Scouting, Volume 1, Number [15], December 1, 1913 Page: 6
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SCOUTING
THE UNDER DOG
The Story of a Significant Experience of a Worker with Boys
as lie Told it at National Headquarters.
1 SHALL call him "Jack," but that isn't
his name. He now possesses an honored
name and mere is a handle to it. 1
don't want to point a linger to his past or
remind him of the pit out of which fte was
dug, but 1 want otners to know ins story.
1 snail tell it briefly and to the point. .
1 was appointed a worker in the tough-
est region in New York City. The King's
business required me to go after gunmen,
thugs and hobos, it was a dangerous sort
of a job, but i was well armed—armed
with a Book!
Before 1 had been there long I was given
a Sunday school class of boys—boys of the
tenement region. There were only three
of them. For a few Sundays I taught the
boys all 1 could, which wasn't much, for
they were bubbling over with life, full of
fun, and a devilish twinkle in their eyes,
which seemed to say: " iou teacn us any-
thing, if you can."
Outside there were hundreds of boys of
the same age—about fifteen. They were
shooting craps, boxing, joking, swearing,
chewing and smoking.
" 1 am going to organize a Sunday school
baseball club," I announced to the three
boys on Sunday. The effect was like an
electric shock. They stiffened in their seats
like pokers and gazed at me in utter con-
sternation.
" Gee! " one boy exclaimed, " dey'll fire
ye out o' de choicn! "
"You three boys have hides like buf-
faloes," 1 said, " and 1 don't think I could
penetrate you with a 32-caliber bullet. You
make me tired, and if I'm to be tired I
want a bigger bunch to do the job."
I outlined the plan and they spread the
news. The following Sunday I was con-
fronted with twenty possible candidates for
the team. They looked like Fiji Islanders!
It was the raw material of democracy with
a challenge in every form and feature.
I accepted the challenge and went to
work. 1 organized the team and began
operations. They imagined we were to
play on Sunday. My imagination worked
overtime on a .different plan. Only youth
and vigor and a superhuman amount of
strength could have carried it out. I took
that bunch to a vacant lot and worked it
so hard on Saturday afternoon—it was in
summer—that they wanted a rest on Sun-
day. The boy who didn't attend class
couldn't play ball.
In about three months I had them
straightened out so that they could talk in
class without swearing. Some of them
lagged behind but the majority of them
began to sport boiled linen, cheap jewelry,
and ties that looked like a yard of diseased
liver.
I watched these stages of social con-
sciousness and tried to lead them step by
step, to things quieter and higher. When
I found a boy with power of leadership
I took special pains with him.
At the close of the summer I had thirty
boys, and in class on Sunday there was a
sense of order and a desire to play fair
with rne and with each other.
I gave them the power of self-govern-
ment in the class and only once revised
their judgment. That was in the case of
a new scholar. He was a boy of fifteen.
The moment he appeared the boys laughed.
He was the homeliest boy I ever saw. He
wasn't cross-eyed but he had a peculiar
twitch in his eyes that greatly handicapped
him. The poor fellow was crest-fallen and
stared at me with a piteous look of appeal
ihe boys hoped he wouldn't come oack,
but he aid. vvhen his name was proposed
—as the custom was—for election he was
rejected unanimously!
At a meeting, later, I asked why they
rejected him.
" He'd put the blink on the hull bunch! "
one boy ventured.
I had induced other schools to organize
teams for Saturday play.
" Make him a mascot and maybe he'll
blink the other fellows!" I suggested in
humor.
They were serious and shook their heads.
I was patient, i looked into the boy's his-
tory and found that he had been born and
lived under an unusual handicap. The
more I knew of him the more I liked him.
It was his first try to play fair with his
widowed mother, it was a critical period
and what the class did might decide his
destiny.
I took the leaders one by one and rea-
soned with them. They were obdurate.
" Boys," I said, one Sunday afternoon in
class, "1 am going to take Jack and make
him the beginning of another class. That
means that I will provide another teacher
for you."
" Aw, Gee! " one of them said, " What's
de use? "
"Well," I answered, "I've been under
dog so long myself that it becomes a kind
of second nature to me to line up with
one whenever I find him. jack is an under
dog and I've pledged my word to stand by
him! "
A few days later they held a council of
war and decided to take Jack in. It was
Hobson's choice—that or nothing.
