The Project Gutenberg eBook, Outdoor Sports and Games, by Claude H. MillerThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License includedwith this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.netTitle: Outdoor Sports and GamesAuthor: Claude H. MillerRelease Date: July 16, 2005 [eBook #16316]Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: ISO-8859-1***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTDOOR SPORTS AND GAMES***E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Karen Dalrymple, and the ProjectGutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 16316-h.htm or 16316-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/6/3/1/16316/16316-h/16316-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/6/3/1/16316/16316-h.zip)The Library of Work and PlayOUTDOOR SPORTS AND GAMESbyCLAUDE H. MILLER, PH.B.Garden CityNew YorkDoubleday, Page & Company1911[Illustration: A Boys' Camp][Illustration: Title Page]CONTENTSI. Introductory The human body a perfect machine--How to keep well--Outdoor sleeping--Exercise and play--Smoking--Walking.II. The Boy Scouts of America Headquarters--Purpose--Scout Law--How to form a patrol of Scouts--Organization of a troop--Practical activities for Scouts--A Scout ...
The Project Gutenberg eBook, Outdoor Sports and Games, by Claude H. Miller
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Outdoor Sports and Games
Author: Claude H. Miller
Release Date: July 16, 2005 [eBook #16316]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTDOOR SPORTS AND GAMES***
E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Karen Dalrymple, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 16316-h.htm or 16316-h.zip:
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/6/3/1/16316/16316-h/16316-h.htm)
or
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/6/3/1/16316/16316-h.zip)
The Library of Work and Play
OUTDOOR SPORTS AND GAMES
by
CLAUDE H. MILLER, PH.B.
Garden City
New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1911[Illustration: A Boys' Camp]
[Illustration: Title Page]
CONTENTS
I. Introductory
The human body a perfect machine--How to keep well--Outdoor
sleeping--Exercise and play--Smoking--Walking.
II. The Boy Scouts of America
Headquarters--Purpose--Scout Law--How to form a patrol of
Scouts--Organization of a troop--Practical activities for
Scouts--A Scout camp--Model Programme of Sir R.S.S.
Baden-Powell Scout camp.
III. Camps and Camping
How to select the best place to pitch a tent--A brush bed--The
best kind of a tent--How to make the camp fire--What to do when
it rains--Fresh air and good food--The brush leanto and how to
make it.
IV. Camp Cooking
How to make the camp fire range--Bread bakers--Cooking
utensils--The grub list--Simple camp recipes.
V. Woodcraft
The use of an axe and hatchet--Best woods for special
purposes--What to do when you are lost--Nature's compasses.
VI. Use of Fire-arms
Importance of early training--Why a gun is better than a
rifle--How to become a good shot.
VII. Fishing
Proper tackle for all purposes--How to catch bait--The fly
fisherman--General fishing rules.
VIII. Nature Study
What is a true naturalist?--How to start a collection--Moth
collecting--The herbarium.
IX. Water Life
The water telescope--How to manage an aquarium--Our insect
friends and enemies--The observation beehive.
X. The Care of Pets
Cats--Boxes for song birds--How to attract the birds--Tame crows--The pigeon fancier--Ornamental land and water
fowl--Rabbits, guinea pigs, rats and mice--How to build
coops--General rules for the care of pets--The dog.
XI. The Care of Chickens
The best breed--Good and bad points of incubators--What to feed
small chicks--A model chicken house.
XII. Winter Sports
What to wear--Skating--Skiing--Snowshoeing--Hockey.
XIII. Horsemanship
How to become a good rider--The care of horses--Saddles.
XIV. How to Swim and to Canoe
The racing strokes--Paddling and sailing canoes.
XV. Baseball
How to organize a team and to select the players--The various
positions--Curve pitching.
XVI. How to Play Football
The various positions and how to select men for them--Team
work and signals--The rules.
XVII. Lawn Tennis
How to make and mark a court--Clay and sod courts--The proper
grip of the racket--Golf--The strokes and equipment.
XVIII. Photography
The selection of a camera--Snapshots vs. real pictures--How to
make a photograph from start to finish.
XIX. Outdoor Sports for Girls
What to wear--Confidence--Horseback riding--Tennis--Golf--Camping.
