Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts

Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)Music by Linda Cantoni.











SCOUTING for GIRLS


[Illustration]


THIS BOOK BELONGS TO

___________________________________________________________


MEMBER OF

_____________________________________________________ Troop


MY SCOUT RECORD

Registration Date and Place _______________________________

Passed Tenderfoot Test ____________________________________

Passed Second Class Test __________________________________

Passed ____________________________________________________




SCOUTING _for_ GIRLS


[Illustration]

[Illustration: MAGDELAINE DE VERCHÈRES

The First Girl Scout in the New World. From Statue erected by Lord Grey,
near the site of Fort Verchères on the St. Lawrence.]




SCOUTING _for_ GIRLS


_OFFICIAL HANDBOOK_

OF THE

GIRL SCOUTS

[Illustration]

SIXTH REPRINT

1925


          PUBLISHED BY THE GIRL SCOUTS, INC.
          NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
          670 LEXINGTON AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y.


          _Copyright 1920 by Girl Scouts, Inc._
          _All Rights Reserved._

PRINTED IN NEW YORK CITY




_To_

JULIETTE LOW

THEIR FOUNDER

          in grateful acknowledgment of all that
          she has done for them, the American
          Girl Scouts dedicate this Handbook




FOREWORD

_How Scouting Began_


_"How did Scouting come to be used by girls?" That is what I have been
asked. Well, it was this way. In the beginning I had used Scouting--that
is, wood craft, handiness, and cheery helpfulness--as a means for
training young soldiers when they first joined the army, to help them
become handy, capable men and able to hold their own with anyone instead
of being mere drilled machines._

_You have read about the Wars in your country against the Red Indians,
of the gallantry of your soldiers against the cunning of the Red Man,
and what is more, of the pluck of your women on those dangerous
frontiers._

_Well, we have had much the same sort of thing in South Africa. Over and
over again I have seen there the wonderful bravery and resourcefulness
of the women when the tribes of Zulu or Matabeles have been out on the
war path against the white settlers._

_In the Boer war a number of women volunteered to help my forces as
nurses or otherwise; they were full of pluck and energy, but
unfortunately they had never been trained to do anything, and so with
all the good-will in the world they were of no use. I could not help
feeling how splendid it would be if one could only train them in peace
time in the same way one trained the young soldiers--that is, through
Scoutcraft._

_I afterwards took to training boys in that way, but I had not been long
at it before the girls came along, and offered to do the very thing I
had hoped for, they wanted to take up Scouting also._

_They did not merely want to be imitators of the boys; they wanted a
line of their own._

_So I gave them a smart blue uniform and the names of "Guides" and my
sister wrote an outline of the scheme. The name Guide appealed to the
British girls because the pick of our frontier forces in India is the
Corps of Guides. The term cavalry or infantry hardly describes it since
it is composed of all-round handy men ready to take on any job in the
campaigning line and do it well._

_Then too, a woman who can be a good and helpful comrade to her brother
or husband or son along the path of life is really a guide to him._

_The name Guide therefore just describes the members of our sisterhood
who besides being handy and ready for any kind of duty are also a jolly
happy family and likely to be good, cheery comrades to their mankind._

_The coming of the Great War gave the Girl Guides their opportunity, and
they quickly showed the value of their training by undertaking a variety
of duties which made them valuable to their country in her time of
need._

_My wife, Lady Baden-Powell, was elected by the members to be the Chief
Guide, and under her the movement has gone ahead at an amazing pace,
spreading to most foreign countries._

_It is thanks to Mrs. Juliette Low, of Savannah, that the movement was
successfully started in America, and though the name Girl Scouts has
there been used it is all part of the same sisterhood, working to the
same ends and living up to the same Laws and Promise._

_If all the branches continue to work together and become better
acquainted with each other as they continue to become bigger it will
mean not only a grand step for the sisterhood, but what is more
important it will be a real help toward making the new League of Nations
a living force._

_How can that be? In this way:_

_If the women of the different nations are to a large extent members of
the same s