. Cut the noose, loosen all tight clothing about the neck and chest. Let the patient have as much fresh air as possible, throw cold water on the face and chest, or cold and hot water alternately. Perform artificial breathing as in the case of apparently drowned people.

A tenderfoot is sometimes inclined to be timid about handling an insensible man or a dead man, or even of seeing blood. Well, he won't be much use till he gets over such nonsense; the poor insensible fellow can't hurt him, and he must force himself to catch hold of him; when once he has done this his fears will pass off. And if he visits a butcher's slaughterhouse he will soon get accustomed to the sight of blood.

At Reading, not long ago, two men were severely reprimanded by the coroner for being afraid to go and cut down a man who had hanged himself—they only ran and fetched someone else, and so he was killed. What would you have done had you been one of the men?

HOW TO CARRY A PATIENT.

(See National Health Society's Manual.)

To Carry Single-handed an Unconscious Person.—Turn patient on his face. Raise him into a kneeling posture. Kneel, and place yourself across and under him, so that his stomach rests on your right shoulder. Pass your right arm between his thighs and behind his right thigh. With your left arm draw his left hand forwards under your left, and grasp the wrist with your right hand; then raise yourself to an erect position.

[Make scouts practise this in pairs.]

Lifting Insensible Man.

With Two Helpers to Carry a Conscious Person. (See Manual.)

Stretchers may be arranged in some of the following ways:

(a) A hurdle, shutter, door, gate, covered well with straw, hay, clothing, sacking.

(b) A piece of carpet, blanket, sacking, tarpaulin, spread out, and two stout poles rolled up in the sides. Put clothes for a pillow.

(c) Two coats, with the sleeves turned inside out; pass two poles through the sleeves; button the coats over them.

(d) Two poles passed through a couple of sacks, through holes at the bottom corners of each.

Carrying Insensible Man.

In carrying a patient on a stretcher be careful that he is made quite comfortable before you start. Let both bearers rise together; they must walk out of step, and take short paces. It should be the duty of the hinder bearer to keep a careful watch on the patient.

[Practise these different methods.]

HOW TO PRACTISE.

In practising First Aid it is a great thing to bespatter the patient with blood to accustom the rescuer to the sight of it, otherwise it will often unnerve him in a real accident. Sheep's blood can be got from the butcher's shop.

Prepare a heavy smoke fire in a neighbouring room or building (if possible on the first floor), while you are lecturing in the club room. Secretly arrange with two or three boys that if an alarm of fire is given they should run about frightened and try to start a panic.

Have the alarm given either by getting someone to rush in and tell you of the fire, or by having some explosive bombs fired. Then let a patrol, or two patrols, tackle the fire under direction of their patrol leaders. They should shut windows and doors. Send scouts into different parts of the building to see if the fire is spreading, and to search for people in need of rescue.

These scouts should have wet handkerchiefs over their months and noses. "Insensible" people (or sack dummies) should be hidden under tables, etc.

Scouts rescue them by shouldering or dragging them out and getting them down to the ground. Use jumping sheet, shoot, etc.

Other parties lay and connect the hose, or make lines for passing fire buckets.

Another party revive the rescued by restoring animation. Another party form "scrum" to help the police and fire brigade by keeping the crowd back.

GAMES.

"Dragging Race." A line of patients of one patrol are laid out at one hundred yards distance from start. Another patrol, each carrying a rope, run out, tie ropes to the patients, and drag them in. Time taken of last in. Patrols change places. The one which completes in shortest time wins. Knots must be correctly tied, and patients' coats laid out under their heads.

BOOKS TO READ.

"Aid to the Injured or Sick." H. W. Gell, M.B. Twopence. (Published by G. Gill & Sons, 13, Warwick Lane, London, E.C.)

National Health Society's Booklets, one penny, on hygiene and sanitation. Same publishers.

CHAPTER IX.
PATRIOTISM;

or,

Our Duties as Citizens.

CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 26.
OUR EMPIRE.

How it Grew—How it Must be Held.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

The use of a large Map of the Empire is very desirable for illustrating this. The Arnold Forster or the Navy League or the League of the Empire Map are very good, and we hope to issue one specialty designed for the Boy Scouts.

Look up the local history of your neighbourhood, and give your scouts the more interesting and dramatic bits of it, on the actual scene of the events if possible.

OUR EMPIRE.

Any of you who have travelled much about this country by train, going for your holidays and so on, know how two or three hours will take you a good long distance and six or eight hours will take you to the other end of England.

Well, if instead of hours you travelled for as many days, even six or eight days would take you a very little way over our Empire. It would get you into Canada, but you would want several more days—not hours—to get you across that country. Eighteen days' hard travelling day and night would get you to India or South Africa, but either of these are little more than half way to Australia. And all that distance off, across the seas, on the other side of the world, we have a British country into which you could put nine Great Britains and Irelands.

