There Are Two Kinds of Real True Boys, Says Nady Cates, June 1919

From The High Point Scout, June, 1919, published by Boy Scout Troop Three, High Point, N.C.

Two Kinds of Real Boys        

By Nady Cates, Associate Editor

It has been the idea of many people for years that there is only one kind of real true boy, and they say that it takes this boy to make a real true man.

Now, come out of that idea and just say that there are two kinds of real boys that make genuine men.

These are the two kinds that turn the world upside down and advance the wheel of time into a bigger and better stage; the nature-loving or the lad with a roving spirit, and the book-loving boy or the one with studious habits. The former gets his knowledge by experience, by dealing with things that are real, while the latter picks his from between the huge covers of books. I dare say that we have as many great men from the latter type as from the former, although it is generally thought that the former is the only real boy and therefore makes the only genuine man.

I must say that most book-loving boys enter into a manhood’s thinking long before the nature-loving youth; but all the while the nature-loving boy is storing up his wonderful collections and when he reaches manhood his precious gatherings of youth burst forth in one steady, golden stream.

Many people can make an all afternoon conversation on one of their neighbor’s boys. “Oh!” they exclaim, “he’s nothing but an old bookworm—he’ll never amount to anything.”

Don’t get it wedged too far into your head that a bookworm doesn’t get any pleasure out of his boyhood days, for he does. It is an untold pleasure to him to ponder on his future welfare and to examine the masterpieces of great men. You nature-loving boys, don’t criticize your playmate for not looking at life with the same eyes that you do; but just think that he is getting as much out of life as you are, but in his own particular way.