XX. One Hundred Outdoor Games
ILLUSTRATIONS
A Boy's Camp
A Child's May-day Party
Fishing is the One Sport of Our Childhood
that Holds Our Interest Through Life
The Moth Collector and His Outfit
The Exciting Sport of Ski-running
Swimming is One of the Best Outdoor Sports In Canoeing Against the Current in Swift Streams
a Pole is Used in Place of the Paddle
Photographs of Tennis Strokes Taken in Actual Play
How an Expert Plays Golf
I
INTRODUCTORY
The human body a perfect machine--How to keep well--Outdoor
sleeping--Exercise and play--Smoking--Walking
Suppose you should wake up Christmas morning and find yourself to be
the owner of a bicycle. It is a brand-new wheel and everything is in
perfect working order. The bearings are well oiled, the nickel is
bright and shiny and it is all tuned up and ready for use. If you are
a careful, sensible boy you can have fun with it for a long time until
finally, like the "One Hoss Shay" in the poem, it wears out and goes
to pieces all at once. On the other hand, if you are careless or
indifferent or lazy you may allow the machine to get out of order or
to become rusty from disuse, or perhaps when a nut works loose you
neglect it and have a breakdown on the road, or you may forget to oil
the bearings and in a short time they begin to squeak and wear. If you
are another kind of a boy, you may be careful enough about oiling and
cleaning the wheel, but you may also be reckless and head--strong and
will jump over curbstones and gutters or ride it over rough roads at a
dangerous rate of speed, and in this way shorten its life by abuse
just as the careless boy may by neglect.
It is just so with the human body which, after all, is a machine too,
and, more than that, it is the most wonderful and perfect machine in
the world. With care it should last many years. With abuse or neglect
it may very soon wear out. The boy who neglects his health is like the
boy who allows the bearings on his wheel to become dry or the metal
parts rusty. The chief difference is that when the bicycle wears out
or breaks down we may replace the parts or even buy another machine,
but when our health is injured, money will not restore it.
In order to keep well we must observe certain rules of health. By
exercise we keep the working parts in good order. If we are lazy or
indolent we are like the bicycle that is allowed to go to pieces from
lack of use. If we are reckless and foolhardy we may injure some part
of the delicate machinery from excessive exercise or strain.
Play is the most natural thing in the world but we must use judgment
in our play. A boy or girl who is not allowed to play or who is
restrained by too anxious parents is unhappy indeed. Nearly all
animals play. We know, for instance, that puppies, kittens, and lambs
are playful. It is a perfectly natural instinct. By proper play we
build up our bodies and train our minds. The healthy man never gets
too old to play. He may not care to play marbles or roll hoops, but he
will find his pleasure in some game or sport like tennis, golf,
horseback riding, camping, fishing or hunting.
In this book we shall talk about some forms of play and recreation
that are not strictly confined to children, but which we may still
enjoy even after we have become grown men and women. We shall alsotalk about some children's games that some of the older readers may
have outgrown. While we play we keep our minds occupied by the sport,
and at the same time we exercise our muscles and feed our lungs and
our bodies with oxygen.
It is unfortunate that in school or college athletics those who need
exercise the most are often those who are physically unfitted to play
on the school teams. In other words, we select our runners and jumpers
and football players from among the stronger boys, while the weaker
ones really need the benefit of the sport. Every boy should take part
in school games when possible even if he is not as swift or as strong
as some other boys.
It is very unmanly of one boy to make fun of another because he is
weak or clumsy or unskilful. After all, the thing that counts and the
thing that is most creditable is to make the most of our opportunities
whatever they may be. If an undersized or timid boy becomes stronger
or more brave because he joins in games and sports, he deserves a
hundred times more credit than the big, strong boy whom nature has
given a sturdy frame and good lungs and who makes a place on the
school team without any real effort.
If we live a natural, open-air life we shall have but little need of
doctors or medicine. Many of our grandmothers' notions on how to keep
well have changed in recent years. Old-fashioned remedies made from
roots and herbs have been almost completely replaced by better habits
of life and common-sense ideas. We used to believe that night air was
largely responsible for fevers and colds. Doctors now say that one of
the surest ways to keep well is to live and sleep in the open air. In
many modern houses the whole family is provided with outside sleeping
porches with absolutely no protection from the outside air but the
roof. I have followed the practice of sleeping in the open air for
some time, and in midwinter without discomfort have had the
temperature of my sleeping porch fall to six degrees below zero. Of
course it is foolish for any one to sleep exposed to rain or snow or
to think that there is any benefit to be derived from being cold or
uncomfortable. The whole idea of open-air sleeping is to breathe pure,
fresh air in place of the atmosphere of a house which, under the best
conditions, is full of dust and germs. If we become outdoor sleepers,
coughs and colds will be almost unknown. General Sherman once wrote a
letter in which he said that he did not have a case of cold in his
entire army and he attributed it to the fact that his soldiers slept
and lived in the open air.
[Illustration: A Child's May Day Party (Photograph by Mary H.
Northend)]
One can almost tell a man who sleeps in the open by looking at him.
His eye is clear and his cheek ruddy. There is no surer way to become
well and strong than to become accustomed to this practice. Then you
can laugh at the doctor