9 United Kingdoms = 1 Australia.

10 " = 1 Canada.

6 " = 1 India and Burma.

5 " = East Africa, Uganda,

and Soudan.

5 " = South Africa.

1 " = New Zealand.

1-1/2 " = Nigeria.

Then there are numbers of smaller Colonies or Dependencies, such as Guiana (nearly as big as the United Kingdom), North Borneo, New Guinea, Somaliland, Straits Settlements, Gold Coast, West Indies, Tasmania, etc., and numbers of islands in ever sea all over the world.

Our Colonies together are something like forty times the size of the United Kingdom at home.

Our fellow-subjects amount to four hundred millions, and comprise almost every known race. Almost every known species of wild animal occurs in British territory.

It is a magnificent Empire over which the Union Jack flies, but it is still only at the beginning of its development. The territories are there, but the people are only coming. The white population of all these Colonies only amounts to a little over a quarter of the population of our crowded little island. We have nearly forty-four millions here; they have among the colonies a little over eleven millions.

Many of you scouts, as you grow up, will probably become scouts of the nation, and will find your way to some of the Colonies to help to push them up into big prosperous countries. Your scout's training will come in very useful to you there. But when you go there you must be prepared to work, and to work hard, and to turn your hand to any kind of job.

HOW OUR EMPIRE GREW.

All those vast Colonies did not come to England of themselves. They were got for us by the hard work and the hard fighting of our forefathers.

America.—When we first got to America it took Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain John Smith, and other great pioneers four or five months to get there in their little cockleshells of ships, some of them only 30 tons measurement—no bigger than a Thames barge. Nowadays you can get there in five or six days, instead of months, in steamers of 30,000 tons.

Think of the pluck of those men tackling a voyage like that, with very limited supply of water and salt food. And, when they got to land with their handful of men, they had to overcome the savages, and in some cases other Europeans, like the Dutch, the Spaniards, and the French; and then they had hard work to till the ground, to build settlements, and to start commerce.

Hard sailoring, hard soldiering, hard colonising by those old British sea-dogs, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Hawkins, Frobisher, and, best of all to my mind, Captain John Smith.

He left Louth Grammar School in Lincolnshire to become a clerk in an office, but he soon went off to the wars. After two years' fighting he returned home.

He admitted he had gone out as a "tenderfoot," and had not properly prepared himself as a boy for a life of adventure; so he set to work then and there to learn scouting. He built himself a hut in the woods, and learnt stalking game, and killing and cooking it for himself; he learnt to read maps and to draw them, and also the use of weapons; and then, when he had made himself really good at scoutcraft, he went off to the wars again.

He afterwards became a sailor, fought in some very tough sea-fights, and eventually, in 1607, he went with an expedition to colonise Virginia in America. They sailed from London in three ships, the biggest of which was only 100 tons, the smallest 30 tons. But they got there after five months, and started a settlement on the James River.

Here John Smith was captured by the Red Indians one day when out shooting (as you have seen by the play in Chapter I.), and they were proceeding to kill him when the King's daughter, Pocahontas, asked for him to be spared. After this the Red Indians and the Whites got on good terms with each other. Pocahontas became a Christian, and married Smith's lieutenant, Rolfe, and came to England. After many strange and exciting adventures in America, John Smith got much damaged by an accidental explosion of gunpowder, and came home ill. He eventually died in London.

He was a splendid character—and always did his duty in spite of all temptations to let it slide. He was a tremendous worker, very keen, and very brave. He was never defeated by any difficulty however great, because he was always cheery under the worst of circumstances. His motto was, "We were born not for ourselves, but to do good to others," and he acted up to it.

In South Africa we had to drive out the Dutch and then fight the natives for our foothold, which once gained we never let go—and though it has cost us thousands of lives and millions of money we have got it now.

Australia was got by our sailor-adventurers, like Captain Cook, outstripping all other nations in their plucky navigation of immense unknown oceans.

India was practically in possession of the French when Clive and Wellesley drove them out, and then in turn had to fight the hordes of fighting natives of the interior, and gradually, foot by foot, by dint of hard fighting, we have won that country for our Empire.

East Africa, Uganda, and the Soudan beyond Egypt, and Somaliland have also been fought for and won in quite recent times.

And now in all of these we are spreading the blessings of peace and justice, doing away with slavery and oppression, and developing commerce, and manufactures, and prosperity in those countries.

Other nations could formerly only look on and wonder, but now they too are pressing forward in the race for empire and commerce, so that we cannot afford to sit still or let things slide.

We have had this enormous Empire handed down to us by our forefathers, and we are responsible that it develops and goes ahead, and above all that we make ourselves fit and proper men to help it to go ahead. It won't do so of itself, any more than it would have become ours of itself. If we don't do this some other nation will take it from us.

If our island of England were attacked and taken, down comes our Empire like a house built of cards.

