But don’t let it bother you. Any embarrassment will be on our side. And we’re willing to take the chance.

All you stand to lose is three cents and a half hour. To gain, a more interesting and helpful SCOUTING.

What I mean is, you’re No. 1 man on our Board of Experts and your opinion is very important to us.

We know that you have one, that you make up your mind very quickly as you thumb an issue as to whether a page seems to interest you, whether you’ll read it or keep thumbing. Finally, whether it was worth your time, likely to help you in your Scouting work.

We can’t talk with you personally about your ideas, and a long questionnaire would probably send you scooting, so here’s a plan to do it the easy way. It may look sketchy to you, but it will really help us a lot.

Here’s how it works—when you have finished reading this issue—that is, all of it you feel the urge to read—turn back to this page and use the contents column as your survey blank. Put checks opposite each article in the columns that best describe your reaction. Then write any comment you wish to add in that small space at the bottom, note your Scouting position, cut off the Contents strip on the dotted line, slip it into an envelope and mail to us.

I hope we will hear from you. It’ll be a real Good Turn to all your fellow Scouters.

Lex R. Lucas
Managing Editor

★ Buckshot to Memorial

When John M. Phillips began his crusade for conservation less than two generations ago, he was taunted, reviled, threatened, and “accidentally” shot in the legs three times. Sportsmen of that day felt game was public property, and they dealt roughly with “busybody conservationists.”

But on an August Sunday in 1948, a new crop of sportsmen met near Glenhazel, Pennsylvania, and paid public tribute to the same John M. Phillips, no longer taunted nor “accidentally” shot. Commonwealth sportsmen now revere him as “Pennsylvania’s grand old man of conservation.” On the site of the first game lands purchased by the state, they unveiled a huge boulder, bearing a keystone-shaped plaque commemorating the work of Mr. Phillips in developing a state-wide conservation system.

A member of the Advisory Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Mr. Phillips is 87 years old, and one of the few men to have a memorial erected in his honor while still living.

Dutch Uncles—2¢ Each

If you’d like to get it off your chest—you know, tell parents a thing or three—here’s your opportunity to do it in a nice way. (Not that you’d do it other than nicely.) At the request of many Scouters, we are making reprints of Louis C. Fink’s “Are We Pied Pipers?” from October Scouting. If you’d like a few copies, why not ask your Council for them?

Country Kids

If you, too, have always taken it for granted that delinquency is a crop native only to the teeming metropolis, Albert S. Goss, Master of the National Grange, has a shock for you.

“The farmer,” reports Mr. Goss, “is now disturbed about the rapid increase in delinquency. He has finally come to the conclusion that the greatest influence (in combatting delinquency) is that of character-building organizations, the results of which he is delighted with.”

Among character-building organizations, “Scouting for the country kid,” adds Mr. Goss, “is a natural, for he has many things right at his back door that Scouting offers (and) every one of the Granges can sponsor a Scout Unit. There are 7,100 sub-units in the United States, and a special effort is being made this year to push this. The sub-units themselves own about 4,000 buildings.”

Mr. Goss was speaking at a meeting of the National Committee on Rural Scouting late last October. The meeting was presided over by Mr. Wheeler McMillen, Committee Chairman. Mr. McMillen, known for his interest in rural youth, is moderator of this month’s round table, “Reaching Out,” which you’ll find on page 4.

Old Mags

The fondest dream of any editor is that you, dear reader, cherish and possess your magazine through eternity. But, no respecters of dreams are the 2,000 Boys’ Clubs of Britain. Magazine-hungry, they’ll gladly accept any and all back numbers of any magazine, providing it’s American. Mail ’Em to E. H. G. Barwell, Peace Haven, 25 Chantry Close, Kenton, Middlesex, England.

Brothers

Troop 23 of Schenectady, New York, did go to camp last summer, although there was some hectic scrambling at the last minute to raise funds. You see, Troop 23 was financially set pretty well in advance, but along came June, and clear across the continent Vanport, Oregon, went down under fifteen feet of water. Scouts of Troop 23 read of how two Vanport Scout Troops and two Cub Packs barely got ashore with the clothes on their backs, so the boys from Schenectady began packing. To Vanport went haversacks, uniforms, pins, badges, and a welter of miscellany. But still the packages didn’t look impressive enough to Troop 23, so into the treasury they dived and came up with $35 of their camp funds.

No moral needed.

Fifty Means Forty

No that’s not double talk on inflation, it’s just a first clue to the fact that, come 1950, we celebrate our 40th Anniversary, and since 40 years is quite a milestone, we propose to celebrate it in a big way.

In fact, we’ll be starting the process at the very beginning of 1949—a big, two year program which will reach into every Pack and Troop and Senior Unit in America. Be watching for future announcements!

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CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

★ Scouting, like Christmas, is a thing of the spirit. Everybody knows about the spirit of Christmas! It is a spirit which makes itself felt in the heart of man no matter where he may be. There was the story of the landing at Casablanca which tells of this spirit so vividly. The story, contained in a letter to home by a Scout of yesterday, relates:

“It was Christmas Eve when we landed at Casablanca. We were among the first contingent to land, so we didn’t know what kind of reception we’d get. Our officers gathered us together and cautioned us about that. No one could predict if it would be a friendly welcome or a welcome of machine gun fire. So, as we marched up the main street of Casablanca, we walked as silently as possible. No one spoke to his neighbor. Everything was expectant and utterly tense.

“The march led toward the East, and as we marched, my eye quickly picked out a bright star shining down near the Eastern horizon. At once I remembered another Star that likewise shone so brightly on Christmas Eve. But now things seemed so different. Danger and death apparently were lurking behind every house as we passed.

“And then it happened—but not as we expected it. For, coming clearly and crisply from a group of buildings we were passing was the sound, not of machine guns or rifles, but the sweet and lovely strains of a blessed Christmas carol.

“The effect was electric. We all felt it. I looked at my buddy, who was a hard boiled sergeant. He caught his lip in his teeth and with tears coursing down his cheeks, he marched on unashamed.”

Well, there you have it. With the spirit of good will moving in the hearts of men, the Christmas spirit overcomes the rattle of the machine gun. It is wonderful to contemplate what effect the Christmas spirit has even on souls hardened by men at war.

More familiar, of course, are the homey evidences of the Christmas spirit ... the smell of balsam boughs and turkey roasting; the sight of the bright red berries on a wreath of holly; the soft caress of a falling snowflake on a moonlit Christmas Eve; the unforgettable taste of that red and white peppermint candy cane; and above all, the sweet notes of Christmas carols falling on the ear—all these things bring to us the spirit of Christmas at home.

But something deeper than all of that is there, because Christmas reminds us of the song of the angels, of “Peace on Earth among Men of Good Will.”

So similar is the spirit of Scouting, which grows out of such vivid experiences as these: The smell of woodfire with bacon broiling above it; the call of the loon over the lake on a quiet night; the sight of a great bird soaring over pines on a mountain top; the comforting feel of your buddy’s shoulder as you hike along a woodland trail at night; the unforgettable taste of wild strawberries gathered to augment the Patrol’s menu.

These things have a part, it is true, in the spirit of Scouting, but there is something far deeper, as we all know. For Scouting, like Christmas, is a thing of the spirit.

“Happyfying”

No season is happier than the Christmas season, and the secret of that happiness lies in what our founder, Baden-Powell, called “happyfying.” It is the philosophy of the old song, “I want to be happy, but I can’t be happy, ’till I make you happy, too.”

Our Christmas turkey loses its taste and becomes dry fodder unless we have done something to make somebody else happy at Christmas time.

Now that is the spirit of Scouting at Christmas and at all other seasons. It was put into the Scout spirit by Baden-Powell. The implication is clear. Our happiness all year through, as Scouts, grows out of the many acts we do to bring happiness to those around us.

It is a fine thing for the Troop to engage in national or community programs of service. We should do that as good citizens. It is an even greater thing for a Patrol to single out some very human service they can perform for somebody close at hand. And when these Scouts see the smile on the face of the neighbor they have helped, then they know all about “happyfying” and their own lives are blest, too.

And the Scoutmaster, or other Unit Leader, knows about “happyfying,” for is he not making a Christmas gift to the nation every week in the year as he carries on his Scoutmastership? Thus he, himself, receives dividends the like of which no billionaire in history ever knew. So it was that one such Scoutmaster speaking at the last meeting of our National Council was able to say, “When the Scoutmaster looks around him and counts his blessings, he finds that his reward is the richest of all.”

Good Will

The youngest Cub Scout, of course, knows about good will, for does not the Law of the Pack remind him that “A Cub gives good will?” So, in the Boy Scout experience he finds that “The Scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other Scout.” As he grows older he learns more of the World Brotherhood of Scouting and finds that good will among men knows no boundaries of race or creed, or nationality.

The beloved song of the angels at Christmastime, then, is the thing that Scouting is trying to do all year round. Insofar as Scouting builds its brotherhood and gives good will all year round, will it be speeding that day of “Peace on Earth.”

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★ We have it on good authority that 53% of the boys of America live “way out there,” in the little crossroads settlements and on the miles-apart farms.

We all know that we have a big opportunity and responsibility to reach out into that open country. We also know that it is a hard job.

To help bring this rural business into the spotlight, SCOUTING Magazine asked eight men to join in one of our Round Table discussions. These men represent all phases of rural life and of Scouting. The “moderator’s gavel” will be wielded by the Chairman of our National Committee on Rural Scouting, Wheeler McMillen, who as the Editor-in-chief of the Farm Journal and the Pathfinder Magazine, has a host of friends throughout America.

Mr. McMillen, will you take over?

McMILLEN: I feel honored to join you fine men, who represent so many aspects of modern farm life. We all have one thing in common—we want that boy who lives on the farm to have a good break. Some of us believe that the Scouting program can play a big part in his growth.

We should face this whole question objectively and constructively. Let’s start by asking a rather blunt question: Do rural boys really need Scouting? Or is their normal life already filled with the ingredients which make for character and good citizenship?

VERNON NICHOLS, SCOUTMASTER: They need it very much. Scouting not only builds character, but it helps especially in developing leadership, a quality often lacking in farm boys.

HOWARD F. FOX, SUPERVISOR, VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE: The boys who live in small towns need Scouting, but I think those who live on farms need it in less degree.

JOE C. CARRINGTON, COUNCIL PRESIDENT: I can’t agree with Mr. Fox. Farm boys need it even more than town boys, who have more supervised playgrounds, more church and school and club-sponsored programs. The rural boy has very little to round out his life, and really needs Scouting.

L. H. ELEAZER, CUBMASTER: Perhaps the elements are there on the farm, but Scouting can help bring them out. Sometimes when a man is close to a thing, he doesn’t see it in its real light. Also, all rural boys do not stay on the farms where they were reared. These boys need much of the same kind of training their city brothers get.

CARRINGTON: That raises a good point—when the rural boy moves to town, he very often has no entering wedge into the youth programs there. But if he is a Scout in the rural area he can transfer his membership and make a transition which would have been difficult without Scouting. Its universality is an important feature.

McMILLEN: I see you’re all nodding in agreement, including Mr. Fox. Actually we have never really questioned the need, have we? It’s the ways to use Scouting best and to get it to the rural boy, that bothers us.

FOREST WITCRAFT, SCOUT EXECUTIVE: Does it really need to bother us? Of course it’s hard to take Scouting out to the boys in the open country, but plenty of Councils have proved that it can be done.

I’m thinking of Draper in my South Dakota country, with a population of 190, Barnard with 60, Strandburg with 177, Stratford, Northville and Garden City adding 700 more—six communities with a little better than 1100, supporting ten thriving Scout Units. I think of places like Tulare (population 244) with 19 Scouts, 17 of whom come from their farms. It can be done.

FOX: The crux of the problem is probably leadership. Can rural communities supply it? There is no question in my mind but that it’s there, but will men who do hard physical work long hours every day in the week give the time needed for Scouting?

HENRY P. CARSTENSEN, MASTER, STATE GRANGE: Part of the problem here is the tendency of parents of rural youth to take the attitude that Scouting is a non-essential activity, a luxury which they cannot afford.

Some good parent education would make it easier to get leaders and thus to spread Scouting.