" Now, Jack," I said, " it's up to you."
He was overjoyed, anxious and eager.
I introduced him to the Book. I outlined
its scheme of things. I paraphrased and
explained as if to a little child the thing
that had pulled me out of a ditch as deep
as Jack's. Slowly but surely it dawned
upon him that there was a source of
strength upon which he could draw. That
winter a strange and subtle light lit up his
homely face.
The following season he played on the
team, and on the diamond made some dem-
onstrations of character that made his
stock soar. Ho took the meanest places,
begged for the hardest work. If anyone
was to be " left "—he volunteered. His up-
ward course was unsteady. He fell often,
but after each break he pulled himself to-
gether and took a brace. I gave him books
to read. They were like lamps on a dark
road. I found him a school where he
worked his way. The call for home help
took him out. He went back again. It
was a long, slow and circuitous pathway,
but he never gave up.
In the course of the years the class dis-
persed. I kept track of them for a long
time. Then one by one they faded out of
sight and memory—all but one, and that
one was Jack. Ten years ago he gradu-
ated from one of the best theological
seminaries in the world and is now a min-
ister—a useful minister with a penchant—a
penchant for the under dog.
TWO BOY SCOUTS MISSING.
Scout Masters and Scouts Are Urged
to Watch for Them.
National Headquarters of the Boy Scouts
of America has been notifiecL-hy-J^T. Gal-
vin, 598 West 178th street,\New YorkXity,
that his son, Paul, and Andrew De Jong,
have been missing from their homes since
Sunday morning, November 16. Both are
Boy Scouts, and it is believed that they
will communicate with Scouts or Scout
Masters wherever they go. For this rea-
son this information is published with a
hope that Scout Masters and the members
of their troops will report immediately
when they learn anything as to the where-
abouts of these boys, or either of them.
Paul Galvin is described as being nearly
thirteen years old; weight eighty-two
pounds; light (almost white) hair; blue
eyes, and a bad scar on the right side of
his chin.
Andrew De Jong is about the same age,
weight ninty-two pounds; dark hair, soft,
round, rosy cheeks; he has a reputation in
his neighborhood as a " quiet " boy.
Both boys had camped with Scout troops
last summer, and according to the infor-
mation obtained, were much excited re-
cently over their secret arrangements for
duplicating a camping trip in Maine which
had been graphically described by their
school teacher. Boy friends said that Paul
and Andrew made careful preparations for
such a trip and left New York City about
11 a. m. on Sunday, November 16. Both
had their Scout uniforms on. They car-
ried suit cases and full camping outfit.
Send information to National Headquar-
ters whence it will be transmitted without
delay to the worried parents.
A BUSINESS REASON.
(Editorial in the St. Paul (Minn.) Dispatch,
Nov. 15. 1913.)
One of the big insurance companies,
which has 8,000,000 policyholders, has
among that number 600,000 boys of the age
to be eligible for membership in the Boy
Scouts. To these boys this company has
made extra inducements to enroll them-
selves in the Scouts. The management of
the company has observed what the Scout
movement stands for and what it is doing
for the boys, and is willing to go to some
expense to have the boys who hold its
policies brought under the wholesome in-
fluence of this organization.
There are plenty of reasons why every
parent should wish his boys to be Scouts,
but here is one that cannot be classed as
sentimental. It's business with the insur-
ance company, and there are some parents,
more's the pity, to whom a business reason
appeals more forcibly than any other. Most
of the preaching of the present day that
amounts to anything emphasizes service;
the Boy Scout law enjoins the Scout to do
a good turn every day. The boy with that
idea in his head isn't going to give his
father or his mother much cause to worry
about htm.
SAFETY AND HEALTH EXPO.
Scout Masters and Scouts may make
special arrangements for attending the Ex-
hibition of Safety and Health which will be
held at the Grand Central Palace in New
York City, under the auspices of the Amer-
ican Museum of Safety, December 11 to 20.
They are as much interested in the pre-
vention of accidents as in first aid work,
and they will enjoy and obtain benefit from
this remarkable display. Apply to W. H.
Tolman, general director of the exposi-
tion, at the Grand Central Palace.
V
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 1, Number [15], December 1, 1913, periodical, December 1, 1913; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth282652/m1/6/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.