We have had this danger always, even before our Empire was a paying one and worth taking. Nowadays it is much more tempting for other people to take. We defeated determined attacks of the Dutch upon us in the old days. The Spaniards with their Armada attempted to invade us, when, largely thanks to a storm, we defeated them utterly. Then the French, after a long struggle to best us, had their invasion stopped by Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, and their harmfulness ended by Wellington at Waterloo. The French Emperor had been so sure of success that he had had medals got ready to commemorate the capture of England. And since helping in the defeat of the Russians in the Crimea we have been at peace with our Continental neighbours.

Let us hope that this peace will remain permanent.

HOW THE EMPIRE MUST BE HELD.

Peace cannot be certain unless we show that we are always fully prepared to defend ourselves in England, and that an invader would only find himself ramming his head against bayonets and well-aimed bullets if he tried landing on our shores.

The surest way to keep peace is to be prepared for war. Don't be cowards, and content yourselves by merely paying soldiers to do your fighting and dying for you. Do something in your own self-defence.

You know at school how if a swaggering ass comes along and threatens to bully you, he only does so because he thinks you will give in to him; but if you know how to box and square up to him he alters his tone and takes himself off. And it is just the same with nations.

It is much better that we should all be good friends—and we should all try for that—no calling each other names, or jeering; but if one of them comes along with the idea of bullying us, the only way to stop him is to show him that you can hit and will hit if he drives you to it.

Every boy should prepare himself, by learning how to shoot and to drill, to take his share in defence of the Empire, if it should ever be attacked. If our enemies saw that we were thus prepared as a nation, they would never dare to attack, and peace would be assured.

Remember that the Roman Empire 2000 years ago was comparatively just as great as the British Empire of to-day. And though it had defeated any number of attempts against it, it fell at last, chiefly because the young Romans gave up soldiering and manliness altogether; they paid men to play their games for them, so that they themselves could look on without the fag of playing, just as we are doing in football now. They paid soldiers to fight their battles for them instead of earning the use of arms themselves; they had no patriotism or love for their grand old country, and they went under with a run when a stronger nation attacked them.

Well, we have got to see that the same fate does not fall upon our Empire. And it will largely depend upon you, the younger generation of Britons that are now growing up to be the men of the Empire. Don't be disgraced like the young Romans, who lost the Empire of their forefathers by being wishy-washy slackers without any go or patriotism in them.

Play up! Each man in his place, and play the game! Your forefathers worked hard, fought hard, and died hard, to make this Empire for you. Don't let them look down from heaven, and see you loafing about with hands in your pockets, doing nothing to keep it up.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

Teach the words and choruses of:

"The Maple Leaf" (Canada), "The Song of Australia," and other Colonial songs.

"God Bless the Prince of Wales."

"Rule Britannia."

"Hearts of Oak."

"The Flag of Britain."

"God Save the King."

(J. S. Maddison, 32 Charing Cross.)

Apply to Secretary, League of the Empire, Caxton Hall, Westminster, S.W.

Explore Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Temple Church, etc., with following books:

BOOKS TO READ.

"St. Paul's Cathedral" and "Westminster Abbey," both by Mrs. Frewen Lord, 1s. (Published by Clowes and Son, Charing Cross.)

(Excellent short histories of our famous men and their deeds.)

"Travels of Captain John Smith," by Dr. Rouse. 6d. (Blackie.)

"The Story of Captain Cook." Edited by John Lang. 1s. 6d.

"Deeds that Won the Empire," by Fitchett.

"Heroes of Pioneering" (in America, India, Africa), by Sanderson. (Seeley.) 2s. 6d.

Excellent Lantern Slide Lectures can be got on hire from the League of the Empire, Caxton Hall, Victoria Street, London, on the history of our Colonies and Empire.

DISPLAY.

John Nicholson was one of the finest among many fine Britons who helped to rule India. On one occasion he had a meeting of a number of chiefs at a time when they were beginning to show some signs of mutiny. The most important one of these chiefs was called Mehtab Singh, and just before the meeting he told the others that he for one was not afraid of the Englishman, and that he meant to swagger into the room with his shoes on. (It is the custom in India for natives to take off their shoes on entering the presence of a superior just as in England you take off your hat on coming in.) And he did so. He walked in before them all with his shoes on.

Nicholson did not appear to take any notice of it and went on with the meeting; but at the end of it, just as they were all leaving, he suddenly stopped Mehtab Singh, and ordered the others to wait. He then reprimanded him for his insolence, and ordered him to take off his shoes then and there and to walk out with them in his hand before all the other chiefs. And so he had to go, hanging his head with shame, disgraced and humbled by the firmness of the British ruler.

This makes a good subject for a display.

Scene in a great tent or hall in India.

