DAN BEARD 

 EBOYS 



SONS OF DANIEL BOONE 



This is the Christmas number of Recrea- 

 tion ; but as the magazine must be made up 

 long before the advent of Santa Claus, your 

 Pounder is writing this while the leaves are 

 yet green upon some of the trees and a few 

 flowers still blossom in his yard. Neverthe- 

 less, he has prepared his Christmas gift for 

 you ahead of time, and it will probably reach 

 you before the magazine. This is a beauti- 

 fully printed constitution and by-laws for 

 "The Sons of Daniel Boone." 



To put it in the technical language of the 

 bookworm or bibliomaniac, it is "sumptu- 

 ously and beautifully printed on a thick folio 

 sheet of Crane's best water-marked Japanese 

 Linen, and the types are so handled and ru- 

 bricated as to give it a smack of the old-time 

 legal documents. The first sheet gives the 

 constitution, the signature of the Founder, 

 the date, and the seal of the Sons of Daniel 

 Boone, while on the second sheet, under an 

 appropriate heading, are spaces for the sig- 

 natures of the members of the Fort to which 

 the certificate is issued as its charter." 



This was printed by the famous artist 

 printer, Mr. Albert Brandt, of Trenton, N. J. 

 The constitution was promised you a long 

 time ago, and if it has been delayed for 

 months it is all the better for the fact. In 

 all probability if the first printer had not dis- 

 appointed us he would have given us a copy 

 which would not have been nearly as satis- 

 factory or as beautiful as the one which we 

 have at last secured from -Mr. Brandt's cele- 

 brated shop in Trenton. 



I know you boys will pardon me if I preach 

 a little on this occasion, and I promise you 

 that I will refrain from it as much as pos- 

 sible in the future; but I want to call your 

 attention to the honest work done in Mr. 

 Brandt's shop on this constitution of yours. 

 Every letter from the type you will see is 

 clear and distinct. There are no marks of 

 printer's-ink bedaubed fingers upon the mar- 

 gin. It is as neat as a New England kitchen 

 and in every respect shows conscientious, 

 painstaking care. I want the Sons of Daniel 

 Boone not only to live up to the standard of 

 printed matter in their constitution, but also 

 to live up to the standard of the good work 

 which the printer himself has set before them 

 in producing this charter. In other words, 

 do your work, whatever it is, as if you loved 

 it, and you will all become great men. 



Only a few years ago, there was a boy in 



Flushing who used to go with me to the 

 woods to examine the birds' nests, to watch 

 the little creatures in the water, to hunt the 

 plants and insects and study and watch their 

 ways and manner of life, to climb the tall 

 trees and inspect the crows' nests, to trail the 

 little flying squirrels to their holes in the 

 cedar trees and follow all the various delight- 

 ful pursuits of a disciple of Thoreau and a 

 real lover of outdoor life and nature. He 

 was thorough in all he undertook. He built 

 himself a cedar canoe in the cellar of his 

 house, not far from where I am now writing, 

 launched the canoe, learned to sail it and 

 paddle it and then, with his brother, paddled 

 and sailed through the whole length of Long 

 Island Sound until he entered the ocean it- 

 self, rounded Port Judith, sailed up in Buz- 

 zards Bay, and even to Bristol, Rhode Island, 

 and made this trip several times successfully. 



He knew his boat, he had built it himself; 

 he knew the sails, he had made them himself; 

 he knew how strong the masts were, he had 

 tested them himself; he knew how to man- 

 age the boat because he had taught him- 

 self. 



As this boy grew older, he was accustomed 

 to bring his drawings to your Founder to 

 criticise, and one day he came to my studio 

 and said he wanted to go to the Art Stu- 

 dents' League, and to be admitted he must 

 make a drawing from a plaster cast. There 

 was a head of old Voltaire on the shelf, in 

 the studio, and I took it down and stood over 

 this boy while he made his drawing. As I 

 now write, I am sitting under the shelf where 

 that same old plaster cast rests. 



This boy has become famous all over the 

 world for his drawings, and the papers have 

 lately announced that he has given up an as- 

 sured income of $65,000 a year because he 

 wishes to go to Europe and enter into an- 

 other branch of art. He will meet with the 

 same great success in that as he has in his 

 illustrations, because he is still a young man 

 and will take to Europe with him that same 

 intense love for doing a thing thoroughly 

 and well, and the same application and the 

 rugged health and strong body that he ac- 

 quired by his outdoor life and work as boy 

 and youth. It is probably not necessary for 

 me to add that his young man is the cele- 

 brated Charles Dana Gibson. 



I tell you this story for two reasons : one, 

 because, as I said before, I am preaching a 

 bit today and I want you to take Mr. Gib- 



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