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Washington, D.C. "Boy Scout training demonstration, 1912." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative, Library of Congress. View full size.
Those aren't shin guards, they're leggings. That was part of the Army uniform around that time, and was also part of the original BSA uniform, which was patterned on it. I think their function was basically to keep the bottoms of your pants from fraying and getting muddy.
Notice the rings on the "rescuing" boy's left hand. Are they novelty rings? Or genuine jewelry of some significance? Take us back to the juvenile's world of 1912, somebody... (Oh, and while we're at it, why the shin guards? Simple leg protection while on hikes?)
[When I was a kid his age (not all that long ago), I wore a gold signet ring that had belonged to my granddad. - Dave]
Looks like a real-life Leyendecker cover.
A lot of web sites, they make you pay good money to see this sort of thing.
Looks like a variant of the back pressure technique for artificial respiration. It expels water or smoke from the lungs. There is also the chest pressure method where the patient on his back. These methods have mostly been replaced with mouth to mouth, although I suspect that in some cases the pressure methods are better for getting the water out of the patient's lungs
I guess this is someone being saved from drowning?
Or else, in 1912, Scouts needed to be prepared to arrest someone? Possibly they're preparing to be chiropractors and adjust subluxation of the spine? It's interesting how much First Aid has changed!
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