Nicholson (with a black beard), in a dark suit, sitting on a throne in the centre, with several British and native officers in red tunics grouped behind him. Native princes, seated in chairs in semi-circle to either side of him, all with white socks or bare feet, except Mehtab Singh, who has black shoes on, put out well before him for all to see.

Nicholson rises, signs to the chiefs that they may go.

All rise and bow to him, with both hands to the forehead.

As they turn to go he stops them.

"Stay, gentlemen, one moment. I have a matter with you, Mehtab Singh! Thou camest here intent to show contempt for me, who represent your Queen. But you forget that you are dealing with a Briton—one of that band who never brooks an insult even from an equal, much less from a native of this land. Were I a common soldier it would be the same; a Briton, even though alone, amongst a thousand of your kind, shall be respected, though it brought about his death. That's how we hold the world. To plot against your master brings but trouble on yourself. Take off those shoes."

Mehtab Singh. Face—Dark rouge, not black. Dress—Big turban, coloured dressing gown and girdle, white socks, and black shoes.

[Mehtab starts, draws himself up, and glares at Nicholson angrily.]

Nicholson [very quietly and deliberately]—"Take—off—those—shoes." [Points at them.]

A pause. Mehtab looks round as if for help, takes a step towards Nicholson, but catches his eye, and stops. He sinks slowly on one knee, head down, and slowly takes off his shoes.

Rises, keeping his head down, slowly turns—Nicholson still pointing—and walks slowly out, shoes in hand.

[If a longer scene is required Nicholson might then address the chiefs on the might of Britain, which, though a small country, is all powerful for good of the world, and so he, as representing her, stands one among them for the good of the whole. And that if they want peace and prosperity they themselves must be loyal and true to the hand that is arranging it. Nicholson's words are splendidly rendered in the poem by Henry Newbolt.]

CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 27.
CITIZENSHIP.

Duties of Scouts as Citizens—Duties as Citizen Soldiers—Marksmanship—Helping the Police.

SCOUT'S DUTY AS A CITIZEN.

There are two ways by which every good Briton ought to be prepared to keep up our Empire.

The first is by peaceful means as a citizen.

If every citizen of the Empire were to make himself a really good useful man, our nation would be such a blessing to the civilised world, as it has been in the past, that nobody would wish to see it broken up by any other nation. No other nation would probably wish to do it. But to hold that position we must be good citizens and firm friends all round among ourselves in our country.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. If a strong enemy wants our rich commerce and Colonies, and sees us in England divided against each other, he would pounce in and capture us.

For this you must begin, as boys, not to think other classes of boys to be your enemies. Remember, whether rich or poor, from castle or from slum, you are all Britons in the first place, and you've got to keep England up against outside enemies. You have to stand shoulder to shoulder to do it.

If you are divided among yourselves you are doing harm to your country. You must sink your differences.

If you despise other boys because they belong to a poorer class than yourself you are a snob; if you hate other boys because they happen to be born richer and belong to higher class schools than yourself, you are a fool.

We have got, each one of us, to take our place as we find it in this world and make the best of it, and pull together with the others around us.

We are very like bricks in a wall, we have each our place, though it may seem a small one in so big a wall. But if one brick gets rotten, or slips out of place, it begins to throw an undue strain on others, cracks appear, and the wall totters.

Don't be too anxious to push yourself on to good billets. You will get disappointments without end if you start that way.

Work for the good of the State, or of the business in which you are employed, and you will find that as you succeed in doing this you will be getting all the promotion and all the success that you want.

Try and prepare yourself for this by seriously taking up the subjects they teach you at school, not because it amuses you, but because it is your duty to your country to improve yourself. Take up your mathematics, your history, and your language—learning in that spirit, and you'll get on.

Don't think of yourself, but think of your country and your employers. Self-sacrifice pays all round.

DUTIES AS CITIZEN-SOLDIER.

A cuttle-fish is an animal with a small, round body and several enormously long arms which reach out in every direction to hold on to rocks to enable it to keep its position and to get food.

Great Britain has been compared to a cuttle-fish, the British Isles being the body and our distant Colonies the arms spread all over the world.

When anyone wants to kill a cuttle-fish he does not go and lop off one of its arms; the other arms would probably tackle him and hold him for the cuttle-fish to eat. No, the way to kill a cuttle-fish is to suddenly stab him in the heart, and then his arms fall helpless and dead.

Well, we have many powerful enemies round about us in Europe who want very much to get hold of the trade in our great manufacturing towns, and of the vast farm-lands in our Colonies. If they tried to lop off one of our Colonies it would be like trying to lop off one of the arms of the cuttle-fish. All the rest would tackle him at once, as happened in the last war in South Africa.

Their only way—and they know it—is to stab suddenly at the heart of the Empire, that is to attack England. If they succeeded, the whole of the Empire must fall at once, because the different parts of it cannot yet defend themselves without help from home.

For this reason every Briton who has any grit in him will BE PREPARED to help in defending his country.

