This book shows a world where character and morality are prized. The goal of camp is not just to get the boys out the parents’ hair, but to encourage good character and citizenship. Camp leaders are enticed by the contribution they can make to the boys’ futures and are selected (or rejected) based on their own moral virtues.
There are many practical suggestions for safety and comfort aside from the absence of modern materials and conveniences, like nylon and gas stoves.
Medical advice given in the book is from 1913 and may be unhelpful, often contradicts current practice and involves unsafe or now illegal substances.
The approximate conversion for prices is 20 to 1, $1 in 1913 is about $20 in 2004.
The Heart of the Camp
Have you smelled wood smoke at twilight?
Have you heard the birch log burning?
Are you quick to read the noises of the night?
You must follow with the others for the young men’s feet are turning To the camps of proved desire and known delight.
From Kipling’s “Feet of the Young Men.”
Camping for Boys H. W. Gibson
To the Thousand and More Boys Who Have Been My Camp Mates in Camps Shand, Durrell and Becket
Foreword
The author has conducted boys’ camps for twenty-three years, so that he is not without experience in the subject. To share with others this experience has been his aim in writing the book. The various chapters have been worked out from a practical viewpoint, the desire being to make a handbook of suggestions for those in charge of camps for boys and for boys who go camping, rather than a theoretical treatise upon the general subject.
Thanks are due to E. M. Robinson, Dr. Elias G. Brown, Charles R. Scott, Irving G. MacColl, J. A. Van Dis, Taylor Statten, W. H. Wones, H. C. Beckman, W. H. Burger, H. M. Burr, A. B. Wegener, A. D. Murray, and H. M. Allen, for valuable suggestions and ideas incorporated in many chapters.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following publishers for permission to quote from the books mentioned in the bibliography—Charles Scribner’s Sons, Harper Brothers, Outing Publishing Company, Baker & Taylor Company, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, Penn Publishing Company, Doubleday, Page & Company, Hinds, Noble & Eldredge, Ginn & Company, Sunday School Times Company, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Little, Brown & Company, Moffat, Yard & Company, Houghton, Mifflin Company, Sturgis & Walton, Funk & Wagnall’s Company, The Manual Arts Press, Frederick Warne & Company, Review and Herald Publishing Company, Health-Education League, Pacific Press Publishing Company.
Every leader, before going to camp, should read some book upon boy life, in order, not only that he may refresh his memory regarding his own boyhood days, but that he may also the more intelligently fit himself for the responsibility of leadership. The following books, or similar ones, may be found in any well-equipped library.
If this book will help some man to be of greater service to boys, as well as to inspire boys to live the noble life which God’s great out-of-doors teaches, the author will feel amply repaid for his labor. Boston, Mass., April, 1911.
Bibliography
Boy-Life and Self Government—Fiske. Association Press, $1.00.
Boy-Training—Symposium. Association Press, $1.00.
Youth—Hall. Appleton and Company, $1.50.
Winning the Boy—Merrill. Revell and Company, $0.75.
The Boy Problem—Forbush. Pilgrim Press, $1.00.
Up Though Childhood—Hubbell. Putnam and Company, $1.25.
Growth and Education—Tyler. Houghton, Mifflin Company, $1.50.
Suggestive Articles on “Camping” in “Association Boys”
A Course in Camping—Edgar M. Robinson. Feb., 1902.
The Sanitary Care of a Boys’ Camp—Elias G. Brown, M.D. April and June, 1902.
Seventeen Seasons in One Boys’ Camp—G. G. Peck. April. 1902.
Association Boys’ Camps—Edgar M. Robinson. June, 1902.
Following Up Camp—Editorial. October, 1902.
What Men Think of Camp—Edgar M. Robinson. June, 1903.
Fun Making at Camp—C.B. Harton. June. 1903.
Educational Possibilities at Camp—F. P. Speare. June, 1903.
Bible Study at Camp—Raymond P. Kaighn. June, 1903.
Simple Remedies at Camp—Elias G. Brown, M.D. June, 1903.
Tuxis System—H.L. Smith. April, 1904.
Life at Camp Dudley—Raymond P. Kaighn. June, 1905.
Life-Saving Crew—F.H.T. Ritchie. June. 1905.
Summer Camps—Frank Streightoff. June, 1905.
Wawayanda Camp—Chas. R. Scott. June. 1907.
Objectives in Camps for Boys—Walter M. Wood. June, 1907.