(Chapter 3)
ROCK NUMBER TWOWINE"WINE ?" The story used to be told of an army officer who was never without a glass of wine or other alcohol at his elbow. Then came the occasion when no liquor was at hand and so, unperturbed, he drank some furniture polish. When the doctor said to him, "But do you mean to say that you could get no water?" The colonel replied, "My good sir, you can't have ever had a real thirst on you or you would know that that's not the time for thinking about having a wash." THAT THIRD GLASS Wine? I like a glass of good wine-for its flavour, its colour and refreshment. And equally I like a glass of beer or cider in its turn. Somehow a second glass seldom appeals to me so much as the first, because the flavour no longer strikes one with its novelty and the first edge of appetite has worn off. As for the third glass, the man who is wise knows that there is "poison in the cup", that the sugars and other chemicals contained in the liquor don't in the end do you great good. It is the third glass-if not the second-that puts you out of condition for running and exercise; and a young man will keep his eye on it accordingly. In my regiment we worked on the principle that officers and non-commissioned officers led their men by example rather than by command, and on this principle I held that one or two of the sergeants were too large round the waist to be able to nip on to or off their horses as quickly as they should do in showing their men the way. So I gave out the warning that in three months time any officer or N.C.O. whose circumference made him too slow for his position would be likely to lose it, and that in the meantime he would do well to lose some of his superfluous tissue. I added that the trick might be accomplished by a little more exercise daily and a good deal less beer. STOUT THE CAUSE -STOUT THE EFFECT. The results were surprising and entirely satisfactory. It was that third glass that had done the harm. But third glasses do worse than this, they lead to fourth and fifth and "sisssth glass"- and then the trouble begins, and the imbiber, clinging to the lamp-post, asks, "Is this Christmas Day or Piccadilly?" THE BETWEEN-MEALS GLASS I knew a wonderfully capable engineer, indeed a genius in his way; he would have been famous by now had he not been, as he expressed it, a "twenty minutes man," that is, he never went longer than twenty minutes between drinks. Which reminds me of an American admiral of my early days, who, when I offered him a glass of something, said, "No, sir; I never drink between drinks." And this brings me to my point, that it is the drinking between your eats that does the harm. If fellows only drank liquor at meal-time I believe that there would be no such thing as drunkenness, and certainly they would be twice as healthy. Reverting to my regiment again (I warn you, you will be awfully bored by "me and my regiment" before you have done with this book; but I only want to give you actual experiences towards navigating those "rocks", so you must forgive me), I allowed the men, against all the regu- lations, to have beer with their dinner and with the hot suppers which were a regimental institution. As a consequence, drinking at the canteen bar died down to such small proportions that on one occasion I had to present a pair of white gloves to the canteen steward because he had had a blank day when not a man entered the canteen. TEMPTATION TO GOOD FELLOWSHIP THE FIRST STEP A well-wisher was trying to get a drunkard to see the error of his ways and to make a better man of him, but old bottle nose suddenly interrupted him with the remark, "You talk as if you had never been drunk yourself." "Drunk? I should hope not indeed." "Then what do you know about it? Don't talk to me. Go and get drunk yourself and learn something of the temptation-and the joy of it. And then talk I" Well, there is a certain amount of temptation about it, particularly if you let yourself become one of a herd. I suppose half the men who take to drink get drawn into it in the first place by companionship and supposed good fellow- ship with a lot of other fellows. A lad first coming out into the world feels that he must do as others do in order to show that he is one of them-"one of the bhoys!" Nine out of ten boys begin smoking for that reason- largely out of bravado. If a boy grew up, say on a ranch, where the men happened to be abstainers, but where tobacco and whisky were avail- able if he wanted them, I don't believe that he would take to them of his own accord. Both are very nasty to the beginner, and taking to either is largely a matter of"because the other chaps do it". And it is mighty difficult when you are in the company of others round a bar not to join them in drinks and this leads to that "sisssth" glass, and to hilarity and row. Goodness knows I don't object to high spirits and occa- sional rowdiness. These are natural to young men even without the help of alcohol. I have enjoyed them myself most heartily, and played the fool to an extent that I should be ashamed of now if I did not recognize that it was all part of the nature of the lad growing into manhood. I well recall a game we used to play called "The Bound- mg Brothers of the Bosphorous!" You pile all the furniture in the room into a pyramid, legs of the chairs upwards for choice, and place a good solid table well out in front of it. Then each competitor takes it in turn to run at the table, turn head over heels on it, landing on the pyramid and not forgetting to shout as he does so, "I am a bounding Brother of the Bosphorous." For the life of me I can't see the fun of it now-but I did then. But that is just the sort of ass a young fellow is. The joy of being a Bounding Brother is, however, entirely different from the false hilarity brought A BOUNDING BROTHER about by too much drink. Drink is not necessary to enable a young man enjoy himself. Indeed, he can do