Percy Keese Fitzhugh
The Boys' Book of Scouts
language
( May 4, 2010)
This historic book was published in 1917.
Contents:
George Rogers Clark -- David Crockett -- Samuel Houston -- Christopher (Kit) Carson -- Richard Wooton -- William Frederick Cody -- Belzy Dodd -- George Croghan -- Daniel Boone -- Francis Marion -- Samuel Brady -- Lewis and Clark -- Zebulon Montgomery Pike -- Andrew Lewis -- General Henry W. Lawton -- Joseph, the Nez Percé -- Old John Smith -- Rube Stevens -- General George A. Custer -- James Bridger
Summary from the book's Preface:
As every boy knows, this great country of ours was in the begin-
ning a very little country, occupying a narrow strip of land along
the Atlantic Coast. The vast ocean washed against it, and
across this ocean brave men, heroic, intrepid, and adventurous,
had come, braving its perils, and had founded their little colonies
along its wild, rugged shore.
These men were explorers - water scouts, they might be called -
and their lives and deeds were marvels of prowess and adven-
ture.
But beyond this narrow strip of land lay another wilderness,
mysterious and unexplored, and as dark and perilous and track-
less as the wild ocean to the eastward. The thirteen colonies,
and later the little republic; lay between these two vast silent
wastes; and men soon found that of the two the watery one
was the easier to explore.
At least, it was not so difficult to estimate its perils. There were
storms and there were pirates; but at least there were no un-
known savages, no wild beasts, no frowning mountains, or
barren, wind-swept plains - no scorching sands.
This land ocean was as wide as the watery one and a great
deal more mysterious. The venturesome explorers and settlers
had solved one mystery only to find another. Miles and miles
of frowning wilderness stretched to the westward showing no
more sign of path or trail than the broad Atlantic had shown.
Ships were of no use here, and there were no other vehicles
which could be made use of.
Under the general heading of "Scout:, which means one who
goes ahead of an army to obtain information, we include here
men who did much more than that, who were scouts in a broader
sense, and whose adventurous deeds were not limited to their
military activities. Some of them went ahead not of an army,
but of civilization, felling forests and lighting, because they had
to fight the savages who challenged their advance. They are
associated in our minds quite as much with the axe as with the
gun, and the log cabin should be their emblem, for they were,
most of them, religious men and apostles of the home.
They began very early in our history pushing westward, and
continued pushing westward as civilization tagged on behind them.
These men, products of our own land and breathing its bold spirit,
are undoubtedly the most picturesque characters in history. They
were as much a wonder to Europeans as the red Indians himself
was. They were as resolute and as lofty of aim as the old
Crusaders.
The Boys' Book of Scouts is intended to tell of the remarkable
careers of some of the most conspicuous of these picturesque
characters, We are not to think of them as fighters or as "going
west to fight the Indians", for they went with no such purpose;
but they knew no fear, they shunned no peril, and they carried
their guns as well as their axes because they knew there was no
use going out to a lonely frontier with pinks in their buttonholes
and shaking tin rattles.
Contents:
George Rogers Clark -- David Crockett -- Samuel Houston -- Christopher (Kit) Carson -- Richard Wooton -- William Frederick Cody -- Belzy Dodd -- George Croghan -- Daniel Boone -- Francis Marion -- Samuel Brady -- Lewis and Clark -- Zebulon Montgomery Pike -- Andrew Lewis -- General Henry W. Lawton -- Joseph, the Nez Percé -- Old John Smith -- Rube Stevens -- General George A. Custer -- James Bridger
Summary from the book's Preface:
As every boy knows, this great country of ours was in the begin-
ning a very little country, occupying a narrow strip of land along
the Atlantic Coast. The vast ocean washed against it, and
across this ocean brave men, heroic, intrepid, and adventurous,
had come, braving its perils, and had founded their little colonies
along its wild, rugged shore.
These men were explorers - water scouts, they might be called -
and their lives and deeds were marvels of prowess and adven-
ture.
But beyond this narrow strip of land lay another wilderness,
mysterious and unexplored, and as dark and perilous and track-
less as the wild ocean to the eastward. The thirteen colonies,
and later the little republic; lay between these two vast silent
wastes; and men soon found that of the two the watery one
was the easier to explore.
At least, it was not so difficult to estimate its perils. There were
storms and there were pirates; but at least there were no un-
known savages, no wild beasts, no frowning mountains, or
barren, wind-swept plains - no scorching sands.
This land ocean was as wide as the watery one and a great
deal more mysterious. The venturesome explorers and settlers
had solved one mystery only to find another. Miles and miles
of frowning wilderness stretched to the westward showing no
more sign of path or trail than the broad Atlantic had shown.
Ships were of no use here, and there were no other vehicles
which could be made use of.
Under the general heading of "Scout:, which means one who
goes ahead of an army to obtain information, we include here
men who did much more than that, who were scouts in a broader
sense, and whose adventurous deeds were not limited to their
military activities. Some of them went ahead not of an army,
but of civilization, felling forests and lighting, because they had
to fight the savages who challenged their advance. They are
associated in our minds quite as much with the axe as with the
gun, and the log cabin should be their emblem, for they were,
most of them, religious men and apostles of the home.
They began very early in our history pushing westward, and
continued pushing westward as civilization tagged on behind them.
These men, products of our own land and breathing its bold spirit,
are undoubtedly the most picturesque characters in history. They
were as much a wonder to Europeans as the red Indians himself
was. They were as resolute and as lofty of aim as the old
Crusaders.
The Boys' Book of Scouts is intended to tell of the remarkable
careers of some of the most conspicuous of these picturesque
characters, We are not to think of them as fighters or as "going
west to fight the Indians", for they went with no such purpose;
but they knew no fear, they shunned no peril, and they carried
their guns as well as their axes because they knew there was no
use going out to a lonely frontier with pinks in their buttonholes
and shaking tin rattles.
- Pages
- 366
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