I don’t know whether corporal punishment has been abolished on board the Britannia; probably, like many good things, it has. But I carry a good stout cane myself.
This ferocious old boy would, however, have first to “catch his cadet”!
The editor takes occasion to remark that “Old Meddler’s” letter would not have been inserted but for the corroborative remarks of “A Cadet.” Whether or not the double warning was productive of beneficial results is not stated. Probably, as long as the world lasts, boys and young men will continue to exercise their ingenuity in this fashion, to their own gratification and the discomfort of their fellow creatures. It is their nature to!
A number of the cadets had been through a course of “first-aid” instruction, under the St. John Ambulance Association, and here is an account of the result:—
A fellow broke his arm up in the field the other day, and the medical staff turned it to splendid account and lectured to a crowded audience over the prostrate body of the wounded cadet.
“Now, what do you call this?”
“Broken arm, sir!”
“How do you know it is broken?”
“Because we waggled it about, sir.”
“Simple or compound fracture?”
“Simple, sir.”
“Why?”
“Because he did it so easily, sir!”
“What ought I to do?”
Then came out a volley of all the stored up information acquired at the late classes:
“Stick a mustard plaster on the back of his neck, sir!”
“Put him in a hot bath, sir!”
“Walk him up and down as fast as you can, sir!”
“Hold him up by the heels, sir!”
“Tie him to a broom-handle, two billiard cues, and a rifle, sir!”
“Tickle his nose with a feather, sir!” and so on.
The prostrate hero must have had lively anticipations during this exchange of ideas!
We are not informed what course would be adopted by a “first-aid” cadet under certain alarming conditions which apparently might arise when out “mushrooming,” though it is recorded in the magazine that the process by which a cadet distinguishes a mushroom from a toadstool is to eat it. If he dies, it is a toadstool; if he lives, it is a mushroom!
Towards the end of the ’eighties the electric light was installed on board both ships, and the only marvel is that it was not done earlier. Those who have experienced the endless worry of lamps and candles on board ship will understand what a boon the electric light is.
The dynamo was first placed on board the Hindostan; but a wooden vessel is one huge conductor of sound and vibration, and before long it was shifted to a small vessel specially provided, and moored just above the ships. This was, in fact, one of the old mortar vessels constructed for use in the Baltic during the Crimean War.