it just as noisily and far more effectively without. THE SOLITARY SOAKER IS A WASTER Apart from the good~fellowship temptation to drink there is also the more potent individual one, that of trying to forget personal miseries of mind or surroundings by "drowning your troubles in the flowing bowl". Continued bad luck in your dealings, depression from ill- health or disappointment, an unhappy home and drab surroundings, all tempt a man to the easy refuge of a glass too much. But it is not good business. The toper may say, "It is all very well to talk, but what is a man to do? After all, if it does give him a spell of contentment, why not let him take his dram?" Well, the objection is that if he lets it get a hold of him he will eventually lose control of will, and he loses his energy; and these two points are the main things in "character". Once he has got the drink habit firmly established, he is liable to give in to each other temptation as it comes along- and that is no foundation for a life of happiness. The hard-headed fellow who has character in him will never be carried out of his depth by the herd; he will know when to stop. But not so the weakling who has always been content to follow the crowd. He will find in time of need that he lacks the grit to take up arms against his sea of troubles because he has never been accustomed to take a decision for himself. In some countries attempts have been made to curb the dangers of excessive drinking by placing a total ban on the sale of all liquor. In Mahommedan countries it is sup- pressed by a religion that holds the mass of the people. In other countries it is banned by law. The worst of such measures is that they lead a lot of people to dodge the law. Moreover, prohibition offends the sense of free people who prefer to impose their own disciplines, and who resent them being pressed upon them by reformers, however well- meaning. And in this respect, I am glad to say, self-discipline is growing with each year that passes. When I first joined the army it was quite usual for the men and officers to get drunk on festive occasions and nothing~ was thought of nothiit. Today if an officer were to exceed the limit in a good regiment he would be told pretty forcibly that "it is not done" and would find himself fired out if he went on with it. One sees regiments nowadays embarking for foreign service with every man present and sober, just as if turning out for an ordinary parade. But in my early days it was no unusual thing for half of those present to be helped, if not lifted, into the train or aboard the transport. Saturday nights in manufacturing towns used to mean streets full of rowdy fighting drunkards, where now one sees nothing but orderly crowds of happy, sociable people. Improved character and improved surroundings are doing their work, though there is still an immense field for their development. I believe in the rising generation of young citizens. They have ambition. They want to be manly fellows, fit to play their parts in games and in life. Prohibition is not needed in a nation of character; the Oncoming generation will see to its own reformation. THE FORCE OF EXAMPLE I have a great respect for the opinion of any honest outside critic, and I have found the uncivilised savage of Africa or the Pacific Islands as simple-minded and honest a critic as one could want, and a very good judge of character. Among both these people I have heard the same verdict pronounced: "If the English white man says he will pay us we give him the goods. He will pay. But it is not so with all white men." That is the reputation we hold, and it is one which we ought to uphold. But even the "English white man" did not, I am afraid, come up to sample in every case. And that is where our missionaries are heavily handicapped in their work. I remember an old Queen-Mother of the Swazis telling us how the missionaries had come and had explained to her and her people the blessings of Christianity and how under its beneficent influence men were honest and straight in all their dealings, sober and truthful, charitable and helpful to others. So her people welcomed the arrival of white traders and settlers and gave them land and helped them to build their homes. Then they found that these men instead of being grateful and helpful to others were helpful only to themselves. They took the native cattle, they promised payment but gave it more in the form of kicks than halfpence. They imported whisky in liberal quantities for their own use, and trade gin for the benefit of the natives. The old queen told us how her warriors had asked leave to kill off these insidious destroyers of the nation. She had no belief now in a religion which professed one thing and did the opposite. We could not help sympathising with her, and possibly we rather over-did it. For when she was leaving us she turned SWAZI QUEEN. and asked if we had really meant what we said. When we strenuously affirmed this, she asked us to make good our word by presenting her with a case of gin! Such is the force of example. SMOKING I have harped a bit on drink because taken to excess it can be the cause of much crime and misery. It is therefore a danger to both the individual and the State, and is a rock most strenuously to be avoided. But there are some other forms of self~indulgence that a young man will do well to guard against. For the boy there is the danger of smoking. Someone asked me recently: "What is the order against Scouts smoking?" My reply was that there was no order at all, but every Scout knows that the boy who smokes is rather foolish and we have an understanding in the movement that "A Scout is not a fool" No boy begins to smoke because he likes it: he hates it at first, but he does it out of swank, in order to look manly, as he thinks. It's really rather silly when you come to think of it that a cheerful young man should embark on a habit that he