Scouting, Volume 1, Number 5, June 15, 1913 Page: 7

SCOUTING.
PHILIPPINE SCOUTS.
Enthusiastic Boys In Hanila.
Mark Thompson, of Manila, Philip-
pine Islands, sends ns a breezy ac-
count of Scouting in the tropics. "Troop
No. 1," he writer, "has a membership
of fourteen acti/e Scouts; three tender-
feet, nine second class, three first class.
The trooo is under the leadership of Mr.
Hummert. They hold weekly meetings
and weekend hikes, covering a distance
of eight miles, which is a very gruelsome
hike in this hot climate.
"The troop is well equipped and the
Scouts are very enthusiastic. The two
trumpeters are exceptionally good, being
able to blow nearly all the regulation
calls. The staves are made of bamboo
wood and are very light. Owing to the
intense heat of the tropics the Scouts
are compelled to travel 'light' as possible
and the hikes are not so numerous or
long as the ones enjoyed by the Scouts
in the States. The troop meets its ex-
penses, which are few, by taxing each
Scout ten centavos (five cents) a
month. The boys are now planning a
ten days' camping trip."
SCOUT HASTERS' SCHOOLS.
(.Continued from Page l)
on Scout games, cooking, sanitation and
woodcraft will be given by lecture and
practice.
Boston Scout Masters' School.
A summer camp is to be held in the
Blue Hills for practical instruction in
'Scout activities. The camp is described
as a Scout Masters' School and Field
Laboratory, with eight competent men in
charge. Regular instruction will include
camp management, methods and instruc-
tion, routing and Scoutcraft training.
Special councils for general discussions
will also be held regularly. Camp opens
June 28, ending September 8. For full
particulars address Mr. Ormond E.
Loomis, Scout Executive, 101 Tremont
Street. Boston, Massachusetts.
Through plans now being worked out
the Boy Scout Movement and the Public
Schools will be more closer affiliated.
Under the direction of Chief Scout Ex-
ecutive West correspondence has been
started with local Superintendents of
Public Schools, State Superintendents
and other educational officials with the
double aim of distributing Boy _ Scout
literature and of bringing into active co-
operation the schools and the movement.
The result has been most encouraging,
as is shown by the fodowing report of
George H. Merritt, secretary of the
Editorial Board:
"These letters have been exception-
ally well received, and in every case
answers have come expressing their
good will and desire to do something for
the movement.
"Letters of a similar character, com-
paring the likeness of the Scout move-
ment to the public schools, have been
sent to all State Superintendents of
Education or Public Instruction.
"This educational correspondence is of
great importance. It puts the move-
ment in touch with the teachers of the
country. Efforts should be made, be-
cause of the likeness in character and
general methods of the Scout Movement
to the Public School, to more closely
affiliate the two. That can best be ac-
complished by presenting the purposes
and character of the movement to the
teachers in all the different states."
SYRIAN SCOUTS ACTIVE.
Beirut Boys Give Play and Field Day.
The Boy Scouts of Beirut are doing
excellent work in Scouting. Recently
they held an athletic meet and gave a
play by which they raised money. The
story of the two events is told in an
interesting manner by the Scout Master,
Royal Clyde Agne, who is connected
with the Syrian Protestant College. He
writes: "These two exhibitions, I
think, were the first public ones given
by real Scouts in Turkey. The play
was witnessed by a crowded hall and
several thousand natives were present
at the field day. The boys did excellent-
ly and received hearty applause and
compliments. We have been asked to re-
peat but I scarcely think we shall, as I
do not want the boys to be carried away
by the showy side of Scouting. They
take the scheme seriously enough to
make it effective in school and out of
school.
"I have added some supplementary
tests for the Tenderfoot and Second
Class Scouts, but all of our 80 boys
will be ready for Second Class exam-
inations in June. I teach Scouting as
a class four times weekly, with hikes,
etc., interspersed. Some of our medical
faculty teach advanced first aid.
"I am thinking of getting a badge
design of our own. The fleur-de-lis
with S. P. C. on points and a Cedar
Tree (our college emblem) on center,
instead of the American eagle, which,
though it has a woHd of significance
to me, means very little to these Ori-
ental boys.
"We hoped to co-operate with the
Mohammedan School in this city, which
is operated by a Mr. Kheiri, but he
has changed their badge to a full open
hand with a crescent and star in center,
and have added to the oath 'Duty to
God and his Prophet.' They emphasize
the camping and fun side almost ex-
clusively.
