er, the jackies from the forecastle of the "United
States" were entertained. They were landed at the Battery, and marched
in procession to the hotel, headed by a brass band which had been
captured with the "Macedonian." Four hundred of the fine fellows were
in the line, clad in the dress uniform of the navy of that time.
Glazed canvas hats with stiff rims, decked with streamers of ribbon;
blue jackets buttoned loosely over red waistcoats; and blue trousers
with bell-buttons,--made up the toggery of the tar of 1812. As they
marched, two by two, through the narrow streets that led to the City
Hotel, the populace assembled on the sidewalks and in the windows
along the route, greeting the jackies with cheers. The rear was
brought up by the usual band of street-urchins, each of whom that day
was firm in his determination to be a sailor.

After the banquet at the hotel, the sailors were marched to the
theatre, where the pit had been set aside for them. The orchestra
opened with "Yankee Doodle;" but the first bar had hardly been played,
when the cheers of the blue-jackets fairly drowned the music, and the
musicians were fain to stop. The programme had been arranged with
special regard to the seafaring audience. Little children bounded upon
the stage, bearing huge letters in their hands, and, after lightly
whirling through the mazes of the dance, grouped themselves so that
the letters formed the words,--

HULL, JONES, DECATUR.

Then came more cheers from the pit; and more than one glazed hat
soared over the heads of the audience, and fell on the stage,--a
purely nautical substitute for a bouquet. Late at night, the sailors
returned to their ship, elated with an ovation the like of which has
never since been tendered to the humble heroes of the forecastle or
the ranks.

CHAPTER VI.

BAINBRIDGE TAKES COMMAND OF THE "CONSTITUTION." -- THE
DEFEAT OF THE "JAVA." -- CLOSE OF THE YEAR'S HOSTILITIES ON
THE OCEAN.

As Hull and Decatur sat in the gayly decorated banquet-hall at New
York, and, amid the plaudits of the brilliant assembly, drank bumpers
to the success of the navy, they little thought that thousands of
miles away the guns of an American frigate were thundering, and the
stout-hearted blue-jackets laying down their lives for the honor and
glory of the United States. But so it was. The opening year of the war
was not destined to close without yet a fourth naval victory for the
Americans; and,