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Show - mm.ihii'c '-m4i'f :-r v.. ? rV--'-'fTS' -t.. JA . -s v ' , - l j i if Ajf wJ II 2F7S7 vZCVo IS """mm- II fjr If J i M 7 i If More than once I have heard a tired A & AaS l Doy exciaim; "Gee whiz! I didn't gS think that it was that much work to MM sharpen an ax." V 7 I 7 f&tt) 759 3S Few city boys know the names of f 1 g JTff rJrfiJr 83 the common trees at sight, much less Jf iyL Jfi are they able to distinguish between J m frahrftf JP M.J f & pine spruce and nemlock boards. Un. , y thysethe trees Wi 1 HEN a boy has spent a Bea- J' Vvf son at a good summer camp I fc it leaves an impression on V - Z ' his mind that time will not Xsi." 5?,SWI eradicate. At the close of fSgtg vA the season he has had the fun that JT-$X t"? I he wanted to have, he has taken his psJ J 1 part in the games and contests, he has Vllf ff$fi2 ' U climbed mountains and sailed on lakes " LX f -.T f 1 and streams, he has cruised with the V, A ' Q i - i XiZ$ fellows and shared their pleasures and VX'L fef hardships, and he has returned home X KTW5 1 tdft filled with the memories of gorgeous V . t V "l fe W ' S feasts, of midnight pranks, of adven- XT tures on sea and on land, of encoun- , - "W ters with friend and with foe, ana of v ? -"-f" y &ybJ moments when the success or failure ! -vf of a battle depended solely on his mSmS3'M . fsAyo strength, his skill and his valor. CS!Z- T W- 1 HEN a boy has spent a Bea-son Bea-son at a good summer camp it leaves an impression on ""-Xfori his mind that time will not eradicate. At the close of the season he has had the fun that he wanted to have, he has taken his part in the games and contests, he has climbed mountains and sailed on lakes and streams, he has cruised with the fellows and shared their pleasures and hardships, and he has returned home filled with the memories of gorgeous feasts, of midnight pranks, of adventures adven-tures on sea and on land, of encounters encoun-ters with friend and with foe, and of moments when the success or failure of a battle depended solely on his strength, his skill and his valor. The influence left on a child's character char-acter by a summer thus spent cannot but be important. In the first place the child is away from his parents, away from those to whom he is accustomed accus-tomed to go for sympathy and advice. He is placed on his own resources in a manner quite new and strange. A camp is not at all like a boarding school, where there aro regular duties and a fixed routine for each activity of the day. The summer camp means fun, freedom, frolic and a chance to do nobbing if one wishes. The boarding school means order, discipline, restraint re-straint and hard work at all times. Therefore, when a boy finds himself at a camp for the first time In his life he is often at a loss to know what to do, because he is often left to his own choice. He has many new problems which must be thought out alone. He has come to camp to have a barrel of fun, and he means to have it. His first impulse im-pulse is to make friends with everybody, every-body, and especially with the counsellors. coun-sellors. It is quite right that he should do this. Anckit is the especial duty of. the counsellors to have a watchful eye out for the new boys, to see that they do not get homesick or tire of the camp because of Inactivity. Ten weks of camp life cannot but have Its effect on the character of lads who are just beginning to feel the first impulses to do things that they have read about in books. There are no boys so bad that there Is not some good in them, and there are no boys in camp so good that there is no bad In them, and some of it Is pretty sure to crop out before summer is over. In many boys this badness has been lurking lurk-ing for years. It has not shown itself because of lack of opportunity. The boys' camp Is one of the places where the inherent badness in a lad, has an opportunity to unbottle itself without serious injury to the boy. But camp life is of such a nature that these unbottlings are not of frequent fre-quent occurrence. Before a bad habit has been fixed on the boy he is brought to a halt and having been shown that he has been doing wrong he learns a valuable lesson.. The average summer camp Is not a Sunday school. It is not Intended for such. On the other hand the directors of these camps are for the most part Christian gentlemen, having high ideals. A proper respect for the Sabbath Sab-bath day Is required not only for the good of the boys, but also out of respect re-spect for the felings of the people who live in the neighborhood. Where possible pos-sible the children are invited to go to church, after which they take