When Mafeking was attacked by the Boers, the boys of the town made themselves into a Cadet Corps, and did very useful work in the defence. It is quite likely that England will some day be attacked just as Mafeking was, unexpectedly, by a large number of enemies.

Cuttle Fish.

If this happens, every boy in the country should be prepared to take his place and help in the defence like those Mafeking boys did.

We don't think much of a fellow who is no good at cricket or football, and who only loafs about trying (without success) to look like a man by smoking cheap cigarettes. But we ought really not to think too much of any boy, even though a cricketer and footballer, unless he can also shoot, and can drill and scout.

That is the fellow who is going to be useful if England is attacked.

I hope that before long every eleven, whether football or cricket, will also make itself a good eleven for shooting and scouting and therefore useful for defence of our King and country when needed.

In the Colonies boys think more of their shooting than of their games, because the shooting is for their country, the games for themselves.

Mr. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, writes:

"The qualities that make a good scout are, in large part, the qualities that make a good hunter. Most important of all is the ability to shift for one's self—the mixture of hardihood and resourcefulness which enables a man to tramp all day in the right direction, and, when night comes, to make the best of whatever opportunities for shelter and warmth may be at hand. Skill in the use of the rifle is another trait; quickness in seeing game, another; ability to take advantage of cover, yet another; while patience, endurance, keenness of observation, resolution, good nerves, and instant readiness in an emergency, are all indispensable to a really good hunter."

Roosevelt is not, like certain men I know of, a man who pays others to do his fighting for him, but, when America went to war with Spain about Cuba, he went to the front as a soldier—like many good Britons did in South Africa—and was of greatest value to his side because he had begun life as a scout.

So make yourselves good scouts and good rifle shots in order to protect the women and children of your country if it should ever become necessary.

MARKSMANSHIP.

Lord Roberts, who has seen more of war than almost anybody alive, knows how terrible a thing it would be if war came into England, and he urges everybody to join in preventing it by becoming a good marksman with the rifle. Thanks to him, all those who have patriotism in them are taking it up everywhere.

The value of non-smoking again comes in rifle shooting. I used to smoke myself as a youngster, but I had to do some rifle shooting, and when in training I found my eyesight was better when I did not smoke. So I gave up smoking altogether, and am very glad I did.

The boys of the International Anti-Cigarette League bind themselves not to smoke, in order to make themselves better men for their country—that is the best reason for doing it.

I heard another reason given the other day for not smoking, and that was that St. Paul did not smoke. I don't suppose he did. Tobacco wasn't invented in his time.

Boer Boys Shooting with Crossbows.

The Boers are all good shots, and so are the Swiss. In both countries the boys begin learning marksmanship at an early age by using crossbows. They have much the same action for the firer as the rifle, since they are aimed from the shoulder and fired by pulling a trigger when the aim is taken. Boys trained with the crossbow have no difficulty in shooting accurately with a rifle directly it is put in their hands.

To be able to shoot well, a great secret is to hold your rifle properly; if it leans over a little bit to one side or the other the bullet will fly low over to that side. Keep your left arm well underneath the rifle to support it, and hold it well into the shoulder with your left hand. The right hand should have the thumb on the top of the stock, and the forefinger as far round the trigger as you can get it; then in firing don't give a pull with your forefinger or you will pull the aim off the target just as you fire; you should squeeze the woodwork of the rifle between your thumb and forefinger, and that will fire it with steadiness.

Then when your rifle has gone off, don't throw up the muzzle in a hurry, but do like all old scouts, continue to look along your sights after firing to see how much you have jumped off your aim in firing, and try and correct it next time.

Shooting at a fixed target is only a step towards shooting at a moving one like a man. Firing at moving objects is, of course, more difficult, but more real, because you will not find a deer or an enemy as a rule kind enough to stand still while you shoot at him, he will be running and dodging behind cover, so you have to get your aim quick and to shoot quick.

The very best practice for this is always to be aiming at moving objects with your staff, using it as if it were a rifle.

Aim first at the man, then moving the muzzle a little faster than he is moving, and fire while moving it when it is pointing where he will be a second or two later, and the bullet will just get there at the same time as he does and will hit him.

HELPING POLICE.

Boy Scouts can be of special use in assisting the police in towns. In the first place every Boy Scout ought to know where the fixed police points are—that is, where a constable is always stationed, apart from the policemen on their beats. He ought also to know where to find the fire alarm; also where is the nearest fire brigade station, and the nearest hospital or ambulance station, and chemist.

On seeing an accident, if you cannot help at it you should run and inform the nearest policeman, and ask him how you can help him, whether you can call a doctor, a cab, and so on. If you hear a policeman's whistle sounding, run and offer to help him, it is your duty, as he is a King's servant. If you should happen to see a door or window left open and unguarded at night, it is as well to inform a policeman on that beat, but you should on no account attempt to do detective work by watching people or playing the spy.

