You’re Wanted for Questioning
But don’t let it bother you. Any embarrassment will be on our side. And we’re willing to take the chance.
All you stand to lose is three cents and a half hour. To gain, a more interesting and helpful SCOUTING.
What I mean is, you’re No. 1 man on our Board of Experts and your opinion is very important to us.
We know that you have one, that you make up your mind very quickly as you thumb an issue as to whether a page seems to interest you, whether you’ll read it or keep thumbing. Finally, whether it was worth your time, likely to help you in your Scouting work.
We can’t talk with you personally about your ideas, and a long questionnaire would probably send you scooting, so here’s a plan to do it the easy way. It may look sketchy to you, but it will really help us a lot.
Here’s how it works—when you have finished reading this issue—that is, all of it you feel the urge to read—turn back to this page and use the contents column as your survey blank. Put checks opposite each article in the columns that best describe your reaction. Then write any comment you wish to add in that small space at the bottom, note your Scouting position, cut off the Contents strip on the dotted line, slip it into an envelope and mail to us.
I hope we will hear from you. It’ll be a real Good Turn to all your fellow Scouters.
Lex R. Lucas
Managing Editor
SCOUTING MAGAZINE is published monthly except August and bi-monthly June-July, and copyrighted 1948, by the Boy Scouts of America, 2 Park Ave., New York 16, N.Y. Reentered as Second Class Matter, June 13, 1946, at the Post Office at New York, N.Y., under the act of March 3, 1879.
Scouting Magazine is edited in the Division of Program by the Editorial Service. Director at the Division of Program, E. Urner Goodman. Director of Publications, Editor, Lorne W. Barclay. Managing Editor, Lex R. Lucas. Asst. Managing Editor, Tom MacPherson. Art Director, Donald Ross. Production Director, Geo. W. Goddard, Jr. Associate Editors: Gerald Speedy, Cub Scouting; Ted Pettit, Boy Scouting; Ted Holstein, Senior Scouting.
SCOUTING
DECEMBER, 1948, VOL. 36, No. 10
CONTENTS
Follow the “Trail Signs”—
★, ◆, ⚜, ●
to find articles of special interest to you.
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | |||
| ★ | FOR ALL SCOUTERS | ||||||||||||
| Scouting the Country | [2] | ||||||||||||
| Christmas Spirit | [3] | ||||||||||||
| Reaching Out | [5] | ||||||||||||
| Scouting On Main Street | [8] | ||||||||||||
| The Dust of the Round-Up Settles | [10] | ||||||||||||
| ◆ | FOR CUB SCOUT LEADERS | ||||||||||||
| Don’t Forget the Denner | [11] | ||||||||||||
| Blue and Gold Week | [12] | ||||||||||||
| American Cub Scout Den In Peru | [13] | ||||||||||||
| Music and Minstrels | [14] | ||||||||||||
| Gentlemen, Be Seated! | [16] | ||||||||||||
| Musical Instruments | [17] | ||||||||||||
| I Was A Den Dad | [18] | ||||||||||||
| Den Doings | [19] | ||||||||||||
| Cub Scout Treasure Chest | [20] | ||||||||||||
| ⚜ | FOR BOY SCOUT LEADERS | ||||||||||||
| Scouting Shorts | [21] | ||||||||||||
| Give Dads A Chance | [22] | ||||||||||||
| Troop Plans for January | [23] | ||||||||||||
| Scout Week Adventure | [24] | ||||||||||||
| Doing It Right In Winter | [26] | ||||||||||||
| The Early Scout Gets The Bird | [28] | ||||||||||||
| Game File | [30] | ||||||||||||
| Scout master’s Minute | [36] | ||||||||||||
| Just a Minute | [38] | ||||||||||||
| ● | FOR SENIOR LEADERS | ||||||||||||
| Spotlight Scout Week | [31] | ||||||||||||
| Senior Briefings | [33] | ||||||||||||
| Emergency Service for Seniors | [34] |
Key to interest level:
a - I READ THIS ARTICLE CAREFULLY
b - I READ IT CASUALLY
c - I DID NOT READ IT
d - IT WAS INTERESTINGLY WRITTEN
e - IT WAS NOT INTERESTINGLY WRITTEN
f - I CAN USE THE IDEAS
g - I CANNOT USE THE IDEAS
h - THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE CLEAR
i - THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE NOT CLEAR
j - THE ILLUSTRATIONS HELPED THE ARTICLE
k - THE ILLUSTRATIONS DID NOT HELP
Comments:
My Scouting Position
Scouting the Country
★ Buckshot to Memorial
When John M. Phillips began his crusade for conservation less than two generations ago, he was taunted, reviled, threatened, and “accidentally” shot in the legs three times. Sportsmen of that day felt game was public property, and they dealt roughly with “busybody conservationists.”
But on an August Sunday in 1948, a new crop of sportsmen met near Glenhazel, Pennsylvania, and paid public tribute to the same John M. Phillips, no longer taunted nor “accidentally” shot. Commonwealth sportsmen now revere him as “Pennsylvania’s grand old man of conservation.” On the site of the first game lands purchased by the state, they unveiled a huge boulder, bearing a keystone-shaped plaque commemorating the work of Mr. Phillips in developing a state-wide conservation system.
A member of the Advisory Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Mr. Phillips is 87 years old, and one of the few men to have a memorial erected in his honor while still living.
