Message #379 - ** Scouter ECHO ** 
   Date: 07-23-92 21:49
   From: Randy Neufeld
     To: Gr Hofmann
Subject:: Scout Stave
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GH>Now for the next call for feedback:  The 'Scout Stave' (or Staff)

GH>Anyone with information the multitude of uses of this classic Scout
  >equipment for utility or amusement please comment.  (I'm especially
  >interested in historical documentation such Scouting for Boys as
  >                                            -----------------
  >published in England in the early days.

Hi there GR!

In response to your query about the staff, I will reproduce several
arcticles from a book "The Scout"  Volume XIII for 1918.  "The Scout"
was founded by Lieut.-Gen. Sir Robert Baden-Powell, and was the
"Official Organ of the Boy Scouts".  Hope you enjoy the reading.

...randy

THE CHIEF SCOUT YARNS  September 1, 1917
- A weekly Pow-wow by Lt.-Gen Sir Robert Baden-Powell

The Uses of the Scouts Staff.

The Scout's Chart, No. 24, which you can get for twopence at 28 Maiden
Lane, London, W.C. 2, gives you a dozen or more different uses of the
staff, with illustrations.

But apart from these, it is always coming in useful in unexpected ways.
For instance, some motorists tried to get away in their car after
causing an accident.  A party of Scouts who were there stopped the car.
How?  By hanging on to it?

No, that would not have done the trick.  They shoved their staves in
between the spokes of the wheels and jammed them.

No other boys than Scouts wcould have done that.

The Royal Engineers like to get ex-Scouts to join them.  Why?  Because
amongst many other good tjhings they can do, they can build field
bridges of various kinds.  This they have learned by building model
bridges with their staves.

I have on several occaisions had to cross a river or canal, taking food
and baggage, etc., where no boat was available, and no wood for making
rafts existed.

How did I do it?

Well, in one case we got come barrels out of an inn, and in another we
used some waterproof sheets and kit-bags, filled them with hay and
straw, and tied them up tightly.  These we lashed firmly together, a
framework of staves, thereby making an excellent raft.

And , what is more, we made a fine sailing boat of it, by hoisting a
staff as a mast and another as a cross-yard, with a greatcoat as a sail.

During the air-raids, numbers of cases have been reported where the
Scouts did good work in supplying temporary stretchers made out of
staves and coats, while other people were busy trying to telephone for
stretchers to be sent!

For ease in getting across country, a staff is of the very greatest
help.  The sketch shows the way I get over stiles with my staff.

[sketch not included]


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