If you find a lost child, or lost dog, or any lost property, you should take them at once to the police station.

Sir H. Poland, K.C., had his watch snatched by a pickpocket the other day. The thief darted away down the street; but a small boy jumped on to a bike and followed him, crying, "Stop thief!" till he was caught—with the watch on him.

Not only can boys help the police, but girls also. Within the last few months I have noticed three cases of girls going to the assistance of constables who were in difficulties with violent men. In each case the girl got the policeman's whistle and blew it for him until assistance arrived. These heroines were Miss Edith Harris at Southampton, Miss Bessie Matthews in Clerkenwell, and Mrs. Langley at Brentford.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

Marksmanship can be taught indoors with the Blanchette Air Gun Tube. Price four guineas with Air Rifle. Targets 10d. per 100.

Crossbow.—Scouts can make their own crossbows and learn marksmanship with them.

Get leave to use, or join, a Miniature Rifle Club range.

GAMES.

"Shoot Out."—Two patrols compete. Targets: Bottles or bricks set up on end to represent the opposing patrol. Both patrols are drawn up in line at about 20 to 25 yards from the targets. At the word "fire" they throw stones at the targets. Directly a target falls the umpire directs the corresponding man of the other patrol to sit down—killed. The game goes on, if there are plenty of stones, till the whole of one patrol is killed. Or a certain number of stones can be given to each patrol, or a certain time limit, say one minute.

"French and English," or "Tug of War."—One patrol against another.

The Storming OF Badajoz.—One patrol (French) mounts on a very strong kitchen-table, or bank, and holds it against all comers. The British attack, and try to gain possession of the fortress by pulling the defenders off. Defenders may have half their number on the ground behind the "rampart." If the defenders pull a Briton over the rampart on to the ground behind he is dead. No hitting or kicking allowed.

[Badajoz was a Spanish fortress held by 5,000 French and Spaniards. It was attacked, and stormed, and taken by the British, who lost 3,500 in the assault, on March 17th, 1812.]

BOOKS TO READ.

"The Boys' Book of Bravery." By Power Berry. (C. A. Pearson.)

"The Boys' Book of Battles." By Herbert Cadett. (C. A. Pearson.)

"Rules for Miniature Rifle Clubs." Secretary National Rifle Association, Bisley, Surrey.

CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 28.
UNITED WE STAND. DIVIDED WE FALL.

Our Fleet and Army—Our Union Jack—Our Government—Our King.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.

Hoist the flag and salute it every morning when in camp, and on special days get up a show, or sports, or competitions, etc., on such as King's Birthday, Empire Day, May 24th, annually, or on the day of the Patron Saint of your Country: St. George, April 23rd; St. Patrick, March 17th; St. David, March 1st; St. Andrew, Nov. 30th.

Get up tableaux or small pageants by the scouts to illustrate scenes from history of your town, or of Britain, or of Greater Britain.

These interest the boys and impress the incident upon them, and they educate spectators, and bring in money for your funds.

Take scouts to see meeting of town council and how business is carried out.

If in London, take your boys to the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall, and show them the models of Waterloo and Trafalgar; the gun which we manufactured in Mafeking; the medals of different campaigns; and a hundred other interesting relics.

Take your scouts round and explain each statue in your town.

Hold debates on questions of the day.

OUR NAVY AND ARMY.

The British Navy and Army have made our Empire for us, and if it had not been for their help the Empire would have been broken up by our enemies long ago.

So we must be careful to keep those Services supplied with good men who, like the scouts, must Be Prepared to give their lives for their country at any time.

There are always members of Parliament who try to make the Navy and Army smaller, so as to save money. They only want to be popular with the voters in England so that they and the party to which they belong may get into power. These men are called "politicians." They do not look to the good of the county. Most of them know and care very little about our Colonies. If they had had their way before, we should by this time have been talking French; and if they are allowed to have their way in the future we may as well learn German or Japanese, for we shall be conquered by these.

But fortunately there are other better men in Parliament, who are called "statesmen"; these are men who look out for the welfare of the country, and do not mind about being popular or not so long as they keep the country safe.

The British Navy.—Every British boy should study the Navy as much as possible, and learn the history of the different ships, and their power and guns, etc. A collection of postcard portraits of all His Majesty's ships is a very interesting one to make.

You should know the badges of rank of the officers, because it is the duty of a scout to salute officers of His Majesty's service.

Badges of rank on the sleeve or shoulder-strap are these.

Admiral, Captain, Lieutenant, Sub-Lieutenant.

Perhaps you may like to know some facts about the dress of the sailors.

The reason they wear that flap collar on their back is a relic of the time when they wore their hair in pig-tails. The grease used to come off and spoil their jackets, so they wore big linen flaps, which could be easily taken off and washed.

