8 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



of the better kind gone adrift. Only in the steer- 

 age do you touch the keynote of America as the 

 asylum of the downtrodden, for here are the brave 

 who flee from tyranny and starvation, the flight 

 that is no defeat but often the road to victory, and 

 fearlessly set out to mend their fallen fortunes under 

 other skies. With most of these it is a maiden 

 voyage, and Americans returning home are few 

 and far between in that part of the ship. One 

 matron there was from Idaho, most of whose time 

 was occupied in administering a kind of jiu-jitsu, 

 which she called " Hail Columbia! " to a promising 

 kleptomaniac of six, who everlastingly abstracted 

 candy and other victuals from her slender store. 

 I told her that even St Augustine had robbed an 

 orchard, but she received this cold comfort with a 

 Lutheran snort and the remark that " Those saints 

 were no better than they should be." 



A concert was given in each class in aid of the 

 Seaman's Mission, and I had the honour of pre- 

 siding over that in the saloon. On this occasion 

 I nearly put both feet in it, owing simply to my 

 lamentable ignorance of American affairs. My first 

 offence was against those slumbering hatreds roused 

 by the war of secession, or abolition, or whatever 

 excuse was made for the wealthier political party of a 

 great nation to be at the other's throat. A second- 

 class concert was given the night before ours, and 

 this I attended in the hope of learning the chair- 

 man's routine, for, being fond of music, I had rarely 

 attended ships' concerts in any capacity, and never 

 in that of chairman. There I heard a little nigger 

 boy sing " My Irish Molly," with such rolling of the 

 eyes and other irresistible gestures that, when asked 



