The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-12-13

AMERICAN CHILDREN TRAvELING.-The Lon
don Spectator has some sensible remarks on the
folly of parents subjecting young children to
the excitements of travel, Overpowcring, as it
does, the mind, and deranging the divestive
organs by the diversity of diet to be found in
hotels Mixed with this, however, is no small
amount of satire. The following paragraph
will enable the reader to judge how far he has
the truth of history" on his side:
An American child of four years in Swiss
hotel is perfectly capable Of ordering q petit
rerre after dinner, and she generally gets it,
without the slightest interference from mamma
or the governess, or indeed any human being,
except possibly the waiter, who would speedily
be brought to due sense of his position and
since, the writer noticed q perfect specimen of
the kind. She was bright-eyed, fair-haired
little thing, probably seven years old, but in
appearance scarcely five, who marched into the
room with the air of mingled curiosity and
pomp 80 comical in sharp children, made way
for her father, grave man of fifty, but calmly
ordered her mother to take another chair
Mamma had seated herself outside her hus-
band, and Baby had intended to sit between
her and the governess. This arrangement ac-
complished, and waiter who proffered a high
rolled her napkin, read the menu carefully, re-
marked that she liked sweets, and graYely
went in for dinner. OF ten twelve Dishes
that child tasted every one, insisted on a separ-
tions of her over-filled little person on some
| cheese-cakes First she ate her own share.
Then she sidled up to her governess, remarked
in American that she had not had half enough
| and in French, that the lady opposite was
clearly English, and, under cover Of her chat
| ter, quietly stole and bolted the poor womans
cheese-cakes. Then she turned to her mother ;
but her mother had passed the dish, and we
| thought she was ut the end of her resources.
| Not bit of it. In the shrillest and calmest of
trcbles, she ordered the head waiter, then
| about fifty feet off, to bring papa some more
| cheese-cakes," clutched three, and putting one
| on the governess's plate-either out of theory
of restitution as we hope or an idea of making
her an accomplice, as we fear-bolted the other
| two and then nudged her mother for aGlmira-
ton. With insignificant variations of circum-
stance, she was the typical American female
| child encountered in Switzerland-the most
| independent, self-helpful greedy little imp
alive. Male children from that continent, we
are bound to say, are different, their MAIN char
| acteristics being u portentous gravity and n
certain slow, but real, politencss, wonderful to
behold Outside the table d'hote the last rem
nant of selfrestraint seems to be thrown off
balconies are turned into play-rooms, passages
into race-courses, till the entire building seems
given over to shrill-voiced, dyspeptic, high
| spirited little imps, who, in an hour or SO, at
tract to their sides cosmopolitan assembly of
all colors-and ages, make them all as wicked as
| themselves, and, we arc bound to add, rule
them all with the most serene aplomb.