Globusz^® Publishing 

Oxygen for Ox's Strength. - I once saw some very smart physical drill by a Scout Troop in their headquarters.

It was very fresh and good, but, my wig, the air was not! It was, to say the least, "niffy." There was no ventilation. The boys were working like engines, but actually undoing their work by sucking in poison instead of strengthening their blood. Fresh air is half the battle towards producing results in physical exercises and it may advantageously be taken through the skin as well as through the nose when possible. Yes - that open air is the secret of success. It is what Scouting is for - to develop the out-of-doors habit as much as possible.

I asked a Scoutmaster once, in a great city, how he managed his Saturday hikes, whether in the park or in the country?

He did not have them at all. Why not? Because his boys did not care about them. They preferred to come into the meeting room on Saturday afternoons! Of course they preferred it, poor little beggars; they were accustomed to being indoors. But that is what we are out to prevent in the Scouts - our object is to wean them from indoors and to make the outdoors attractive to them. Alexandre Dumas fils wrote:

"If I were King of France I wouldn't allow any child of under twelve years to come into a town. Till then the youngsters would have to live in the open - out in the sun, in the fields, in the woods, in company with dogs and horses, face to face with nature, which strengthens the bodies, lends intelligence to the understanding, gives poetry to the soul, and rouses in them a curiosity which is more valuable to education than all the grammar books in the world.

"They would understand the noises as well as the silences of the night; they would have the best of religions - that which God himself reveals in the glorious sight of His daily wonders.

"And at twelve years of age, strong, high-minded and full of understand- ing, they would be capable of receiving the methodical instruction which it would then be right to give them, and whose inculcation would then be easily accomplished in four or five years. "Unfortunately for the youngsters, though happily for France, I don't happen to be King.

"All that I can do is to give the advice and to suggest the way. The way is - make physical education of the child a first step in his life."

In the Scouts especially, if we adhere to our proper metier, we ought to make a big step in this direction.

The open-air is the real objective of Scouting, and the key to its success. But with too much town life we are apt to underlook our object and revert to type. We are not a club - nor a Sunday school - but a school of the woods. We must get more into the open for the health, whether of the body or the soul, of Scout and of Scoutmaster.

The camp is what the boy looks forward to in Scouting, and is the Scoutmaster's great opportunity.

The camp cannot fail to grip every boy with its outdoor life and taste of the wild, with its improvised cooking expedients, the games over woodland or moor, the tracking, the path-finding, the pioneering, the minor hardships and the jolly camp fire sing songs.

We want open-air space, grounds of our own, preferably permanent camp grounds easily accessible for the use of Scouts. As the Movement grows these should form regular institutions at all centres of Scouting. Besides serving this great purpose such camps would have a double value. They could form centres of instruction for officers, where they could receive training in camp craft and Nature lore, and above all could imbibe the spirit of the out-of-doors - the Brotherhood of the Backwoods.

In the past years many such grounds have been acquired, for use as Training Grounds for Scouters, and Camping Grounds for Scouts. These permanent grounds have well proved their value for camp life, but we want more and that soon before all the ground round our cities has been bought up for building purposes. I used the expression "camp life." Keep in mind that "camp life" is different from "living under canvas."

I was shown a pattern school boy camp not long ago where there were rows of tents smartly pitched and perfectly aligned, with a fine big mess marquee and well- appointed cooks' quarters. There were brick paths and wooden bathing houses and latrines. It was all exceedingly well planned, and put up by the contractor. The officer who organised it all merely had to pay down a certain sum and the whole thing was done. It was quite simple and businesslike.

My only complaint about it was that it wasn't camping. Living under canvas is a very different thing from camping. Any ass, so to speak, can live under canvas where he is one of a herd with everything done for him; but he might just as well stop at home for all the good it is likely to do him.

In Scouting we know that what appeals to the boys, and is at the same time an education for them, is real camping - that is, where they prepare their own encampment even to the extent of previously making their own tents and learning to cook their own food.

In Scouting we know that what appeals to the boys, and is at the same time an education for them, is real camping - that is, where they prepare their own encampment even to the extent of previously making their own tents and learning to cook their own food.

Then the pitching of tents in separate sites and selected nooks, by Patrols, the arranging of water-supply and firewood, the preparation of bathing places, field kitchens, latrines, grease and refuse pits, etc., the use of camp expedients, and the making of camp utensils and furniture, will give a keen interest and invaluable training.

Where you have a large number of boys in a canvas town you are forced to have drill and special instruction as a means of supplying mass occupation; whereas with a few Patrols, apart from their camp work, which fills up a lot of time, there is the continuous opportunity for education in nature lore and in the development of health of body and mind through cross-country runs and hikes, and the outdoor life of the woods.

My ideal camp is one where everybody is cheery and busy, where the Patrols are kept intact under all circumstances, and where every Patrol Leader and Scout takes a genuine pride in his camp and his gadgets.

In a small camp so very much can be done through the example of the Scout- master. You are living among your boys and are watched by each of them, and imitated unconsciously by them, and probably unobserved by yourself.

If you are lazy they will be lazy; if you make cleanliness a hobby it will be- come theirs; if you are clever at devising camp accessories, they will become rival inventors, and so on.

But don't do too much of what should be done by the boys themselves, see that they do it -"when you want a thing done don't do it yourself" is the right motto.

We want not only really healthy and clean camps, carried out in accordance with the local instructions, but camps where the boys can employ the nearest approach to a backwoodsman life and adventure.