Handbook book club, #1

Surprisingly enough, very little of the Handbook’s text is actually badge-related information. Rather, of the 400-odd pages, only 20 contain badge requirements. The remainder is an assortment of information about how a Scout ought to live, discourses on chivalry, and instructions for preparing frogs’ legs for a camp dinner (if frying, serve with watercress).

More than anything, the Handbook is a prescriptive document for the healthy boy of the early twentieth century — if he wants to be strong and competent, he needs little more than to follow these instructions. It’s a step-by-step guide for becoming unquestionably manly.

The first section of the Handbook deals with the history of scouting, tracing it back to King Arthur and the Crusaders, who would unquestionably (we learn) have been Boy Scouts. Interestingly, the section also gives a nod to the Civil War soldiers who kept the United States together — interesting because the Civil War, to these folks, was really a piece of living memory, no more remote than the MLK’s march on Washington to us. (I’m being completely accurate here — from the surrender at Appomattox to the 1911 publishing of the Handbook was 46 years. 1963 to 2009? You guessed it.)

The Handbook also addresses virtue — kindness to animals, faithfulness to duty, that sort of thing. The scout is directed also towards physical hardiness and instructed to sleep “with the windows of his bedroom open both summer and winter,” and to take cold baths with rough towels. This is supposed to make him better able to endure hardship, and has the added bonus of exfoliated and minimizing pores. (The Handbook actually says this last part!) (No it doesn’t.)

One more thing: a scout should always, always breathe through the nose, never the mouth. No particular reason is given, though it's something I feel quite strongly about, too.