They wear a black silk tie round their neck as a mark of mourning for the death of Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar.

They wear three lines of white braid to commemorate Nelson's naval victories, The Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar.

They wear baggy trousers so that they can easily roll them up above their knees when they want to wade.

Soldiers and sailors tattoo their arms with the idea that when they are killed in battle they can be identified the more easily.

The British Army.—The Army is made up of—

The Regulars or Active Army, which includes infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers, and many other branches of both white and native soldiers.

The Militia at home are to help the Regulars in time of war.

The Militia exist also in most of our Colonies for their own defence.

The Territorial Force is made up of volunteers to protect the British Isles in case of the Active Army being called away for war in other parts.

In the Army, field-marshals and generals (including major-generals and lieutenant-generals) wear cocked hats, with long white cock's feather plumes, and red tunics or black frock-coats. Their swords are curved scimitars, with ivory handles. Colonels wear the uniform of their regiment with crown and star on the shoulder strap, or, in khaki, on the cuff; majors, one crown; captains, three stars; lieutenants, two stars.

You can tell what wars soldiers or sailors have been in by the colours of their medal ribbons. These I will show you later on.

OUR FLAG.

Scouts will always salute the colours (or standard) of a regiment when they pass. There are generally two such standards, one the "King's Colour," the other the "Regimental Colour."

Men-of-war carry a pennant, i.e., a long thin flag like a whip lash. You may remember that the Dutch fleet under Van Tromp, after defeating ours, carried a broom at their mastheads to show that they had swept us off the seas. But when we shortly after defeated them we put up a whip at the masthead to show that we had whipped the enemy, and this whip has been carried ever since by men-of-war.

The Royal Navy fly the White Ensign; no one else is allowed to except yachts belonging to the Royal Yacht Squadron. The White Ensign is a white flag with the Red Cross of St. George on it and a Union Jack in the corner. It is flown at the stern of the ship, a small Union Jack at the bow.

The mercantile navy flies the Red Ensign; or if the captain of the ship belongs to the Royal Reserve, the ship flies a Blue Ensign.

The Army and Government buildings fly the Union Jack. Private houses and individuals should only fly the Red Ensign.

The Royal Standard, which shows the Lions of England, the Harp of Ireland, and the Lion of Scotland, is only flown when the King is present.

The Union Jack is the national flag of England, and is made up originally of the flag of St. George, a red cross on a white ground. In 1606 King James I. added to it the banner of Scotland, which was a blue flag with a white St. Andrew's Cross diagonal, that is from corner to corner.

In 1801 the Banner of St. Patrick of Ireland was added to the flag; St. Patrick's Cross was a red diagonal cross on a white ground, so that the flag now means the union of England, Ireland, and Scotland.

But there is a right way and a wrong way of putting it up, which all of you ought to know and understand, because so very frequently one sees it hoisted the wrong way up, which literally means that you are in distress; but people put it that way by mistake or from ignorance. You will notice that the red diagonal arms of the flag have a narrow white band on one side of them and a broad one on the other. Well, the broad one should be to the top of the flag on the side nearest to the flagpost, that is the "hoist" of the flag, and towards the bottom of the flag in the loose end, or, as it is called, the "fly" of the flag. (See picture, Part 1, page [29].)

It was called a "Jack," either from "Jacques," the nickname of King James I., who first started it; or, more probably, from the "jack" or "jacket," which the knights used to wear over their armour to show which nation they belonged to. The English knights wore a white Jack with the red cross of St. George upon it. This was also their flag.

If the flag is flown upside down it is a signal of distress. If it is half-mast it is a sign of mourning.

On going on board a man-of-war, when you reach the quarter-deck—that is the upper stern deck—always salute the ensign.

In the Navy, flags are hoisted at eight o'clock and saluted. With the Boy Scouts when in camp the same practice will be observed.

Of course you will always rise and salute or take off your hat on hearing the National Anthem played.

The 24th of May, the birthday of the great Queen Victoria, is "Empire Day," and we all hoist the flag and salute in special honour of the Empire on that occasion.

Remember it is going to be the business of everyone of you to keep the old flag flying, even if you have to bleed for it—just as your forefathers did before you.

We have all got to die some day; a few years more or less of our own lives don't make much matter in the history of the world, but it is a very great matter if by dying a year or two sooner than we should otherwise do from disease we can help to save the flag of our country from going under.

Therefore think it over—Be Prepared to die for your country if need be; so that when the moment arrives you may charge home with confidence, not caring whether you are going to be killed or not.

If your enemy sees that you are bent on either killing or being killed, the probability is that he won't wait to oblige you.

Don't merely talk, like some gas-bags do, about shedding the last drop of your blood for your country—the difficulty with them, when the time comes, is to get them to shed the FIRST drop of their blood.

