Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1883 — On a Frersland Boat. [ARTICLE]

On a Frersland Boat.

.It was pleasant to take notes I lof the various little pictures ■ made by the tangle of brown-' sailed, broad-beamed craft. We had ' even time to observe the lightsome and ; free ways of the Dutch female sailor— : not romantically disguised as a boy, but i sporting a distinct (tarry more or less) \ costume of her own; not so very differ-] ent either from the real boy—or rather, ’ his dress, in one important particular, is rather a lame imitation of hers. He I ] wears a pair of baggy breeches so very ■ voluminous and petticoaty that one has ] ] to turn to other peculiarities of dress in I order to be on the safe side.of judgment. : [ There is one way of telling the boy ! j from the girl, however, as far as you ! can see them, as he does a" deal of vig-! I orous looking on and smoking, while ' [ she does some verv pretty pulling and ■ hauimgmndqroiing the~boarabout, M ] harbor especially. We saw one athletic young maiden shy a coil of rope for a ; youth on another boat to catch. He did not get his hands out of his capacious pockets quickly enough, so the rope ; caught him playfully about the ears ;' whereupon ensued a rattling interchange of compliments (probably) be- ; tween these two at first, and then the female sailor belonging to the lubber’s boat “sailed in”—-to use a strictly nautitical term; and then it soon developed into a partie carree, as the old man as the rudder of the rope-slinging maiden’t .■boat opened fire. He was a master-hand at profanity, that aged mariner. It was just getting hot and deeply interesti g ; to us on-lookers, when our boat 'd • I out, with a welj-directed broadside oiinvective from our crew, bestowed impartially and liberally on all concerned, for not getting out of the way.— Geo. i H. Boughton, in Harper's Magazine,