YANKEE-DOODLE 201 



The American riflemen seldom wore a uniform, and 

 were more ridiculous from point of numbers and appear- 

 ance than any other cause that I perceived, for I have 

 more than once seen cripples in their ranks. Often 

 there were more bandsmen than riflemen. Thus, one 

 body consisted of a band of four drums and a dozen 

 brass instruments, followed by a regiment of two ofl&cers, 

 four non-coms., and a couple of privates. Remarking on 

 this paucity of numbers to a neighbour who was some- 

 thing of a wit, he said, " The company is certainly rather 

 weak. In my regiment there were thirty generals, fifty 

 colonels, and a hundred majors." " How about sergeants 

 and privates ? " " Oh ! we did very well without them. 

 They would have made us look too much like a nigger 

 regiment." 



Like boys in general, the Yankee boy is precocious. 

 He becomes a man at a very early age, not only in his 

 own estimation, but in that of his elders also, with the 

 result that, like the women, he is too often spoilt. It is 

 incomprehensible to an Englishman that urchins of 

 twelve or fourteen should be permitted to carry fire- 

 arms, and use them, threateningly, at least. On one 

 occasion a boy of thirteen presented a loaded revolver, 

 a heavy six-shooter, at me in resentment of a fancied 



injury, and threatened to let G — d daylight 



through me ; and this in the public street of a town of 

 some size. I was not slow to disarm him, and give him 

 a sound flogging; and, will it be believed, I narrowly 

 escaped being strung up to a lamp-post for so doing. 

 Murders by boys, and even girls, are not unfrequently 

 recorded in the American newspapers. It can scarcely 

 be otherwise where the people are allowed to carry fire- 

 arms indiscriminately, without either licence or regis- 

 tration. 



In the early years of their lives many Americans 

 retain a very youthful appearance ; so that it is not 

 unusual to meet people, who do not seem to be out 