CARRINGTON: There are ways to get men in the farm country. As District Chairman, I used a well-known method that worked wonderfully. I used a survey blank that asked boys the question “Who do you think is the best man in your community, and why?” The kids would name men whom we hadn’t thought of, and give good reasons. When we went to such men and told them why the boys thought they were tops, resistance faded away and we usually had our leaders.

In most communities the leadership is there if we know how to dig for it.

NICHOLS: Leadership may be there all right, but believe me, trained leadership is sure lacking. That is where our Local Councils need to give us more help—short courses that busy men can attend. I think time and money spent by the Local Council assisting new leaders would be well spent.

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WITCRAFT: Training becomes harder as the distance between your Scout Units increases. Here are a few ways we have been able to get training to our men:

(a) We run week-end training courses.

(b) Our monthly Round Tables are packed with training as well as fellowship.

(c) The One-Unit course is tops—the committee joins with the leaders in an at-home training experience. This may lack some of the advantages of larger courses but it has some of its own.

(d) We count heavily on personal coaching by our Field Executives and Commissioner Staff.

McMILLEN: Before we get too deeply into Council methods of handling country Scouting, let’s study it a bit more from the boy’s angle. What aspects of Scouting are most interesting and helpful to boys?

ELEAZER: I would say the most interesting aspect to the rural boy is camping. The most helpful is probably the achievement part of the program.

FOX: I put this question to the forty students in my vocational agriculture class, well over half of whom are or have been Scouts. The younger boys put camping first; the older ones put it on a level with advancement skills. All of them rated these two aspects of Scouting tops.

NICHOLS: One of the values I see my boys get out of camping is the ability to work with others. Too often rural boys do not have a chance to develop this important trait. That’s why group activity is especially important to rural boys too.

McMILLEN: A very good point, Mr. Nichols. Our rural boys aren’t different, but sometimes their opportunity to develop certain abilities and traits is limited: Scouting’s camping and its group activity can fill a big void.

Speaking about program, what do you think of the Merit Badge work?

FOX: In the first place, rural boys like to receive recognition for things they do, as well as any youth. I know that many of the Merit Badges encourage farm boys to improve their agricultural skills. Experienced farmers make good counselors in agricultural subjects.

NICHOLS: The rural boy possibly needs the Merit Badge program more than does the city boy because he has less access to these “idea sources.” He needs to know about trades and occupations, too, other than those found on the farm.

WITCRAFT: In addition to the values the Merit Badge program holds for the boy, it has two other big values; it has sold many rural people on Scouting because farmers readily see the value of such subjects as Beef Production and Soil Management. It has also brought many men into Scouting. A man gets a taste of Scouting while serving as a Merit Badge Counselor and, liking this experience, accepts other leadership responsibilities.

McMILLEN: Mr. Witcraft’s comment about adults reminds me of a frequent criticism heard in the rural field that such activities as Scouting interfere with a boy’s responsibilities to his farm home. Is this so, and need it be so?

L. O. PARKER, COUNTY FARM AGENT: It is true that they could interfere, but I don’t think it happens often. When the Unit Leader and Committee are rural people they will recognize this problem and avoid it.

ELEAZER: Getting to and from meetings sometimes poses a problem. Perhaps a less frequent Troop meeting would be the answer, with Patrol meetings in the boys’ homes in between.

NICHOLS: The camp may be the biggest problem, if it comes in the middle of the harvest season.

FOX: Camp doesn’t really have to interfere, does it? Each Troop would naturally schedule its camp dates to miss the busiest season in that area.

NICHOLS: I didn’t mean that the camping problem was hard to overcome. Certainly it is so important to a farm boy that we must get it in somehow. Going to the Council camp helps us realize that we belong to something bigger than our own Troop in our own little community. In the same way, inter-Troop activities help us keep on our toes.

PARKER: I certainly agree that camping is important, but it is the Scouting activity which is most likely to conflict with home responsibilities. Councils with rural territory should be very aware of the problem, and should handle it realistically.

CARSTENSEN: This whole discussion of competitive activity raises another question which we in the Grange feel is important. That is, that leaders of all youth movements should recognize the need for closer contact and understanding—the need for planning together so that their problems will be coordinated rather than conflicting.

We have tried to work this way in developing our Juvenile Grange program; we have made an effort to support such activities as the Boy Scouts, the 4H, Future Farmers, etc.

FOX: I am not too much concerned about the danger of competition. Neither the 4H nor the F.F.A. cover the entire country, by any means. Furthermore, my experience has been that boys can belong to both F.F.A. and the Scouts and do a good job of both. Then, too, since Future Farmers are all older boys, their activities become a continuation of the leadership training received in Scouting.

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PARKER: We in 4H like to have our boys active in Scouting. Scouting and 4H strengthen one another. For example, Scouting recognizes with its Merit Badge awards the work our boys do in 4H projects. Scouting provides programs in non-agricultural subjects which 4H does not offer.

WITCRAFT: Let’s go even stronger than that. There isn’t nearly as much competition for a boy’s time in the country as there is in the city; that’s one of the reasons Scouting is so much needed in the country.

McMILLEN: All of this brings us face to face with the pay-off question: Granted that Scouting has a program needed by country boys, and that there are ways of making it work, what help is most needed by isolated rural Units, and how can the Local Council best provide this help?

ELEAZER: The help most needed by those of us who lead rural Packs and Troops is that which can be given by the Executive or a Field Executive. This is especially true when we start new Units.

NICHOLS: Training is our No. 1 need, and this includes our Committees. Our Council made a good move in filling its monthly District meetings with real training and a lot of good fellowship.

WITCRAFT: That word “fellowship” is especially important. When men live a long ways apart they need opportunities to get together. The Council must find ways to make this happen.

FOX: Financing rural work also seems to be a problem. I am not too familiar with Scouting, but I wonder if this does need to be a problem?

NICHOLS: This is probably more true in times of financial stress than it is now, but there is a problem to face. One thing is sure, the stronger and more active the Troop, the easier it is to raise funds. If the people of a community see that Scouting is doing a lot for the boys, they’ll support it.

CARRINGTON: In our Council we furnish Scouting service all over our area, but we think it’s right to apportion more Field Executive time to the Districts which are providing adequate funds to make that field service possible.

At the same time, we carry on an organized extension program in all areas with the hope that all will make use of Scouting and give it their support.

WITCRAFT: It is true that the cost of rural Scouting has often delayed Councils in coming to grips with the rural problem. Usually we have assumed that Scouting starts in the city, moves out to the small towns and eventually filters down to the village and open country.

The Council faces a practical problem. It has a certain amount of time and money. How can these be spent most wisely? The same amount of work that will organize a rural Troop of six boys at Olson’s Corners will organize a Troop of twenty boys in the headquarters city. It has seemed to be sound business to spend Council money where it would bring Scouting to the most boys.

But consider what this means to Olaf Torkelson, twelve years old, out at Olson’s Corners. Can we say to him, “Sorry, Olaf, but it will probably be several years before we can organize marginal places like Olson’s Corners.”

Our Council, at its coming Annual Meeting, will take action on a proposal by our Organization and Extension Committee that we shall henceforth recognize an equal responsibility to all boys within our area, regardless of where they live.

We believe such an approach would be financially sound, and that the rural area will support it.

FOX: I broached this question of cost, but actually I don’t think it’s serious. The open country has the boys, and wants them to have their chance. The money can be secured if we approach the right people. For example, some farm cooperatives now have educational programs. They might see big dividends in efforts spent to help Scouting develop leaders among rural youth.

Farming has become so complex that the country can no longer afford to let its best youth go to the city. Today farming demands the best brains as well as the strongest bodies the nation can produce. The modern farmer must organize, manage, finance, produce, and market.

Scouting can, and does help round out a rural boy’s life. It builds the kind of men the nation needs on its farms.

McMILLEN: This has been good talk. It has been all the more persuasive because we have heard the voices of men who have actually “reached out.” Rural Scouting is a fact that grows all the time.

One thought in closing: No one has much trouble to get boys into Scouting. But in order to keep the Scout groups flourishing, we need more men who will give leadership. I would like to suggest that no Council’s annual dinner, or outdoor event, will be quite complete unless the top leaders in farm and rural business activities are personally invited to see and hear for themselves. Pay them more attention and they will pay more attention to Scouting.

★ BOY SCOUT WEEK will soon be upon us. For one entire week in February you will hear and see a lot about Scouting as the general public finds itself becoming Scouting-conscious.

You will hear Scouting on the radio, see Scouting in newspapers and magazines, and rub elbows with Scouting as Scouts go to and from school in their uniforms.

As a Scout leader, you will want to make the best use of the nationwide publicity and direct the attention of people in YOUR community to the activities of THEIR Scouts. One ideal method for a local Unit is through a Scout display in a store window with a prominent location.

The three immediate advantages of a window display are: ONE, the general public becomes Scouting-conscious; TWO, the Unit has a live and unusual program for several days; and THREE, boys who are not now Scouts see an opening for themselves to join the Unit.

Plan Your Display

Before you ask a merchant for window space, have some plans for your display on paper, or at least in your mind. Explain to him the advantages to the community, to Scouting, and to his store. Most storekeepers are willing to cooperate. Larger shops may even offer the services of trained window decorators. Once you obtain the space you have a responsibility to both the merchant and to Scouting to install the neatest and most interesting display you and your staff can create. No doubt you can get some valuable help from your Local Council.

Build your display around the theme for 1949—“Adventure—That’s Scouting!” Show the folks in your community that your Unit spells Adventure with a capital “A.”

Make a list of the items you will want to display, such as photographs, handicraft articles, posters, flags, collections, knot boards, books, etc. Select those which you can make outstanding. Don’t crowd the window; use just what you have room for.

After the list is decided upon, get the Unit’s specialists on the job. Get the shutter bugs busy on photographs, the craftsmen to their work benches, and the artists to their layout pads. Photos are one of the best mediums for telling your story. Select those that truly represent Scouting activities. Enlarge them and mount them neatly, with captions easily read.

The background, too, should be eye-catching. It should be large enough that passersby will be arrested and enticed to step up close to look over the display. You can make a good backdrop with a photo illustrating Scout adventure, and enlarged to take in practically the entire background. If you cannot get extra size enlargements in your community, choose several photos, make 11″ × 14″ enlargements and group them to form an artistic background. Or you might have your boys make a large Scout emblem from beaverboard and color it. Another possibility is to mount several photos on wallboard cut to the shape of the Scout badge.

Experiment with arrangements in advance, so that when you enter the store you can trim the window in the quickest possible time.

Chalk off the actual window area on the meeting room floor. Place smaller items in the foreground, and gradually build up to the background. If pedestals are needed, perhaps the storekeeper may lend them to you. If he has none, make some of cardboard and gummed tape. Cigar boxes, paper cartons, and tin cans, painted or covered with colored paper, can be used.

Extremely bright colors will sometimes detract from the items on display. Avoid them or use them carefully. Neutral colors can easily be arranged to compliment and flatter the displayed items. For example, when exhibiting a collection of leather-craft 9items, a cream or light green will show them up better than bright red or blue.

Arrange the articles to create continuity. It isn’t necessary that each item be seen from every angle. Avoid over-crowding; it has a tendency to confuse and tire the window-shopper. He may walk away and perhaps miss the essence of your message.

Not until you have had your “dress rehearsal” are you ready to install your display in the store window. The pet peeve of any shopkeeper is to have his store upset while windows are being dressed, especially if the job takes too long. Agree on the time convenient to him, then do the job rapidly and neatly. Don’t send the whole gang over. Pick two or three good workers and let them handle it. A good job done efficiently will undoubtedly get you a return invitation next year.

★ The Round-Up that started along the Old Scouting Trail three months ago is heading for the biggest event of all—the final “branding,” when the “mavericks,” the new boys brought into Scouting this fall, are formally and officially brought into the corral.

The “branding” ceremony, which should be staged in early December, can be one of the most colorful events your Unit ever held. Put it on with all the spirit and zip of a real western event. Use imagination in the staging—a few corral fence rails in the background, a fire “burning” in front, and the investiture team in cowboy togs. Think in western terms when you write the investiture script. Act out the Round-Up and branding with a nice combination of cowboy color and dignity, and your new boys and your public will remember the night of the “branding” ceremony for a long, long time.