cannot afford and does not like for no better reason than that he is scared to be different from the rest. Then there is the question of the effect of smoking on one's health. It has long been acknowledged, even by the heaviest smokers, that tobacco rapidly impairs the wind and is therefore to be avoided by all who are seriously interested in athletic pursuits. But, of course, it doesn't end there. It actively attacks such vital organs as the heart and lungs, which surely should be good enough reason for any young lad to leave it strictly alone. There is no hardship not to smoke when the desire is not there. The difficulty comes only in the breaking of a long-cultivated habit. Avoid the habit and the problem ceases to exist. I used to be a bit of a smoker myself~ that is a smoker of pipes, until I came to be associated with some American frontiersmen who had served as scouts in wars with the Red Indians. None of them smoked and they smiled at me indulgently as a tenderfoot for doing do. They explained that smoking was apt to play Old Harry with your eyesight, wind, and sense of smell; and sense of smell was invaluable to a scout for his work at night. So I chucked smoking then and there, and have never taken to it again. I am all the better in health and certainly in pocket for the abstention. OVER-FEEDING When I was besieged in Mafeking we all had to live on a very reduced ration of food, and it was interesting to see how this affected the different people in the garrison. And it affected them in remarkably different ways. Some remained much the same, many were visibly reduced, and I do believe that one or two got fatter on it. But the test came at the end of the seven months, when I called for volunteers to make a sally against the enemy. I asked for those who felt themselves capable of marching five miles, and, though everybody wanted to join in, we very soon found that only a small proportion of them could stand even this mild test. But it was quite evident that the men who were most capable of doing the required work were those who had been all their lives temperate in eating, drinking and smoking. The same results were found during an expedition in which I took part off the West Coast of Africa through the swamps and forest of Ashanti-a region that is popularly known as ~'The White Man's Grave". Those men who had lived fatly and well in their ordinary life went down like ninepins. It was the moderate feeders and the active men who survived. Incidentally on that trip one discovered that meat was not a necessary part of man's food. For a long time I lived on nothing but bananas and plantains, and, though we were buried in a deep, dank forest where we seldom saw the light of the sun, and the scent in the atmosphere was like that of an old cabbage garden, from vegetation rotting in the swamp, I was never fitter in all my life, and averaged my twenty miles a day marching with a light heart if a thin tummy. OVER-SLEEPING Over-sleeping is another indulgence which people seldom take into consideration, but the Japanese have a theory that every hour of sleep, above what is essential for resting and restoring the energy of brain and limb, is harmful and encourages the growth of fat. So if a man finds he is getting corpulent, he knocks an hour off his sleep each night, and per contra if he finds himself too skinny, he sleeps an extra hour or two for a few weeks until he has attained a satisfactory amount of sleekness. If you want to rest your body, read a good book; if you want to rest your mind, play football or go fishing. OVER-STRENGTH IN LANGUAGE Another very common form of seif-indulgence, for that is what it amounts to, is swearing. For it shows want of self- control, and though it may relieve the feelings (and I have found it does so it is none the less a weakness which is apt to THE SOLDIER PULL OF STRANGE OATHS. grow worse the more you allow it a free rein. It does you no good, and if employed against others it does harm. It arouses bad feeling on their part, and in any case it knocks chunks off your own dignity. The truth is that swearing is too good a relief to be wasted, and should be kept for times of crisis. Napoleon once said of General Lannes, one of his most promising leaders: "That devil of a Lannes possesses every quality which makes a great soldier, but he never will be great because he gives way to temper in rebuking his officers. I consider that one of the greatest faults that a general can have." Lannes was privately told of this by General Marbot, who was a great friend of his and an aide~dc~camp of Napoleon. Lannes was eager to be a good general, and from that day on he took himself in hand and kept control of his temper and his tongue. He rose to be a Field-Marshal of France. How many Lannes in business may have failed to get promotion because they were known to have this failing? A swearer can never hope to be a leader of men, though he may try to drive. OVER-WORKING is another form of self-indulgence which some people go in for. Some, I said, not all! The publisher of this book, the late Herbert Jenkins, was one of the "some". I have a note of his before me as I write in which he said that he was working thirteen hours a day and could not get away from London for a night. I had known him some years and I don't remember when it was otherwise with him. He always worked thirteen hours a day. He died young, mainly from overwork. I was a bit amused to hear that a newspaper recently held a competition on the question of who were the three busiest men in the coun~try, and I found that I was bracketed with Mr. Lloyd George and the Prince of Wales. I no more deserved such implied praise than my hat (indeed less, for my hat has done a lot of overtime in these days of high prices). It is true that I am writing this at a quarter-past five on a bitter winter morning, but if I had not got up early all my life I should never