The Boy Scouts were started in England by Gen. Sir Robert Baden-Powell.  He was impressed with the fact that 46 per cent. of the boys of England were growing up without any knowledge of useful occupations, and wanted to do something that would help the boy to become a useful citizen.  He emphatically stated that his intention was not the making of soldiers.  In his work.  General Baden-Powell has touched the boy’s life in all its interests and broadened a boy’s outlook by the widest sort of activities.  In two and a half years over half a million Boy Scouts have been enrolled, and twenty thousand of these have been in parade at one time in London.

The scout idea has sprung up spontaneously all over America.  In Canadian cities the Boy Scouts number thousands.  In the United States, towns and cities are being swept by the idea.  Gangs of boys are to be seen on every hand, doing their best at scoutcraft, “doing a good turn every day to some one,” and getting fun out of it.  Prominent business men and educators are behind the movement.

The aim of the Boy Scouts is to supplement the various existing educational agencies, and to promote the ability in boys to do things for themselves and others.  The method is summed up in the term “scoutcraft” and is a combination of observation, deduction and handiness—­or the ability to do.  Scoutcraft consists of “First Aid,” Life Saving, Tracking, Signalling, Cycling, Nature Study, Seamanship and other instruction.  This is accomplished in games and team play and in pleasure, not work, for the boy.  The only equipment it needs is the out-of-doors, a group of boys and a leader.

Before he becomes a scout, a boy must take the scouts’ oath thus: 

“On my honour, I promise that I will do my best, 1.  To do my duty to God and my country. 2.  To help other people at all times. 3.  To obey the scout law.”

When taking this oath the scout will stand holding his right hand raised level with his shoulder, palm to the front, thumb resting on the nail of the little finger, and the other three fingers upright pointing upward.  This the scouts’ salute and secret sign.

When the hand is raised shoulder high it is called “the half salute.”

When raised to the forehead it is called “the full salute.”

The three fingers held up (like the three points on the scouts’ badge) remind him of his three promises in the scouts’ oath.

There are three classes of scouts.  A boy on joining the Boy Scouts must pass a test in the following points before taking the oath: 

Know the scouts’ laws and signs and the salute.

Know the composition of the national flag and the right way to fly it.

Tie four of the following knots:  Reef, sheet bend, clove hitch, bowline, middleman’s, fisherman’s, sheep-shank.

He then takes the scouts’ oath and is enrolled as a tenderfoot and is entitled to wear the buttonhole badge.