When that final ceremony is staged, the “branding” done, we will have time to lean back against the old corral fence and take stock of the results.

What do we see as the dust of our Round-Up settles? How well did we round up the strays? Are there still boys “out there” who should be getting Scouting, and who could be, if we were really on our toes?

Before you hang up your spurs and lariat, won’t you check up once more on that boy that showed up at two or three meetings and looked as though he wanted to join but somehow didn’t make it.

You might be surprised at what you would find if you called on his folks—so often boys are kept out of Scouting because of misunderstandings which can be so easily cleared up when you talk to the parents. Lots of boys get that close to Scouting before they are shut out. The extra time given to this personal follow-up will be some of the best you ever spent on Scouting.

This may seem like a lot about membership, but remember, all of us who really believe in Scouting’s value to a boy, want to do our part to extend Scouting opportunity to as many boys as we can handle in our Unit.

Membership facts, by the way, are a good measuring rod of our program. When there’s fun and adventure in a Scout Unit most every boy wants to join. When there’s always something new and interesting happening, they want to stay in.

That’s what our membership figures really represent—our ability to provide the opportunity to join, plus the program that holds.

Much of this fall’s Round-Up activity has been designed to provide more of the opportunity to join, as well as a good deal of planning for the program that holds boys. Now we need to follow through on that program. That means steady attention to the regular activities, whatever they may be—the Den meetings, the Patrol meetings and weekly Troop or Senior Unit meetings, and special attention to the highlights that serve to “point up” the boy’s Scouting experience.

What are some of these highlights? In Cub Scouting the monthly Pack meetings are highlight events; each one is different and apparently more interesting than those that have gone before.

Up and coming Boy Scout Troops and Senior Units plan their highlights in a different way. They schedule at intervals through the year a number of events specially chosen to give a lift and a purpose to the week-by-week program. They use these special events as something to look forward to, something to prepare for, and afterward, of course, to look back on with happy memories.

Well, it’s time to boost ourselves off that old corral post and get going. There’s things to do around this ranch and now’s the time to be doing them!

◆ The Denner is probably the most neglected and forgotten leader in Cub Scouting. Yet he is one of the most important links between other Cub Scout leaders and the Cub Scouts themselves.

The Denner is elected by the boys. While their standards may be different from the standards of adults, you can probably trust them to select the boy whose leadership they are most ready to accept.

If there is any influencing of the election, probably the best point to bring out is that the older boy with more experience is usually the best.

Usually the term of office is not long. However, there is no specific limit. If the term is not too long, more boys will have an opportunity to practice leadership. On the other hand, if it is too short, no Denner serves long enough to become a really helpful leader.

HIS RESPONSIBILITIES

The Denner is the right-hand man of the Den Chief. Here are a few of the responsibilities which the Denner in most Dens can and should assume:

1. Arrive early to prepare meeting place.

2. Meet with Den Chief and Den Mother to go over last minute plans for the meeting.

3. There are times when he can lead games or songs. This will require coaching from the Den Chief, and also some backing during the activity.

4. He often keeps and reads the Den diary although in some Dens another member of the Den carries on this responsibility.

5. He can also help with simpler ceremonies. For example, he should lead the Grand Howl and Living Circle. When the Den repeats the Den Promise and the Law of the Pack, he is the logical leader.

HIS BADGE OF OFFICE

The Denner wears his Denner’s Stripe six inches below his left shoulder seam. An Assistant Denner wears a single stripe in the same position.

The Denner relinquishes the badge of office when he no longer holds that office. Only one boy in the Den wears the Denner’s stripes at any one time. Explain to the Den that Denner’s Stripes are not an award for service but a badge to designate the boy who holds the office. It should be presented to the boy at a ceremony either at a Den Meeting or a regular Pack Meeting.

SOME GENERAL TIPS

1. If the office is to seem important and worthwhile, the Denner must have an active part in the leadership of Den activities.

2. Sometimes a boy becomes a little overbearing. You may have to tone him down a bit, and make clear to him that one mark of a good leader is to lead in such a way that folks like to follow.

3. Make the election of a Denner an important matter. Discuss it thoroughly. Make clear to the boys that the boy they elect will definitely be their leader once he is elected and they are then expected to follow him.

4. Recognize the Denner. A bit of recognition will make his leadership more helpful.

5. The Den Chief and the Den Mother should see that the Denner has a happy experience. If the boys do not follow his leadership, it will tend to discourage him from further leadership efforts.

◆ Yes, we know it’s only December, but it’s not too early to begin to think about the way your Pack will celebrate Boy Scout Week in February of 1949. This will be Scouting’s 39th birthday, and it’s a time for celebration for everybody related to the Boy Scouts of America.

Some Cub Scout Leaders feel since our birthday is called “Boy Scout Week,” that the celebration includes only Boy Scouts. This simply isn’t true; it’s the birthday of our Movement and those of us in Cub Scouting are very much a part of the Scout Movement. So—here are a few advance tips which will help you look ahead to February and make some plans. More detailed tips will appear in January Scouting.

ADVENTURE—THAT’S CUB SCOUTING

As you know, each Boy Scout Week has its theme or big idea, and in 1949 it will be “Adventure—That’s Scouting.” Of course, to you that means “Adventure—That’s Cub Scouting,” so you’ll be wanting to emphasize the adventure part of our program.

As usual, Blue and Gold will be our program theme for February. This has become a tradition in Cub Scouting. It’s an annual party occasion with Boy Scout Week as its theme. Perhaps your Blue and Gold party will be in the form of a potluck where everyone brings his own food, or perhaps you’ll do it banquet style. However you do it, it will be the basis for a month of preparation on the part of both Cub Scout Leaders and Cub Scouts.

THE UNIFORM

Encourage parents to look ahead to Boy Scout Week and attempt to have their boys in complete Cub Scout uniform by February. Cub Scouts will want to wear their uniforms to school and to church. They will want their uniforms in spick and span condition.

SCOUT SUNDAY

Plan ahead so that your Pack will fit into some scheme for attending church on the Sunday of Boy Scout Week. If your Pack is sponsored by a church, perhaps all boys who belong to that church will sit in a body with their parents on that particular Sunday. Perhaps you could even work out some plan whereby Cub Scouts will participate in the church service or prepare an exhibit for the entrance hall of the church.

YOUR SPONSORING INSTITUTION

Perhaps your Pack is sponsored by a P.T.A. or a civic club which has regular monthly meetings. If so, why not start working on a plan where your Pack might have some part in the February meeting of the organization. It is not necessary for the Cub Scouts themselves to attend the meeting, but an exhibit or a display and perhaps several representatives of the Pack would help to put the spotlight on Boy Scout Week.

WINDOW DISPLAYS

Every Pack should try to prepare a Cub Scout window display in a community store. If possible, pick a store window which is located in the neighborhood of your Pack. These are the folks who will be most interested in what you are doing. You will find some suggestions on Cub Scout window displays in the January Scouting Magazine.

SPECIAL PUBLICITY

Urge your Cub Scouts to listen to the radio during Boy Scout Week. There will be statements about Scouting in connection with all nationwide programs. Try to fit into this general scheme in your community and get some Pack news into your community paper.

By Mrs. A. R. Merz
La Oroya, Peru

◆ “Gee, mother, all the Cubs are wearing their new uniforms to school and there’s four—let me see, how many Cubs are there now? I guess five, Cub caps in a row in the cloakroom, and now the two Scout caps, and, gee, they look nice!”

It was Boy Scout Week and the five Cub Scouts and two Boy Scouts, whose uniform accessories had just arrived from BSA Headquarters in New York were 100% thrilled at the privilege of wearing their new gear every day to school. The boys are members of Den One and Patrol One, the only officially registered Scout groups in the Sierra of Peru, and doubtless the highest in all the world—for the altitude where we live is 12,500 feet.

On January 7, 1947, the parents of the only four boys then eligible to join any Scout group met and decided that even with so few it would be worth everyone’s effort to start a Cub Den. We were all members of the small mining camp (about 50 “gringo” families) of the extensive Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation called La Oroya.

Since then, four new boys of Cub Scout age have come to camp and been admitted, and four of the original five have attained their twelfth birthdays and are now enjoying their first meetings as a Boy Scout Neighborhood Patrol. Without exception, the younger boys are all looking forward to their ninth birthdays so that they may join the envied group of Cub Scouts.

Our first month was dedicated to getting acquainted with Scouting literature, its history and intent, and fixing up the gravel-floored garage loaned to us as meeting place by the Cubmaster. We borrowed the unused school workbench, decorated walls with Cub Scout plaques, American and Den Flags, and the framed Den Charter. With the help of local men, often not themselves fathers of Cub Scouts, we made many things of wood, tin, and copper during the year. But the regular meetings are held at the Den Mother’s home, or at the homes of all the boys in rotation when the Den Mother is out of town.

Our theme for the second month was “Books,” when we learned how to care for books and specialized in the Reading Achievement. Now the company-sponsored Inca Club has a children’s book-shelf for the first time in its thirty years.

During April and May we made musical instruments and practiced using them—I can hardly say playing them—for a minstrel act that was part of a five-part program we gave at the end of the school term in June.

In July we had our first “Pack” meeting—the same few boys, but with their parents and the general manager and his wife as guests. Each boy personally prepared one dish to be served, and each mother another, so we had a generous banquet that night in the Golf club.

In December, with “Service” as our theme, we collected odds and ends of broken or non-used toys and outgrown clothing. By mid-month the garage was overflowing, and with the mothers we managed to get the hopeless looking pile reduced to gifts in acceptable condition to distribute to the poverty-stricken Indian children of Old Oroya.

Now, even as you, we are planning a minstrel show.

◆ This month there will be musical games, new Cub Scout songs to sing, and a minstrel show planned and put on. It’s going to be a big month, and the following ideas will help make it so.

Naturally, we can’t tell you which type of music is most typical in your section. That is something Pack and Den leaders will discover during December in preparation for the January theme. School music teachers can help, as well as most libraries. Each Den can choose a song and do it in costume for the minstrel show.

Of course, the boys of the Southwest will be singing cowboy songs such as “Home On the Range,” “Headin’ For the Last Round-Up,” “Cowboy’s Lament,” The boys of New England may choose to sing sea-farin’ chanteys, such as “Blow the Man Down,” or “Reuben Ranzo.” (A laughable stunt would be to have a Cub Scout on stage going through singing motions while a hidden “basso profundo” sings “Rocked In the Cradle of the Deep.”) Boys of the South will probably sing southern ballads and spirituals.

HOMEMADE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

You will find this a most popular field with Cub Scouts. They can actually make instruments that will have musical tones as well as being comedy take-offs of actual instruments. You will find a page of ideas for homemade musical instruments on page 17 of this issue of Scouting.

Naturally, it’s a lot more fun to make these instruments if the boys know they are going to use them in your Pack meeting or minstrel show.

Perhaps each Den will have its own “kitchen cabinet” type of band. All Dens can practice the same songs, then come together at the Pack meeting in one big band and play them together.

Another interesting field is to make rhythm instruments which boys play to the tune of a phonograph record. Rhythm instruments include pot cover cymbals, rattles, blocks of wood, and tin cans.

CUB SCOUT MUSICIANS

Perhaps there is a boy in your Den who does most things poorly but plays or sings well. This is the month he can shine. Encourage boys with musical instruments to practice their best numbers and play or sing solos for the minstrel.

You will probably find several boys in your Den, and surely a number in your Pack, who will be interested in writing Den or Pack words to old time songs. Occasionally we even find a boy or two who can compose simple music and words so that a Den can have an entirely original song.

GROUP AND FAMILY SINGS

Why not suggest that each Den Mother invite boys and parents of her Den into her home on a Sunday afternoon. They could sing old time songs together, and boys who play instruments can put on an informal recital for parents. Perhaps there will be a dad or mother who can sing a solo.

In addition to Den sings, families will enjoy singing together occasionally. None of these things will happen—Den Mothers won’t think to ask the parents over, and boys won’t be asked to play their instruments—unless you push the idea.

JANUARY PACK MEETING TIPS

The Cubmaster or member of the Pack Committee can give a short talk on the importance of parents looking for opportunities to recognize their sons for having done projects found in the Achievement Program. Many times boys will complete projects without realizing they are meeting a requirement for an Achievement. For example, a boy may make a boat just because he is going to a lake and would like to have one to sail. Unless his parents point out that he has met the requirements for the Model Boats Elective, he may never receive credit for it.