have had time to get half the enjoyment that I have had out of it. Mind you, if you only take an hour extra per day it means three hundred and sixty-five hours per annum, or three weeks more of waking time than your average neigh- hour gets. Personally I reckon to get thirteen months of life into each year instead of twelve. Some people put in extra time at the other end of the day when body and mind are tired. There is nothing like the early morning for getting over your work. A man who takes a pride in his work gets a big measure of enjoyment out of it. I once spoke to a young engineer whom I found work- ing when a strike was on. I asked him how it was, and he said with pardonable pride: "Well, look at that bit of work. Isn't it nobby? I could not leave that." He stuck to it for the love of the thing. What a difference it makes when you work for love of the thing. MUCKY JOB, AIN'T IT, MATE? The only danger is for an over-keen worker that he should become a slave to his work and not give himself the right amount of recreation and rest. By rest I don't mean idleness but change of occupation. My own change of occupation varies pretty considerably. Once, for instance, it took the form of wading in a ~muddy stream to clear off the growth of weed. The job had its interest for me, but a greater interest for a loafer who Sat on the parapet of the bridge smoking his pipe and watching me with keen enjoyment as I worked. At last his curiosity overcame his satisfaction. "Mucky job, seemingly," he murmured. I agreed. I couldn't well do otherwise, being plastered, face to feet, with mud. "Now, how much do you get for that shift, mate?" "Oh, not a tanner an hour," I replied. "Gor blimey! Well, I'm bunkered if I'd do it!" And I didn't doubt him. PHYSICAL FITNESS HELPS SELF-CONTROL I had command of a force once where I did away with part of the ordinary equipment of the soldiers-namely, their water-bottles. It sounds cruel and at first the men thought it was so, but as they got into fit condition they found they never needed water, they were relieved of this heavy weight banging on their hips, and could march three times as well as other troops. Moreover, they did not get diarrhoea or typhoid as the others did. The reason for this was that when ~en had water-bottles they drank them dry within the first hour of marching. After swilling their insides in this way they found them- selves thirstier than ever and filled up their water-bottles from the first stream or pool they came across, and hence disease and sickness. It is one of the signs of being "fit" that you seldom feel thirsty. A man gets himself fit for football or other athletic work and could not possibly carry it out otherwise; but be seems to forget this when he is dealing with the work on which his pay and promotion depend. If he kept him- self bodily in condition at all times he would do his work and enjoy his leisure twice as well. He would take care to keep clear of those between-meals sips, and he would live to a hundred. UNCLE JOHN SHELL "Last year 'Uncle' John Shell returned home to find his wife dead. Her relatives took charge of the funeral arrangements, and decided to take his little son, aged seven, to live with them. Uncle John protested strongly, but they took him away. Uncle John thereupon went into the house, got his old flintlock rifle, which he had himself made more than a century ago, and mounting on his mule, went in pursuit. He overtook his father-in-law on the road and with his gun forced him to give up the boy." "One hundred and thirty-two years old-and hard- boiled!" Yes. It is not a misprint. According to the authentic account published in the Landmare in 1920, old John Shell was born in Knoxville on September 3rd, 1788, and was alive and hearty. The son who figured in the case was only seven, but his eldest son was over ninety, and he had twenty-seven children in between these. The old boy was a farmer, and gave as his recipe for living long: "Work hard, but don't over-work. Too much work is as bad as too little. Take the food and sleep that your body needs, and a little fun besides, every day." But he had never drank anything stronger than water. AMUSEMENTS One little form of "fun" in which I sometimes indulge myself when I have had too long a day in office or at com- mittee work is to go to a music-hall or a cinema. I have been urging ACTIVE change of occupation as your best recreation. I have no defence for this occasional lapsing into being passively amused by others. At a cinema I get into a restful, half-asleep condition, with a story put up in pictures before my eyes, and if it is a rotten story, as too often it is, I go quietly to sleep. For a music-hall show I prefer one where there is a tramp cyclist, or the champion smasher of plates or the fellow with a spring necktie. A good dose of laughing is to me like a bath for the brain. At the same time, I don't deny I get dreadfully bored with three-quarters of the show, with the old chestnuts about smelly fish and mothers-in-law, and the nasty little meaning sometimes put into their words by actors who cannot raise a laugh on their merits as humorists. If it were all clean fun at the halls I believe the audience would like it all the better, and it would pay the manage- ment all the better. Men of to-day are cleaner minded than they used to be, and it is up to you, the rising generation of young men, to continue that improvement if only for the sake of your own self-~respect. There are many other weaknesses and points of self- indulgence which I have not referred to here, but which you can find for yourself by carefully examining your own character and habits. Many of them may have been un- suspected hitherto, but when you find them for yourself, instead of having them pointed out by others, you may look on them as already well on the way to being cured. I have indicated some few of these in the last chapter, together