BOYS WHO BUN AWAY TO SEA.

Evening Post, Volume XLVII, Issue 88, 14 April 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOYS WHO BUN AWAY TO SEA.

I "Do we see many runaway boys?" said a recruiting agent for the Royal Navy, who is stationed at an important manufacturing centre. " I should think we do. But before a lad is accepted for the Navy we must have this (a certificate of birth), and this form (a document in which parents gives their consent to their son becoming a blue-jacket) must be filled up. Sometimes, if a lad has a bad home, we manage the consent ourselves, and sometimes a lad deceives us. How ? I'll tell you of a case. A boy came to a certain recruiting depot accompanied by a gentleman who said he was the youngster's guardian. Now that he has been in the Navy a few months, he doesn't like the life he is obliged to lead, and he says that his parents are alive and do not know where he is. I expect we shall have to let him go. Boys who run away with the intention of going to sea, however, generally make for a port in the expectation that some captain in the mercantile marine will welcome them with open arms. The landing stage at Liverpool is a wonderful focus for lads who leave home in this frame of mind. You may see them there very often — indeed, the officials have become so familiar with this particular class of youth that they can detect them with unerring certainty." — From Chums.