CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9808, 1 May 1895, Page 3

CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

CHINA'S MARINES.

The Sublime Son of Heaven really wonders why ib is said that his Celestial children do so little fighting and so much running away. Poor fellow, he is nob allowed bo go out at all and look about him, or he would see some peculiar sights that would open his eyes. He has heard, of course, how his ancestors, the Tartars and the Manchoos, fought till they had pulled each others pigtails out by the roots and all bhab, and he has been taught that the greatest of all great impossibilities is for the Japanese or any other nation to disturb the unapproachable serenity of his realm. I met with an amusing sample of China's marines (says a contributor to Harper's Young People) when going up the coast in a rather small American trading vessel. The captain was a blue-eyed Yankee. We were leaning on the rail smoking and chatting. There was just a working breeze. The vessel required little attention except from tbe lookout and man at the wheel. The water was smooth, the sun was hot. There was a . sail over the starboard bow. Ib was a Chinese vesseL The two enormous ribbed sails, fashioned like the shoulder-fins of a fish, were set to the light breeze, and caught every breath of ib. She was doing much bettor than we. The captain philosophised a little upon the superiority of some antediluvian ideas over modern notions, then carelessly handing me the class, he asked, " Can you make her out?"

Ib was easily done. She wa,s, evidently, a mandarin junk manned by Chinese marines, doubtless one of the coast patrols out there to hold pirates in check. The captain cast a quick glance about him, and replied, " She'll be a pirate herself if she can come near enough. There's no one looking on." - I had heard of such things Happening, bub as I looked ab the size of the junk, and then ab our little vessel, manned by twelve men, I was nob in the least anxious to have it happen now. " She changed her course a while ago to cross our bows," the captain added a little later. " Let's see if she means business."

He tacked as far as he could and hold the wind. In a moment the junk' was again set to meet us, and coming pretty close. There was no mistake aboub it; yet the glass showed only eight or ten men lying about on the deck. The only one who seemed awake was a half-naked fellow at the helm, and he was leaning over as though he was on the point of taking a nap. "They'll catch us, sure," the captain muttered ; but he did not seem much disturbed.

" What can we do ?" I asked. "Notmuch of anything." He shrugged his shoulders. "We've got some powder for that little cannon forward for signalling, but I'm blest if there's a single shot in the locker, or I would make a hole in her. Gob a revolver ?"

I produced my best friend in that line— one which had several times served me well. To my astonishment the captain calmly looked at it, saw that it was loaded, tested the trigger, and deliberately put it in his pocket. "It may come in handy," he said, as though there was no possibility that I might find it " handy" myself. " I've gob a big navy down below, but nothing to pub in it. No use for it at sea, you know. I used to be a crack shot with one of these things. I think I'll try ib if I can get a good mark." He ordered the cannon loaded to the muzzle, the colours ready to run up, the four gates ready to open instantly, with the cannon at the forward gate, and all hands below ready to stand by when called for. Then, without a sailor on deck but the man at the wheel, and as calmly as if he were lying in port, he took a chew of tobacco, leaned lazily on the rail., and watched the mandarin junk. Down she came, nearer and nearer, still without a sign of activity. 1 began to think we were mistaken after all, well as I ought to have known the Chinese. She was so near that we could hear the water lapping her prow under the grim dragon with two great eyes, and still the halfnaked Celestial hung over the rudder arm, and dozed.

She came within easy speaking distance. She came nearer. The fellow at the helm pushed a little. It was evident he was intending to strike us right amidships. Ib was not over two minutes off. There is something to make a landlubber's nerves cringe in a sight like that. " Hard aport," the captain muttered without moving his head. I didn't believe the man could have heard at all till "Hard a-porb, sir," came in the same low tones from the man at the wheel, and in a moment the vessel came about.

, There was a wild yell from the junk, and suddenly every foot of her deck, and even her ungainly rigging, were alive. They were all naked to the waist. There were a hundred or more of them. They sprang from everywhere, yelling and brandishing different kinds of weapons. A dozen caught the rudder beam to bring the craft about, but she was much slower at it than our vessel, with the result that, instead of coming into collision, we lay broadsides to, twenty feet apart. The captain did not move till the first yell sounded, but then, quick as thought, he turned, " Stand by, boys. Open the watercrates. Run out the cannon, and let) her go. Up with the colours there—be lively ! To the port rail every man." To the indistinct comprehension of a landsman this is about what came from his lips, and came as fast as the English language could conveniently be spoken. The result was something astonishing. Naturally I wag watching the junk, wishing that I had my revolver, and paying little attention to what was going on on our own deck. It was nob over one minute, at the most, for we were only abreast of each other, and the captain of the junk had barely gained a position in the rigging and begun yelling to his men, when there was a crash like thunder from our deck, a cloud of smoke rolling between the two vessels, a report from my revolver, and the captain of the junk, with a furious contortion, fell headlong to the deck. Per a moment there was a tumult on the junk. 'I half expected it would result in our total annihilation. The next instanb there was not a man in sight except the wounded captain, wriggling about on the deck, and the fellow at the helm, who was wide awake, and tugging for life to head the junk away from us. From somewhere or other in hiding came a plaintive wail, "No shootee. No shootee. Mellikan man all lightee. Cheenaman no hurtee."

The captain returned my revolver with the simple remark, So much for your Chinese marines."