Dutch Uncles—2¢ Each
If you’d like to get it off your chest—you know, tell parents a thing or three—here’s your opportunity to do it in a nice way. (Not that you’d do it other than nicely.) At the request of many Scouters, we are making reprints of Louis C. Fink’s “Are We Pied Pipers?” from October Scouting. If you’d like a few copies, why not ask your Council for them?
Country Kids
If you, too, have always taken it for granted that delinquency is a crop native only to the teeming metropolis, Albert S. Goss, Master of the National Grange, has a shock for you.
“The farmer,” reports Mr. Goss, “is now disturbed about the rapid increase in delinquency. He has finally come to the conclusion that the greatest influence (in combatting delinquency) is that of character-building organizations, the results of which he is delighted with.”
Among character-building organizations, “Scouting for the country kid,” adds Mr. Goss, “is a natural, for he has many things right at his back door that Scouting offers (and) every one of the Granges can sponsor a Scout Unit. There are 7,100 sub-units in the United States, and a special effort is being made this year to push this. The sub-units themselves own about 4,000 buildings.”
Mr. Goss was speaking at a meeting of the National Committee on Rural Scouting late last October. The meeting was presided over by Mr. Wheeler McMillen, Committee Chairman. Mr. McMillen, known for his interest in rural youth, is moderator of this month’s round table, “Reaching Out,” which you’ll find on page [4].
Old Mags
The fondest dream of any editor is that you, dear reader, cherish and possess your magazine through eternity. But, no respecters of dreams are the 2,000 Boys’ Clubs of Britain. Magazine-hungry, they’ll gladly accept any and all back numbers of any magazine, providing it’s American. Mail ’Em to E. H. G. Barwell, Peace Haven, 25 Chantry Close, Kenton, Middlesex, England.
Brothers
Troop 23 of Schenectady, New York, did go to camp last summer, although there was some hectic scrambling at the last minute to raise funds. You see, Troop 23 was financially set pretty well in advance, but along came June, and clear across the continent Vanport, Oregon, went down under fifteen feet of water. Scouts of Troop 23 read of how two Vanport Scout Troops and two Cub Packs barely got ashore with the clothes on their backs, so the boys from Schenectady began packing. To Vanport went haversacks, uniforms, pins, badges, and a welter of miscellany. But still the packages didn’t look impressive enough to Troop 23, so into the treasury they dived and came up with $35 of their camp funds.
No moral needed.
Fifty Means Forty
No that’s not double talk on inflation, it’s just a first clue to the fact that, come 1950, we celebrate our 40th Anniversary, and since 40 years is quite a milestone, we propose to celebrate it in a big way.
In fact, we’ll be starting the process at the very beginning of 1949—a big, two year program which will reach into every Pack and Troop and Senior Unit in America. Be watching for future announcements!
CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
By E. Urner Goodman
National Program Director
★ Scouting, like Christmas, is a thing of the spirit. Everybody knows about the spirit of Christmas! It is a spirit which makes itself felt in the heart of man no matter where he may be. There was the story of the landing at Casablanca which tells of this spirit so vividly. The story, contained in a letter to home by a Scout of yesterday, relates:
“It was Christmas Eve when we landed at Casablanca. We were among the first contingent to land, so we didn’t know what kind of reception we’d get. Our officers gathered us together and cautioned us about that. No one could predict if it would be a friendly welcome or a welcome of machine gun fire. So, as we marched up the main street of Casablanca, we walked as silently as possible. No one spoke to his neighbor. Everything was expectant and utterly tense.
“The march led toward the East, and as we marched, my eye quickly picked out a bright star shining down near the Eastern horizon. At once I remembered another Star that likewise shone so brightly on Christmas Eve. But now things seemed so different. Danger and death apparently were lurking behind every house as we passed.
“And then it happened—but not as we expected it. For, coming clearly and crisply from a group of buildings we were passing was the sound, not of machine guns or rifles, but the sweet and lovely strains of a blessed Christmas carol.
“The effect was electric. We all felt it. I looked at my buddy, who was a hard boiled sergeant. He caught his lip in his teeth and with tears coursing down his cheeks, he marched on unashamed.”
Well, there you have it. With the spirit of good will moving in the hearts of men, the Christmas spirit overcomes the rattle of the machine gun. It is wonderful to contemplate what effect the Christmas spirit has even on souls hardened by men at war.
More familiar, of course, are the homey evidences of the Christmas spirit ... the smell of balsam boughs and turkey roasting; the sight of the bright red berries on a wreath of holly; the soft caress of a falling snowflake on a moonlit Christmas Eve; the unforgettable taste of that red and white peppermint candy cane; and above all, the sweet notes of Christmas carols falling on the ear—all these things bring to us the spirit of Christmas at home.
But something deeper than all of that is there, because Christmas reminds us of the song of the angels, of “Peace on Earth among Men of Good Will.”
So similar is the spirit of Scouting, which grows out of such vivid experiences as these: The smell of woodfire with bacon broiling above it; the call of the loon over the lake on a quiet night; the sight of a great bird soaring over pines on a mountain top; the comforting feel of your buddy’s shoulder as you hike along a woodland trail at night; the unforgettable taste of wild strawberries gathered to augment the Patrol’s menu.
These things have a part, it is true, in the spirit of Scouting, but there is something far deeper, as we all know. For Scouting, like Christmas, is a thing of the spirit.