Opportunity should be given for parents to ask questions on the Achievement Program. The Cubmaster 15should also cover current items, such as condition of the Pack Thrift Plan, attendance, etc.

JOINT MEETING.

You will find minstrel show tips on page 16, but here are a few suggestions on how your meeting may be adapted to the minstrel show idea:

If there are badges to award, award them immediately after the separate meeting, so you will not cut into minstrel show time. Before the show explain to the boys the program for the month ahead, and interest them in the Blue and Gold party.

Skip a formal closing this month. Close your Pack meeting with the grand finale of the minstrels. Make all announcements before the show begins. On page 16 you will find some ideas on preparing and staging your minstrel show. Here we are concerned mostly with the regular Pack meeting outline.

Pre-Opening.

During the pre-opening, boys remain in uniforms rather than wear minstrel costumes. Save the costumes as a surprise. Each Den should have a table available for exhibits developed during the month, especially homemade instruments, music scrapbooks, Cub Scout-composed music, etc.

Separate Meetings.

During this period Den leaders, with the help of others if necessary, should help the boys get ready for the minstrel show. It will not be difficult in the time allowed, because in most minstrels only end men wear blackface. Leaders should also make sure the boys know their songs, jokes, and stories. Just before opening the joint meeting, the boys should be lined up ready to begin the minstrel.

While the boys are busy reading for the minstrel, the Cubmaster meets with all parents. Since the January Pack Leaders’ meeting will probably take place before the January Pack meeting, plans will probably be well established for the Blue and Gold party in February.

The Cubmaster should explain Blue and Gold plans to parents, doing his best to build their enthusiasm for making it the high spot of the entire year. He should explain the way in which food will be handled, announce the names of those who will serve on committees, etc.

You’ll find specific helps for planning and producing your minstrel show, as follows: PROGRAMS (“Gentlemen, Be Seated”) page 16; Homemade MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS page 17, and DEN REHEARSALS (“Den Doings”) page 19.

Tips For Your Pack Minstrels

◆ Program and Publicity: Plan an attractive mimeographed announcement for your show, and deliver it to parents in advance.

Costumes: Almost anything goes. In some minstrels all actors are blackface. This appeals to boys, although it presents problems for the make-up crew. Blackface make-up may be bought at most drug stores. Burnt cork is an old favorite. In many minstrel shows the cast remains in white-face with simple costumes, while the end men wear bright, comic costumes and blackfaces. Either way is good, so take your choice.... It’s a good idea to have all boys except the end men dressed alike. If they are to be blackfaced, have each bring a black sock which can be pulled tight over the head to hide the hair. A white shirt with a black tie (cloth or paper), black trousers and socks, and dark shoes complete the costume. It also adds a nice effect if every boy can wear white gloves. Even white canvas work gloves will serve nicely.

Stage Setting: If you have a fairly good-sized stage, try to arrange chairs or benches on different levels so that all performers can be seen. Decorate the back of the stage with large paper musical notes pasted on a background of paper, and perhaps a sign reading “Welcome.”... Footlights and spotlights help the show but are not necessary for success. You can buy spot bulbs at hardware stores.... Even without a stage, you can arrange your chairs or benches on different levels so that you have the effect of a stage.

Program: Plan your program so you don’t need the entire Pack at rehearsals. Features which will be participated in by the entire cast (for example, opening and closing chorus), can be rehearsed by each Den, then sung together at the show. Here are some good numbers for your opening chorus: “Dixie,” “Minstrel Days,” “We’re Here For Fun” (see page 6, Cub Scout Song Book), “Hello, Hello, Hello,” “When You Wore A Tulip,” “Down South,” etc.... Each Den can prepare whatever acts time will allow, and ought to supply at least two solos, either vocal or instrumental. Solos can be alternated with the Den stunts. The stunts can include such items as homemade orchestras, Den chorus, Den tap dance, Den skits, etc.... Much of the success depends upon the end men. Two or four sit on each side of the front line and pass jokes and stories back and forth with the interlocutor. The interlocutor can be either an adult or boy, and it is his job to keep the show running smoothly and to prompt those who forget their cues. Most libraries have several books on minstrel shows, and you will find some good stories in them. Give them a local twist and they will seem funnier.

Remember: Your minstrel show can succeed without rehearsals of the entire cast if you plan carefully. It won’t be quite so polished as a professional minstrel show might be, but your parents and guests will enjoy it all the same, and will appreciate the fact that you did not require the boys to go out for special rehearsals.

UNICORD

A cigar box and four-foot stick, an “E” string, an old fiddle bow and a few nails will make it.

Be sure to remove paper from cigar box so it will sound. Make a bow out of stick and horse hair with resin on it, or borrow an old fiddle bow.

Slide flat metal bar up and down string to make different notes.

MUSICAL CANS

Four 2-qt., four 1-qt. and four 1-pt. cans with different amounts of water to make a musical scale.

The more water and the larger the can the lower the note. The less water and the smaller the can, the higher the note.

Put three pieces of sliced cork on the bottom of each can to lift it above table top. Strike with cork hammer.

MARIMBA STICKS OR SLATS

Dry California Redwood or poplar slats are good. The longer or thicker they are, the lower the note or pitch. The shorter or thinner they are, the higher the note or pitch.

Cut shorter or thin down the slats until you have a musical scale.

Lay tuned slats across a cardboard box.

Sprinkle sawdust on them.

Strike lightly and rapidly in center. The sawdust will gather in two places. These are the spots where there is practically no vibration. Drive your nails through these spots in attaching to ropes.

Hold rope by loop and strike slats with hammer made from a stick and a spool padded with cloth.

BAMBOO PAN PIPES Bamboo tubes with diameter from ⅜ in. to ¼ in. 1st tube about 7 in. long.

Leave joint at bottom to close it. Grind and cut bamboo tubes shorter and shorter until you get the right note when blown.

Another way: Test tubes bound together and partly filled with clay will give different depths and different notes of the scale.

◆ Someone asked for volunteers to take over a Den one night at our Pack 58 meeting. Bewildered and afraid, my wife said she would try. After all, there were just six youngsters from around our block and they were all nine years old and anxious to get a start in Cub Scouting. The man in charge of the Pack meeting said it would be nice if one of the dads would act as Den Dad, so having three boys of my own, out went my neck and there I was ... Den Dad of Den 5, Pack 58.

The boys learned the Cub Scout Law and Promise, and they also learned that discipline was the first word in the language. In due time this became a part of their regular activities. They learned fast, because when they were obedient they were rewarded with special trips or treats. And because one fellow’s misbehavior penalized all the others, they learned by living that the “buddy system” really works.

Our Den meetings always came first. The program was planned so that each boy could advance within the six month period, and the achievements were geared into the program so that what we did as fun also resulted in advancement. And we didn’t have any spoiled boys at 11½ either, because our program helped them grow into Scouting.

Our Denners were elected by democratic vote, with ability, interest, and progress as the prerequisites. Believe me, it worked, and we never had any real problem with our Denners ... either before, during, or after they took office.

Yes, our Den had its problems. I remember one boy who just couldn’t read. His athletic ability was nil but you should have seen his beautiful art work. Another boy was a bully, but one day one of the little fellows, who had practiced diligently for weeks, used a swell one-two punch during a Den parents’ meeting show, and the bully never gave us any trouble again. In fact, he became one of the fairest, squarest shooters in the Den. Any personal problem of any of our boys was handled secretly by the Den Mother, and many a mother called to express her grateful thanks for help in home problems involving her son.

We were pretty regular in our recognition for handicrafts and attendance at the monthly Pack meeting, and our skits and stunts were mighty good. The highest honor ever given any of us was when we were invited to present our puppets at the Council Cubbers Pow Wow. One of the mothers of the Den made puppets as her hobby, and after a while every boy in the Den was in the act in the many stories we told with these little acting dolls.

Every one of our boys was taught to mend his clothes and do simple cooking. He learned a lot of handicrafts, but most of all he learned to be clean in every sense, and to be courteous and friendly.

All of this happened during the war years ... at a time when most folks were singing the blues that we couldn’t get leaders ... that we were too busy to worry about the little fellows ... that we had a war to win and nothing else counted.

All true stories must come to an end. But my wife and I had our real thank-you as Den Mother and Den Dad when twelve of our thirteen Cub Scouts graduated with Webelos Honors into Scouting, and even the thirteenth, the lad who couldn’t learn to read, graduated too, though without the added honor of the Arrow of Light on his uniform. The last time we checked, ten of our boys were still in Scouting, and four of them will come up for their Eagle Rank together at the next Court of Honor.

Of course, as Den Dad I did a behind-the-scenes job, but I worked closely with the Den Mother even though I couldn’t often attend the afternoon Den meetings.

Yessir, I was a Den Dad. All three of my boys are in Scouting, one an Eagle Scout with Palms, one a Star Scout, and the third a Wolf Cub Scout heading for Bear. My wife? She is still a Scout widow as I continue to be active in our District, but she shares with me the thrill of seeing her boys receive honor after honor in the best boy program on earth ... Scouting.

Mister, if YOU want to enjoy life a little more ... be a Den Dad. It’s fun!!!

◆ Most of the following Den suggestions come from material developed by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Starr of Corning, New York. The material was used as a part of their “Fun With Music” Theme.

Pre-Opening. Play some spirited patriotic records and marches on a phonograph. Feature a march such as the “Marine Hymn,” and each Den can make up its own words. This project can extend through all four Den meetings.

For music during the pre-opening Mrs. Starr recommends Decca Album number 50, “Patriotic Songs For Children.”

Opening. Use phonograph or piano to accompany the boys in the “Star Spangled Banner.”

Business Items. Leaders explain Music and Minstrels theme and discuss Den’s part in minstrel show. This need not be finally determined until next Den Meeting.

Activities. Pin pictures of musical instruments on boys’ backs. They ask questions of each other which can be answered “yes” or “no” until each discovers the name of the instrument he wears.

Practice the song the Pack has chosen for chorus of minstrel show. Also practice any other general songs to be used in the show.

Closing. Sing again the closing chorus for the minstrel show.

Pre-Opening. Tell the story of some special music or composer such as Stephen Foster.

Opening. Sing one of the choruses to be used in the Pack minstrel show.

Business Items. Den Mother leads Den in discussion to decide what the Den will do at the Pack minstrel show.

Activities. Spend some time working as a group on words for the song chosen at the first meeting. Try some musical charades. Each Cub Scout acts out the title of a song while others guess its name. After the name is guessed the Cub leads his Den in the song. Rehearse Den’s part in minstrel show.

Closing. Teach the Cub Scouts an old time spiritual such as “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho.” The Fireside Book of Songs, published by Simon & Schuster, will give Den Mothers lots of ideas.

Pre-Opening. Pick a simple radio theme song such as the “Duz” song and let each boy write his own words for the music. Here is what one Cub Scout in Mr. Starr’s Pack composed:

Opening. All teach their songs to the Den.

Business Items. Den Mother and Den Chief check up on costumes, properties, etc., for Pack minstrel show.

Activities. Musical Guessing Game. One Cub Scout sings a song silently in front of the Den while others try to read his lips. As each Cub Scout guesses the song, he joins the first boy and sings the song silently with him. When everyone has guessed the song, the Den sings it aloud. Play another game of your own choice unrelated to the musical theme. Rehearse the Den’s part for the minstrel show. It should be really polished this time. Also rehearse the choruses which are to be sung by the entire cast.

Closing. Sing a quiet song such as “Now the Day Is Over.”

Pre-Opening. Hold a dress rehearsal for the minstrel show. During the pre-opening, Cub Scouts put on their minstrel show costumes. Blackface is not necessary for the rehearsal.

Opening. Rather than follow through with the formal Den meeting, use time to rehearse the Den’s acts for the minstrel show. Teach Cub Scouts some rounds. Mr. and Mrs. Starr recommend the Blue Book published by Hall & McCreary Co. Good rounds are: “Scotland’s Burning,” “Sweetly Sings the Donkey,” “Row Row Row Your Boat,” “Three Blind Mice” and “Are You Sleeping?”

