Boy Scouting in America: The First Decade

Monday, February 28th, 2005

Many American don’t realize that the Boy Scouts were an English invention, and that they started as a more-or-less paramilitary group. From Boy Scouting in America: The First Decade:

“The Boy Scout movement was born at Mafeking,? in 1899, South Africa, during the Boer War. British Lieutenant-General Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, the originator of the Boy Scout idea and known as the ?Hero of Mafeking? for the important victory gained there, created the Boy Scouts in order to relieve the fatigued British army. The army needed help if they were going to be victorious, and Baden-Powell struck upon an ingenious plan. Under his direction, Lord Edward Cecil:
collected the boys of Mafeking, talked to them, drilled them, and put them into uniform. They became messengers, carrying dispatches from fort to fort on the lines; they kept a lookout, they acted as orderlies, and so relieved from these duties [those soldiers] who were so badly needed in the firing line.

The ?first of the Boy Scouts,? then, were essentially a junior corps of soldiers, used exclusively to aid the army in all its tasks other than combat.

It quickly became a popular means of teaching character:

Just before Mafeking, Baden-Powell had written a book entitled Aids to Scouting intended for young soldiers who, as he had discovered in his military experience, did not have the skills of outdoor living and self-reliance that were necessary for military life. In 1903, when Baden-Powell returned to England, he discovered that boys there were using his book for fun in the out of doors. At the request of schoolteachers, Baden-Powell began working on a book suited particularly to boys, and in 1906 the fruits of his work were published in a pamphlet called, ?Boy Scouts – A Suggestion.? In this pamphlet, Baden-Powell declared that the plan of the Boy Scouts was ?to help in making the rising generation, of whatever class or creed, into good citizens at home or in the colonies.? One year later, in 1907, Baden-Powell held a camp from July 29th to August 9th at Brownsea Island in Poole Harbor, with 21 boys. Unlike at Mafeking, where the Scouts were enlisted principally to help the army, at Brownsea Island ?the idea was to lead boys, by attractive practices called Scouting, to teach themselves character.? It was believed by Baden-Powell that, by engaging in outdoor activities stressing such qualities as attention and self-reliance, the Scouts would become better boys. The activities during this week-long excursion included: ?instruction in camp skills, observation and tracking, woodcraft and nature lore, life-saving and first aid, and the virtues of honor, chivalry, and good citizenship.? Divided into four patrols, ?they lived in Army tents and were fed by Army cooks.? Soon after the camp at Brownsea Island, Baden-Powell published the first Boy Scout handbook, Scouting for Boys, inspired by his own experiences, and largely by the works of two Americans — Ernest Thompson Seton (naturalist and founder of the Woodcraft Indians) and Daniel Carter Beard (illustrator and founder of the Sons of Daniel Boone). Boy Scouting became an overnight success, and by the beginning of 1910 — less than three years after its founding — there were more than 200,000 Scouts in Britain.

There’s a famous story about how the scouts came to America:

In 1910, the Boy Scout movement officially came to America, organized by a newspaper man from Chicago named W. D. Boyce. Mr. Boyce had visited England in 1909 where, losing his way in a London fog, he came upon a lad with a lantern who offered to take him to his destination. When Boyce tried to tip the boy for his kindness, the boy refused: ?No sir, I am a Scout,? he said, ?Scouts do not accept tips for courtesies or Good Turns.? After Mr. Boyce completed the business to which he had to attend, the boy led him to a nearby Scout office, where he learned more about the movement. Deeply impressed, upon his return to America in 1910 he decided to establish the Boy Scouts of America, and succeeded, with the help of Edgar M. Robinson of the Y.M.C.A and Ernest Thompson Seton, in having them incorporated by Congress in February of that year. [...] With credit from Baden-Powell as the originators of the Boy Scout idea, both Seton and Beard added considerable prestige to the Boy Scouts of America, but not nearly so much as the Honorary President and Vice-President — William Howard Taft and Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, respectively.

Why on earth the scouts needed to be incorporated by Congress, I’ll never know. Oh, and don’t challenge the honorary president to a s’mores-eating contest.

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