The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-09-17
Eiend Children.

In a letter to the London Telegraph
describing his trip from San Francisco
TO the Hawaiian islands, George Acus-
tu5 Sala writes: The Australia was in
tested by small but determine gang
OF what | may term fiend children
American children L am sorry to
say. And l am sorry to add
that they were all the children OF
saloon passengers. There were several
weli-enough conducted babies in the
steerage, and a few tolerable toddle-
kins N the intermediate cabins; but q
more exasperating set OF little despera-
does, male and female, than the first
class brats it would be difficult to
imagine. | am passionately y fond of
what Leigh Hunt used to call 1.-The
small infantry who go to bed by day
light, and L know that L love and
fancy that | understand the pretty
ways OF ordinary children; but when
the "small infantry" assume the as
pett OF so many diminutiye zaptiehs
and Bashi-Bazouks i'll miniature; when
they decline to go to bed by daylight,
orby lamplight either, until they are
dnVen like sheep into their hunks;
when from sunrise to supper-time they
never desist from their impish tricks,
the Small infantry" become to you
objects, not of tenderness and sym
pathy, but of terror or horror The
leader of the gang was an attenuated
glrl-demon Of about 9 or 10. She and
the sallow-faced little goblins whom
she led made our lives miserable. They
ran races in the saloon: they made
raids on the stewards pantry; they
blocked up the companion; they wor-
ried the cooks in the galley; they
raised connections in the forecastle;
they sprawled about the hurricane
deck, stopping up with yells of exulta-
ton the ventilators which should have
given little air to the hapless passen-
gers sweltering in the cabins below
They perched on the taifrail, and were
IN continuous peril of tumbling over
board; they hung on the rigging, and
made Gordian knots OF carefully-coiled
ropes; they burst into the smoking
room. and disturbed the quietude of
the five gentlemen who were constant
Iy paying poker in that diyau; they
ran between the legs and all but des-
troyed the equilibrium of the smoking
room steward who periodically brought
drinks TO the i've poker-players;
they overturned the deck chairs and
made holes IN the awnings; they derid-
ed rebuklng quarteTmasters, and spoke
TO the man at the wheel-aud all this
they did, not in the eXuberance of in-
fantile animal spirits, but in sheer
spirit of wanton turbulence and "cus-
sedness," wholly unchecked by their
mammas or other female relatives, who
were either too Seasic& OF too lazy to
look after and control them. Our cap
tain was shocked, but he had the
navigation OF MS snip to attend to. The
purscr had never seen such children,
lie ayerrcd-sinCe the last run from
Frisco 10 Sidney, | should say; the
doctor admitted that his small COM
patriots We're just a little worse than
Australian ''Iarrikin" children; the
Anierinan -ladr 4l~~tor ,,nd irUr oraueT--
both unmarried ladies-were scandal
lied at the ill-behavior of this troop of
small pirates Of the Pacific, and sug-
gested spanking" all around as
cure for the evil; but it was not until
late i'll the voyage, we had had one or
two good 'northers" and .'souther-
ly buster that is TO say, stiff gales
with Il heavy sea running-that sea-
sickness came to our aid, and, for
awhile, partially paralyzed the activi-
tV or these imDS OF the ocean