Closing. Rehearse the Den song which was composed by the boys at the first Den Meeting.

◆ MAGIC KIT AND PUZZLE KIT

The Supply Service of the Boy Scouts of America has brought out two new kits which we think will be very popular with Cub Scouts. One of these kits is a new Cub Scout Magic Box. It’s filled with material to perform tricks suitable for boys of Cub Scout age.

The kit is packed in an attractive Cub Scout box. You can get the Magic Kit through your Boy Scout dealer. If he doesn’t have it in stock, your Boy Scout office will order it for you. (Catalog No. 1888, priced at $2.)

Cub Scouts will also find the Cub Scout Puzzle Box interesting. The box is filled with the sort of tricks boys can try on their dads. The Puzzle Kit may also be purchased through your Boy Scout dealer or ordered through the Boy Scout Office. (Catalog No. 1887, price $2.)

Both of these Kits would make wonderful Christmas gifts for Cub Scouts.

GOT A GAME?

A lot of digging goes on before the Cub Scouting section of Scouting Magazine reaches you each month. We do our best to make available to you information which will help you in the planning of your Pack programs. Naturally we cannot give you enough to make it unnecessary for you to do some thinking too. Our purpose is to give you just enough information to stimulate your own thinking and planning.

One of the areas where we need some help is that of games. We can keep passing games along to you, but we would like to be able to give you games which other Cub Scout leaders have successfully used in their Dens and Packs. The only way we can do that is for you to send us the favorite games of your Den.

Would it help you if we were to start a Favorite Games Department? Perhaps we could print two or three favorite games each month. You would know that they were games which had been successfully used in Cub Scouting in some section of the country.

Would you like such a favorite games column in your Scouting Magazine? If so, send us your favorite game, and we will consider it your vote in favor of the Department. Tell us just enough about your game so that we can understand it. You need not worry about making it polished writing. We’ll edit it. If the game you send us has not been used in our literature, and if it’s the type of game we can use, then we will publish it and give you credit for sending it.

Got a game?

⚜ Troop Announcements

Scoutmasters who are also photographers, or who have photographers on the Troop Committee or among their obliging friends, have an easy way of turning out interest-catching cards announcing Troop meetings, hikes, and other events.

Use a snapshot of a recent hike or camp. Print the photo in one corner of a piece of photographic paper, cut to post card size, (or a regular postcard photo stock sold in many shops). Write the announcement in the white space surrounding the picture, stick on a one cent stamp, and leave the rest to Uncle Sam. The sample above shows the type of card sent out by Scoutmaster S. L. Lenington, of Troop 207, Denison, Texas. He says it works nicely.

Stop That Hacking

When the Meshingomesia Council Camp Staff, of Marion, Indiana, began to take stock of the trees in camp, their observations rocked them right to the ground. Not that Scouts were intentionally destructive—but careless hacking, needless bark stripping, and the typical American habit of carving initials on anything and everything in sight—all had been combined to completely ruin some trees, partly destroy others, and at the very least, deface the natural beauty of the woods.

Several schemes were suggested to stop these careless habits, and one proved most successful. Whenever a batch of campers arrived, they were lined up with their axes and knives in front of them. Each Scout gave the Scout Sign and repeated “On my honor I do promise to protect all plants and animals in our Scout Camp, being particularly careful with my knife and axe, not cutting any tree or shrub without permission.”

Bugs and Flowers

Scoutmasters who are embarrassed when eager beavers run up and ask “What kind of a bug is this?” or “What flower is that?” will welcome two new books, both published by Doubleday and Company, Garden City, New York.

The Insect Guide by Dr. Ralph B. Swain, a former Scout, is a very-easy-to-use book. Instead of describing the individual species, Dr. Swain tells how to recognize the larger, more easily remembered insect families and orders. Four hundred and fifty illustrations—330 in full color, make the job of question-answering that much easier. Equally interesting is the material on how to find, capture, observe and preserve different insects. As a hike or camp activity, insect observation can be good program material, if you know how to do it. This pocket guide supplies the answers.

Also recommended for the Troop library is Wild Flower Guide, by Dr. Edgar T. Wherry. Actual use with Scouts has proved this to be an easy-to-follow guide. For example: if you find a flower and wonder what it is, refer to the appendix, where flowers are classified according to color. Run down the list and eliminate those which you know the flower isn’t. Then look for possibilities of what it might be. The illustrations, many in color, make the job easier. The description of each flower is complete.

Photo by Carl W. Eysenbach
Lakewood, Ohio

When Mr. West called his Committee at ten o’clock on a Saturday night to pose for a picture at noon on Sunday, he found that six men were out of town. The other nineteen are shown here. That’s a good example of the Committee cooperation Mr. West describes in this article.

⚜ We start getting a dad’s interest when his boy joins the Troop. The boy is invited to a meeting by a Scout. We make him welcome, tell him to look us over and we’ll look him over too. After he’s been to a meeting or two we talk to him about passing Tenderfoot tests, and tell him when he’s ready to come to our home. We ask him to bring dad along to meet us.

So, the evening we’ve both agreed upon arrives. So does the Scout-to-be and his dad. We set them at ease and start to pass the boy on his tests. He’s ready all right and does a good job, and we make it a point to let him know it. Then we tell of the 2nd Class requirements, how simple they are to pass, and how with a little bit of help from dad there is no reason why he shouldn’t be Eagle in a couple of years.

Dad, pleased that his son is on the first step of Scouting, is in a receptive mood, so we go on to explain the fun in Scouting for man and boy, how winter camps are the highlight of our Troop activities and how other dads go along on these camps.

Our Troop registers about thirty-six Scouts every year and this year we registered twenty-four dads. They are Scouters and take an active interest in problems confronting the Committee. On the average, we have no less than fifteen dads at every monthly Committee meeting. Not everyone can make every meeting, but all can and do pitch in whenever we have a special project to work on.

For instance, we needed money to buy camping equipment a year or so ago. One dad took over as chairman of the project which turned out to be a waste paper and magazine drive. He rallied twenty-eight Scouts and twenty dads and their cars. We put $250 into the Troop treasury and had a swell time doing it.

Four of the dads on the Troop Committee act as a Board of Review for the Troop. Then at the subsequent Court of Honor this same group along with other members of the Committee sit on the Court and make the awards. At these Courts of Honor we make it a point to invite and expect every mother and dad to attend—even though their son may not be up for an award. We know he will be at a future Court, and know his mother and dad would want the same cooperation and interest shown by other parents.

As I’ve said, we like to go camping, to spend long week-ends in the woods, and when one of these week-ends comes along another dad steps into the picture. He’s our Transportation Chairman and it’s his job to see that the Scouts get to and from camp.

Because our dads come from every walk of life and all kinds of businesses, we look into their daily jobs or hobbies for special talents that might be employed at a Troop meeting. One of our dads is Lieutenant Commander in the Coast Guard, so some weekend this fall the Troop will take a trip and visit the local Coast Guard Station and see how it is operated, and incidentally look over and into the workings of a submarine stationed there.

No you won’t get them all. You’ll run across the dad who just can’t do much because of his job, and you’ll run across the dad just not interested—even the fellow who is most willing to have you take the boys to camp, his boy included, and not even be able to lend a hand with transportation. Don’t let these few discourage you however, nor cause you to slacken your efforts to ask the next dad who comes along. Don’t be afraid to go out and ask for help. Give your dads a chance and you’ll have more fun in Scouting, you’ll have a better Troop and you’ll have an easier job.

⚜ January is essentially a month of preparation for Scout anniversary week, and since local activities vary so much over the country, it is difficult to suggest four weekly meetings that will be usable by every Troop. Some Units will devote the entire month to preparation for window displays and live expos, open-house nights, Scout Sunday, participation in Council or District activities and other events celebrating Scouting’s birthday. Other Troops will be able to carry on such preparation, and still spend time on training in some skill or series of Scoutcraft projects.

The Scoutmaster’s Program Notebook suggests handicraft as the theme for the month—building Scout Week displays, model making, and making camp and activities equipment.

First Week

Opening—(Scoutmaster’s Handbook, pages 142-144)

Game—Crows and Cranes (page 30)

Scoutcraft—Demonstration of what to make for the Scout Week window display. Each Patrol to collect material and make one part of exhibit. Explanation of what skills will be demonstrated in live expo, and assignments made to Patrols (pages 8, 9)

Patrol Corners—Patrol business. Attendance, dues. Start planning Patrol part in Troop window display and live expo. Continue preparation at weekly Patrol Meeting.

Game—(Scoutmaster’s Handbook, page 422)

Announcements—Scout Week Plans. Winter Camp. Scoutmaster’s Minute.

Closing—Songs (Songs Scouts Sing)

Second Week

Opening—(Scoutmaster’s Handbook, pages 142-144)

Game—MM! U See ’Um (page 30)

Scoutcraft—Start collecting Patrol material for Window display. Practice for live expo. Plan for open house, parent’s night, or part in Council or District activities.

Patrol Corners—Patrol business. Continue work on handicraft for window display, or making camp and activities equipment. Practice for Patrol part in live expo, or other Troop activity.

Game—(Scoutmaster’s Handbook—page 422)

Announcements—Progress of Scout Week plans. Troop business. Winter camp. Scoutmaster’s Minute.

Closing—Songs

Third Week

Opening—(Scoutmaster’s Handbook, pages 142-144)

Game—Newspaper Study, (page 30)

Scoutcraft—Winter camping techniques—clothing, equipment, menu planning (pages 26-27) (See also November Scouting, page 16)

Patrol Corners—Patrol business. Continue handicraft activities. Practice for live expo, open house, or parents’ night demonstrations.

Game—(Scoutmaster’s Handbook, page 422)

Announcement—Scout Week plans. Winter camp. Scoutmaster’s Minute.

Closing—(Scoutmaster’s Handbook)

Fourth Week

Opening—(Scoutmaster’s Handbook, pages 142-144)

Game—(Page 30)

Scoutcraft—Plans for Winter Camp. Tent pitching, bed making, keeping warm, cooking, etc. (Pages 26 and 27, also November Scouting, page 16)

Patrol Corners—Finish preparation for Scout Weeks handicraft and live expo, or skill demonstration for open house. Hold dress rehearsal, for staff of part in live expo and open house. Turn in all handicraft projects, ready for placing in window.

Game—(Scoutmaster’s Handbook—page 422)

Announcements—Meeting place for start of camp trip. Scout Week plans. Scoutmaster’s Minute.

Closing—Songs.

Overnight Camp

P.M.

3:15 Troop meets. Patrol Leaders check Patrols. Inspection of Packs.

3:30 Leave for camp site.

4:30 Arrival at camp site. Half of Patrol pitches tents, makes beds, etc. Other half prepares dinner.

6:00 Dinner

6:30 Clean-up. Inspection of Campsite.

7:00 Games

8:30 Campfire

9:00 Taps

2nd Day

7:30 Get up. Build fires. Cook breakfast.

8:15 Breakfast. Clean-up.

9:00 Inspection of camp

9:30 Winter nature hike. Look for tracks and other animal signs (and animals themselves). Make casts of tracks for Patrol Den.

11:00 Start lunch.

12:00 Lunch. Clean-up.

1:00 Games

2:30 Break camp.

3:00 Leave for home.

4:00 Arrive home.

Handicraft ideas will be found in December Boy’s Life and in the Handbook for Boys. Look in your Scoutmaster’s Program Notebook for list of free Boy’s Life reprints suggesting handicraft projects.

In Fun and Fellowship

It seems strange that FUN must be emphasized as a feature of Scouting. For that’s what Scouts expect when they join a Troop. That’s what they must get if we are going to keep them interested ... but it should be fun with a purpose, a dignified sort of fun that Scouts will always remember.

New games and inter-Patrol contests; better Patrol and Troop meetings; stunt nights; special features, such as Troop attendance at the big basketball game or a Troop swim at the school or “Y” pool; wide games on every hike and camp; these are only some ways to make Scouting fun.

And don’t overlook fellowship. One way to stimulate wholesome companionship is to see to it that every boy is in the Patrol where he fits—in a Patrol where he has friends, common interests with the other fellows, a leader he will gladly follow, activities he helps to plan and responsibilities he has to carry out for the welfare of his gang.

