The Mentor: American Naturalists, Vol. 7, Num. 9, Serial No. 181, June 15, 1919Ingersoll, Ernest
History
The Mentor: American Naturalists, Vol. 7, Num. 9, Serial No. 181, June 15, 1919
Ingersoll, Ernest
Natural history -- United States; Naturalists -- United States -- Biography
The writer made his first popular appeal in "Wild Animals I Have Known,"
which ran through ten editions in one year and has now an established
place in animal literature. Mr. Seton is a man of many sides and
sympathies. Probably no one person has had a more profound influence on
the boys of America than he, for he has taught the philosophy of
out-door life and has been a pioneer in such work. Someone has used the
term, "Nature Apostle," to express the motive of his activity. He has
made the things of the out-of-doors attractively real to the man in the
street, as well as to the child. Mr. Seton likes the woods. He likes to
make things, to teach and demonstrate Woodcraft with groups of boys. He
comes to town when he must, but he is happiest at "Dewinton," near
Greenwich, Connecticut, where he and his wife have developed an estate
comprising buildings, gardens, woods, a lake and bridges of rare
interest and charm. All is unique. Mr. Seton planned the buildings,
wrote the specifications and superintended the building.
Much that Seton has written has exploited the Indian--the ideal
Indian--as the first American, presenting him in the most attractive
fashion, and setting before the youth of the land the skill of the
Indian in handicrafts and woodcraftsmanship. He has not only popularized
things that have to do with the open air in America: he was the first
man anywhere to organize in practical manner a definite form of out-door
activity for boys. This he did in 1902 when he founded the Woodcraft
Indians. The principles of self-government with adult guidance, of
competition against time and space, were first laid down by him in those
days. Later he became Chief Scout of the Boy Scouts of America. In 1916
he organized the Woodcraft League of America, to carry out the general
ideals of his early work: "Something to know, something to do, something
to enjoy in the woods and always with an eye to character." Chief of the
Woodcraft League, he says, "Woodcraft is lifecraft." This organization
admits boys and girls, men and women, and aims to carry over into old
age the real play spirit on the playgrounds of Mother Nature. As a boy
he hungered for Nature knowledge, but he had no books to guide him, and
he declared that if ever he had the opportunity he would give to
children what he did not have. In the preface of his "Two Little
Savages," he says, "Because I have known the torment of thirst I would
dig a well where others may drink."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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