FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 9 



next morning if I could make any suggestion before 

 the programme went to the printer, I, as ill-luck 

 would have it, proposed that the child should be put 

 in as an extra. I am sure that it is unnecessary to 

 assure my American friends — I hope that I have 

 some now, if I had few then — that there was not in 

 my suggestion any arriere pensee of a silly and 

 offensive joke. At the first publicity of my suggestion 

 and fortunately before the bill had gone to the printer, 

 two ladies from Louisiana indignantly withdrew 

 their names, vowing that they would not be on the 

 programme with a " coon." I do not presume to 

 judge their attitude. Themselves too young to 

 recollect even the last weeks of a war that laid their 

 country waste, their family may have suffered 

 cruelly, hence no doubt, their hostility to the poor 

 little coloured animal not yet old enough to realise 

 himself as a race problem. Not having yet been 

 invited, the offending "coon" was unconditionally 

 struck off, and when I had made my apologies to 

 the ladies, the)' consented to sing and gave great 

 pleasure to the audience. Had he been invited, 

 they would, no doubt, have struck him off all the 

 same, only in that case someone else would have 

 taken the chair. 



My second offence in connection with the function 

 was happily averted at a still earlier stage by the 

 watchfulness of Mr Lancaster, the courteous and 

 energetic purser of the ship, who sat beside me 

 through the evening and piloted me over more than 

 one breaker. At the close of the performance, the 

 company stood up for the National Anthems of 

 both lands, and to my amazement the pianist struck 

 up the first chords of " God save the King!" It 



