TT was the year 1899. Trouble was brewing in South 1 Africa. Relations between the British and the Government of the Transvaal Republic had reached the breaking point. War was expected at any time. The British Brevet Colonel, Robert Baden-Powell, who had performed excellent work in Her Majesty's Service in India and Africa, was directed to raise two regiments of mounted rifles and proceed to Mafeking, a town of great strategic importance in the heart of South Africa. "Who holds Mafeking holds the reins of South Africa" was a saying among the natives which proved to be true.

For 217 days-from October 13, 1899-Baden-Powell held Mafeking in a seige, against overwhelming numbers of the enemy, until the relief forces under Lord Roberts finally fought their way to his help on the eighteenth day of May, 1900.

Great Britain had been holding its breath through these long months. When finally the news came: "Mafeking has been relieved" it went mad with jubilation. And Baden-Powell awoke from the nightmare of the siege to find himself a hero in the eyes of the world.

It was as a hero of men and boys that he returned to England from South Africa-like Lindbergh coming home from France after his feat twenty-six years later-to be showered with honors, and to discover to his amazement that his personal popularity had given popularity to his technical book for army training, "Aids to Scouting." It was being used as a textbook in numerous boys' schools.

B.-P. saw a great challenge in this. He realized that here was his opportunity to help the boys of his country to grow into strong manhood. If a book for men on scouting practices - woodcraft, pioneering, camping-could appeal to boys and inspire them, how much more would a book written for the boys themselves! He immediately set to work. He adapted his own boyhood adventures, his experiences in India, and in Africa among the Zulus and other savage tribes. He mobilized a special library of books and read and read of the training of boys through all ages

-from the Spartan boys, the ancient British, the Bushido of Japan, to our own day. He learned and read about Ernest Thompson Seton's Woodcraft Indians and about Dan Beard's Boy Pioneers, or Sons of Daniel Boone, and benefited from the work of these well-known authors and outdoorsmen in behalf of boys.

The Birth Of Scouting

Slowly and carefully B.-P. developed the Scouting idea. He wanted to be sure that it would work, so in the summer of 1907 he took a group of boys with him to Brownsea Island in the English Channel for the first Boy Scout camp the world had ever seen.

And then, in the early months of 1908, he brought out in six fortnightly parts his handbook of training, "Scouting for Boys," without dreaming that this book would set in motion a Movement which was to affect the boyhood of the entire world.

It had hardly started to appear in the book shops before Scout Patrols and Troops began to spring up. The Movement grew and grew to such dimensions that B.-P. resigned from the army and embarked upon his "second life," as he calls it-his life of service to the world through Scouting.

Scouting Around The World

In 1912 he set out on a trip around the world, visiting the United States. This was the earliest beginning of Scouting as a World Brotherhood. The war came and stopped this work for a while, but with the end of hostilities it was resumed, and in 1920 the Scouts from every part of our globe met in London for the first International Scout gathering, the First

World Jamboree, at which B.-P. was enthusiastically acclaimed "Chief Scout of the World."

The Movement was growing rapidly. ' The day it reached its twenty-first birthday and thus came "of age," it had mounted to more than two million members in practically all civilized countries of the earth. At that occasion B.-P. was honored by his king, George V, by being created a baron under the name of Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell. Yet to every Scout he is and always will remain "B.-P.," Chief Scout of the World.

Scouting Comes To America

It is of great significance that the incident that caused Scouting to be organized nationally in the United States was the active performance of one of the precepts of the Movement-the Daily Good Turn- by a small unknown London boy.

It was in the fall of 1909 when the Chicago publisher, William D. Boyce, was seeking a certain location in the congested part of London, that a lad approached him, saluted and asked if he might be of aid. Boyce accepted his service and upon reaching his destination offered the boy a shilling. The boy courteously refused the money by saluting and saying: "No, thank you, sir! Sorry, sir! I am a Scout. And a Scout never takes anything for being helpful!"

Boyce inquired as to what he meant, and the boy, expressing astonishment that everyone did not know of Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts, asked permission to take him to the headquarters of the British Boy Scout Association. What he learned of Scouting impressed Boyce so much that he secured and brought with him to America all available literature on the subject and proceeded to take steps for the subsequent incorporation of the Boy Scouts of America, which was effected on February 8, 1910.

Scouting opens up the mysteries of the woods and fields. Scouts discover small animals lurking in the shadows.

Immediately Scouting caught on like wild fire. Thousands of boys became Scouts and set out on the trail of advancement and of service to others. Many outstanding Americans gave the new born Movement their enthusiastic support and active interest.

President Taft became its first Honorary President -a position which has been taken ever since by each incoming President of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt became Chief Scout Citizen; Gifford Pinchot, Chief Scout Woodsman, and Ernest Thompson Seton, Chief Scout. Daniel Carter Beard, Adjutant-General William Verbeck and Colonel Peter S. Bomus were elected National Scout Commissioners. Colin H. Livingstone became the first President of the Boy Scouts of America, and James E. West, the Chief Scout Executive.

The first Executive Board of the Organization was composed of the following men: W. D. Boyce, Wm. D. Murray, Colin H. Livingstone, George D. Pratt, Frank Presbrey, Mortimer L. Schiff, Seth S. Terry, Lucien T. Warner, Lee F. Hanmer, E. M. Robinson, and the following ex-officio members: Daniel Carter Beard, Ernest Thompson Seton, Adjutant-General William Verbeck, and Colonel Peter S. Bomus.

Under the leadership of such men the Movement went forward, on its phenomenal growth.