Fantasy Football Challenge - Football Fanatics Library

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Young Knights of the Empire

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do--games, handicrafts, good turns, work, and you will grow up a clean, straight, and happy fellow, and, what is more--a _man_. * * * * * MANLINESS IS NOT DIRTINESS. Not long ago there was a lot of argument about certain music-halls in London. Many people were disgusted at the low and dirty talk or hints made by some of the performers. Most of these rotten ideas of half-dressed women, dancing about trying to look pretty, come from abroad, and do not really please the ordinary British man. Harry Lauder is delightfully funny, but he is funny without being dirty, and so is Chevalier, the coster singer. Dan Leno made you laugh, but he was never dirty--and that was why he and these other singers have been so popular. I saw a performance not long ago, where a half-dressed woman came and danced about on the stage, but, though she was tremendously advertised as the great attraction of the place, she got very little applause. Soon after her there came a bright-looking girl in ordinary clothes, who merely sang an English ballad, but she was cheered and applauded till she had to come on again and sing a second, and even a third time. I believe that the proper, manly Britisher likes a good clean show on the stage; he likes to have a good hearty laugh, or to hear good music, but I believe it is only a very few (and those nearly all slackers and wasters) who care to go and see the nasty, half-indecent shows which come sometimes from other countries. * * * * * THE ORDER OF THE BATH. In the old days when being made Knights, members of the Order of the Bath used to go and take a bath as part of the ceremony. I was very glad to see in Hull during a visit there that at the Boys' Club every boy on coming into the club has a bath. In the first room he comes into on entering the club he takes off all his clothes and puts them in a rack made for the purpose. Then he goes into a big warm plunge bath, from which he goes into a drying-room, and beyond this is a dressing-room, where he gets a club shirt and pair of shorts to wear for the evening, till it is time to get into his own clothes to go home again. [Illustration: BRITISH SOLDIERS SURPRISED THE FRENCH NATIVES BY THEIR EAGERNESS TO HAVE A WASH, EVEN ON ICY COLD MORNINGS.] This daily bath is an excellent thing for keeping a fellow healthy and strong--and the most important part of it is the rubbing with the towel. Well, it is often difficult for a Scout to get a bath. Sometimes in his home there are no means for doing it, and often out on the veldt or desert there is very little water, but if he has a towel, especially a damp one, he can always give himself a good rub down with it--he should scrub himself well all over! and that is what I should like every Scout to do every morning when he gets up. It will not only keep him clean, but will make him grow far more healthy and happy and strong, because it cleans the skin and wakes up the blood so that it rushes through his veins and brings him health. So get yourself a towel, every Scout; and carry out your rubbing every day when you get up. In the same way see that you clean your teeth regularly night and morning--not because it will help you to pass the time away, but because it will prevent your teeth from getting rotten, thus saving you from toothache. * * * * * SPITTING. "Gentlemen _do_ not spit; men _must_ not spit" is a notice which may be seen in an American city; also there is a similar one which says: "If you _expect to rate_ as a gentleman, don't _expectorate_." On the steamships to South America the English passengers were often disgusted by the amount of spitting about the decks done by some of the foreigners on board. One of the captains thought of a good idea; he ordered a sailor, carrying a mop, to follow each of these foreigners where-ever he went; whenever the foreigner spat, the sailor used the mop, and in a short time _all_ the foreigners learnt that if they behaved like other gentlemen and did not spit, they were spared having an attendant with a mop, so they soon gave up the dirty habit. When I was in charge of a public building in Malta, which was guarded

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