walks, go in bathing, read, tell stories, etc. Usually a song service of a more or less religious nature is held in the "eveniug. Often one of the directors delivers an address in the main hall of the camp. Some of the Influences that are brought forcibly to bear upon the youths are those which put a premium on honor, truth, patience, generosity, forgiveness, usefulness, politeness, sturdiness, pluck and the like. A camper who is lacking ia any of these qualities Is soon made to feel the need of them, greatly to his benefit. It does a boy a world of good to mix with a lot of other boys of his own age, observing, as he usually will, their good traits and bad traits. The educational advantages of camp life are only less Important than are the moral advantages. For the most part the school books are closed, but nature Is wide open. Book knowledge is of great value, but practical knowledge knowl-edge Is often of more value. In camp boys often get their first practical knowledge of money values. Here first they manage their own allowances al-lowances and learn what it is to go broke till the next allowance Is distributed. dis-tributed. They aften compete with the native boys of the village in their efforts to earn small sums of money to tide them over or to enable them to buy coveted treasures. This is a very good experience for any boy. 1 have noticed that during the second sec-ond year at camp a boy takes better care of his things than be does during the first year. This may be due to the fact that near the end of the first season his clothes, especially his trousers, were in bad condition, due to carelessness, and as no new ones were forthcoming, the lad became mote or less self-conscious about his appearance, greatly to the delight of his companions. Sometimes a boy's shoes go wrong, and the parent, knowing know-ing where the fault is, makes him get on the best he can till he reaches home. At camp children learn from necessity neces-sity to mend, sew on buttons, sharpen tools, and best of all they learn how important it is to keep tools sharp by practice in turning the grindstone. More than once I have heard a tired boy exclaim: "Gee whiz! I didn't think that it was that much work to sharpen an ax." Few olty boys know the names of the common trees at sight, much less are they able to distinguish between pine, spruce and hemlock boards. Unless Un-less they see the fruit on the trees they do not 'know the difference between be-tween a pear and an apple tree. In most camps boys learn to make these distinctions. In camp boys and girl learn to wash dishes, to be economical with food and to like food that they would not previously eat at home. I have known camp life to change a boy's appetite completely, so that on going home he was glad to eat such wholesome foods as boiled rice and Indian meal mush, which he would not touch before. Camping life will not make a child expert at any particular trade or occupation, oc-cupation, but it serves to show him how much skill Is -required in doing much of the work usually performed by the laboring classes. Whenever a boy tries to perform any manual labor la-bor his respect for it increases. He has a try at rowing, swimming, sailing, sail-ing, fishing, running an engine, repairing re-pairing a boat and sometimes in building build-ing small boats. He learns the use of tools common to country people, who are more independent of plumbers, carpenters, masons, etc., than city people are. Perhaps one of the most Important lessons for a child to learn is respect for labor. When a boy has hoed a few hills of horn he instinctively remarks re-marks that he would hate to keep that up all day. If he follows the hay cart for an hour he realizes that "raking "rak-ing after" Is not all Bport. When he takes a shovel and attempts to assist in digging a trench or drain he suddenly sud-denly realizes why those laborers whom he has seen in the city at the fame kind of work seemed to take their time about It. After five minutes min-utes of that work he learns Just where his backbone is located. There are many other educational advantages which are Incidental to camp life, such as practice in singing, speech making, editorial work on the camp paper, literary entertainments, etc. The camp paper though, seldom more than a simple manuscript, Is often a very Ingenious production, In which the editor, together with the camp artist, succeeds In bringing home to the lads some wonderful bits of news as well as some healthful truths. The social advantages of camp life are many and varied. The close relation rela-tion in which hoys live at camp invariably in-variably results in the formation of permanent friendships. |