d to be human beings, and entitled to rights,
privileges, and indulgences as such, but a class of men which actually
included many worthy, honest, well-behaved individuals, as well as those
of an opposite character. We could not but doubt the policy as well as
justice of a line of conduct which represses every effort on the part of
seafaring men to cultivate a self-respect, and elevate themselves in the
scale of society; a line of conduct which is calculated to thrust them
contemptuously back, and plunge them deeper in the slough from which,
perhaps, they are striving to emerge.

In those days there was no "Mariner's House" or "Sailor's Home"
established in our large seaports by true philanthropists for the
benefit of seamen, where this useful but too long neglected and
condemned class might find a quiet, well-regulated, and respectable
house, with its doors thrown open to receive them.

We returned, crestfallen and disheartened, to the brig, and passed
another night in the forecastle; and the next morning, being compelled
to find an asylum on shore, we inspected several of the sailor boarding
houses, with a view to select the least objectionable for our temporary
home. There was little room for choice. The landlords were all
swaggering foreigners; their rooms were filled with a dense effluvia
arising from a combination of odors, in which the fumes of tobacco and
rum constituted a prominent part; and drinking grog, playing cards and
dominoes, swearing, quarrelling, and fighting seemed to be the principal
occupation and amusements of the main portion of the boarders.

Such were the scenes I was destined to witness in Savannah; such
were the men with whom I was compelled to associate; such were the
temptations to which I was subjected, and which few could pass through
unscathed; such were MY "schools and schoolmasters" in early life.

After much hesitation and many misgivings, we finally established our
quarters at the sign of the "General Armstrong," which was kept by
John Hubbard, a tight little Irishman, a regular "broth of a boy,"
illiterate, not being able to write his name, with a tongue well steeped
in blarney, with a conscience as elastic as a piece of India rubber, and
a consummate adept in the art of wheedling a sailor out of his money.

The sign which was placed conspicuously over the door of this boarding
house was a popular one, and well calculated to attract. It was not
intended to represent General Arms