THERE IS adventure in fun and fellowship and it’s up to us to provide opportunities for it.

In the Out-of-Doors

Many times, when boys drop out of Scouting they tell us it is because “we didn’t go hiking or camping often enough” or “our program is always the same old stuff.” Scouts want to go OUT. We must take them out—out where they can master the skills of the pioneer, explorer, woodsman, or sportsman.

Scouting has the program for the out-of-doors—hiking and camping. But let’s make it hiking and camping with a purpose—to explore wilderness areas, catch bigger fish, track wild animals, tramp the trails of the old pioneers. Let’s help Scouts learn outdoor skills—but then, let’s give them a chance to use those skills in seeking adventure.

Every Scout has the right to a rugged outdoor experience, for Scouting means outdoor adventure.

⚜ “Adventure—that’s Scouting.” But what is adventure? Webster says that it’s “That which happens without design ... hazard ... a bold undertaking ... a remarkable occurrence ... a striking event ... a stirring incident.”

To adult minds such a definition conjures up visions ... leaving the commonplace, going into the unknown. And ... most of us find it only in reading about the great and hazardous adventures of others.

We go with Perry and Stefansson to the Arctic or with Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott and Byrd to the Antarctic.

We go up the Mississippi with DeSoto or down it with LaSalle.

Or we thrill to the determination, courage and excitement in the conquest of Mt. Everest, or in flying faster than sound.

Perhaps we as adults have few things happen to us now that we call adventures. But ... let’s not forget that adventure is a relative thing.

A boy may put up a front of being sophisticated but he hasn’t lived long enough to get around 25much. There are still plenty of bold undertakings, remarkable occurrences and stirring incidents ahead for him.

Can’t you recall some of your own early adventures? They’d seem pretty tame to you now ... but were they then?

Within the last few years I have hiked and camped in some of the places where I hiked and camped as a Scout. I’ve been surprised to find that the forests are now only small wooded areas ... the mountains I climbed just hills ... the wide lakes hardly more than ponds.

Adventure to a boy is something that is new and different ... a change of surroundings ... experiencing new things in new ways.

It is this promise of adventure ... of camping and of life in the outdoors that lures the boy into Scouting.

We must keep faith with him by giving him that adventure ... not just to satisfy him but because it is the best way we have of holding his interest. And ... only as we hold his interest can we influence his development.

But if we give a boy a good, old-fashioned, rugged brand of Scouting ... if we teach him to take care of himself ... if once a month we take him to a not-too-distant spot with a pack on his back ... have him sleep on the ground and cook his meals ... he will have adventure.

Here, with his Patrol and Troop he will establish a temporary settlement. He will meet the problems of shelter and food and learn to get along with his fellows. Every new experience will bring new problems to be solved.

As he grows in ability, his experiences can become longer and more difficult and thus more adventurous. Opportunities to live outdoors in rain and snow should be sought. In this way he may learn additional skills which come only from living with, and mastering difficulties.

When he can light a fire and keep warm with wet wood, pitch his tent, and make his bed in a rainstorm ... then he will have had adventures and through them learned a lot about self reliance.

Remember Webster’s definition ... “a bold undertaking ... a remarkable occurrence ... a striking event ... a stirring incident.”

They are all there. You can find them as you work and plan your Troop program.

If you do, you will help boys to know themselves. You will develop in them a feeling of responsibility toward others. You will go far toward enriching the life of a boy through his Scouting experience.

This can be your “bold undertaking” ... your “striking event” ... your “stirring incident.” This can be your adventure in Scouting!

Five adventure highlights for Boy Scout Week are spotlighted below. Start them in February, but keep going the rest of the year. These are the elements which will bring adventure to the boys in your Troop.

Everybody loves a BIG SHOW—almost every scout gets a kick out of performing for his family, friends and neighbors. The special events suggested for Boy Scout Week give Scouts a chance to be recognized.

Feb. 6th—Scout Sunday—attend religious services in uniform and take part in the service.

Feb. 8th—Anniversary Day—revive the custom of re-pledging oneself to the Scout Oath and Law at 8:15 p.m. Scouts all over the country will be doing the same thing at the same time.

Feb. 7-11—Troop Meeting night—Open House program. (Get the new “Open House” booklet from your Local Council.) Fun, demonstrations, recognition of advancement, Report to parents and parent institutions on Adventure in Citizenship.

Scouting in schools—assembly program and demonstration.

Feb. 12th—A day in the open—hike or camp activities appropriate for locality and individual Troop.

Remember last year’s Report to the Nation when Troops reported on their service projects for the coming year—1948? This is the pay-off year, when we report on what we did instead of what we plan to do. This is the time to check up on your community Good Turns, service to your sponsor, and other service projects. Plan new and bigger activities for Scout Week—1949, and for the rest of the year. But don’t stop with plans—do something!

There is adventure in Citizenship when Scouts come to realize that they are citizens of the world too. There is no better time to revive an interest in the World Friendship Fund to help Scouts in other lands. Food packages are more important than ever.

Review now the results of our promises—and make even more challenging ones for 1949.

Every Scoutmaster knows how important his junior leaders are—Patrol Leaders, Senior Patrol Leader, Junior Assistant Scoutmaster, Scribe and others. This hard working staff comes in for little credit except on rare occasions. It will boost their morale, raise them a little higher in the esteem of their fellows if they are properly recognized for their leadership jobs. It will point up to parents and friends the way Scouting helps boys develop their latent leadership ability.

Den Chiefs, too, should be recognized for the important part they play—recognized in the Troop, before fellow Scouts, parents and friends.

A special investiture for Troop leaders at the Open House, or another special occasion would be the ideal way to recognize this leadership. Make it short, make it impressive. Make the Scouts feel that they are appreciated. Point up their work as adventure in living—as well as adventure in Scouting.

By William H. Wadsworth
Asst. Scout Executive, Onandaga Council, Syracuse, N.Y.

⚜ There are two ways to get the know-how of winter camping. One is the hard way, by trial and error, the other is profiting by the experience of others. We did it the hard way, which has certain advantages; once you learn a trick, you don’t forget it. But, we’re happy to let you in the easy way, so let’s take first things first:

Packing

We usually have each Patrol get personal equipment together and lay it out in neat piles. Patrol equipment and food is divided equally into as many piles as Scouts in the Patrol. We consider both weight and bulk, and try to even it up.

It’s a good idea to fill your cook pots (we use five No. 10 cans) with food or small articles which might possibly be greasy, or break or freeze, and place in the top of your pack. If blankets are on the outside (get them inside if possible) protect them from the weather by rolling in waterproof groundcloth. Don’t have the end of your blanket roll exposed. (We found we could keep the Patrol canteen from freezing by putting it in the middle of a bedroll.)

Clothing and Equipment

As you travel and begin to heat up, peel off layers of clothing. Several layers are warmer than a few heavy pieces. This goes for socks as well as shirts. Air space gives good insulation. If it’s raining or snowing, be sure to wear a water-repellent outer garment, removing the inner layers and packing them in the flap of your pack. You’ll want them—dry—later at night. In snow country, specially after a fresh snowfall, you’ll find a large amount of snow constantly dropping off trees onto your pack, your back, and down your neck. Carry a small stiff brush to remove it. Keep the brush handy in an outside pocket for removing snow from clothes and equipment. “It’s easier to keep ’Em dry than to dry ’Em out!”

Damp socks may be dried during the night by laying them flat across your stomach outside whatever night clothing you are wearing. In cold country, shoes should be dried before the fire and placed inside or under your bedroll for the night. I’ll never forget the time we had the first really cold night and left our ski boots outside the bedroll. They were like rocks and it took some time to soften them enough to get our feet in them.

We are strong believers in the Swedish bow saw in country where we do a great deal of wood cutting. We cut bed logs to hold the dead leaves, boughs, or grass. We cut poles for our tents and reflector fires. We cut large base logs on which to build the fire to keep it from burning itself out of sight in deep snow. I’ll never forget the day we “lost our fire” when we were on a day hike. We were in a large frozen swamp and had made fires to cook our lunch. You should have seen the expression on one face when, with a hiss and sputter of steam, his fire disappeared into the water, leaving his hot dog dangling above floating charcoal.

One reason for emphasis on the bow saw, is that it does twice the work with half the energy. Wood fills with frost in winter and axes bounce instead of cut, no matter how sharp they may be.

In winter look for just the opposite type of campsite you would select in summer. Instead of a shaded open knoll, seek low lands, if they are frozen, where trees are thick and provide good windbreak. Places you never visit in summer suddenly come into their own for winter camping.

A small roll of copper wire will come in handy for many things. One fellow always carries about 27four wire pothooks of varying sizes. Oh yes, he can make a wood pothook, but that takes time, and often when we have made camp a little late because of a long trip or late start, his pothooks come in mighty handy. He also added pot bags to our list. Strange as it may seem, we don’t have one Scout who likes to wash the black off pots; thus, if we are making only one camp, we just crush the #10 cans and bury them. When we use a regular pot, we just wash the inside, pack it full of other food and equipment, and slip on the pot bag, which prevents it from dirtying up our pack.

by Remington Schuyler

Tents

Tentage is a story in itself. We use the Tab tent (Scouting, December, 1947), which is a rectangular, suspended tent. It has thirty-seven tabs which give us a chance to pitch it in many different ways, each providing twenty-inch walls, which make for more room and efficient use of the tent’s interior. For winter camping we pitch it with an open front in either winter baker, forester, or explorer style, using forty-penny nails or logs to anchor it on frozen ground, or logs or sticks buried in deep snow. We like logs best; the same logs can be used for bed logs with the Tab tent. We bank the tent well with grass, leaves, or snow—for that wind can whistle under an open edge too easily.

We have a favorite tripod fire crane which works perfectly under any conditions—frozen ground, in snow, or mud. It eliminates cutting crotched sticks and pounding them into hard or frozen ground. The three uprights may be dead or live wood fastened at the top with a small piece of rope, wire, or even a neckerchief. The lug pole is green wood about an inch in diameter. This rig can be easily moved as your fire changes, and works well with any type of fire lay.

Don’t forget a small food cloth for keeping food and cooking equipment off the ground. Keep one pot on the fire for a constant hot water supply; it will come in handy in a dozen ways and is an excellent first aid precaution. It is easier to melt snow in water than in a bare pot where it must be stirred to keep from burning. Let each individual prepare his own beverage with boiling water and the beverage powder he prefers. This saves tying up another pot.

A good ground cloth is essential. Make it large enough to go under and over your bedroll. Build your bed of dried leaves, grass, or boughs. Don’t rely on that summer sleeping bag alone—extra blankets are necessary. Newspapers are good insulation. Sleep with your head to the highest part of the tent so that your breath won’t freeze and form a hoarfrost on the tent and fall off onto your blankets.

One fellow hit on a good idea on our last trip. At night he prepared his tinder, kindling, and firewood in three neat piles inside his tent. When morning came, he extended one arm, in went the kindling, a match, and it’s lighted, with him still in bed. A stick or two of wood and things began to warm up. By the time he had to get up, he didn’t miss his warm blankets ... well, not much.

We carry two pairs of long underwear. The one worn during the day is taken off and dried at night when going to bed and when it is warm. The next morning clothes are put on over the set of underwear worn during the night, eliminating too much exposure of bare skin—an important point, especially when you are inside that bare skin.

First aid precautions in cold weather differ from regular summer first aid; shock is greatly intensified in cold weather. Blankets and canteen hot water bottle are handy. How to treat for frostbite is required knowledge. Make preparations against snow blindness in northern regions. Temporary sunglasses may be made with cardboard, cloth, or wood with slits cut through, fastened in place with adhesive tape. Watch out for your feet. Wear several layers of light wool socks with large sized waterproof shoes, shoe packs, or ski boots. Tight-fitting ski boots will cause you trouble. Lay down boughs or branches around your fire; you can walk on them and thus keep your feet out of wet snow or mud caused by the fire’s heat.

You’ll pick up other ideas as you go along. It’s not difficult, and you don’t need special equipment or skill. All you need is the spirit of adventure—the spirit your Scouts have—and the desire to try something different. It’s fun.

⚜ Killing two birds with one stone may have been satisfactory in the old days, but in these days of inflation we figured we should be able to knock off at least six birds, figuratively speaking of course.

