ici8 



Review of Revievs, II IS/IS. 



EDXJCATIOlSrAL 

 PROG^RESS. 



AMERICAN BOYS IN AUSTRALIA. 



BY PERRY IVENS (OF TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A.). 



For the past six months there has 

 been carried on a most systematic, ef- 

 fectual invasion of .Australia. The " in- 

 vaders " haven't been, however, the 

 "awful Asiatics," but half a hundred 

 young Yankee lads, on a unique self- 



military drill, in gymnastic work, in the 

 study and practice of music, in attempts 

 at public speaking and acting, in handi- 

 craft of various sorts — in activities tend- 

 ing to polish up every boy's character- 

 highlights. Major Peixotto rounds out 



supporting educational tour round the the lads under his care into " Jacks-of 



world. After a devastating march 

 through Europe, the boys advanced 

 down upon Australia by the Suez route, 

 and since last July have been pillaging 

 the Commonwealth of information. 

 They've already penetrated, in their 

 knowledge-quest, into fifty Australian 

 towns and cities, even to such inland 

 communities as Kalgoorlie and Broken 

 Hill. 



The head of this educational invasion 



all-trades," as well as masters of some 

 one individual trade. And to put on a 

 proper " glossy finish," he adds to his 

 club's curriculum a most complete course 

 in " education by travel." 



When his club work w^as young, he 

 started his now famous educational 

 tours in a modest way — little up-coun- 

 try " hikes " for a few boys w'ho wanted 

 to know something about their Cali- 

 fornian homeland. Now, every summer 



is Major Sidney S. Peixotto, founder two or three parties of forty-odd lads 



each, selected for faithfulness to the 

 club's winter activities, start on walking 

 trips of three to five hundred miles 

 through their native State. They pay 

 their way by band concerts, or amateur 

 minstrel and variety shows, and have 

 become as proficient as entertainers as 

 walkers, so that finances are always in 



and director of a remarkable boy-organ- 

 isation, the " Columbia Park Boys' 

 Club," at San Francisco. In this insti- 

 tution, a creation altogether his own, 

 Major Peixotto has been working for 

 San Francisco boys for nearly twenty 

 years. He has been in that period a 

 manufacturer of some five thousand 



parcels of first-rate boy-material, and excellent shape. These lads not only 

 this present globe-trotting expedition is develop leg muscle and lose stage 



one of the refining processes to which 

 he's subjecting some of the best speci- 

 mens of his handiwork. 



His organisation, where three hun- 

 dred boys are continually in training. 



fright, however, but they absorb as well 

 a generous amount of geography and 

 natural history, and soon learn what 

 their State has to be proud of. 



A rolling stone may gather no moss, 



is conducted to develop every possible but its rough edges are certainly worn 



talent that boy natures possess. The off by the friction. This has always 



host of " finished products " are boys been the Major's creed, and about four 



whose after school hours were spent in years ago he decided to put it into wider 



