The Boy Pioneers of Utah

1082 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Oft the storm-king hurls the lightning From the bosom of the cloud, Mantles all the world in darkness, While his blasts are raging loud; Clutches with his icy fingers Heavy billows of the deep, Dashes them with awful fury 'Gainst the rugged mountain steep. But the train with steady motion Moves along its storm-swept way To the station of advancement, Toihe goal of brighter day. Ever onward, ever onward, With its heroes strong and brave Rolls the train of human progress With its truths that bless and save. When the storm-king quells his passion, When his rule of rage is o'er, Gentle peace subdues the ocean And his sceptre rules the shore, Then, oh then, the train of progress Rolls in triumph on its way O'er extensions of advancement, Through the vales of brighter day. 0 thou train of human progress, What a mighty host you bear! Men of might, undaunted heroes, Youths and maidens fresh and fair, Groups of happy, smiling children, With their flags of promise bright, All aboard the train of progress, Bound for lands of love and light.

THE TRAIN OF HUMAN PROGRESS. 1083 Ah, I love the train of progress, For it bears my fond desires; — Not the truth that won the battle, But the truth that now inspires Is the light the train of progress Uses when it makes the run Prom the glory of the moonlight To the glory of the sun. Hark! I hear its whistle screaming! Clear, oh, clear the shining track! I can see its search-light gleaming Through its vapors dank and black; I can hear the awful grinding Of the wheels upon the rail, As it whirls beyond the station Where the hopes of heroes fail. For the heroes had forgotten That the Lord had formed a plan To construct a great extension Far beyond the realms of man; That the road had been completed, And that all along the line Are the stations of advancement, Both the human and divine. This the soul of truth had told me, When the night was dark and drear; And I hushed my heart to listen To its voice so sweet and clear. Then I knew the train of progress Would forever make the run From the glory of the moonlight To the glory of the sun. Alfred Osmond. Provo, Utah.

The Boy Pioneers of Utah. BY EUGENE L. ROBERTS, DIRECTOR OF PHYSICAL TRAINING, BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY. The Boy Scout movement has awakened an interest and is gaining a firm foothold throughout the civilized world. The time is apparently ripe for such an organization with its primitive and healthful activities for the boys. Civilization has of late pro- gressed all too rapidly. Man has created for himself an artificial environment which is making of him an artificial and decidedly superficial creature. This is shortening his life and decreasing his efficiency. The world is experiencing an unprecedented age of city building. Cities in Europe as well as America whose popula- tion has remained almost stationary for a century or more have, during the last twenty-five or fifty years, doubled their numbers, ■s? fy }wg »ff Bj» ' B EfaJ fcr jM^ &, WPtP^HSil m ii! KIX ' nfl ^M^ m W? * i 4J&\£fF#i "s»^,.H „ F -111 mm IS .... 1dK4p ■■' ^tP»-**Jlrtn ,'^'_ ■' '.' ^F ■ V'3v? jffBHlfl i n **—«w3W«jS' ^E2. : ':»!"..'l - Photo by C. A. Wyman. MORNING CALISTHENIC EXERCISES AT A RECENT OUTING OF BOY SCOUTS IN UTAH~COUNTY.

THE BOY PIONEERS OF UTAH. 1085 while the country has been in danger of depopulation. This increase of the city and decrease of the country popula- tion is due to several modern causes, prominent anong which are manufacture, invention and the increase of fascinating but debili- tating pleasures associated with city life. The city has become a hot-bed of civilization where so called progress is ground out at the expense of thousands of lives yearly. Civilization and prog- ress may be necessary, but the sacrifice of so many human lives to produce these results is evidently a blundering waste. If it were not for the continual influx of vigorous men and women from the farms and fields into the cities— if it were not for this stream Photo by C. A. Wyman. LINEUP FOR ROLL CALL AT TENT INSPECTION. of good red blood flowing, year after year, into the anaemic* civilized centers, they would cease to exist. Rarely do more than three or four generations survive continual residence in the big cities. As a result of this modern artificial life a perceptible degen- eracy has occurred, and this has stimulated world wide move- ments of reform to offset the unfortunate results and to reclaim mankind for the natural and the sane. "Back to the Farm," "Back to Nature and the Primitive;" "Out into God's Out-of- doors." These are some of the pleas made to remind man of his heritage. And the pleas have been responded to from every