It all started at a Committee meeting when we were looking around for a Scout Week window display idea. A mass display of bluebird houses made by the Scouts was suggested. But just making birdhouses as a craft project did not seem too practical, unless we could put the houses to use and get birds to nest in them. But why couldn’t we do that? We could. We did. And this is how it worked:

Boards were cut and kits were assembled in the basement workshops of Committeemen and friends.
Wolf Photo

First of all, each Committeeman made one birdhouse, using the pattern shown here and an old apple crate or scrap lumber. That was to prepare the Committeeman to help the boys. It also gave us a start with ten houses.

Then each Scout was given a copy of the pattern and asked to make a house in the next week. Most of the fellows came through and we had twenty more. Now we were ready for mass production.

We scouted the lumberyards in town, and the building projects for scrap lumber—1″ thick boards in various lengths and widths. Everyone was cooperative and we got all the wood we needed. We bought the nails, and then looked around for a “basement shop” or woodworking hobbyist to help us prefabricate the birdhouses. The power saw was easily found, and we went to work sawing up the boards to the proper sizes.

Birdhouses were used first in Scout Week window display and later were placed out in orchard country.
Frederick Avery Photo
Wolf Photo

Then we tied up the boards into “kits,” each kit containing all the makings of a house. In Patrol Meetings, the Scouts assembled the houses. That gave us something over 150 more houses.

Window Display

When the houses were complete, just before Scout Week, we gathered them all together and built our window display. The photo shows what it looked like. But the photo doesn’t show all the interest it aroused.

Mapping

The craft work “bird” and the window display were knocked off—now for setting up the houses. The Buffalo Ornithological Society helped us, and we placed them along fifty miles of highways radiating out from town. The houses were placed in orchard country, with the approval of the land owners. Each group made a sketch map of the roads along which they set up houses, and we put the segments together to make a large map showing the location of all the houses.

A map was made to show the location of each birdhouse so that check-ups could be made during the nesting season.
Wolf Photo

Bird Study

Of course the chief purpose of the project was to attract birds and provide nesting places for them. So two more “birds” fell before our one stone. Weekly hikes, during the spring, gave Scouts 29a chance to see how successful the housing development was. Every house was checked and the tenants carefully observed. Landlords can’t be too careful these days. We found that we housed more than 400 young birds.

THE EARLY SCOUT GETS THE BIRD

By H. B. Hammill, Jr.
Committeeman, Troop 64,
Williamsville, N.Y.

In the fall too, hikes were necessary, to check on the houses to see how they were standing up, and also to clean them out. Bluebirds won’t use a house that contains the remnants of a last year’s nest. So the houses were all cleaned to be ready for the 1949 season.

Community Service

Of course there is one more “bird” that we haven’t mentioned yet—and probably the most important. This was one of the best community service projects we could try. For bluebirds are insect eating birds, and one family in one season can destroy an unbelievable number of harmful insects. Attracting the birds to orchard country should certainly help to improve the apple crop—at the same time the birds are among the first to arrive in spring and they stay all summer. They are colorful, cheerful birds and their very presence should help to make some people happier—just to see and listen to them.

So that’s our birdhouse story. It was a project that lasted for six months. It is good Scouting all the way through, and it was not hard to organize. We heartily recommend it to others. But remember! The early Scouts get the bird! Start it now, so the houses are up by the end of February. Bluebirds come early and prefer “weathered” houses. You too, can “kill” six birds with one stone.

Hap—py New Year! Heave Ho and away we go into 1949.

What’s new in your Troop? New faces, new games? Send them along, games, that is; so that they might find their way to this page. Remember, we would like to know YOUR favorite game.

Don’t suppose that 1949 will change that time-tested saying, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” We like to think of the Game File as helping that Scoutmaster friend of ours. You know the fellow.... Scout meeting scheduled for 7:30 o’clock; 7:50 and only a dozen fellows on hand and the games are planned for three full Patrols of eight Scouts. So rather than give way to complete frustration, the meeting goes on. A quick shift must be made. So we tug on the sleeve of that Scoutmaster friend of ours and steer him over to his file where he keeps his Scoutcraft Game File. Thumbing quickly through the file cards, he soon finds the games that will cover the situation.

How ’bout it Cubbers and Scouters.... Got your Game File up-to-date?

● Spotlight the adventure of Senior Scouting during Scout Week, February 6-12. Scouting will be in the national news—newspapers, magazines, newsreels, and radio. People will be especially aware of Scouting. You can localize this priceless publicity by newsworthy activities in your Senior Unit.

Select projects from the outline below, based on the theme “Adventure—That’s Scouting!” Then put the spotlight on your Unit by giving the facts to the local newspaper and radio editors.

In Senior Scouting there is Adventure in Fun and Fellowship. A spotlight activity may be:

Honor an outstanding student, athlete, musician, teacher, hero, or others deserving special tribute. This may be arranged as a school assembly or chapel program or a special banquet given by the Unit.

In addition to a well prepared sincere tribute, your Unit may give the honored guest a lasting token in the form of a certificate or plaque prepared by members of the Unit.

More than one person may be honored if care is taken not to cheapen the recognition by giving it indiscriminately or by allowing any possible criticism of the Unit making an award for political reasons or to secure privilege.

The type of achievement recognized may vary from year to year to insure honor for someone who greatly deserves it but may otherwise be overlooked. This may include honoring the outstanding youth leader of the community, a minister, an all-round Scout, or all-round girl student.

This acid test must be applied to every recipient if a Senior Scout Unit is to be justified in giving recognition:

1. Is the person a good citizen, recognizing his responsibility in a democracy?

2. Does the person to the best of his ability exemplify the virtues expressed in the Scout Oath and Law in his daily life?

In Senior Scouting there is Adventure in the Outdoors. A spotlight activity may be:

Run it on an inter-Crew or inter-Unit basis. Let each group invite a guest (prospective member) to take part. Provide coaching for everyone before each competition or demonstration. Give each man a score card so he may keep a record of his proficiency in sports. Crews or Units may alternate as coaches and judges for the various events. The following list suggests enough to make up either a long or a short program:

Emergency Service training.

Mile run—run a mile in 7½ minutes or less. Score 10 for 7½ minutes; add 2 for each half-minute less; deduct 2 for each half-minute more.

Rope work—secure boat to piling (clove hitch 32or two half hitches), lower man from wall (bowline on bight), secure line to corner of sail or tent where grommet has pulled out (sheet bend), secure rope to tent stake (taut line hitch), throw rope with knot for rescue (bowline). Score 2 for each correct knot.

Rowing demonstration.

Row 50 feet to buoy, turn, and return. Show proper entry, feathering, and stroke of oars; turning boat; holding it on course. Score 10 for perfect demonstration; deduct 1 for each mistake.

Archery contest.

Place shooting line at 15 yards from 48-inch target. Allow 3 arrows for sighting in, and 6 for scoring. Score according to standard archery target points; divide total by 5.

Skish (bait casting) contest.

If floating skish rings are not available, lay out 4 concentric rope rings on ground, 3, 5, 7, and 9 feet in diameter. Place center of target 15 yards from casting line. Allow 5 casts for instruction, and 5 for scoring. Score 20 for cast in or on skish ring or center rope ring, 15 for cast within 2 feet or less (in second ring), 10 for within 4 feet (in third ring), and 5 for within 6 feet (in third ring); divide total by 10.

Rifle shooting.

In prone position shoot 3 rounds for sighting in, and 5 rounds for scoring. Score according to standard target points; divide total by 5.

In the next three events the basic timing of 20, 5, and 3 minutes may not be appropriate for your group. Try each event a few times and determine the average time to use as a base.

Compass racing.

Lay out a course that will take about 20 minutes on the average (see Scouting Magazine, September, 1948). Score 10 for 20 minutes; add 1 for each half-minute less; deduct 1 for each half-minute more.

Canoe carrying.

Lift a canoe from the ground (with aid of tree or rack to lean it on), make portage carry 25 yards and return, and lower canoe to ground. Score 10 for 5 minutes; add 2 for each half-minute less; deduct 2 for each half-minute more. Disqualify for rough handling of canoe.

Axemanship.

Chop 10-12-inch log in two, using long-handled axe and taking all safety precautions. Score 10 for 3 minutes; add 2 for each half-minute less; deduct 2 for each half-minute more.

Bucksawmanship.

Place 6-inch log on sawbuck. With bucksaw cut off as many sections (about 2 inches thick) as possible in 5 minutes. Score 1 for each section cut.

The following are demonstrations for which you can work out your own scoring system.

Rope rescue.

Rescue a man marooned across a ravine or stream 20 feet wide. Use ropes, vines, temporary bridge, or raft (see Scouting Magazine, March, 1947).

Wild foods.

Find as many wild foods as possible, and prepare enough for tasting by the whole group.

Overnight camp.

Set up a Crew camp with proper shelter, beds, sanitation, water supply, and fires.

Breeches buoy rescue.

Rescue a man from a mast 40-50 feet away (see Sea Scout Manual Chapter 18).

In Senior Scouting there is Adventure in Citizenship! A spotlight activity may be:

Encourage Senior Scouts to take over the management responsibilities of their families for one week, with the cooperation of their parents. Each will plan menus, purchase food (no, he won’t have to cook it), make payments of bills, plan family entertainment, include cost, and finally report to the family showing a saving if possible on a satisfactory program.

Preliminary conferences with mother and dad will be necessary to learn certain routine and long-term obligations as well as to establish a family budget if one is not already in operation.

Rowing and Riflery are Field and Sports Day Events

● It’s On Ice

If your Unit is in the two-thirds of the States in the snow belt, it can do something spectacular when called on this winter for an act in a Council circus, high school assembly, or Scout Week demonstration. That is an ice rescue staged in realistic fashion.

A skater gliding around a pond suddenly breaks through. As he thrashes around in the water, another skater comes along, tries a rescue by incorrect methods, gets too close, and also breaks through. Then two Senior Scouts—instead of the Lone Ranger—come along and rescue the skater-swimmers.

The action takes from five to ten minutes, depending on how much of a script is written for it. A commentator verbally sets the scene and explains the wrong and right rescue techniques as they are used. If a public address system is not available, a megaphone or a strong voice should be sufficient.

The spectacular part is the staging. It is best in an arena where the spectators look down on it, although a stage will do, the lower the better. A platform is set up and covered with newsprint. The platform can be put together from fifteen long tables such as found in many church dining rooms. Set them together, three long and five wide, with an opening in the center of the resulting oblong. In this opening set a tank of water. It may be hard to get and handle, but it is the crowning touch when the audience sees the victims splashing about in real water.

Cover the whole platform, including the hole, with three or four thicknesses of blank newsprint. Ask the press foreman at a newspaper plant for the paper left on the spindles at the end of the roll.

The four actors, wearing ice skates, can give a good imitation of skating on ice after a little practice. Rehearse the act—dry runs without the water and paper—until it clicks. The actors and commentator will have to coordinate themselves. The men at the mike may have to work up a few ad libs where action might slow down in a performance. Then have a dress rehearsal.

Ice rescue techniques may be found in the Safety Merit Badge pamphlet and the Scout Field Book.

Game Equipment

Game, equipment in your headquarters comes in handy during parties, and also is a pre-meeting attraction. The one danger is that sometimes the games are so popular they stretch the pre-meeting period over the major part of the evening. However, that can be avoided by a gentlemen’s agreement to close the games at a definite time on meeting nights.

Game equipment can be bought, of course, but it can be made inexpensively.

Darts is a game the GI’s found popular in war-time England. Make the target of corrugated cardboard cut from a large carton. Mark colored concentric circles on it with crayons. Make each dart of a match stick (kitchen size). On one end lash a needle with thread. On the other glue four small paper fins. Hang the target on the wall and let fly with the darts, making sure the firing range is not a thoroughfare.

Table tennis requires a smooth 5´ × 9´ playing surface. If you don’t have a suitable table, get a piece of half-inch plywood. Sometimes you can make a better deal by taking two large scraps of standard pieces, sawing them to 5´ × 4½´ and then hinging or cleating them together on the bottom. If you don’t want to bother putting legs on this playing surface, lay it on a large table or two small ones, just so it is at least 30 inches off the floor.

