Red Indians versus Boys Brigades.
In the Grand Magazine for April Mr. E. T. Seton tells how he civilised the young hooligans of a village in Massachusetts by inviting them to play at being Red Indians. It is a very interesting story, and the idea may work where the boys are too tough to be touched even by a Boys' Brigade. In America the idea has caught on so well that there are now two hundred and thirty bands of Seton Indians in the United States. Mr. Seton got a friend, who had a park with a lake, to let him rig up some wigwams by the shore of the lake and invite the boys of the village to picnic there for a week-end, Indian fashion. The lads came, forty-two strong instead of the twelve who were invited; they elected the worst ruffian in their gang as head war-chief, and he enforced the laws of the tribe. The boys were allowed to stick feathers in their hair, but they had to earn them :—
So, taking the inter-scholastic athletics for my standard, I allowed a feather for all who were obviously in the highest class, thus: All who could walk four miles in an hour or run one hundred yards in eleven seconds were entitled to the decoration. The only cheap one was for swimming. All who could swim one hundred yards, no matter how slowly, got the swimming feather. This for athletics. In a second department, called Camper Craft, I allowed honours to all who could light a camp-fire with rubbing sticks or could measure the width of a river without crossing it, etc. The third department was Nature Study, and honours were allowed to all who could name correctly twenty-five trees, fifty flowers, fifty birds, etc.
I had already invented a game called deer-hunting, in which a dummy was pursued by its tracks of paper or corn, and shot with arrows; a hostile spy-hunt, a bear-hunt, a rabbit-hunt, a man-hunt, spearing the big beaver, trials of quicksight and farsight, were all prepared and lying in wait with their invidious appeal to the primitive nature of these very primitive young persons. There was sanity in every part of the scheme, because it had picturesqueness; it made the boys govern themselves, and it gave them things to do; and, above all, it never failed to play on the master passion of the savage — the love of glory. That was always kept in mind. It was used as the lure, the lash, and the motive power to get these boys into different ways of life and thought. Its success far exceeded my highest expectations. Rough and wild boys might defy the teacher, and scoff at the opinions of their elders, but they cannot scoff at the public opinions of their playmates, nor defy the playmates who are able and ready to inflict condign corporal punishment. There was no harm done to boats, teepees, or outnº, other than fair wear and tear during that camping.
The experiment was a huge success. The boys became civilised, their leader became a reputable citizen, and the idea of playing honest Injun spread far and wide. The worst of this method is, that it requires a genius like Mr. Seton to set it going and to keep it going. But the scheme may give hints upon which others might act who have to do with young hooligans.
