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Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1310, 13 December 1911, Page 9

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BOYS WHO SMOKED. AUSTRALIA LEAGUE TOUR. Smoking cigarettes was the offence which brought to a sudden end tho tour of two of the members of the Young Australia League, dispatched from Perth some time ago to see the world and complete their education. They wero passengers outward by tho Maitai on Saturday, homeward bound for "W.A." What they have learned on their trip could scarcely be gathered in a short chat such as a Dominion representative had with the two boys. Perhaps they ought to be called young men, for they are '10 years of age or thereabouts, and apparently very wide-awake, well-informed lads for their years. Something at least they have acquired in America—they wero Americanly tailored, harbored, and shod, and they can talk the American language with some glibness, using freely the well-known queer metaphors and similes made familiar to the rest of the world by harvester travellers, Jack Johnson and 0. Henry. For tho rest, they arc a wellmannered pair of lads, stalwart, aud wholesome in body and brain. All about the Young Australia League need not bo retold here. This tour was projected and is being controlled by the present manager of the travelling companv of '40 boys, Mr. Synions. They were welcomed and feted in the Eastern States of Australia, in New Zealand, and now the party is -in the Western States of America. They aro billeted out in the towns and cities, and they provide ways and means by giving a vaudeville show in places thev pass through. Rules of conduct were drawn up for the troupe before they loft home, and one of theso rules was that no boy was to smoke. • "Oh, yes, wo smoked all right, said ■one of the youths, telling his story. "But that wasn't the real trouble--'\v> weren't tho only- ones who smoked, and we never smoked" in public. Tho truth about tho business is that we, two' of the oldest boys in the party, were regarded by the manager as tho leaders of a disaffected section, which wo were." And then he went on to tell how the disaffection expressed' itself. It had something to do with a balance-sheet which was not presented soon enough to please tbem. "Dissatisfied with the tour? Yes, wo were—very dissatisfied. Seeing tho world! All wo saw were the main streets of tho big towns, and not very much of them. Travelling all day and a show every night was our programme, and hard going to keep on time. If we did happen to see a factory, wo went through it in twenty minutes or half an hour, and we were promptly sat on if wo asked questions. I'm glad enough I've been in the States, but we're both mighty glad we're going homo. . "I think the company will come back from Vancouver. They may go to Chicago and come back from there, but "I don't think they'll get as far as - Now York/' A fellow passenger of the boys on the ship was Mr. W. Schryver, who left Australia with the boys as stage manager. This position ho resigned at the same time as the boys left, and he, too, is on his way back home.