Daniel Carter Beard (1850–1941)

In a world where this week's headlines include "Banff lodge fined $27K for destroying barn swallow nest with eggs", it seems odd and rather appalling to find a book with chapters on how to collect birds' nests and eggs, and how to rear wild birds (baby owls, Farley Mowat notwithstanding, are much harder to domesticate than baby hawks, and it's quite handy to have a tame hawk tethered in the garden to keep down the depredations of free-range chickens). This was the world of Sterling North, show more Farley Mowat, and Mark Twain.

You can also learn how to construct fire balloons, how to light a gas jet with the static spark from your own finger, and many other dangerous enterprises. Or build your own boat and sail it. (But learn to swim first, the book advises.)

The chapters on hunting and trapping could be useful in the "SHTF" scenario that "preppers" are fond of invoking. Meanwhile, we can fly hand-made kites or put on shadow-puppet shows. The script and patterns for all characters of Puss In Boots are included. show less

Recommended to writers of historical fiction who understand that at a certain point in the past, Huckleberry Finn wasn't very much more savage than many young boys of leisure. The "How to Bind a Prisoner without a Cord" is clever, and I would actually like to know a child and try it out.

Not so much recommended to today's children. Most of the handicrafts and games involve fire, knives, tamed or dead animals, and/or materials difficult to obtain nowadays. A few might work. The "Indoor show more Amusements" of Winter look interesting, especially the Mind Reader 'magic trick,' and fortunately for that you need only self-confidence, a good memory, a confederate, and at least two members of the audience. Oh, and enough identical cards or pieces of paper for all, and at least one pen or pencil. show less

This is a reprint of a 1912 book about camping, scouting, outdoor recreation, hiking, etc., and includes great illustrations, which I think were made by the author as well. Daniel Beard was a co-founder of the Boy Scouts of America, and boy, is this a boyish book. Girls do not exist. At least not outside any house. The book is really a time capsule of how things were back then.

There are many useful skills described in here, how to make a raised platform for a place to sleep in a swamp, how show more to make a logomaran so you can drift down a river (never ever use fresh wood, or you might sink), how to make fire without matches, how to make a play house, what to eat in camp, and that you should bring a flour sack to make into a pillow case. He even have instructions on how to build a fire engine. Oh, and even how to make a herbarium is in here.

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I'm divided as to how to review this book. Part of me wants to address the parents of the children this book seems to be directed to. And part of me wants to treat this book as a historical reference.

To take the easier path first, let me talk about the American Boy's Handy Book's place in history. The book was written by Daniel Carter Beard. Carter was an artist, naturalist and early founder of the Boy Scouts of America. His love of the outdoors and empathy for youth is evident right from show more the start of the first chapter: he writes, "[I]t is a pleasant sensation to sit in the first spring sunshine and feel the steady pull of a good kite upon the string, and watch it's graceful movements as it sways from side to side, ever mounting higher and higher, as if impatient to free itself and soar away amid the clouds."

And it was his concern with the lack of structure and supervision of city kids that caused him write this book. His own childhood was in antebellum Ohio. When his life took him to the city of New York he despaired at seeing the news boys sleeping on the wet streets and he began writing all sorts of articles for children's magazines of the time.

Eventually, he was urged to collect these pieces and to put them in a single volume. The American Boy's Handy Book is the result.

Chapter Headings, under the major seasonal divisions

Spring
1. Kite Time
2. War Kites
3. Novel Modes of Fishing
4. Hand-Made Fishing Tackle
5. How to Stock, Make, and Keep a Fresh-Water Aquarium
6. How to Keep Aquatic Plants in the House or Flower-Garden
7. How to Stock and Keep a Marine Aquarium
8. How to Collect for Marine Aquarium

Summer
9. Knots, Bends, and Hitches
10. The Water-Telescope
11. Dredge, Tangle and Trawl Fishing
12. Home-Made Boats
13. How to Rig and Sail Small Boats
14. Novelties in Soap-Bubbles
15. Fourth of July Balloons, with New and Novel Attachments
16. How to Camp Out Without a Tent
17. Bird Singers, etc.
18. Bird Nesting
19. How to Rear Wild Birds
20. How to Rear Wild Birds – continued
21. Home-Made Hunting Apparatus
22. How to Make Blow-Guns, Elder Guns, etc.

Autumn
23. Traps and Trapping
24. Dogs
25. Practical Taxidermy for Boys
26. Every Boy a Decorative Artist

Winter
27. Snowball Warfare
28. Snow-Houses and Statuary
29. Sleds, Chair-Sleighs, and Snow-Shoes
30. How to Make the Tom Thumb Ice-Boat and Larger Craft
31. The Winged Skaters, and How to Make the Wings
32. Winter Fishing – Spearing and Snaring – Fisherman's Movable Shanties, Etc.
33. In-Door Amusements
34.The Boy's Own Phunnygraph
35. How to Make Puppets and a Puppet-Show
36. Push-In-Boots. Dramatized and Adapted for a Puppet-Show
37. How to Make a Magic Lantern – A Kaleidoscope – A Fortune Teller's Box, etc.
38. How to Make the Dancing Fairies, The Bather, and The Orator
39. How to Make Various and Divers Whirligigs
40. The Universe in a Card-Box
41. Life Instilled into Paper Puppets, and Matches Made of Human Fingers
42. Home-Made masquerade and Theatrical Costumes

You might wonder why I list this chapters. I do it first because I have not found them given anywhere else. And you need to see, as Historians or History enthusiasts the scope of activities that are covered. Carter really provides, in my opinion, a look into both indoor and outdoor activities of the times. These are the activities that the boys and men going into Civil War would have known about. What they would have done to pass the evenings at home, and it gives a precursor of the basic field skills they might have had.

Now, for the parents and adults that are considering this book for children. Let me say that this is not a 19th Century equivalent of "The Dangerous Book for Boys". This is a book written before there were Warning Labels and you will have to assess the readiness of your child to read the book.

What I mean by this is that The "American Handy Book for Boys" is filled with activities, some of which should not be attempted by anyone under 12 years of age. While some projects like the costumes and "phunnygraph" and kites are more or less timeless and safe activities, there are others like making your own boomerang and outdoor oven, that require tools that most of us don't normally hand over to youngers.

And there are other activities that ought not to ever be engaged in, even with adult supervision. Blowing up balloons using natural gas comes to mind. Similarly there are other activities that ought to only be engaged in under adult supervision, like dissecting a bird and stuffing it.

There are other activities like making costumes and whirligig's that are harmless. But I would suggest this book for the mature, young adult. Perhaps someone interesting in the times of Huck Finn.

I highly recommend this book for it's unique view of the past. It would make a great gift for someone like myself who is interested in the sociological side of history. Or the older child, like an Eagle Scout, who might want to experiment with making their own oven, boat, blow gun, camp bed, etc. show less