Camping For Boys Part 3

These barrels should be set upon two strips of wood placed parallel. This permits the air to pa.s.s beneath the barrel and keeps its bottom from decaying by contact with the ground. The barrels should be emptied daily and the trash burned.

A dirty, carelessly kept, untidy camp will make discipline and order very difficult to attain and the influence will soon be noticed in the careless personal habits of the boys. There is an educational and moral value in cleanliness which is second only to that of good health.

Water Supply

Dr. Charles E. A. Winslow, the noted biologist, is authority for the following statement; [Camp Conference, p.61] "The source of danger in water is always human or animal pollution. Occasionally we find water which is bad to drink on account of minerals dissolved on its way through the ground or on account of pa.s.sage through lead pipes, but the danger is never from ordinary decomposing vegetable matter. If you have to choose between a bright, clear stream which may be polluted at some point above, and a pond full of dead leaves and peaty matter, but which you can inspect all around and find free from contamination, choose the pond. Even in the woods it is not easy to find surface waters that are surely protected, and streams particularly are dangerous sources of water supply. We have now got rid of the idea that running water purifies itself. It is standing water which purifies itself, if anything, for in stagnation there is much more chance for the disease germs to die out. Better than either a pond or stream, unless you can carry out a rather careful exploration of their surroundings, is ground water from a well or spring; though that again is not necessarily safe. If the well is in good sandy soil with no cracks or fissures, even water that has been polluted may be well purified and made safe to drink. In a clayey or rocky region, on the other hand, contaminating material may travel for considerable distance under ground.

Even if your well is protected below, a very important point to look after is the pollution from the surface. I believe more cases of typhoid fever from wells are due to surface pollution than to the character of the water itself. This is a danger which can, of course, be done away with by protection of the well from surface drainage, by seeing that the surface wash is not allowed to drain toward it and that it is protected by a tight covering from the entrance of its own waste water. If good water cannot be secured in any of these ways, the water must be purified. It has been said that what we desire in water supply is innocence and not repentance; but if you cannot get pristine innocence, you can, at least, secure works meet for repentance and make the water safe, by filtering through either a Pasteur or a Berkefeld filter--either of those filters will take out bacteria, while no other filters that I know of will or by various chemical disinfectants, not any of them very satisfactory--or, best of all, by boiling, which will surely destroy all disease germs."

Indians had a way of purifying water from a pond or swamp by digging a hole about one foot across and down about six inches below the water level, a few feet from the pond. After it had filled with water, they bailed it out quickly, repeating the bailing process about three times.

After the third bailing the hole would fill with filtered water. Try it.

Drinking Cups

Insist upon the boys bringing to camp a supply of inexpensive paper cups or collapsible pocket drinking cups. Filthy and dangerous diseases are not infrequently transmitted by the use of a common drinking cup.

Paper Drinking Cup.

Take a piece of clean paper about 6 inches square and fold it on the dotted lines, as shown in Figure 1, so as to make a triangle. Do not use paper having anything printed on it, as there is danger of poison from the ink. The other folds are made in the dotted lines, as shown in Figure 2.

Each pointed end of the triangle is turned over on one side, as shown in Figure 3, then the sheets of the remaining points are separated and each one folded down on its respective side. This practical idea is furnished by R. H. Lufkin in Popular Mechanics for February, 1911.

Board of Health

Boys should be encouraged to cooperate in keeping the camp clean. A Board of Health may be organized, to be composed of an equal number of boys and camp leaders with the camp physician, or director of the camp as chairman.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Paper Drinking Cup]

The duties of the board will be to inspect daily the toilets, sinks, and drains, the water supply, the garbage disposal and waste barrels; condemn everything that is unsanitary, and correct all sanitary disorders. The board will also arrange for a series of talks upon "Sanitation and Health," such as:

Suns.h.i.+ne and Health Johnnie and the Microbes Dirt and Cleanliness Fresh Air Flies and Filth Health--Its Value and Its Cost.

Have the boys write essays upon these subjects and give credits or points for original interpretation, accuracy of report of talk given, and observance and correction of sanitary disorders.

Maxims

Clean up as you go. Suns.h.i.+ne and dryness are great microbe killers. It is better to keep clean, than to get clean. Dirt, dampness and disease can often be avoided by decency, dryness and determination. Uncleanness is at the root of many of the evils which cause suffering and ill health. Fire is the best disinfectant. Typhoid fever and cholera are carried by dirty habits, by dirty water and dirty milk.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Camp Sanitation-Review and Herald Pub. a.s.sn., Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C. 6 cents. A twelve-page folder of useful hints on what to do and what not to do.

Wastes and Their Disposal--Henry J. Barnes, M.D. Health-Education League, Boston, Ma.s.s., 4 cents. An authoritative booklet written by the Professor of Hygiene, Tufts Medical School. This League publishes a number of very valuable and comprehensive booklets on health subjects.

Good Health--Francis Gulick Jewett. Ginn and Co., 40 cents. Gives detail instruction in matters of health and hygiene. Prepared especially for younger people.