with their antidotes. THE WAY ROUND THE ROCK So you see that this rock labelled "Wine" that crops up in your fairway is really that of selfindulgenre. By that I mean letting your inclination run away with you, whether it be in over-drinking, over~smoking, over-eating, or any other form of luxury. Self-indulgence may spell ruin to the individual and harm to the community. It is largely the result of drifting with the herd around you, with your back to the danger. But by looking ahead and paddling your own canoe for yourself with self-control you can navigate yourself safely round to the sunny side of the rock, thereby acquiring strengthened character that will make you secure against other temptations to weakness. And so it will help you on your way to success. SELF-CONTROL There are various ingredients that go to make character. The kind of character I mean that practically makes a man a man, or, better, a gentleman. Of these the first is self-control. A man who can control himself, his anger, his fear, his temptations~everything, in fact, except his conscience and his sham~that man is well on the way to being a gentleman. By "gentleman" I don't mean a toff with spats and eye- glass and money, but a "White Man", a fellow whose honour you can rely upon through thick and thin to deal straight, to be chivalrous and to be helpful. Self-control is the point in which Britons are particu- larly strong as a rule. Indeed we are inclined to hide our feelings so thoroughly that foreigners often think we are unobservant and unsympathetic, but they allow that we can be relied upon to keep our heads in an emergency. Well, that is something at all events; but I believe that we can do a lot more through self-control. It certainly enables us to stand up against temptations successfully. It is a thing that can be cultivated and ought to be cultivated by everyone who means to have character. People often laugh at the Law of the Scout which says that when a boy is in trouble, danger or pain he should force himself to smile and to whistle and this will immedi- ately alter his outlook. Yet I do not know anyone who has not approved the idea when once he has tried it for himself. It undoubtedly has the desired effect, and also the more it is practised the more seif-control develops itself as a habit, and therefore as part of one's character. I once had to crawl into a patch of thick thorn-bush after a lion which I was hunting. I was in a mortal funk all the time, but my Zulu tracker was keen on it and planned that if the lion charged he would cover me with his shield. Though I self the lion, I control still more the contempt of my Zulu. So I crawled in-and, I can tell you I was mightily relieved when, after poking about for a time, we found that the lion had bolted out another way. It came about that later on, in India, I was obliged to repeat the performance with a wild boar. We had been hunting him on horseback, with spears, and had severely wounded him when he got into a thick strip of jungle from which the beaters could not dislodge him. They went through the covert, making lots of noise, but came out at the far end saying that he was not there. Well, we knew that he was there, as we had watched all the exits. THE PLAN WAS QUITE SIMPLE-ESPECIALLY FOR THE LION. So having cheaply earned the reputation for that kind of game, I had to dismount and go in with the beaters to encourage them in their second attempt. We found him right enough~or rather he found me. In the middle of the thickest part of the jungle I suddenly heard a crash and a roaring grunt as the great beast charged out at me from his hiding-place. I had my spear levelled for him, so that in his rush he charged straight on to it and got it full into his chest. But the force with which he came threw me over fiat on my back. Keeping tight hold of the Spear, I was able to hold him just sufficiently far back to prevent him from ripping me up the waistcoat with his tusks. This he was pretty eager to do, and he went at it with great zest, trying to push me farther down; but I jammed the butt-end of the spear into the ground behind me and so managed to hold him. The beaters, stout fellows, vied with each other in getting outside the jungle to tell the other hunters how I had been killed! These presently came crashing along with their spears and soon put an end to Mr. Boar and relieved me from his attentions. But, do you know, after a time-nasty as we had thought the job at first-we actually got to rather like the excite- ment of this method of finishing the fight, and so whenever we had a boar badly wounded we dismounted and went at him on foot. I expect that had there been more dragons around in St. George's time, he would, after getting over his first fear of them so successfully, have probably taken to dragon slaying as a regular pastime. Yes. If you take yourself in hand and force yourself to face a difficult or dangerous-looking job, it will come all the easier the next time. Self-control not only enables you to master bad habits, but also gives you command of your very thoughts. And this is a point of vital importance for your happiness. Force yourself always to see the bright lining that lies behind the darkest cloud and you will be able to face a black outlook with full confidence. Anxiety is depressed thought, and once you have mas- tered this, by being able to substitute bright hopefulness, you need never have recourse to drink to give you either Dutch courage or oblivion. A great boon that comes of the practice of self-control is the ability that you gain to switch your thoughts off any unpleasant subject and to think of something satisfying~ing and jolly. If you take trouble you Can cultivate this habit of switching off a brain-cell that is harbouring bad thoughts and opening a fresh cell with good ideals in it. In this way you may make a new man of yourself. SELF-DISCIPLINE OF GENERAL