"We expect to get new American uni-
forms next year."
PROGRESS IN HONOLULU.
By J. A. Wilder, Scout Commissioner.
OUR Scouts now number 175—as
against about 30 a year ago, and 85
to 97 in my last reports. I have
organized a Sea Scout patrol. The first
boat's crew began work May 8 in a
cutter lent them by Rear-Admiral Moore,
Commandant of the Naval Station here,
and under First Sergeant Ralph, an ex-
perienced man in boat drill, and Mr.
Wood, a clever yachtsman, now inspec-
tor at the Naval Dry Dock at Pearl
Harbor.
We hope to lure into the Scout ranks
a very stubborn set of white boys of good
family and position who have been very
difficult to interest. However our
troubles are over, as the Lower Nunanu
clique have voted to form the first boat's
crew of Ship No. 1. Watch us grow!
With my first patrol all white boys of
good lineage, the "ordinary boys" of
Honolulu will probably see the light and
try to obtain a Scout Master. I had
quite despaired of this class. Their
alacrity 10 join shows me that there is
a latent desire in many Honolulu boys
of this class to be Scouts.
We continue to be a very much com-
plicated set. Here is a rollScouts
Kaukane, Bent, Ah Lama, Kopp, Dun-
can, Hawkins, Kahanamoku and Jonsen.
In our patrols race prejudice is
unknown,—we include every shade of
hair from raven black to tow ! All are
staunch friends under one flag—ours.
I was discouraged enough to resign
when one Teddy Decker swam out and
saved two men in the surf at Koolau
and a Scout stopped a bad runaway.
Then a whole patrol of Scouts stood in
and helped save a cane field from fire,
working with the fire department—then
they re-elected me commissioner, and
now I see I am in for life.
We have two first class scouts—Frank
Sylia, aged 16, and Abraham Amoy,
18, both of Honolulu Troop No. 5.
Sylia is to be examined next week for
his Life Scout Merit Badges, all five
at once.
SCOUTS AT HYGIENE CONGRESS.
Will Be Aides at Buffalo.
A chance for many good turns will
be given the Buffalo Scouts at the Fourth
International Congress on School Hy-
giene which will be held in Buffalo,
August 23-30. Aside from their will-
ingness to do good turns the Scouts
will be particularly anxious to help a
work which advances the welfare of a
large proportion of their number.
Scout Commissioner G. Barrett Rich,
Jr., is also chairman of the Buffalo recep-
tion committee, and under his direction
Scouts will be on duty at the railroad
station to assist and direct delegates to
the various hotels and boarding places.
To help members from foreign countries,
Scouts who speak other languages will
have badges reading, as the case may
be,—"I speak German," "I speak Polish,"
"I speak Spanish," Russian, Italian, etc.
Scouts will be on duty as messengers
at the various sessions of the Congress
and as escorts to sight-seeing parties
in Buffalo and on trips to neighboring
points—the locks at Lockport, Niagara
Falls, etc. They are appointed as aides
to Dr. Charles W. Eliot, president of the
Congress and to other distinguished
guests and officials. Scout Executive W.
W. Brundage estimates that about 200
Boy Scouts will serve during the Con-
gress.
SCOUTS FEED FIREHEN.
Give Out Hot Coffee at Scene of Fire.
An unusual sort of community service
is being done by the Scouts of Nyack-
on-the-Hudson, New York. The W. C.
T. U. of Nyack presented to the Fire
Department a coffee cart consisting of
a light two-whee'led body on which
are two large nickle coffee tanks hold-
ing twenty gallons of coffee and heated
by gasoline burners. Whenever a fire
breaks out, the boys are notified as
quickly as are the firemen themselves.
They get the cart from the engine
house, fill the tanks and light the
burners, and by the time they reach
the fire the coffee is steaming and
ready to serve to the firemen on duty.
All winter long the boys kept up this
service, staying in every case until
the last fireman left. The Scouts
make fresh coffee in one tank as the
other is emptied by the appreciative
firemen, sometimes half-frozen, and
generally drenched with water. Sev-
eral times last winter the boys were
out from 1:30 A. M., until dawn, but
their Scout training had hardened them
against discomfort, and not one of
them even caught a cold.