So get yourself a towel, every Scout; and carry out your rubbing every day when you get up.
In the same way see that you clean your teeth regularly night and morning—not because it will help you to pass the time away, but because it will prevent your teeth from getting rotten, thus saving you from toothache.
* * * * *
SPITTING.
"Gentlemen do not spit; men must not spit" is a notice which may be seen in an American city; also there is a similar one which says: "If you expect to rate as a gentleman, don't expectorate."
On the steamships to South America the English passengers were often disgusted by the amount of spitting about the decks done by some of the foreigners on board.
One of the captains thought of a good idea; he ordered a sailor, carrying a mop, to follow each of these foreigners where-ever he went; whenever the foreigner spat, the sailor used the mop, and in a short time all the foreigners learnt that if they behaved like other gentlemen and did not spit, they were spared having an attendant with a mop, so they soon gave up the dirty habit.
When I was in charge of a public building in Malta, which was guarded at night by Maltese watchmen, I soon found that I need not be always going round to see that they were alert, because their habit of constantly spitting showed me next morning whether they had been awake and where they had stood or walked during the night.
One day I found the pavement of one man's beat quite clean and dry, so I had him up and accused him of having been absent without leave. He did not know how I found it out, so confessed that he had been away to see a friend, thinking there was no harm in it, since the place was all locked up and secure.
Englishmen are fortunately not so dirty in their habits as to be always spitting, but, still; there is a little of it going on in our streets; and even a little is a bad thing.