NOGI The celebrated Japanese general, General Nogi, once explained in my presence how ho had trained himself to self-control and courage. It was a matter of self-discipline. He had begun life as a weekly youth with a nervous dis- position, but his will-power was such that he recognised his weakness and determined to overcome it. Whenever he had to face some ordeal which he did not like or which he feared, he forced himself on principle to go through with it, and repeated the performance whenever he could get an opportunity in order finally to subdue his weakness. He eventually freed himself from the tyranny of fear. He became the boldest leader and the most intrepid soldier of his time. When his son was killed in action he made no sign lest grief on his part should cause depression among others. But none the less he felt very deeply. When his Emperor died he felt as a faithful servant that he himself should no longer live: and he killed himself with his own hand. A wonderful example of self-command over fear and pain. SELF-CONTROL MAKES THE GENTLEMAN Old William of Wykenham declared long ago that "Man- ners makyth Man," and he was right. A real man is courteous; that is, he shows deference, human sympathy and unbreakable good~humour. It makes him a gentleman, and I have seen it very truly said that it is just as hard for a duke as a bricklayer to be a gentleman. I used to play polo against a certain team who had a very good black player; but he had his weak spot, he had a bad temper. So one only had to bump into him once or catch his stick just as he was about to hit the ball (both allowable in the game) and he lost his temper, and with it his head, for the rest of the game, and was perfectly useless to his side. It is much the same in discussion or debate; if your adversary cannot control his temper you have him at your mercy- that is if you can control your own. One often sees it in the acrimonious correspondence in the newspapers. It is generally the sign of a small mind when an angry man rushes "to write to the papers". He shows the childish spirit of "I shan't play in your yard any more. I'll go and tell mother of you." Remember this, "If you are in the right there is no need to lose your temper; if you are in the wrong you can't afford to." Go ahead on that-behave like a gentleman with polite- ness and self-control, and you will win every time where your opponent lacks these qualities. LOYALTY Another point that tends to make character is loyalty to others, and more especially loyalty to oneself. Loyalty is an outstanding point in character. Sir Ernest Shackleton, before he went on his last cruise in the Quest,~est, once said that in the Antarctic, when things were at their darkest and death by slow starvation seemed certain, he overheard the following conversation between two of his men: "I don't think we'll get through," said one voice. "That's the Boss's t,," came the rejoinder. It brought home to him afresh, not only the responsibility of leadership, but its loneliness. "Leadership," he said, "is a fine thing, but it has its penalties. And the greatest penalty is loneliness. "You feel you must not tell your men everything "You often have to hide from them," he said, "not only the truth, but your feelings about the truth. You may know that the facts are dead against you, but you mustn't say so. One thing only makes Antarctic leadership pos- sible, and that's loyalty. The loyalty of your men is the most sacred trust you carry. It is something which must never be betrayed, something you must live up to. "No words can do justice to their courage and their cheerfulness. To be brave cheerily, to be patient with a glad heart, to stand the agonies of thirst with laughter and song, to walk beside Death for months and never be sad- that's the spirit that makes courage worth having. I loved my men." Personally, I can fully endorse every sentence of Shackle- ton's from the experience of Mafeking, which, though a smaller test in its way, embraced long-continued danger and hardship for the men. The same practice of cheerful whole-hearted loyalty on their part was the secret of our success there just as it was with Shackleton. In the same way loyalty would be the secret of success in any difficult work, whether it is in busi- ness or in the maintenance of the country. Loyalty is a very precious quality; it should be culti- vated and strongly held through thick and thin by any man who has a true sense of honour. At the same time there is in loyalty that which Shackle- ton does not particu]arly point out, although he practised it in a high degree, and it is one which adds enormously to the "loneliness" and to the heavy responsibility of a leader. The leader needs the loyalty of his men, but equally he must show loyalty to them, and that point is emphasised in the Scout Law where it says that "a Scout is loyal to his employers and to those under him." This side of loyalty often puts the leader in a difficult position when he has in a way to deceive his men, as Shackleton has suggested, by hiding the worst from them. I, too, have known it. And then, too, he has to be loyal to the cause for which he is working. There comes in the most difficult part of a leader's duty. For instance, few people realise the awful responsibility that rests on a general in the field when, with all the loyalty towards his men, he has to balance the fact that their lives are only a matter of to-day, while the result of a battle may mean everything for the future: and he has therefore to risk those men who are trusting him, for the sake of the greater consideration, the safety and welfare of the nation. These are things that have to be thought on when you are considering what is meant by loyalty and how you are to train yourself for leadership. But then there is also loyalty to yourself. Temptation comes along, conscience says "No". Inclination says "Yes". You either