The Union Jack stands for something more than only the Union of England, Ireland, and Scotland—it means the Union of Great Britain with all our Colonies across the seas; and also it means closer comradeship with our brothers in those Colonies, and between ourselves at home. We must all be bricks in the wall of that great edifice—the British Empire—and we must be careful that we do not let our differences of opinion on politics or other questions grow so strong as to divide us. We must still stick shoulder to shoulder as Britons if we want to keep our position among the nations; and we must make ourselves the best men in the world for honour and goodness to others so that we may DESERVE to keep that position.

Unite the Empire; make it stand compact,

Shoulder to shoulder let its members feel

The touch of British Brotherhood, and act

As one great nation—strong and true as steel.

OUR GOVERNMENT.

Of all the different kinds of government in the world, ours is the easiest and fairest for everybody.

Some countries have kings who make their laws for them whether the people like the laws or not; other countries make their own laws, but have not a king or a head who can carry on dealings on equal terms with other foreign countries.

With us the wants of the people are made known through Parliament. The House of Commons is made up of men chosen by the people to make known their wants and to suggest remedies, and the House of Lords sees whether these are equally good for all and for the future of the country; and what they recommend the King makes into law.

When you grow up you will become voters and have a share in putting members into the House of Commons.

And you will many of you be inclined to belong to Conservative or Liberal or Radical or other parties, whichever your father or friends belong to. I should not if I were you. I should hear what each party has to say. If you listen to one party you will certainly agree that that is the only right one, the rest must all be wrong. But if you go and listen to another you will find that after all that one is quite right, and the first one wrong.

The thing is to listen to them all and don't be persuaded by any particular one, for they all tell fibs; they each want to get into power. And then be a man, make up your mind and decide for yourself which you think is best for the country and future of the Empire—not for some two-penny-halfpenny little local question—and vote for that one so long as it works the right way, namely, for the good of the country.

Many people get led away by some new politician with some new extreme idea. Never believe in one man's idea till it has been well considered from all points of view. Extreme ideas are seldom much good; if you look them up in history you will see almost always they have been tried before somewhere. The Socialists are right in wishing to get money more evenly distributed so that there would be no millionaires and no paupers, but everyone pretty well off.

But they go the wrong way to work; they want to fight all other people to get themselves up, instead of joining in with everybody in doing a great thing for the whole country by a way which is fair and good for all. They do not read history, which shows that their plans have been tried before, and failed, because they made life a kind of slavery for everybody, and left the country an easy prey to another stronger one.

More thrift rather than change of government will bring money to all. And a strong united Empire, where all are helpful and patriotic will bring us power, peace, and prosperity such as no Socialistic dream could do.

OUR KING.

The word Empire comes from an old Roman word "Imperium," which means "well-ordered rule."

And the title Emperor, or ruler of the Empire, comes from the Roman word "Imperator." The King signs himself "R. I.," which means "Rex," or King of England, and "Imperator" or Emperor of India and the Colonies.

Imperator comes from two Roman words, "Im" and "Parere," which together mean "To prepare for"—that is, to Be Prepared. An Emperor is one who has to be prepared to face any difficulty or danger that may threaten the country.

Scouts have in the same way to Be Prepared to help their country in any difficulty or danger; and, therefore, we are all working to back up our King.

God Save the King.

BOOKS TO READ.

"The Union Jack and How It Was Made." By F. Wintour. One penny. (St. Dunstan's Road, West Kensington, London, W.)

Leaflets at one penny from the Empire Day Association, 83, Lancaster Gate, London, W.

"History of the British Empire." By Arnold Forster. (Cassell.)

So great has been the success of this Handbook, "Scouting for Boys," that Lt.-Gen. Baden-Powell has decided to complete it with Part 6, and make arrangements instead for a weekly penny paper for young men, to be entitled:

THE SCOUT.

It will be first published on April 14th, and every Thursday following.

It will, primarily, be a paper for young men between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five. It will not be planned or conducted as a boys' paper. It will appeal to the Imperialistic spirit of the young men of Great Britain and will endeavour to educate them in a pleasant, easy, anecdotal way towards their future responsibilities in life as the head of a family and as good citizens.

The founder of "THE SCOUT" is Lt.-Gen. Baden-Powell, who will write in its pages each week. For three months Lt.-Gen. Baden-Powell has been lecturing in every great town in the Kingdom on the subject of Scouting for Boys, and at the present moment something between 500,000 and 700,000 young men are interested in his scheme, which will come into full swing about April.

Fuller particulars of

THE SCOUT

will be given later. Meanwhile all communications should be addressed to

Messrs. C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.,

17-18 Henrietta Street,

Strand, London, W.C.,

who will be the publishers.

Part VI. Price 4d. net.

SCOUTING

For Boys

BY B-P (LIEUT. GEN. BADEN POWELL C.B.)

Published by Horace Cox, Windsor House,

Bream's Buildings, London, e.c.