Rovering To Success

Lord Baden-Powell

(Chapter 3)
ROCK NUMBER TWO

WINE


"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