desperately slippery. However, we got going, and for some time everything went well. We had reached a steepish hill, where the road was very narrow and flanked on one side by a most precipitous decline, when suddenly, without any previous warning, the car got quite out of control. Finding myself unable to regain any power over the engine, I clapped on the brake as quickly as possible. The result was alarming in the extreme, for the locking of the wheels sent the whole motor skidding across the shiny roadway towards the edge of the precipice. Those were intensely trying moments as, with nerves at full strain and eyes staring straight before us, we slid bodily across the road to the very brink of the fatal gorge. Half a yard more and we should have been dashed to pieces, with the car like a sort of tombstone over our heads. As it was, that extra half-yard was never traversed, for fortunately the wheels bit the road again, and we remained, saved by the skin of our teeth, upon the side of the road, peering down over the rocky wall which had so nearly proved to be our death-trap.
This narrow escape illustrated very forcibly a remark which I have made in the early part of this article about the action of the mind when in danger. Seeing how near we came to going over for good and all, I should have expected my chief thought to have been for the safety of my companion and self. As a matter or fact, while we shot across the roadway, my chief and all-absorbing thought was just this: "If the car does actually go down, what an awful job those who get it up again will have." I suppose that in battle the minds of combatants must also be occupied by details of a somewhat similar nature.
It was a motoring moment that I shall never forget as long as I live.
All letters relating to organization, questions on Scouting subjects and Scout news should be sent to the "Scout Editor," BOYS' LIFE.
Letters concerning matters purely editorial, contributions, questions, subscription and advertisements should be addressed to BOYS' LIFE, 7 Water St., Boston, Mass.
Boys and Boy Scouts: It is with great pride that I place the first number of BOYS' LIFE in your hands—the finest five-cent boys' magazine ever issued. Look this issue over, it's full of just the kind of reading you like—every page interesting from start to finish.
This number contains an exciting, long, complete railroad yarn, short stories, articles on scouting, scouting games, and instalment of a fine serial, illustrations—in fact a real boys' magazine, devoted to the Boy Scout movement, outdoor life and character-building in boys. Every story and article is written by men who know their subject thoroughly and who understand just what a boy likes.
Our Object
In issuing BOYS' LIFE, we have two objects in view:
First—To furnish the Boy Scouts with a paper which they may consider their own, and which will keep them in touch with patrols all over the country, to give them hints and instructions on Scouting, how to play Scouting games, and to supply them with good, clean, stirring stories of adventure.
Second—To place in the hands of all boys a paper of which they may be proud, and one which they will not be afraid to have their parents see them reading.
We want every boy to show this copy of BOYS' LIFE to his parents, ask them to read it, and compare it with the cheap five-cent weeklies that are now being sold. We have no doubt that after they see the manly tone of our paper they will heartily approve of our project to give the American boy a journal of a higher moral tone than that of any other boys' paper published.
We feel that the boys of this country are not namby-pamby youths, devoid of imagination, and who know nothing and care nothing about the great world awaiting them. They want to read and know something beyond the dull level of their own street and town.
To this end they are not desirous of wading through pages of blood and horror, impossible detective yarns, of stories in which crime and violence play a leading part.
They want good, healthy stories of adventure, in all parts of the world—stories full of the right kind of dash and excitement. These are the only kind which Boys' Life will publish. Stories that will do their part toward building character in boys.
Our Program
It is my intention as editor of BOYS' LIFE to give my readers absolutely the best stories that can be obtained—this number is a fine example of what a boys' paper should be—the future numbers will be even better than this one.
In each issue I intend to publish a long, complete story of 10,000 words or more good, clean, healthy yarns of adventure the world over—clever school stories—tales of boys in busi-
