The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1885-09-24
Fiead Children.

In letter to the London Telegraph
describing his "trip from San Francisco
to the Hawaiian Islands, George Agus-
tus SalA writes: The Australia was ir>
tested by small but determined gang
Of what / may term fie1d children
American children am tsorrv TO
say. And I ana sorry to add
that they we're all the children Of
saloon passengers. There were several
wel-enough conducted babies In the
steerage. and = few tolerable toddle-
kins In the intermediate cabins; but 8
moro exsspersting set Of little despera-
does, male and female, than the first
class brats it would be difficult TO
imagine. ! am passionately fond Of
what Leigh Hunt used to call .sthe
small infantry who 60 to bed by day
light" and ! know that love and
fancy that understand the pretty
ways Of ordinary children; bnt when
the ''sman infantry" assume the as
poet Of so many diminutive zaptiehs
and Bashi-Bazouks in miniature; when
they decline to go to bed by daylight,
or by lamphghs either, until they are
driven like Sheep into their bunks;,
when from sunrise to supper-time they
never desist from their impish tricks,
the "smaH infantry" become to you
Objects not of tenderness and SYM
patty, but Of terror or horror The
leader Of thesgang was an attenuated
girl-demon of about or 10 She and
the sallow-faced little COLLINS whom
she led made our lives uaiserabie. They
ran races in the saloon; they made
raids on the stewards pantry; they
blocked mp the companion; they wor-
fied the cooks in the galley; they
raised cOmmotions in the forecastle;
they spraWledf about the hurricane
deck; stopping up with yells of exulta4
ton the Ventilators which should have
given little air to the hapless passen-
gers stFeltering in the cabins below
They perched on the taffrail, and were
In continuous peril of tumbling over
boerdi they hung on the rigging and
made Gordian knots of carefully cooled
ropes; they burst into the smoking
room, and disturbed the quietude OF
the hve gentlemen who were constant
ly playing poker in that divan; they
ran between the legs and all but des-
troyed che equilibrium of the smoking
room steward who periodically brought |
drinks" to the five poker-players;
they overturned the deck chairs and
made holes in the awnings; they derid- /
ed rebuking quartermasters, and spoke /
to the man at the wheel--and all this |
they did, not in the exuberanee of in /
fantile animal spirits. but in a sheer /
spirit of wanton turbulence and 'scus. /
sedness," wholly unchecked by their /
mammas or other female relatives, who /
were either too seasick or too lazy 70 /
look after and control them. Our cap
tain was shocked, but he had the 1
navigation of his ship to attend to. The
purser had never seen such children,
he averred-since the last run from /
Frisco to Sidney, should say; the
doctor admitted that his small COM
patriots were Just q little worse than
Australian 'larrikin'' children; the /
American lady doctor and her sister
both unmarried ladies-Were scandal
lied at the nl-behaviOr, of this troop of
small pirates Of the Pacific, and sug-
gested spanking" all around as q
cure for the evil; but it was not until
late in the voyage, we had had one or
two good ''northers" and '.souther-
y buster'-that Is to say, stiff gales
with a heavy sea running-that sea-
sickness came to our aid, and, for
awhile. partially paralyEed the aotivi-
~ OF these imps Of the ocean.