Boy Scouts Handbook / The First Edition, 1911

by Boy Scouts of America

The fight of the colonists was the old-time fight of the knights against the oppression and injustice and the might that dared to call itself right.

Pioneer

American Pioneers

No set of men, however, showed this spirit of chivalry more than our pioneers beyond the Alleghanies. In their work and service they paralleled very closely the knights of the Round Table, but whereas Arthur's knights were dressed in suits of armor, the American pioneers were dressed in buckskin. They did, however, the very same things which ancient chivalry had done, clearing the forests of wild animals, suppressing the outlaws and bullies and thieves of their day and enforcing a proper respect for women. Like the old knights they often were compelled to do their work amid scenes of great bloodshed, although they loved to live in peace. These American knights and pioneers were generally termed backwoods men and scouts, and were men of distinguished appearance, of athletic build, of high moral character and frequently of firm religious convictions. Such men as "Apple-seed Johnny," Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, Simon Kenton and John James Audubon, are the types of men these pioneers were. They were noted for their staunch qualities of character. They hated dishonesty and were truthful and brave. They were polite to women and old people, ever ready to rescue a companion when in danger, and equally ready to risk their lives for a stranger. They were very hospitable, dividing their last crust with one another, or with the stranger whom they happened to meet. They were ever ready to do an act of kindness. {240} They were exceedingly simple in their dress and habits. They fought the Indians, not because they wished to, but because it was necessary to protect their wives and children from the raids of the savages. They knew all the things that scouts ought to know. They were acquainted with the woods and the fields; knew where the best fish were to be caught; understood the trees, the signs and blazes, the haunts of animals and how to track them; how to find their way by the stars; how to make themselves comfortable in the heart of the primeval forest; and such other things as are classed under the general term of woodcraft. And, with all this, they inherited the splendid ideas of chivalry that had been developed in the thousand years preceding them, and fitted these ideas to the conditions of their own day, standing solidly against evil and falsehood whenever they lifted their head among them. They were not perfect, but they did their best to be of service to those who came within their reach and worked conscientiously for their country.

Modern knight

Modern Knighthood

A hundred years have passed since then, and the conditions of life which existed west of the Alleghanies are no more. Just as the life of the pioneers was different from that of the knights of the Round Table, and as they each practised chivalry in keeping with their own sur-roundings, so the life of to-day is different from both, but the need of chivalry is very much the same. Might still tries to make right, and while there are now no robber barons or outlaws with swords and spears, their spirit is not unknown in business and commercial life. Vice and dishonesty lift their heads just as strongly to-day as in the past and there is just as much need of respect for women and girls as there ever was. So to-day there is a demand for a modern type of chivalry. It is for this reason that the Boy Scouts of America have come into being; for there is need of service in these days, and that is represented by the good turn done to somebody every day. Doing the good turn daily will help to form the habit of useful service. A boy scout, then, while living in modern times, must consider himself the heir of ancient chivalry {241} and of the pioneers, and he must for this reason give himself to ever renewed efforts to be true to the traditions which have been handed down to him by these great and good leaders of men. The boy-scout movement is a call to American boys to-day to become in spirit members of the order of chivalry, and a challenge to them to make their lives count in the communities in which they live--for clean lives, clean speech, clean sport, clean habits, and clean relationships with others. It is also a challenge for them to stand for the right against the wrong, for truth against falsehood, to help the weak and oppressed, and to love and seek the best things of life.

Abraham Lincoln