CHAPTER I
CITY WOODCRAFT
Woodcraft in Town
Woodcraft in the beginning was the only science of man. It meant masterful touch with the things of his daily life, indoors and outdoors, near or far. So, also, by growth and transference we define Woodcraft in our city to-day as seeing, comprehending, and mastering the ordinary things of our daily life. The boy or girl who looks both ways before crossing the street, who knows what all the signs on the lamp-post mean, who avoids breathing through the mouth, especially when there is dust flying, who knows the warnings of the different colored lights, who knows the number on the motor car that rushed by so recklessly, who keeps the chest expanded and the toes nearly straight in walking, who can tell a man’s track from a woman ’s or a young man’s from that of an old man on the wet pavement, who realizes that the telephone book is the key to the business life of a city, who recognizes and acts on all the hand signals given by the traffic policeman—he is practising good Woodcraft and culti- vating something that in the life-game spells “SUCCESS.” There are three separate fields for Woodcraft in the city. The first is that of the incidental things of wild life that are found in our parks, suburbs, and water front. No less than one hundred forest trees, one hundred wild flowers, sixty different wild birds, twenty difi'erent furry fouI-foots, a dozen turtles, snakes, etc., are found in New York C1ty, while ever the same, overhead, are the stars. The second field is in the museums and libraries. Every one of our great cities is rich in material of priceless value, gathered here from the wilderness, stuff really relating to Woodcraft. The material is composed not only of collections of birds, animals, trees, etc. ., but of robes, boats, songs, dances, ceremonies, legends, pictures, carvings, and a myriad of things that stir the loving imagination of the red- blooded, blue-sky boy or girl. But the last 15 the largest and most important department, for
