to the
rearing, training, and treatment which enabled those
veterans to become envied heroes to us of the present day.
Much entered into their lives that might be usefully
emulated by the seamen of our own time. Their unquestionable
skill and hardihood were acquired by a system of training
that would have out-matched the severity of the Spartan, and
they endured it with Spartan equanimity. A spasmodic growl
was the only symptom of a rebellious spirit. The maritime
historian who undertakes to write accurately the history of
this strange society of men will find it a strain on the
imagination to do them all the justice they deserve. Their
lives were illuminated with all that is manly and heroic and
skilful. They had no thought of cruelty, and yet they were
very cruel--that is, if they are to be judged by the
standard of the present age; but in this let us pass
sentence on them with moderation, and even with indulgence.
The magnitude of the deeds they were accustomed to perform
can never be fully estimated now, and these should excuse to
some extent many of their clumsy and misguided modes of
operation. It must not be supposed that all these men were
afflicted by a demoniac spirit. It was their training that
blanketed the sympathetic side of them, until they
unconsciously acquired all the peremptory disposition of
Oriental tyrants. But the stories I am about to relate of
childlife aboard ship will show how difficult it is entirely
to pardon or excuse them. The blood runs chilly at the
thought of it, and you feel your mind becoming impregnated
with the spirit of murder.

No personage ever attracted so much attention and sympathy
outside the precincts of his contracted though varied sphere
of labour as the cabin-boy who served aboard the old sailing
brigs, schooners, and barques, and I must plead guilty to
having a sentimental regret that the romance was destroyed
through this attractive personality being superseded by
another, with the somewhat unattractive title of "cook and
steward." The story of how poor boys of the beginning and
middle of the century and right up to the latter part of the
'sixties started sea-life is always romantic, often
sensational, and ever pathetic. They were usually the sons
of poor parents living for the most part in obscure villages
or small towns bordering on the sea, which sea blazed into
their minds aspirations to get aboard some one of the
numerous vessels that passed their homes one