Health--B. Franklin Richards. Pacific Press Pub. Co., $1.00. Written in language easily understood and filled with sensible suggestions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "The Sardines"--Eight Boys in a 12X14 Tent--Camp Becket]

CHAPTER IV--CAMP EQUIPMENT

ADVANCE PARTY PLAN OF CAMP GROUNDS A MEASURING DEVICE SETTING UP A WALL TENT GUYING THE TENT TRENCHING PEG WISDOM INTERIOR TENT CONVENIENCES HOW TO MAKE A TEPEE TENT WISDOM SLEEPING ON THE GROUND A "HIP HOLE"

HOW TO KEEP WARM MAKING A BED DOUBLE-DECK BUNKS BLANKETS PILLOWS KITCHEN WARE TABLE WARE TABLE TOPS A "HORSE" IDEA PERMANENT BUILDINGS SURVEYING HOME-MADE INSTRUMENTS CAMP SURVEY

The greatest help after all is to take the children back to the garden that the Lord G.o.d planted. A boy must learn to sleep under the open sky and to tramp ten miles through the rain if he wants to be strong. He must learn what sort of men it was who made America, and he must not get into this fuss and flurry of our American civilization and think that patent leather shoes and white kid gloves are necessary for the salvation of his life.--Edward Everett Hale.

Selecting a camp site and general directions for the laying out of the camp grounds is treated very fully in the chapter on Camp Sanitation, so that this chapter will be devoted to methods that to the experienced camper may seem trite, but which the novice will appreciate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Laying Out a Camp]

Advance Party

If the camp is a large one it is usually customary to send an advance party several days ahead to erect the tents and get the camp in readiness for the larger party. The successful management of a camp depends very much upon placing the tents in such a position as to give plenty of room and yet be compact. When tents are scattered the difficulty of control is increased. The above diagram is a suggestion for the laying out of a camp which provides for room and control.

Plan of Grounds

The following hints will help the advance party to layout the camp in a systematic and scientific manner. To find the right angle of the camp square, drive a peg at A, another 3 feet distant at B; attach a 5-foot cord from the peg at B, and a 4 foot cord from the peg at A. The point at which the two cords meet at C, where another peg may be driven in, will be the line at right angles to B-A.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Right Angle of Camp Square]

Measuring Device

The ill.u.s.trations opposite show a device by which a camp, baseball grounds, running track, tennis court or any distance may be quickly and accurately measured. The first thing to do is to get an inch board and cut a round disc (a) about 12 inches in diameter. Cut two of them and tack them together. The diagram "b" is easier to cut out and will serve the purpose just as well. When the two are temporarily tacked together, bore a hole through the centre for the axle. The eight spokes should be of light material and not too pointed or they will sink in the ground and prevent accuracy. The spokes are tacked on one disc as shown in "c" and then the other disc is nailed on the outside.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Measuring Device]

Paint the end of one spoke red, so that you can count it every time it comes around. By having the points that touch the ground exactly 9 inches apart, one revolution of the wheel will measure six feet. For an axle use a small piece of broom handle, and for a handle use a long light pole. By varying the length of the spokes you can make the wheel measure any desired distance.

Wall Tent

The line of the camp having been laid out, the next thing is the erection of the tents. The best way of setting up a wall tent (either the 12 x 14 or 14 x 16 size), the type used in most of the boys' camps, is the method used by the army and described in Kephart's "Book of Camping and Woodcraft." Four boys or men proceed as follows: Nos. 1 and 2 procure canvas, and Nos. 3 and 4 the poles.

Nos. 3 and 4 lay the ridge pole on the ground, in the direction that the tent is to stand; then lay the uprights at each end of ridge-pole and at right angles to it, on the side opposite that from which the wind blows.

Then drop the tent pins and hammers at their respective ends of the tent; then drive a pin at each end of the ridge to mark front and rear.

Meanwhile Nos. 1 and 2 unroll the tent and spread it out over the ridge-pole and on both sides of it.

Nos. 1 and 3 now go to the rear, and Nos. 2 and 4 to the front, and slip the pins of the uprights through the ridge-pole and tent. If a fly is used, it is placed in position over the tent, and the loops of the long guys over the front and rear pole pins. No. 4 secures center (door) loops over center pin in front, and No. 1 in rear. Each goes to his corner, No.

1 right rear, No. 2 right front, No. 3 left rear, No. 4 left front.

All draw bottom of tent taut and square, the front and rear at right angles to the ridge, and fasten it with pins through the corner loops, then stepping outward two paces from the corner, and a pace to the front (Nos. 2 and 4) or rear (Nos. 1 and 3) each securely sets a long pin, over which is pa.s.sed the extended corner guy rope. Care must be taken that the tent is properly squared and pinned to the ground at the door and four corners before raising it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Shelter Tents, Seton Tepee, Tent Made Of A "Fly", Wall Tent]

Nos. 1 and 3 now go to the rear, and Nos. 2 and 4 to the front pole, and raise the tent to a convenient height from the ground, when Nos. 2 and 3 enter and seize their respective poles, and all together raise the tent until the upright poles are vertical. While Nos. 2 and 3 support the poles, Nos. 1 and 4 tighten the corner guys, beginning on the windward side. The tent being thus temporarily secured, all set the guy pins and fasten the guy ropes, Nos. 1 and 2 to the right, Nos. 3 and 4 left, and then set the wall pins.

To prevent the upright poles from sinking in the ground under the pressure of the canvas, place a flat stone or piece of wood under the pole.