d, at my suggestion, as being,
if we must have drinks of that nature, much the least harmful to men
in a hot country, besides, in the quantity that we were able to take,
non-intoxicant. We also took tea, sugar, milk, and a kettle, Thus
furnished, we struck for the country, merry as a group of schoolboys,
making the quiet air ring again with song, shout, and laughter--all
of which may seem puerile and trivial in the extreme; but having seen
liberty men ashore in nearly every big port in the world, watched the
helpless, dazed look with which they wander about, swinging hands, bent
shoulders, and purposeless rolling gait, I have often fervently wished
that some one would take a party of them for a ramble with a definite
purpose, helping them to a little enjoyment, instead of them falling,
from sheer lack of knowing what else to do, into some dirty, darksome
gin-mill, to be besotted, befooled, and debased.

I do earnestly wish that some of the good folk in London and Liverpool,
who are wringing their hands for want of something to do among their
fellow-men, would pay a visit to sailor-town for the purpose of getting
up a personally-conducted party of sailors to see the sights worth
seeing. It is a cheap form of pleasure, even if they paid all expenses,
though that would not be likely. They would have an uphill job at first,
for the sailor has been so long accustomed to being preyed upon by the
class he knows, and neglected by everybody else except the few good
people who want to preach to him, that he would probably, in a sheepish
shame-faced sort of way, refuse to have any "truck" with you, as he
calls it. If the "sailors' home" people were worth their salt, they
would organize expeditions by carriage to such beautiful places as--in
London, for instance--Hampton Court, Zoological Gardens, Crystal Palace,
Epping Forest, and the like, with competent guides and good catering
arrangements. But no; the sailor is allowed to step outside the door of
the "home" into the grimy, dismal streets with nothing open to him
but the dance-house and brothel on one side, and the mission hall or
reading-room on the other. God forbid that I should even appear to sneer
at missions to seamen; nothing is farther from my intention; but I do
feel that sailors need a little healthy human interest to be taken in
providing some pleasure for them, and that there are unorthodox ways of
"missioning" which are well worth a trial.

I once took a party (wh