Drying Clothes

You sometimes get wet in camp, and you will see "tenderfoots" remaining in their wet clothes until they get dry again. No old Scout would do so, as that is the way to catch cold.

When you are wet, take the first opportunity of getting your wet clothes off and drying them, even though you may not have other clothes to put on, as happened to me many a time. I have sat naked under a waggon while my one suit of clothes was drying over a firs

The way to dry clothes is to make a fire of hot embers, and then build a small beehive-shaped cage of sticks over it. Hang your clothes all over this cage, and they will very quickly dry.

In hot weather it is dangerous to sit in your clothes when they have become wet from your perspiration. On the West Coast of Africa I always carried a spare shirt hanging down my back, with the sleeves tied round my neck. As soon as I halted I would take off the wet shirt I was wearing, and put on the dry, which had been hanging out in the sun on my back. By this means I never got sick when almost everyone else did.

Author

Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell (Chief Scout, London, UK)

Date of Creation

1908

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