1088 IMPROVEMENT ERA. where, indicating how ripe the time is for such reforms. The hearts of great commercial districts have been hollowed out, and land worth a million dollars an acre has been planted with shrubbery, or turned into playgrounds or wading ponds for children. Parks and lawns occupy the places where great manu- factories once stood. Swimming pools, gymnasiums and exercise places adorn the crowded business centers; and other great efforts are being made to give to the hot-house human plants as much of the breath of Nature's good life as is possible under the sur- roundings. But even the country has suffered under the too rapid advance of Modernism. The invention of machinery to do the work of many has driven all surplus working hands into the cities, and robbed those who remain of much of their strength and healthy originality. The American farmer of one hundred years ago and the "Mormon" pioneer farmer of fifty years ago represented a type of verile physical manhood and healthy mentality which is too rare at present. Those pioneer farmers were products of their struggles. From boyhood they lived the natural life; they made things with their own hands; produced the farm tools, and helped to make the clothes they wore. Their education was therefore practical, and their brains of the vigorous type, such as could think the original thought that counts in life. So, too, their physical ac- tivity was such as would produce a symmetrical development of all the organs and tissues of the body. Following the plow grew firm muscles on chest, abdomen, thigh and leg; swinging the scythe, pitching hay, wrestling with weeds, and carrying goods to market, developed great muscles upon the back, neck and shoulders. This straightened the spine and made the pioneer stand straight and square as God wants man to stand. His diet was plain and nutritious, his religion simple and satisfying, his ©motional life normal and adequate. The farmer of today is less fortunate. His modern, improved machinery has apparently increased his ease and comfort, but it has decreased his efficiency in the total. The growing farmer boy who needs all-around development and exercise, now rides his tools instead of wielding them. He sits inactive, with ribs

THE BOY PIONEERS OF UTAH. 1087 depressed and hollow-chested, with shoulders rounded and head drooped, hour after hour, upon the machine while it cuts and binds the grain, cuts, gathers and stacks the hay, or weeds the garden. His other activities are sufficient to give him better development than that of the average city boy; but contrasted with the con- dition of his ancestors, his development is one-sided and imperfect. The modern farmer boy's education is far less practical than it used to be. His tools, implements and clothes are ready-made, and his mental training consists in book-learning. His diet is no longer plain, because owing to improved farming methods, his Photo by C. A. Wyman. TYPICAL GROUP OF BOY SCOUTS IN LARGE TENT. farm produces more than formerly, and this tempting abundance perverts his appetite. He eats more and works less.* Our present farmer does not take his religion as simply and seriously as he should; he accepts it in a sort of half-hearted way, and uses it, too often, as a means to a pecuniary end. His relig- ion is the American dollar. He hungers for the alluring hum of city life, and moves body and soul into its enervating dtpths as soon as his wealth will permit. We see then that reform is needed in the country as well as *The patent medicine houses in America, and quack doctors, claim that they get their best trade from the country districts.