rise or let yourself down according to which you obey. If you are loyal to yourself you go up one. If you funk it and give way, down you go, and down goes your respect for yourself TRUTHFULNESS It was my job at one time to try and detect spies. Of course, a very common way of finding out a suspected man's nationality is to stamp on his toe and hear in what kind of language he expresses himself But a foreign spy-catcher once told me that if he suspected a man of being a British officer in disguise he had one infallible test: he would get him in conversation and take the first opportunity of calling him a liar. Although the officer might be marvellous at generally concealing his true character, if you call him a liar he can't help flaring up at the insult, and so gives him- self away Yes, it is true. That word "Liar" has a stab in it for an honourable man. I hate to hear the word used, as it often is, by boys or men in an unthinking way, when in argu- ing some ordinary question they say, "You're a liar." From hearing it often, I suppose they get accustomed to it, but the man of honour can never accustom himself to it. To him it is always the worst possible insult. SHAME MAKES A MAN AN OUTCAST Do you know what is one of the most tragic sights in this world? It is the sight of a man who is ashamed. One feels almost ashamed oneself to look upon it. I saw it once, for a few moments only, many years ago, but it has haunted me ever since. I was travelling on a railway extension, in the jungle in a far-off spot. Our train pulled up at a point where a white ganger and his native crew were at work. Instead of coming up, as these men generally did, full ofjoy at seeing the train, to get the latest news from the other world and to speak, if only for a few moments, with other white men, this ganger withdrew himself aside and turned his back upon us,only waiting for the train and its white folk to leave him again. I asked about him and learned that he had been a cavalry officer, well known as a cherry sportsman and a popular fellow. But the craving for drink had gradually got hold of him and had ruined him, and he was now what we saw him, an outcast, a man who was ashamed. "YOUNG FELLOWS ARE FULL OF GO, BUT EMPTY OF GUMPTION" "Young fellows are full of go, but empty of gumption." That is what someone has said of some of you. It re- minds me of an occasion when I was out reconnoitring in South Africa with a party of 7th Hussars, and in crossing a dry river bed we came across a lion. One of us had a shot at him and severely wounded him, but he managed to get away into a patch of thick reeds and rushes, into which it was impossible, or at any rate very unsafe, to follow him, as he had all the advantage of lying hid and had the pull of hearing and scenting anybody coming near his hiding-place. So we rapidly posted men on the look-out at different points round the covert to give information if he should come out. Our plan was, when all preparations had been made and men with rifles had been posted at likely spots, to set fire to the grass and drive him out. There was considerable delay about this as the reeds to the windward side were green and would not take fire. PEEP BO! YOUTH IS FULL OF GO, BUT EMPTY OF GUMPTION. I had a good place on a rock for seeing him should he come out in that direction, and was straining my eyes to catch a glimpse of him in the reeds. Suddenly my vigilance was rewarded. I saw a movement among the rushes, and as they.waved to and fro I perceived that the animal was coming in my direction. My heart thumped with excitement, I spat on my cartridge to bring it good luck, and I waited with my rifle ready at full cock to give him "what for" the moment he showed his nose. On he came, closer and closer, till he was within a few yards of me. I felt he was mine. I could not miss him at that distance. The reeds parted. I was on the point of firing, when instead of a lion there stood before me a farrier sergeant! One of the duties of a farrier sergeant when a horse gets badly damaged is to put it out of its pain. So this fellow, having seen that the lion was wounded, supposed that it was his duty to go in and finish it off. He did not reflect that his revolver would have been about as much good as a pea-shooter, and that the polishing off would have been done by the lion and not by the farrier. As it was, he nearly got it in the neck from me. But he was young in the ways of lions. They didn't come his way in Tooting. He had shown splendid go, but little gumption; and that is what many young fellows do in taking on the lions of real life for which they have had no preparation or warming. AUTO-SUGGESTION Self-control or self-mastery. has now become a scientific study, and many doctors have established a wonderful record of healing people from pain and illness through the effort of their own mind. In various directions you will have heard of remarkable cures being effected through "faith healing", that is by the patient believing that the evil will go from him. I suppose that most of us have at one time or another worked it to some extent upon ourselves. Say you have a wound in the leg. It hurts all over the limb; you feel likely to faint; you can scarcely put your foot to the ground. Ouch! How it hurts! Let's sit or lie down for a bit and groan. Well, there is another way of dealing with it. "Wound? So it is, quite a small hole, and the pain can only be just round the wound. No, not all up the leg, that is imagination. No, it is just at that one little spot, quite a small place, and therefore small pain. Hold yourself together, walk on and keep the leg moving so that it won't get stiff. Warm it up and it won't hurt. That's right, better already." The idea is that in order to cure yourself of your ailment, you must use your imagination rather than your will. A famous doctor once explained the difference thus: If you put an ordinary plank on the