Description:

The Boy Scouts long have issued a Master at Arms Badge. In the U.S., the Badge was retired in 1911. In England the badge lives on and can be fulfilled with many great sports such as Target Shooting, Archery, or after-school Asian martial arts. However, to many western martial artists, it lives on as a pale shadow of its former self, consisting all too often of “a note from the boy’s Sensei saying, ‘yes, he attends class regularly’.”

Ah, but in “the good old days,” when politicians represented the will of the people and the grass was greener, the Master at Arms Badge reflected a more western heritage by requiring skill in any two of Singlestick, Fencing, Boxing, Quarterstaff, Ju Jitsu, Wrestling, or Gymnastics.

While myth, as usual, overshadows reality, I was excited to read the post by Robert Reinberger of http://www.budoforum.net when he made the 1925 English text available in raw scans. I am grateful that he has preserved this text and given me permission to republish.