I have had a number of letters of admiration for the Scouts on account of their doing good acts and then declining to be tipped for them. I am very glad to hear it, Scouts.
Of course, proper pay that is earned by your work is another thing, and you will be right to accept it.
Friendliness
The great difference between an outdoorsman and a city-dweller is, that the first is in shirt-sleeves while the other is buttoned up in his coat. The outdoorsman is open and cheery with everybody at once, while the city person is rather inclined to shut himself up from his neighbours inside his coat, and takes a deal of drawing out before he becomes friendly. The free, open-air, shirt-sleeve habits of the man of the woods or the open spaces do away with this, and life becomes much more pleasant to everybody all round.
A Boy Scout should remember that he is like Kim, the “friend of all the world”. But don’t let your friendliness lead you into the foolery of throwing away your hard-earned savings in standing treat to your friends.
Our Scout Law says: “A Scout is a brother to every other Scout”. This has shown itself very much when our Jamborees have brought thousands of Scouts together from forty different foreign countries. The boys have found out that though they come from different nations, they are after all very much alike in their tastes and amusements and that they can be jolly good friends with each other.
I want you Scouts to keep up that friendship and to make it wider and stronger. You can do this by writing to your Brother Scouts abroad and visiting them or by getting them to visit you in camp.
It will be fun for you and fun for them. But better than that it will be making friendship between you, so that if difficulties should arise later on between the different countries they will not at once want to go to war, but will talk things over as friends and see how to come to agreement without the cruel and unfair test of fighting.
A Scout is a “friend of all the world” and “a brother to every other Scout”. “The way to have a friend is to be one.”
Politeness
One of the stories that the knights used to tell as an example of politeness was about Julius Caesar. Once when he was entertained for supper by a poor peasant, the man gave him a dish of pickles to eat, thinking that they were the sort of vegetables that a highborn officer would like. Caesar showed his politeness by eating the whole dish of pickles and pretended to like them, although they burnt his mouth and disagreed with his considerably.
In Spain, you ask a man the way—he does not merely point it out, but takes off his hat, bows, and says that it will be a great pleasure to him to show it, and walks with you till he has set you properly upon it. He will take no reward.
A Frenchman will take off his hat when he addresses a stranger, even when he asks a policeman the way.
The Dutch fishermen, big and brawny as they are, take up the whole street when walking down it. But when strangers come along they stand to one side, and smilingly take off their caps as he passes.
A lady told me that when in one of the far west Canadian townships she met a group of wild-looking cowboys walking down the street, she felt quite alarmed. But as they got near they stood to one side, and took off their hats with the greatest respect, and made way for her.
Courtesy to Women
The knights of old were particularly attentive in respect and courtesy to women.
Sir Nigel Loring in The White Company is a type of chivalrous knight of the old times. Although very small, and half blind from some lime which an enemy had thrown in his eyes very early in his career, he was an exceedingly brave man, and at the same time very humble, and very helpful to others.
But, above all things, he reverenced women. He had a plain lady as his wife, but he always upheld her beauty and virtue, and was ready to fight anybody who doubted him. Then with poor women, old or young, he was always courteous and helpful. And that is how a Scout should act.
King Arthur, who made the rules of chivalry, was himself chivalrous to women. One day a girl rushed into his hall crying for help. Her hair was streaming and smeared with mud, her arms were torn with brambles, and she was dressed in rags. She had been ill-treated by a band of robbers who roved the country, doing all the harm they could. When he heard her tale, King Arthur sprang to his horse and rode off himself to the robbers’ cave, and, even at the risk of his own life, he fought and defeated them, so that they could no more trouble his people.
When walking with a lady or child, a Scout should always have her on his left side, so that his right is free to protect her. This rule is altered when walking in the streets—then a man will walk on the side of her nearest to the traffic, to protect her against accident or mud-splashes, etc.
In meeting a woman or a child a man should, as a matter of course, always make way for her, even if he has to step off the pavement into the gutter.
So also in riding in a crowded bus or railway carriage, no man worthy of the name will allow a woman to stand up if he has a seat. He will at once give it up to the woman and stand himself. As a Scout, you should set an example in this by being the first man in the carriage to do it. And in doing so do it cheerfully, with a smile, so that she may not think you are annoyed at having to do it.
When in the street, always be on the look-out to help women and children. A good opportunity is when they want to cross a street, or to find the way, or to call a cab or bus. If you see them, go and help them at once—and don’t accept any reward.
The other day I saw a boy help a lady out of a carriage, and as he shut the door after her she turned to give him some money, but he touched his cap and smilingly said, “No,
thank you, ma'am; it s my duty”, and walked off. So I shook hands with him, for I felt that although he had not been taught, he was a Scout by nature.
This is the kind of courtesy one wants to see more amongst boys.
Of course, in accidents men and boys will always see that the women and children are safely out of danger before they think of going themselves. In shipwrecks, it is very noticeable how carefully arrangements are made for saving the women and children and old people before men are rescued.