1088 IMPROVEMENT ERA. in the city. The farmer needs to be taught the worth of a simple and rational life. His sons as well as the sons of the city million- aire can profit by such movements as "The Boy Scout Organiza- tion," which aim to correct the deformities, as it were, of civili- zation, and give the boys of the world a healthy point of view in life. Scouts are being recruited in all the country districts of the East and the amount of good already done is inestimable. The Boy Scout movement is founded upon sound principles and its results cannot but be worthy. The Boy Scout must have good, red blood in his veins; his muscles must be hard and wirey; his habits must be clean; he must be athletic and able to run, leap and vault with the best of them; he must be a good boxer and wrestler, and most of all a good worker; he must be brave, gentle, sympathetic, honorable; he must be obedient and respectful to parents, to law and authority; he must be reverent before God; he must learn to appreciate the beautiful in Nature, and become intimate with God's creatures. He must learn the simple laws of hygiene and sanitation; he must be prepared to offer assistance to the injured; and, all in all, to make his life count in the world. This is demanded of the scout and taught to him in a practical and attractive way around the camp fire, on the mountain climb, hunting, fishing, swimming, or in the gymnasium. Every scout Photo t>y C. A. Wjmin. PART OF ONE GROUP DELEGATION, SHOWING PENANTS WON IN ATHLETIC MEET.

THE BOY PIONEERS OF UTAH. 1089 whatever his nationality, has thus far yielded himself willingly to be moulded according to the above ideal. The ideal scout is held constantly before him, and he tries hard to attain it. It is wonder- ful what transformation has taken place even in so-called incorrig- ibles after they have become interested in the scout organization. Many of the hordes of boys, running in packs like wolves through the streets of large cities, have been rescued from their lawless lives, and are now active workers in scout companies. Utah has need of a similar organization; the "Mormon" boy hungers for something of the same kind, and much good could be accomplished by one. But conditions in Utah are, in a way* peculiar, and demand peculiar treatment. The Boy Scout Organ- ization has features which do not apply to conditions in Zion, and it lacks much that is apparently needed in this community. We need an organization of our own colored with our own "Mormon" ideals and fitted to our "Mormon" environment. It was but yesterday that our fathers were engaged in vigorous pioneer struggles. They made themselves a magnificent generation through their terrific fight against the desert and adverse circum- stances. No one can read of their physical hardships and relig- ious trials without being fired with admiration. But their work is finished; they have made the desert bloom and built up a common- wealth; and their sons, lolling in comparative luxury, are grad- ually forgetting their debt to their fathers. The pale, city-bred boy, who has never camped on the deseret, nor seen the wilds, who has never tramped over the hills, nor "roughed" it, cannot truly sympathize with the struggles of his father. He reads or listens to stories picturing the pioneer life, but he cannot appre- ciate; he imagines, but not clearly; thrills, but not deeply; is inter- ested, but not enthusiastically. The pioneer life is gone and "Modernism" threatens to wipe out even the memory of it. A generation hence and the sons and daughters of the pioneers may be just as shallow and frivolous and indifferent as the weaklings on the streets of New York, removed several generations from their pioneer ancestors. But this condition is unneccessary. If the Boy Scout Organ- ization can take the New York City lad out into the forests of New

1090 IMPROVEMENT ERA. York state and let him live the life his father lived,and develop in him a wholesome sympathy for and appreciation of the work done by the early pathfinders of America, how much more so could such a movement here in the west among the "Mormons" bring the youth of Zion into close and lasting relationship with our fathers and forefathers! Such a local organization might be called the "Boy Pioneers of Utah." It could be an adjunct to the Mutual Improvement Association. Officers in one could be officers in the other. Mem- bership in one could constitute membership in the other. The Photo byC. W.Carter AN EMIGRANT TRAIN IN ECHO CANYON, 1867. new organization could function principally during the summer. Its organization could be patterned somewhat after Brigham Young's organization of the pioneers. It can embrace all the sal- ient features of the Scouts with more or less the same code of honor, the same activities, and with the same purposes in general; but in addition it can aim to preserve the memory of the pioneers, and to teach reverence and sympathy for their religious strug- gles. The boys in their camps and "pow-wows" can re-live, as it were, the pioneer lives. They can simulate their hardships, imi- tate their courage and steadfastness, and follow their code of moral teachings. 1 have spoken about such an organization to