Yarns for Bay Scouts. By Lieutenant-General Baden-Powell. (C. Arthur Pearson.
2s.)—Wo are none of us too old to enjoy General Baden-Powell's fund of reminiscence and anecdote. If any man can point the moral and adorn the tale—for the Boy Scouts—it is the founder of that excellent organisation. We are none of us too old to learn either, and the anther solves all things, new and old, in a most attractive form. How few of us realise that scouting applies to all conditions of life, and that powers of deduction encouraged in early youth may become invaluable in later years. The General tells us how he found plenty of scope for scouting in a town, the moral of it all being that nowhere are properly developed powers of observation at a discount. The value of much that he places in the curriculum of the Scout is enhanced by its simplicity. Men who have regularly practised a few exercises on rising have been astonished at the pliancy and firmness they give to the muscles. Here he quotes most appositely from an account by a Mohammedan student of the daily exercises required of him by his religion, literally praying with the body. The anecdote which points the moral is that related by W. C. Oswell, the General's uncle, who, accustomed to pulling himself up on the horizontal bar, escaped the charge of an African buffalo by seizing hold of the bough of a mimosa-tree and pilling his knees up to his chin. There are some much-needed words of warning as to smoking, and the Great Napoleon is quoted very much to the point. It was his first cigar—we are not told that it was an " Intimidad"—and he threw it away, ejaculating: "Oh, the swine ! my stomach turns !" and resolved to touch tobacco no more. In our opinion, there is no gift-book that could be put into the hands of a schoolboy more valuable than this fascinating Yarns for Boy Scouts, and if you asked the boy's opinion he would probably add—no book that he liked better.
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