Scouting for Boys

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

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.