Make paddles of quarter or eighth-inch wood, whittled or cut with a coping saw to shape and then sandpapered. They may be any size, but generally are 6″ × 12″ over-all.

The net must be 6″ above the table. Make it of cheese cloth or muslin, hemmed and reinforced with strong cord threaded through the hems. Hang it from dowels set in cleats that extend beyond the table edge at the center line.

Buy a supply of balls at the dime or sports store, or mail order house, and soon you’ll be searching for them under the furniture.

Other games for which you can make most of your own equipment are shuffleboard and paddle tennis, providing you have floor space of 52´ × 6´ for the first, and 20´ × 44´ for the second. Buy or borrow a rule book, find dimensions of equipment, and turn it out in your workshop.

By Ralph H. Moza Assistant National Director, Senior Scouting Service

● Before the swirling flood waters had stopped pouring into Vanport, Oregon, last May, Sea Scouts were driving rescue boats through the break in the levee. They had been alerted two days earlier, and were ready when called.

Will your Senior Unit be ready when needed for disaster duty?

You cannot answer that question easily, because flood, fire, explosion, tornado, and earthquake strike so suddenly that there rarely is time for alerting. You may even think you will never have to face an emergency. But remember, few of the people at any scene of disaster expected it to happen to themselves!

One thing is certain: if an emergency does occur in your community, Senior Scouts who have had emergency service training will be very greatly appreciated men to have on hand.

Every registered Senior Scout Unit is a potential Emergency Service Corps. As a Senior Scout registers in his Unit and becomes an Apprentice Senior Scout, he can at the same time become an Emergency Service Apprentice.

The Emergency Service Corps consists of Senior Scouts in their existing Units, under their own leadership, or Crews of Emergency Service Corps members in registered Boy Scout Troops, under their own Unit leadership. The term “Crew” replaces “Patrol” in Troops, thus indicating that it is a young man’s group.

There are three good reasons for promoting Emergency Service Training in Senior Units:

1. Senior Scouts are often the first to be called for service when disaster strikes. With this in mind, Emergency Service Training stimulates interest in the service principle of Scouting, as out-lined in the Oath, Law, and Motto.

2. As one of the important parts in the vigorous physical activity program requiring knowledge and skill, Emergency Service Training can be one of the important activities planned and promoted by the outdoor committee.

3. It develops knowledge and skills which contribute to the worthwhile training of the Scout, and insures his effectiveness in time of Emergency.

THE NEW PLAN

One of the most important changes in the Emergency Service Training Plan is that the emphasis is now on training being carried out within the Unit, under Unit leadership. It is recommended that the Local Council have a member of the District Commissioner’s Staff specialize as a coordinator 35of all Emergency Service Corps Units within his District. His responsibility would be to coordinate and supervise the activity of Emergency Service Corps within his area, organized in Senior Scout Units and Emergency Service Crews (within Scout Troops). He would stimulate Emergency Service Training within the Unit, providing lists of qualified instructors in the various skills required for Corps membership. He would recommend joint planning of inter-Unit and District activities for the purpose of Emergency Service Training, practice, and demonstration when and as desirable.

If an area larger than a geographical District is stricken, a Scout Executive, a Field Executive, or a Special Field Commissioner, should serve as Special Director and coordinator of the various Emergency Service Corps involved.

START NOW!

Now is the time to start pointing out the various phases of Emergency Service Training to program planning committees, and indicating how it affects them. Get them to suggest plans for organizing a Corps within their Unit.

The Senior Scout is immediately qualified as an Apprentice Emergency Service Corps member if the information obtained in any recent medical examination is sufficient to cover the items listed on the application for membership (Form C-1278, Cat. No. 4425), by adding the health history, and filing the application with parents’ approval.

The next step is to develop activity programs which will enable him to qualify for full membership. The requirements for the Emergency Service Corps are as follows:

Be a Registered Air Scout Observer, Explorer Woodsman, Ordinary Sea Scout, or First Class Scout of 15 or over, in excellent physical condition as shown by medical examination. He must run one mile in 7½ minutes, and climb an 18-foot rope, hand over hand in 25 seconds or less. He must whip the ends of a rope of at least ½-inch in diameter, and tie a square knot, sheet bend, bowline, bowline-on-a-bight, two half hitches, clove hitch, clove hitch secured with half hitch, taut line hitch, and Timber hitch.

Finally, he must have the written permission of his parents or guardian, the approval of his Unit leader, and must have earned the following Merit Badges: First Aid, Firemanship, Life Saving, Path-finding, Personal Health, Public Health, Rowing (where necessary), and Safety.

Photo by George Berstrom

⚜ Sometimes knowing the right thing to do in an emergency is just as important as having the courage to do it. That’s one reason why in Scouting, First Aid is an essential part of the Scout requirements. For instance, if Second Class Scout Gerald Maley of Cleveland, Ohio, had not practiced his First Aid, his friend would not be alive today. Last November, Scout Maley with his friend Norman were crossing a railroad bridge when the wind blew Maley’s hat off. It landed somewhere in the railroad yard under the bridge and the two boys climbed down to the yard to recover it. They hunted, but could not find it. Suddenly, Norman had an idea. “I’ll bet it’s on top of that box car over there.”

Up he climbed to look for it. Half way up he slipped, tried to save himself and grabbed a live wire which was hanging low.

The shock knocked him to the ground and the Scout ran to help him. Norman lay without moving and the Scout thought at first he was dead. But he had been practicing his First Aid in his Patrol. He immediately started artificial respiration in earnest just as he had practiced it in meeting the week before.

Soon Norman was breathing again, but screamed in agony as he came back to consciousness. He was terribly burned about the hands and arms. Again the Scout went into action. “Hang on, I’ll get you up to the road, we’ll find somebody who can get you to a doctor.”

“Transporting Injured,” he said to himself, “no chance for a four man carry now, I’ll have to use the good old ‘pack-strap’.”

He got Norman’s arms over his shoulders from his back and somehow managed to get up the bank to the bridge. Here he had to rest, but fortunately a car passed soon. Scout Maley hailed it and Norman was on his way to the hospital for treatment. After a few days he recovered.

The really remarkable part of this story is that Scout Maley was a smaller boy than his friend, and has a crippled leg, so that he is obliged to walk with a decided limp.

Some of you fellows with two eyes and strong arms and whole limbs might think over what this Boy Scout accomplished, as a result of his Scout training, to save his friend.

In recognition of Scout Gerald Maley’s skill, the National Board of Honor awarded him the prized medal of Merit, which is given in recognition of an outstanding act of service, putting into practice Scout skills and ideals.

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The Plumb Axe was the first official piece of Boy Scout Equipment.

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“I have a problem, and I’m glad!” said someone. We looked up to see—you guessed it, our old friend Scoutmaster BLIMP. His Troop is just as lively as ever, maybe more so. It’s a good Troop.

“Who in the world,” we asked, “ever heard of anyone being glad he had a problem?”

“Oh, but you don’t understand,” BLIMP went on, “my problem is the kind you can be glad about. Want to hear the details?”

“Is it optional?” we asked, knowing better.

“No,” replied BLIMP. “It’s very simple. Before I got wise to myself, I used to worry a lot about what in the world to DO at Troop meetings. Since I have started using the Program Notebook and all the swell ideas in Scouting (see contents, Page 1) and since my Scouts have been reading Boys’ Life, we have a new and interesting problem ... with all this material we worry about what to leave out!”

Troops which discovered this new problem have just about finished a whirlwind month of compass work and orienteering, with a world of usable games and teaching methods in Scouting and almost an entire issue of Boys’ Life showing the Scouts the “how” of it.

There’s no excuse for running out of ideas!

The same is true of January. The December issue of Boys’ Life (which will soon be on its way to your boys) is crammed full of ideas on “Handicraft,” the very popular theme for January.

Your Scouts will feast their eyes on a swell photo-feature called “Bead Work,” a Ben Hunt special which will bring out the Indian in a lot of our boys, and that’s good! This ONE feature will be reprinted, if you need a few just drop us a card.

Other handicrafts include “Tie Pins” by Glenn Wagner (no, not Pie Tins!) and a bunch of back-of-the-book nifties you’ll want to try. Of course, Green Bar Bill scores his usual bull’s-eye with a page of terrific ideas for P.L.s, and all the usual features, articles, and shorts.

We toss-up an action packed basketball serial, “Backboard Magic” by Howard M. Brier, as well as “Rambling Christmas Tree” and “Voice of the Ugly Truck” by Ward and Conley respectively. There is a thrilling mountain climb described in “Ladders to the Clouds,” by Joseph Stocker, “Geared for Winter Woods,” by John J. Rowlands, and page after page of other thrilling Scout material.

“May I put on my false whiskers and make a good suggestion,” asked BLIMP who has been peering over our shoulder.

“I know ... I know ...” we interrupted. “Remind all Scouters that there is NO better Christmas present for any boy, or any Troop ... than Boys’ Life.”

“Exactly!” he replied, as he banged the door and went cheerily down the hall whistling “Jingle Bells!”

(See also CUB LEADERS’ ROUND TABLE Index for January through June on page 38.)

Gifts ... FOR EVERYONE IN SCOUTING!

Christmas Cards Wish them all a Merry Scouting Christmas! No. 9118 Boy Scout Set    No. 9119 Cub Scout Set 10 CARDS WITH ENVELOPES    50¢ PER BOX

SCOUTING GIFT LIST

A HINT FOR COMMITTEEMEN

See these and many more at your

LOCAL SCOUT DISTRIBUTORS

Gifts for boys, gifts for adults, volunteer workers and professional men.... Every one of your friends in Scouting will appreciate something Official! You can choose from scores of items in every price range, all fine values, and your gift is sure to win deep appreciation for these are items that perform useful service all through the year. Here are just a few ideas. See your Distributor for many more!

Official Pocket Pieces    1949 Scout Diary
Handy tokens of glittering metal that are ideal, inexpensive gifts! Each carries a message for better Scouting and is sure to be treasured by your boys. Give one to every boy!
No. 5028 Boy Scout Token 20¢
No. 5024 Cub Scout Token 20¢

1949 Scout Diary
The perfect personal gift for every
Scout in your Troop. This year’s
Diary is bigger and better than ever
before, sure to make a hit with all
boys. Give a Diary, and you give an
effective tool for better Scouting.
No. 3012 1949 Scout Diary 25¢

Official Tie Clasps
No. 305A Boy Scouts, Leaders 60¢
No. 370 Cub Scouts, Leaders 60¢
No. 302 Sea Scouts, Leaders 50¢
No. 296 Air Scouts, Leaders 50¢
Plus 20% Federal Excise Tax.

Official Scouter Ring
Excellent gift for all Scouters! Ring is make of heavyweight sterling silver, oxidized, and features the Universal Badge on a black enameled background. Polishes to gleam.
No. 318 Official Ring $3.50
Plus 20% Federal Excise Tax.

Desk Pen Sets
Fine pens, swivel-mounted on handsome bases of heavy polished onyx. 14kt. gold points. Brass inscription plates on all but single model. Practical gifts for boys and leaders! Expertly made of heavy plated metal.
No. 5190 Single Pen Set $7.50
No. 5191 DeLuxe Pen Set 12.50
No. 5192 Double Pen Set 17.50

Desk Flag Sets
Every Scouter will appreciate this splendid desk set! Has two fringed silk flags on 18″ staffs. Polished wood base has metal Scout emblem. Cub Scout Set without emblem.
No. 1108 Boy Scout Set $4.50
No. 1116 Cub Scout Set 2.25

43

It is dangerous to neglect wounds, however small; even scratches and small cuts may cause serious infections if they are not properly treated.

Mercurochrome (H.W.&D. brand of merbromin, dibromoxymercurifluorescein-sodium) is one of the best antiseptics for first aid use. It is accepted by the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association for this purpose.

The 2% aqueous solution in applicator bottles does not sting and can be applied safely to small wounds. Injuries are reported promptly when Mercurochrome is used, because the treatment does not hurt. Other advantages are that the solution keeps indefinitely and the color shows just where it has been applied.

Doctors have used Mercurochrome in their practice for more than 25 years.

Keep a bottle of Mercurochrome handy for the first aid care of all minor wounds. Do not fail to call a physician in more serious cases.

44