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Show BOY-SCOUTS BOY-SCOUTS (Conducted by National Council ot the Boy Scouts of America.) SCOUTS MEET VERDUN HERO The Boy Scouts of America were honored by being selected to greet Gen. Robert Georges Nivelle, formet commander-in-chief of the French army and famous hero of Verdun, upon up-on his arrival In this country recently to attend the Pilgrim Tercentenary celebration. A hundred and thirty scouts took part In the reception. At the Trench line pier five picked Ragle Scouts met the general as he came oft the steamer which brought him to New York. They were with Dr. Charles S. MacFarland, field scout oommissioner, who is the general secretary sec-retary of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ In America, on whose Invltatlod Gen. Nivelle came to this country. From the pier he was I escorted to the Waldorf hotel where five troops of boy scouts, a troop from each of the boroughs of Greater New York, carrying American flags and a French flag fifteen feet long, were lined up at salute and were reviewed I by General Nivelle. The scouts were greatly interested in the blazing star of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor which the gray-haired gray-haired general wore on his army uniform. uni-form. His eighteen military honors other than the Legion of Honor were represented simply by five rows of ribbon bars across his left breast. A diminutive thirteen-year-old Manhattan Man-hattan scout, Frank Tobln, who wore a trl-color ribbon was singled out by tjeneral Nivelle, who had him come forward to shake hands while In very good English he told the assembled scouts how pleased he was to be welcomed wel-comed by representatives of this great organization whose Jamboree party of 300 picked scouts last summer . gave an exhibition of scouting in Paris which opened his eyes and those of many other men of affairs there as to the great value of scout training In the formation of sturdy and useful inaahood. GEN. WOOD PRAISES SCOUTS. In the recent Boy Scouts of Amerlch essay contest on the subject of fire prevention MaJ. Gen. Leonard Wood, commander of the central division of the army, acted as chairman of the board of judges He took keen Interest Inter-est in reading the assays, which,-' because be-cause he was wiable to leave Fort Sheridan, III., were taken to him from New York by a1 representative of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, under whose auspices the contest 'was conducted among the entire membership member-ship of the hoy scouts in the United States and Its possessions. At the conclusion of his work Major General Wood Issued the following statement: "I cannot tell you with how much Interest and appreciation I read the essays from the boy scouts' contest with reference to fire prevention. The Idea of this contest was a fine one. It .served to bring to the attention of the boy scouts throughout the country a j most Important field of effort, namely, that of vigilance in measures looking i to fire prevention and the dissemination dissemina-tion of informatior concerning the sources of danger und what can be done to prevent. The fundamental cause of fires Is carelessness, combined with a certain amount of Ignorance. If the boy scouts take up the campaign In behalf of fire prevention and speak as intelligently as they have written I feel that we "shall soon reduce the danger from fire." PUPILS WRITE SCOUT ESSAYS. Great Interest Is being manifested In all large cities in the experiment made by the board of education of New York city In' making the writing of an essay on the subject "What Boy Scouts Can Do for Greater New York" a part of the regular classroom work on one fay for the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades of all elementary public, schools. To make the preparation prepara-tion of the material and the writing, and especially the study of the purposes pur-poses of scouting more effective and attractive, the work was made competitive, com-petitive, with the following prizes : For the best essay In each school In Greater New York a bronze medal, for the best in each school district, a silver medal, for the best In each of the five boroughs, a gold medal, with a special grand prize for the best essay es-say In the entire city, all prizes given by the Boy Scouts of America. "This will give an admirable opportunity oppor-tunity for the principals to discover the effectiveness of the teaching of practical civics In practical ways, and will focus fresh Interest on the vital essentials of good citizenship." GOOD TURNS FOR BOY SCOUTS. Camp Klwanls, built by the Kiwanls club of Saginaw, Mich., for the boy scouts of that city, has one of the finest log cabins In the country, plana for which are being sought from many cities by other clubs who want to boom this big boy movement. Troop 12, Spokane, Wash., provided Clothes and food as needed by two poor families, gave $10 to Near East, relief and furnlslied two scouts dally for two weeks to run emmAs for the Social Service bureau. |