ground, you can walk along it with prefect ease. Put the same plank as a bridge between two house-tops, a hundred feet above the street, and you cannot cross it. Your will wants you to go in order to get to the other side, your imagination makes you think you will fall, and defeats your will. And that is their usual relationship to each other. Imagination wins the day. So if you are suffering you must concentrate your thoughts and imagine to yourself what relief you desire, imagine then that you are gradually getting it and you will presently find that you have got it. Auto-suggestion can not only ease pain, but it can equally cure bad memory, nervous fear, and more especially- and here lies its importance for young men-it can resist and conquer the desire for alcohol or tobacco, sex tempta- tion, and other forms of self-indulgence. HOW TOMMY TOMKINS DEFEATED DEATH That awful scourge of India, cholera, broke out in the regiment. Tommy Tomkins, a tough old soldier in my squadron, went down with it. In a few hours he was in a bad way. "Poor Tommy is 'for it'," was the verdict of the hospital sergeant. For the next forty-eight hours, however, he held on between life and death, and finally, to the surprise of every- body, he turned the corner. Later on when I went to see him convalescent in hospital he told me how he had conquered death. He knew he was dying; the doctor had as much as said so. The doctor then told the native attendant to set hot bottles or bricks at the patient's feet in order to keep him warm. The doctor went out, and the attendant, instead of bothering about the hot bottles, pulled out his hookah and squatted down in the corner to have a quiet smoke. This mightily enraged poor Tommy, who, though unable to move or speak, understood all that was going on. He swore to himself that if he could only get well again he ~would give that native such a rousing up as he would not forget in a hurry. He busied himself thinking what form of thrashing the punishment should take and how soon he would be able to get out of bed and administer it. He put all thoughts of death on one side in the more absorbing idea of getting a bit of his own back on that fellow. And so he came to life again. It was the force of will and imagination that pulled him through. I had just such another experience in my own case. I was pretty bad in hospital with dysentery when the news came that if I could only be well by a certain date I should ~get command of a column that was going off after the enemy. It seemed a hopeless task, but still I hoped. And I imagined to myself what I would do when in command, and I planned plans, while, at the same time, I tried hard to get better. The harder I tried, the better I got. Day after day passed by and I was convalescent, but when the eventful date arrived I just wasn't fit enough to be allowed to go. Two days later another man came in, also seriously ill with dysentery. My bed was wanted for him. As I gave it over to him he moaned that he was coming in to die. I told him, "Rot-I was much worse when I came in. Think of what you are going to do when you get out again." Next day I started out with an escort of three, and after a ride of eighty miles, through a risky country, I caught up the column and took charge of it. Meantime my successor in the bed imagined himself dying. He got worse and worse, and eventually did what he thought he would do~he died. SELF-CURE Well, this is really the art of auto~suggestion, by which a man can, tj he is determined, cure himself of many an illness and almost any weakness. If a man can defeat death by it, surely he can defeat drink or any other temptation. Don't forget it. If things at any time look difficult for you, or even impossible, think of a way by which you might have won success and then figure to yourself your winning it; and when your mind tells you that it is impossible, reply to it, "No, not if sible. I see what might be. I can try. I can win it. I can. I can. I CAN-and I will!" And ten to one you will succeed. Self-indulgence comes of centring your attention in your own sensual desires; its cure is to divert your interest from self to other things and people. Take up hobbies. GO in for active sympathy and helpfulness to others, and inci- dentally you will be gainer of new points in building your character. Individuality over-developed means self let loose, which is the very opposite of what we want. Individuality with character is another thing, it means a man with self- discipline, energy, ability, chivalry, loyalty, and other qualities that go to make a good man. And when these qualities are harnessed into the service of the community he is something more than a good man, he is a good citizen. WHAT OTHER FELLOWS HAVE SAID Self-respect, not self-esteem, breeds respect from others. Character has more value than any other attribute in life. Self-control is three parts of Character. Don't drink between your "eats". You cannot dream yourself into Character. You must hammer and forge it for yourself (Froude). Take advice from the thrush, when he says, "Stick to it, stick to it, stick to it." Consider the postage stamp, my son; its usefulness con- sists in its ability to stick to one thing until it gets there (Josh Billings). A man who has no refuge in ..... . is not properly a personality at all. He is one of a crowd, a taxpayer, an elector, but not a man. He who floats with the current, who has no ideal, no convictions, such a man is a mere article of world's furniture-a thing moved, instead of a living, moving being (Henri Amiel). When everything goes crooked And seems inclined to rile, Don't kick, nor fuss, nor fidget, Just-you-smile! When someone tries to "do" you By taking more than half; Be patient, firm and pleasant; Just-you-laugh. But if you find you're stuffy (Sometimes, of course, you will) And cannot smile, nor grin, nor laugh, Just-keep-still.Next Chapter Index |