Stránka:roll 1915.djvu/22

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Mock modesty has never served a good end. Indeed, all experience has disproved the idea that you can make men virtuous by covering up their bodies and bidding them be ashamed of the same.

Sunbath. The clothing mania has robbed us of the sunbath; we should take it at intervals, according to our strength and our needs. It is now known to be a cure for many diseases. The rest of the body would be as strong and resistant as the face, if equally well treated.

No hard or stiff garments. It is proved that stiff hats make men bald, stiff hard boots rob men's feet of their natural strength and elasticity, stiff clothes of any kind rob the body of its freedom and, in time, of its power to move; therefore we should work awav from them.

Sleeping outdoors. It seems unquestioned now that the white man has developed the white plague since he became a house animal, and the natural cure of open-air life should be assiduously cultivated. No man who sleeps out ever gets nervous breakdown. Sleeping out has restored many whose nerves were shattered.

Fasting for Grown-ups.

Simple life. We have vague hankerings for the Simple Life, which is merely a glorified primitive life – that is, a primitive life divested of the ills that ignorance begot in the primitive times. Our camp makes it quickly possible in full contrast with our city life.

Preserving the beauties of Wild Life and Landscape.

Cleanliness in camp and person. It is characteristic of the Woodcraft Indians that they leave the camp-ground at least as clean as they found it. Every scrap of paper, rags, cast-off clothing, and trace of garbage or offal is destroyed or buried. If it is a new camp-ground, it is left as clean and undefiled as before, and if it is an old one it is purified and blessed by the visit.