"A scout is a friend to animals." "Yes," said a stable keeper, "I have two good horses laid up, each injured by stepping on a nail in a board in the street. You know people are awfully careless about such things." There are some people who never go out of their way to do helpful things, just as some people never go out of their way to know people, and for that reason are often alone and lonesome. It is the little things that count, just such little things as picking up from the street a board with a nail in it, and putting it aside--even that is a good turn.
Lincoln once said in speaking of a man whom he thought lacking in sympathy: "He is so put up by nature that a {352} lash upon his back would hurt him, but a lash upon anybody's else back does not hurt him." There are many people in the world who seem to be like that man--not so many who feel that way towards mankind, possibly, but many who thoughtlessly feel and act that way toward animals. The lash on the back of an animal--the horse, the cow, the dog--hurts, and the good scout always takes the animal's part. He is kind to animals.
In the city, people often become careless as to the necessary precautions against fire and for this reason many lives are lost. In all well-regulated school systems, each school building is properly provided with fire escapes and the children regularly disciplined in fire drills. Proper fire precautions are not yet generally required by law as they should be in great buildings, factories, or workshops where men and women are employed in large numbers. If a scout should be employed in such a place, he might make himself very serviceable in case of a fire, because having thought of it beforehand, he would know what to do--his motto being, "Be Prepared."
One very important thing in city life is the protection of one's health: it is essential to have good food, pure water, plenty of good, fresh air--things not always easily obtainable, but always most necessary. The scout learns through the many activities of scouting something of the market places and sources of supply for food; he has some idea as to the cost of living in his own home, and should become a good marketer himself, making himself competent to judge of the quality and prices of food. If he is wide-awake and intelligent, he knows the products of his own county as well as those of the state. He knows what food products are shipped in and sometimes finds that it would be cheaper, and more profitable as well, to produce them in his own community. An industrious scout may often make his own pocket money in this way or provide funds towards his own education.
In the Constitution of the United States is written this law: "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States." The purpose of this law is to defeat any attempt to elevate one citizen above another in rank of social or political preferment. Ours is a country free from the entanglements of social distinction such as mark one man or family from another by way of title or patent of nobility; and yet, in our country of uncrowned kings and unknighted men, we would not forget the real deeds of valor, the services rendered, or the victories won. For it was the purpose {353} in the mind and in the heart of our fathers who framed the Constitution that each succeeding generation should rise to the duties and responsibilities of the State; that the virtues of the State should not descend or be lodged in one family, or any selected number of families, but rather should be in the keeping of all the families, in the care and keeping of all the people.
Thus do we remember our Washington and our Lincoln. They served the generation to which they belonged; they lived and passed out of their generation having served the State: and all the virtues, cares, and responsibilities of the State--the government that is--they left to the generations that should come after them. And, therefore, each generation as it comes and goes must rise or fall in proportion as it raises or lowers the citizenship standard, for each generation must prove its own worth as must each individual his own virtues.
Practical Citizenship
As set forth in a letter from Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, Honorary Vice-president, Boy Scouts of America:
THE OUTLOOK
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