Olmsted admonished the headmaster of Owen’s boarding school with incessant instruction, detailing all the skills he thought imperative in a young man’s matriculation, including: “To saddle & bridle a horse. . . . To ride, drive, pack, clean, feed, bleed & physic a horse. . . . To rescue drowning persons. . . . To ford a river. To kill animals without cruelty; to preserve meat. . . . To make slight repairs in & run a steam engine safely. . . . To preserve clothing from moths.” While Colonel Roosevelt (as well as one Ron Swanson) might have heartily approved of these directives, it’s hard to
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