A large number of the best sportsmen, soldiers, sailors, and others, do not smoke—they find they can do better without it.
No boy ever began smoking because he liked it, but generally because either he feared being chaffed by the other boys as afraid to smoke, or because he thought that by smoking he would look like a great man—when all the time he only looks like a little ass.
So just make up your mind for yourself that you don’t mean to smoke till you are grown up, and stick to it. That will show you to be a man much more than any slobbering about with a half-smoked cigarette between your lips. The other fellows will in the end respect you much more, and will probably in many cases secretly follow your lead.
Drinking
A soldierly-looking man came up to me one night and brought out his discharge certificates, showing that he had served with me in South Africa. He said he could get no work, and he was starving—every man’s hand was against him, apparently because he
was a soldier. My nose and eyes told me in a moment another tale, and that was the real cause of his distress.
A stale smell of tobacco and beer hung about his clothes, his finger-tips were yellow with cigarette smoke, he had even taken some kind of scented lozenge to try to hide the whisky smell in his breath. No wonder nobody would employ him, or give him more money to drink with, for that was all that he would do with money if he got it.
Much of the poverty and distress in the world is brought about by men getting into the habit of wasting their money and time on drink. And a great deal of crime, and also of illness, and even madness, is due to the habit of drinking too much.
The old saying, “Strong drink makes weak men”, is a very true one.
It would be simply impossible for a man who drinks to be a Scout. Keep off liquor from the very first, and make up your mind to have nothing to do with it. Water, tea, or coffee are quite good enough drinks for quenching your thirst or for picking you up at any time, or, if it is very hot, lemonade or a squeeze of lemon are much better refreshment.
On the Hike
A good Scout trains himself pretty well to do without liquid. It is very much a matter of habit. If you keep your mouth shut when walking or running, or keep a pebble in your mouth (which also makes you keep your mouth shut), you do not get thirsty as you do when you go along with your mouth open, sucking in the air and dry dust. But you must also be in good hard condition. If you are fat from want of exercise, you are sure to get thirsty and want to drink every mile. If you do not let yourself drink, the thirst wears off after a short time. If you keep drinking water on the line of march, or while playing games, it helps to tire you and spoils your
wind.
“Standing Treat”
It is often difficult to avoid taking strong drinks when you meet friends who want to treat you, but they generally like you all the better if you say you don’t want anything, as then they don’t have to pay for it. If they insist you can take something quite harmless. Wasters like to stand about a bar talking and sipping—generally at the other fellow’s expense—but they are wasters, and it
is as well to keep out of their company, if you want to get on and have a good time. Remember that drink never yet cured a single trouble—it only makes troubles grow worse and worse the more you go on with it. It makes a man forget for a few hours what exactly his trouble is, but it also makes him forget everything else. If he has wife and children, it makes him forget that his duty is to work and help them out of their difficulties, instead of making himself all the more unfit to work.
Men who get into the habit of drinki ng often rui n their own health and the happiness of themselves and their families. The old saying “Strong drink makes weak men,” is a very true one.
Some men drink because they like the feeling of getting half stupid, but they are fools, because once they take to drink no employer will trust them, and they soon become unemployed and easily get ill. There is nothing manly about getting drunk. Once a man gives way to drink it ruins his health, his career, and his happiness, as well as that of his family. There is only one cure for this disease, and that is—never to get it.
Continence
Smoking and drinking are things that tempt some fellows and not others, but there is one temptation that is pretty sure to come to you at one time or another, and I want just to warn you against it.
A Scout is “clean in thought, word and deed.”
He knows what to do to the fellow who talks smut.
You would probably be surprised if you knew how many boys have written to me thanking me for what I have written on this subject, so I expect there are more who will be glad of a word of advice against the secret vice which gets hold of so many fellows. Smoking and drinking and gambling are men’s vices and therefore attract some boys, but this secret vice is not a man’s vice—men have nothing but contempt for a fellow who gives way to it.
Some boys, like those who start smoking, think it is a very fine and manly thing to tell or listen to dirty stories, but it only shows them to be little fools.
Yet such talk and the reading of trashy books or looking at lewd pictures are very apt to lead a thoughtless boy into the temptation of self-abuse. This is a most dangerous thing for him, for, should it become a habit, it tends to lower both health and spirits.
But if you have any manliness in you, you will throw off such temptation at once. You will stop looking at the books and listening to the stories, and will give yourself something else to think about.
Sometimes the desire is brought on by indigestion, or from eating too rich food, or from constipation or from sleeping in too warm a bed with too many blankets. It can therefore be cured by correcting these, and by bathing at once in cold water, or by exercising the upper part of the body by arm exercises, boxing, etc.
It may seem difficult to overcome the temptation the first time, but when you have done so once it will he easier afterwards.
If you still have trouble about it, do not make a secret of it, but go to your father, or your Scoutmaster, and talk it over with him, and all will come right.
Early Rising
The Scout’s time for being most active is in the early morning. because that is the time when wild animals do their feeding and moving about.
So a Scout trains himself to the habit of getting up early. When once he is in the habit it is no trouble at all to him, as it is to some fat fellows who lie asleep after the daylight has come.
The Duke of Wellington, who preferred to sleep on a little camp bed, used to say, “When it is time to turn over in bed it is time to turn out”.
Many men who manage to get through more work than others in a day, do so by getting up an hour or two earlier. By getting up early you also can get more time for play.
If you get up one hour earlier than other people, you get thirty hours a month more of life than they do. While they have twelve months in the year, you get 365 extra daylight hours, or thirty more days—that is, thirteen months to their twelve.