"Scouting For Boys" Robert Baden-Powell 1908 Quiz

Answer: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship

This book is geared to the 'Instructor' which Baden-Powell describes as "...any man or lad who takes up the training of either a Patrol (i.e., six to eight boys), or a Troop i.e., (several Patrols joined together)."
He goes on to say; "I recommend the Instructor to begin with a Patrol of eight boys if possible, and when these have qualified as First-class Scouts to select the best five or six lads to raise a Patrol each of their own and instruct it under his (the Instructor's) supervision."

Answer: "A soft bed and too many blankets make a boy dream bad dreams, which weaken him"

Baden-Powell's own sleeping habits were austere it seems; "A Scout has to sleep very much in the open, and a boy who is accustomed to sleep with his windows shut will probably suffer, like many a tenderfoot has done, by catching cold and rheumatism when he first tries sleeping out.

The thing is to always sleep with your windows open, summer and winter, and you will never catch cold. Personally I cannot sleep with my windows shut or with the blinds down, and when living in the country I always sleep outside the house, summer and winter alike. Scouts breathe through the nose, not through the mouth; in this way they don't suck into their insides all sorts of microbes or seeds of disease that are in the air; and they don't snore at night, and so give themselves away to the enemy".

Answer: He "looks a little ass"

To quote our redoubtable Baden-Powell; "The best war scouts don't smoke because it weakens their eyesight; it sometimes makes them shaky and nervous; it spoils their noses for smelling (which is of great importance at night), and the glow of their pipe, or even the scent of tobacco carried on them at night, gives them away to watchful enemies. No boy ever began smoking because he liked it, but because he thought it made him look like a grown-up man.

As a matter of fact it generally makes him look a little ass".

Answer: Smile and whistle a tune

According to Baden-Powell; "A scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances. When you miss a train, or some one treads on your favourite corn - not that a Scout ought to have such things as corns - or under any annoying circumstances , you should force yourself to smile at once, and then whistle a tune, and you will be all right".

Answer: A mug of cold water should be poured down his sleeve

"The punishment for swearing or using bad language is for each offence a mug of cold water to be poured down the offender's sleeve by the other scouts".

Answer: Because a scout with bad teeth would be unable to eat the staple diet of hard biscuits and hard meat

In the words of the illustrious Baden-Powell; "a scout with bad teeth is no use at all for scouting work, because he has to live on hard biscuits and hard meat which he cannot possibly eat or digest if his teeth are not good, and good teeth depend upon how you look after them when you are young"
He had solutions to this; "Scouts in the jungle cannot always find tooth-brushes, but they make substitutes out of dry sticks which they fray out at the end and make an imitation tooth-brush".

Answer: Don't lark about with a girl whom you would not like your mother or sister to see you with

Mr. Baden-Powell had three edicts when it came to the fairer sex;
"Don't lark about with a girl whom you would not like your mother or sister to see you with".
"Don't make love to a girl unless you mean to marry her".
"Don't marry a girl unless you are in a position to support her, and to support some children".

Answer: God and the King

"On my honour I promise that I will do my best to do my duty to God and the King, I will do my best to help others no matter what it will cost me, I know the scout law and will obey it". Baden-Powell 1908.

Answer: Know how to open a manhole to let air into a gassy sewer

Baden-Powell was very keen that scouts should always be prepared to lend a hand in an emergency and therefore give themselves opportunity to earn an Albert Cross.
He specifically details how a scout should know; "how to cover your nose with a wet handkerchief to enable you to breathe in smoke", "how to tear a sheet into strips and make a rope to escape from fire", "how to open a manhole to let air into a gassy sewer", "how to lift and carry an insensible person" and "how to revive apparently drowned people".

Answer: A boy who is not yet a scout

A Tenderfoot is merely a boy who has not yet entered scouting. Of course ALL boys should enter scouting lest they never become real men.

Answer: To be a virgin

There were seven qualities needed. The three answers given, plus others relating to making a 15 mile journey, life saving, fire lighting and points of the compass.

Answer: To remind them to do a good deed each day

A scout is expected to do a good deed to another each and every day.

Answer: (leader) "He is a lion", (chorus) "yes he is better than that; he is a hippopotamus"

Mr. Baden-Powell introduced it as a camp fire standard to be sung whenever possible.

Answer: Somebody who is bad at paying his debts

"When you are travelling by train or tram always notice every little thing about your fellow travellers; notice their faces, dress, way of talking and so on so that you can describe them each pretty accurately afterwards; and also try and make out whether they are rich or poor, which you can usually tell from their boots".
He suggests for training purposes that a Scoutmaster, "sends scouts out for half an hour to look for, say, a brutish character, or a case of genteel poverty".

Answer: Men with vanity and prone to drink

Baden-Powell, "I was once accused of mistrusting men with waxed moustaches. Well, so, to a certain extent, I do. It often means vanity and sometimes drink".

Answer: Place a drum on the ground and put your ear against it

"In the stillness of the night sounds carry further than by day. If you put your ear to the ground or place it against a stick, or especially against a drum, which is touching the ground, you will hear the shake of horses' hoofs or the thud of a man's footfall a long way off".

Answer: Put on a cap made of wolfs head skin with ears on it

Baden-Powell wrote; "...when peeping over a ridge or any place where the head might be seen against the sky-line put on a cap made of wolf's head skin with ears on it - so you may be mistaken for a wolf if seen".

Answer: Shake out your bed before climbing in and shake out your boots each morning

On snakes Baden-Powell wrote, "They have a horrid knack of creeping into tents and under blankets, or into boots. You will always notice an old hand in camp before he turns in at night look very carefully through his blankets, and in the morning before putting on his boots he will carefully shake them out. I even find myself doing it now in my bedroom at home, just from habit".

Answer: Old boots

I cite Baden-Powells' remarkable words; "if coals or wood are difficult to get for making fires, don't forget that old boots which you often find lying about on dustheaps, make very good fuel. You can do a good turn for any poor old woman in winter time by collecting old boots and giving them to her for firing".

Answer: He should use the inside of his coat

Herewith Mr. Baden-Powell's verbatim explanation; "To make bread the usual way is for a scout to take off his coat; spread it on the ground, with the inside uppermost (so that any mess he makes in it will not show outwardly when he wears the coat afterwards); then he makes a pile of flour on the coat and scoops out the centre until it forms a cup for the water which he then pours in hot; he then mixes the dough with a pinch or two of salt, and of baking powder or of Eno's Fruit Salt, and kneads and mixes it well together until it forms a lump of well-mixed dough."
Alas he makes no mention of quite how Mrs. Smith's little Charlie is to clean his rather expensive Barbour coat after this unholy concoction is produced.

I hope you have enjoyed this run through some of the quaint and dated theories of the remarkable Robert Baden-Powell. A great man who gave the world a great deal in his time through scouting. And so from an ageing Peewit Patrol leader with 3rd Flixton Troop, Manchester, England I bid you all dyb dyb dyb until my next venture into Quizzyland construction.